well……
Science teacher is discussing birds of all types and sizes, so when we taking a breather from necking…….
“When I was a little girl, we’d play on the Jessington’s porch in the summer. The other half of the house was an older Italian couple, I think they were the Terisia’s. They had a green parrot, Nippy, they’d put the cage on the front porch.”
“It cursed in Italian”
“You are so full of shit.”
“It’s true!!! It sounded just like the old guy.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t remember most of them, just ‘merda,’ ‘Cazzo,’ and of course ‘Fungool.’ We’d be playing jacks or something and the bird would be yakkking gibberish, then all of a sudden, one or two words would come out. We’d laugh like monkeys.”
“So how did you know what they meant?”
“I asked dad. He’s horrified, eyes got real big. “Don’t you EVER say that!!” Wouldn’t tell me what they meant, but of course–“
“Doug knew.”
She smiles. “Yep. He also showed me a house a few blocks away with a grey parrot that knew every curse word you could imagine for black people. The old guy that lived there was a drunk. We snuck up on the porch, and sure enough, the thing sizes us up and starts with the most disgusting crap you ever heard.”
Oh, God, I thought. The shit we put our pets through. I remember thinking how apt it was back then; with racism everywhere, some fool taught his bird to talk hatred, like my old man. Well, we can’t get stuck on this topic, so…..
“Allie?”
“Yea?”
“Kiss me.”