Wordy Birdies

Among Rebecca’s favorite animal friends, she considered Bob and Bart at the top of the list. Cheerful little zebra finches, Bob and Bart had been living with Rebecca in Savannah, Georgia, USA, for five years when Bart startled her by talking in the middle of one of his songs. “Did I just hear you talk, Bart?” Rebecca asked her tiny avian companion. Bart looked at her from his cage, then continued chirping along to the rock and roll music blaring in the room. Rock and roll seemed to be a favorite of the bird boys.

Thinking she must be crazy, but not positive about what she had heard, Rebecca turned down the music so she could focus on Bart’s chirps. She heard it again! Smack in the middle of chirp chirp chirp were the words “He’s trying to eat me!”

“I heard you that time, Bart! Who is trying to eat you?” Rebecca asked. Bart looked at her, then nodded his head in the direction of the left corner of the room, where Rebecca spotted Ethan the cat. “Ethan!” she exclaimed, “You are not supposed to be in this room!” Scooping up the ginger feline, Rebecca hugged him as she led him out of the bedroom and into another room.

Returning back to the room, Rebecca approached Bart’s enclosure. “Bart, I got the cat out of here, now I need to know more about your talking. Share more words, please.” Bart stared at her for a moment, then bobbed his head in time to the music. No words.

“Of course, he only talks when there’s an emergency,” Bob interjected. “Now Bob’s talking, too?” Rebecca thought to herself. “Bob!” Rebecca exclaimed. “You can talk! Both of my bird boys can talk!” “Of course, we really hope you do not share our wordings with the rest of the world. It would be quite disastrous if others learn we can vocalize. Amongst our bird friends, we will be derided and chastised. I can only imagine what your fellow humans would do. There would be curious scientists, neurologists, even celebrity talk shows. I can hardly stand the thought…” Bob trailed off as he stared at Rebecca’s shocked face.

“First of all, Bob, I do not plan to tell anyone my birds can talk. Second, how do you have a British accent?” “You see,” Bob replied, “I quite fancy that Ozzy Osbourne fellow that you play for us on the song maker, and I might have learned to pattern my tone after him. Also, why shan’t we talk? You stand in front of our home making chirp chirp chirp noises at us quite frequently. You bird. We talk.”

“This is really a lot to take in,” Rebecca shared. “I need to go think about all of this, but believe me, we are not done chatting.”

As she exited the room, Bart piped up with his final words of the day, “He wanted to kill me!”

In the next room, Rebecca plopped onto the sofa to get her thoughts together. She really wanted to, actually needed to, talk with someone about the miraculous talking birds. Yet, she knew Bob was correct. Sharing that her zebra finches had become vocal would invite speculation and scrutiny she did not want to experience. As Ethan jumped into her lap for some cuddle time, she realized she could share the day’s events with someone after all. A few minutes later, she finished speaking about the birds. “I just can’t believe the day I have had! Talking birds! Who would believe it?”, she asked.

“I would,” Ethan replied. “And I was not trying to kill the bloke! Crikey!” he finished with a decidedly Australian accent.