07/09/2021
B & E: A Nicko Story
My side of the story:
It had been a long work day and I had come home to find we had a grocery shortage. I told Nicko I would be right back and in thirty minutes I was, but there was no Nicko! I was in a panic, searching every possible hiding place in that small one bedroom apartment. He wasn’t in the bedroom, the bathroom, the living room and he certainly had not been in the kitchen when I put the groceries down. I was ready to call the police, convinced that one of the people who would visit our patio when he sat on the security bar of the slider had come to kidnap him. My birdy Mama intuition said, “Check the patio” and though that made no sense, I did. As soon as I opened the sliding door, I heard Nicko call to me. It couldn’t be right since it sounded like he was in the apartment next door. As I stepped in front of my neighbor’s patio, I saw him prancing around in her living room trying to reunite with me. I ran to the common hallway and started knocking on the neighbor’s door, but she did not answer. Between knocks, the neighbor appeared at the entrance at the end of the hallway.
I rushed up to her saying, “My bird is in your apartment!”
She looked at me as if I were either having a psychotic break or was high on something and said, “Nooo, Honey, your bird is not in my apartment.”
“I know it sounds crazy, but my bird is in your apartment!”, I insisted.
She unlocked her door with a self-righteous smirk, as if she expected to be triumphant in proving her apartment was sans cockatiel. Her jaw dropped when I stepped across her threshold and he flew to my chest. I held him to my heart and returned to our apartment where I discovered the cabinet door under the sink was a little ajar and the little bandit had crawled through the opening for the drain pipe and into the apartment next door! I was amazed by his intellect and ingenuity, but I had been so scared to find him gone. I then blocked the area around the pipe and from then on made sure all the cabinet doors were closed. I love that little bandit and I was so glad he was home! It was Nicko time.
Nicko’s side of the story:
I am Nicko. I like to explore and have many adventures in the course of a day. One of my favorite things to do is to go into the kitchen, climb up on the counter and chew on the wooden dish drainer, but for some reason my Mama makes a big deal out of this! So far I have only destroyed one and it took me almost a year. Doesn’t she want me to be happy? Anyway, one day Mama came home from work and said she was going to the store and would be right back. It was Nicko time and I was not happy, so I trotted into the kitchen to work on the dish drainer. I noticed the cabinet door under the sink was open and I knew it was my duty to explore new space. It was kinda dark and smelly under there, but I could see light around what I have come to know was a drain pipe. I climbed up and discovered that I could walk across from our cabinet to a new cabinet, like a magic wardrobe, only under a sink! How cool was that? I did what any good feathered explorer would do and I went through. By some coincidence, the door on the other side was open and I was now in someone else’s apartment! I walked around, but was not pleased. The air smelled of ci******es, which Mama hates and gets sick when she is around the smell and which I knew was bad for my little lungs too. The furniture was not mine and not where I like it. I thought I heard Mama from far away calling my name, but I couldn’t be sure. I started toward the sliding door when I saw her looking all crazy through the glass. I wanted to have Nicko time with Mama and I started to call to her. The next thing I know there is a banging on the door of this apartment, but I just couldn’t reach the door k**b to let her inside. Then I heard Mama talking to some lady in the hallway. I think that lady was one of my fans who used to visit our patio when I would perch on the security bar in the sliding glass door. My fans are good people, so I thought she would help Mama find me. The door opened and I flew to Mama’s heart. Mama was happy to see me and I was happy to see her. I just wanted her to take me home. When we got in, Mama put me in my play area and started acting weird. I could hear her under the sink and somehow knew my portal was going to be blocked now. She didn’t stop there though, she crawled through the entire apartment on hands and knees looking for other portals! Crazy as she is, she is mine, I love her and I was happy to be home. It was Nicko time!
Copyright 2021
Stephanie Wilson