RAMBLINGS OF THE MIND
TWO YEARS
AND FIVE MONTHS AGO
He was brought by a family to their home, and welcomed him as their own. They gave him a nice cage, which was an irony, because no matter how nice, it still reminded him that he was not free to fly wherever he wanted to. The total concept of freedom had been really convoluted and had become relative.
In this modern age of information, when there would have been no boundaries of time and space, he was still enclosed inside a cage, free to move, but within the boundaries defined by somebody else.
The end had started. He thought it would be a matter of time before he would stop considering the possibility of him flying free to wherever his wings could go. So much like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, he would want to reach to a place where no parrot had ever been to.
His philosophy in life, if at all parrots have one, had always been EXCELLENCE. “Never ever settle for mediocrity.” But then again, that could only be thought of within the context of freedom, or the lack of it.
They called him Pepper, and he was not really sure why. He would have preferred Quentin, because that would have sounded so masculine. But Pepper? It only brought him the scary thoughts of being fried, with lots of salt and pepper, or something like that. So when they called him Pepper, it was not much of a consolation. And they even mispronounced it to sound like Pippa, which made him feel like the sister of a Duchess of Cambridge.
"So much with macho image," Pepper thought.
But as each day passed, when he had felt the love that they showered upon him, he started to feel different. He even started kissing the young girl who always put him on her shoulders. He loved her smile. She’s cute.
He could not remember if it was her who gave him the name, Pepper, but he was sure it was her dad who started calling him, Pippa. Since then everybody called him Pippa.
The family knew instantly that Pippa was sweet, at times moody, but they all agree on one thing - Pippa was a flirt. He couldn’t understand why, and he will have to ask the smart owl in the park or the intelligent bench in front of the tallest tree in the park, and ask what exactly “flirt” meant.
Of course he whistled a lot, that’s what Pippa learned first and it always made people smile or laugh. When he whistled, it always made everybody happy. That was why he whistled a lot. But he called him a flirt because he whistled a lot? What? They should have seen his friend, but that was for another story in the park.
Pippa started to feel the love they had for him. Especially that boy, who never stopped coddling Pippa even if he bit the boy all the time. But he continued to care for the new parrot of the house. Even the mother, who left the house early morning, always gave him a good neck rub when she came home at night. But Pippa always knew that the father liked him because he was quiet and did not make noise too often. In fact, he was pretty laid back and very affectionate, or so they thought.
The house was filled with music, whether it was the young girl playing the piano, or the boy playing the guitar, or even the father and mother doing karaoke. It was filled with music, and Pippa loved it a lot. He even started to sing, but he didn’t know if the family liked it, because they always laughed when he started singing.