In Hot Fudge And Cold Blood by A. R. Winters

Author:A. R. Winters [Winters, A. R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-12T06:00:00+00:00

A few minutes after Jack had gone, I was leaning back against the counter doing nothing but daydreaming. I was all alone for once, and it was nice to have a break from it all, a few moments of peaceful bliss, even if it was short.

Very short, as it turned out.

Knock, knock, knock.

It wasn’t the sound of human knuckles on wood. It was a different kind of knock.

This was the knock of a parrot’s beak on a door it wanted to open but couldn’t.

“Hold on, Ki, I’m coming.”

As soon as I’d opened the door that connected the shop to the small passageway that led upstairs or outside, he was in. With a flutter of feathers and an angry screech, he launched himself into the shop and landed on the counter.

“What’s the matter?” I asked, though I could probably guess.

With another screech that sounded like a wounded monkey he let me know that he was annoyed. Very annoyed.

“Was it Mom?”

An angry caw confirmed that it was, indeed, my mother who had upset him.

“What did she do this time?”

Kiwi took a moment to compose himself. He spread out his wings, fluffed up his feathers, and then brought them back in close. He shook his little head, hopping into the air and back down again to get everything settled in place.

“She tried to kill me!”

“What!?” I knew Mom wasn’t fond of Kiwi—or birds in general—but surely she wouldn’t try and murder my pet, would she?

“Murder! Attempted murder!” he cried.

“What did she do?”

I paced up and down the shop in front of Kiwi while he prepared himself to give his indignant explanation of what had gone on. Mom had only been up there a few minutes but she’d made quite an impact on Kiwi today. At least his fudge hangover seemed to have cleared up.

“She opened the window—on the second floor—and tried to push me out!”

I cocked my head at him. “That’s it?”

He flapped his wings in anger at my response.

“The second floor, Aria! How would you like it if I pushed you out of the second-floor window? I could have plummeted to my death!”

I had to stop myself from laughing.

“Kiwi. You’ve. Got. Wings.”

He fluttered his wings and glanced at them, annoyed.

“So?”

“So unless you’re even lazier than I think, you wouldn’t have plummeted to your death.”

“She didn’t know that!”

A small giggle escaped my lips before I could regain my composure and look serious for Kiwi’s benefit again.

“My mother is clueless about many things, but she is aware that birds can—and indeed do—fly.”

“So you’re taking her side?”

“No!” I said in alarm. “Of course not! I just don’t think you were in quite as much danger as you made it sound. She was terribly rude though. I’ll have a word with her if you like.”

“Good luck,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“I know what you mean. She’s not a very good listener, is she?”

Kiwi shook his little head and made a parrot’s chattering sound, which was roughly equivalent to him giggling. “She won’t listen, because she’s not there.

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