The Witch Hitch by Elizabeth Bass

Author:Elizabeth Bass [Bass, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2023-04-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Dreams of a normal life died the moment I dragged myself through the front door.

“Well met, mistress!” Django called from his cage in the dining room.

My eyes narrowed as I headed toward the voice. Django was in his cage, perched on his favorite branch, eyeing me in that disarming way he had.

“Door, please?” he prompted.

I opened it and offered my arm, which he hopped on immediately, climbing up to my shoulder.

“Did Seton come back today?” I asked.

“No, it’s just been me. ‘Alone and palely loitering.’”

“What?”

“Keats,” he explained in disgust.

Articulate and literary. I set him on the counter while I prepared myself a vodka and orange juice. As much as I loved Django, it was unnerving to be talking to a bird whose language skills had rocketed from incoherent babble to Nobel laureate overnight.

I wasn’t normally a pre-dinner drinker, but today I was making an exception.

He cocked his head my way. “Isn’t it customary to offer others refreshment?”

I tore off a grape from a bunch sitting in a bowl and handed it over.

“Thank you.”

I expected him to tear right into it, but he waited for me to finish mixing the screwdriver.

I tapped my glass against his grape. “Cheers.” I couldn’t help smiling. If not for Wes, I probably could have stayed a crazy single parrot lady for the rest of my life.

Wes. A chill ran through me. How was I going to explain the new, improved Django to Wes? Or to anyone? “We’re going to have to work out some things here. There are people around me who won’t understand why you’re suddenly so chatty.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t talk to Wes,” he said. “Seton, yes. I like him.”

I was about to ask him why when my phone pinged. It was a text from Sarah.

Okay if I come over? Having a crisis.

Of course! I wasn’t sure I was in a fit mental state to counsel anyone, but it would be a relief to hear someone else’s problems. And I was worried about my friend. Any time.

Someone knocked on the front door, and I slapped the phone closed. I wondered if this was my landlady, Dottie, who lived in the adjoining unit. She’d complained once about Django squawking.

I headed to the door but stopped and turned back to Django. “Act normal,” I said. “Parrot normal. No smart-alecky showing off.”

He tilted his head and said in a Stupid-Pet-Tricks parrot voice, “Polly want a cracker?”

I rolled my eyes and went to answer the door. Sarah stood on the porch.

“I texted you from the driveway,” she explained.

In the kitchen she took in the screwdriver fixings out on the counter and sagged onto a barstool. “I’ll have what you’re having.”

I wasted no time preparing a drink while she greeted Django in a loud, slow voice that probably set his beak on edge.

“Hel-lo, Django!”

She didn’t seem to notice the dead-eyed stare Django leveled at her.

“Pretty birdie!” she continued. “Are you enjoying your grape?”

He tilted a glance at me. I half expected him to start reciting Hamlet’s soliloquy, but he just let out a sound that might have been sheesh or an avian attempt at something worse.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.