Ava stands in the doorway. “What are you doing home?”
Her mom shrugs. “I wanted to say goodbye to Mervin.”
“About that, Mom…I was wondering if we could think about—”
Gregg pushes past Ava into the house. “The feathery guy’s still here?”
“Why are you both so concerned about seeing Mervin? You don’t even like him!”
Ava walks inside and drops her backpack. She heads to her room. Before Gregg interrupted, she had almost asked her mom if she could keep Mervin.
When Mervin sees Ava he calls out. “Pretty!”
Ava gets him out of his cage. He puffs his feathers and clucks, rubbing his beak against her cheek.
“Hey, buddy.”
Her phone buzzes. It’s a message from Peter from the zoo.
Running late. I’ll be there closer to 5 p.m. Sorry.
Okay. No problem.
A whole extra hour with Mervin! She grabs the bag of peanuts and starts on the “turn around” trick.
Gregg and their mom come into her room. With Ava’s help, Mervin performs a second turn around. He clucks happily and takes his peanut.
Their mom is surprised. “Look at what he can do!”
Gregg’s phone rings loudly. His ringtone is a hip-hop track. Mervin squawks and starts bobbing his head. “He’s dancing,” Gregg says. He doesn’t answer the call but instead holds up the phone.
Mervin bobs his head from side to side and starts moving his whole body in time to the music.
When the phone stops ringing, Gregg finds more music. Mervin jumps onto his head and starts dancing. Ava gets up and dances along. Soon their mom is dancing too. Ava takes out her phone and films them all dancing around.
Her phone buzzes. It’s Peter from the zoo.
Managed to wrap things up. Am at the door. No one answering.
He’s here! Ava leaves Mom and Gregg dancing with Mervin and answers the door. The man waiting outside is small with curly gray hair. He has a big smile. He shakes Ava’s hand and says in his raspy voice, “So, where’s the bird then?”
Ava leads Peter to her room. They stand in the doorway and watch Gregg and her mom dancing with Mervin. When they realize they are being watched, they both pause. Then they laugh. Gregg stops the music, and Mervin yells, “MONKEY MONKEY!”
Peter introduces himself and pulls out a clipboard. “So,” he says, “I understand that looking after this bird is too much for you. That happens. I understand he was an inheritance. Amazing how long these creatures live.” “Yes, they can live up to eighty years,” Ava says.
Both Gregg and her mom look at Ava. “Goodness, Ava, how did you know that?” her mom asks.
“I was researching parrots. For my project. Actually, I was researching Great-Uncle Bertie too, Mom.” Ava takes a deep breath. It’s now or never. “Look, I know Mervin is loud sometimes. And I know I’m just learning how to look after him—like last night when he woke you up because I forgot to put the cover over him. But I think I could do a better job.”
Her mom holds up one hand. “Ava, what are you saying?”
“I know you don’t like him, and he doesn’t fit with our clean and decluttered house, and he’s noisy and—”
“Ava!”
“I mean, I guess, I’m saying I’d really like to keep Mervin.”
Her mom lets out a slow breath. “Are you sure? I mean, I’m impressed that you’ve learned so much about parrots. And I do like his tricks. But looking after an animal is a serious job.”
“He is pretty awesome though, Mom,” Gregg says.
Ava looks at her brother in surprise. “Really? Even when he bites you?”
“It was just a little nip,” Gregg says. “Plus I, um, I like that the three of us are doing stuff together now.”
Peter shifts his weight from one foot to the other. Waiting.
Their mom looks at them both. “The three of us doing something together?” she murmurs. She turns. “I’m sorry, Peter. It looks like we’ve wasted your time here. I think we might see if we can keep Mervin here for a while longer. How does a three-month trial period sound, Ava?”
“Really, Mom?” Ava throws herself into her mom’s arms and hugs her tightly. It’s the first time she’s given her mom a hug in a while, Ava realizes. A big, full hug. She squeezes her mom, who squeezes her back.
Her mom says, “Maybe we don’t need to get rid of everything, hey?”
Ava pulls back and sees that her mom has tears in her eyes. Mervin flaps over and lands on Ava’s shoulder. He nuzzles against her neck.
“In these circumstances,” Peter says, “when someone has called us in, we do like to be sure that the bird is being well looked after. To me, it seems a three-month trial period would be a good idea. Then I will come back and we can reassess together, okay?”
Ava nods. Mervin flies out of the room and perches near the front door. “BYE-BYE!” he yells.
Gregg laughs.
“I think Mervin is making himself clear,” their mom says as they all follow Peter out to the hall. “Okay, you noisy bird, back to your cage while Gregg makes supper.”
“While I make supper?” Gregg says. “Why me?”
Ava holds out a peanut and gets Mervin onto her shoulder. He nudges her cheek again. He really is cute!
Peter opens the front door. “I’ll be off then. Good to meet you all. I’ll see you again in three months.”
Just then Melinda runs up the path to the front door “Don’t take him!” she yells. She has both of her arms out. “My parents say that we can keep him at our house. Don’t take him to the zoo, please!”
“Um, hello and goodbye!” Peter says and makes his way around Melinda. She looks confused.
Ava laughs. “Melinda! Mervin’s not going to the zoo. We’re keeping him here. Although if Gregg and I ever go to Vancouver to see Dad, then Mom might like it if Mervin stayed with you while we’re gone.”
“You’re planning to go to Vancouver?” Mom says, slightly stiffly.
“Maybe during Christmas break, Mom,” Ava says. “If that’s okay? I haven’t asked Dad yet.”
Gregg changes the subject. “So, Melinda, are you coming in or are you just going to hang out there?”
Ava glances at Gregg. Funny! She can tell by how he’s staring at her friend that he likes Melinda. Huh!
Melinda doesn’t even look at him. “You’re not getting rid of Mervin?” Melinda says to Ava.
“No. You were right.”
“I was! But I was so mean to you. I’m sorry, Ava.”
“No, I’m sorry. But Gregg’s right. You should come in and hang out.”
“Right. Yes,” Gregg says. He’s acting all formal and weird. “You’re welcome to stay for supper too. Right, Mom?”
Their mom nods and introduces herself to Melinda.
“I should warn you,” Ava whispers. “Gregg’s cooking tonight.” She and Melinda both giggle.
Ava, Melinda and Melvin head to Ava’s room while Gregg figures out supper.
That night Ava takes out her phone. She looks through the photos and videos from that evening. She has a great photo of Mervin on Melinda’s shoulder. She sends the picture to Melinda. Then she chooses the video of Mervin dancing to hip-hop. She posts:
My family has changed a lot over the last year. I haven’t been truly honest with you about how hard that’s been for me. And for our family. There haven’t been breakfasts together. To be real, there hasn’t even been that much communication between us.
But when Mervin came into our lives, suddenly things started to change.
He was noisy and weird and loud.
But with the help of @melindaflor and @Greggtheman1234 I have learned a lot about how to handle this guy. Look at how he dances!
And weirdly, having him here makes it easier for me to think about connecting again with my dad.
Strange how that happens! Over the next while, I’m going to share a lot of stuff about #mervintheparrot and the man who saved h
im. @avaandmervin
Ava shares the video. She’s never been so truthful online before. She wonders what people will think about the real Ava. Likes and positive comments start pouring in right away. Ava smiles. She puts her phone down and gets ready for bed. When she checks again she has 97 likes already and a bunch of new followers. More important than that, three people have commented that they’ve had a tough year too. One of them thanks her for sharing her family’s story.
There’s a flash of a notification. Kim V. Her comment isn’t surprising:
Super gross
Ava finds that she doesn’t care. She replies.
To each their own
She adds a huge smiling face and a heart.
Another comment pops up.
@melindaflor Loving my new BFF and her amazing parrot companion #avaandmervin
Ava puts a row of hearts in reply.
There is a quiet knock on the door. Her mom comes in. “Sweetheart, I wanted to say sorry.”
“Why?”
Ava’s mom sits close to her on the bed. “I was clearing up too much, getting rid of everything. I was sad, and I didn’t know how to deal with that. I should have thought about how to involve you and your brother more. I’ve just been learning how to deal with my new reality.”
“You don’t need to be sorry,” says Ava. She feels very grown up all of a sudden.
“Well, I am. And I think you should go visit your dad in Vancouver. I’ll be fine. I’m doing well now. Your dad and I…we weren’t happy. But now I can see myself being happy again.” She leans in and hugs Ava.
Mervin says, very softly, “Home, home, home.” Ava and her mom squeeze each other a little more tightly.
When her mom leaves her room, Ava messages her dad.
Gregg and I were talking about coming to Vancouver over the break.
Ava watches as three dots appear. She wonders what her dad will say.
I would love that, baby girl.
Ava smiles. She puts her phone on silent. Mervin, who has been quietly watching her, opens his beak like he is yawning.
She wonders how he will behave when she brings him to class. She can’t wait to share her personal project with everyone. But she has a lot of work ahead of her. She knows that with Melinda’s help, she will be able to train Mervin so that he can come to school. She hopes he will behave himself! “Night, Mervin.”
“NIGHT, MERVIN!” the bird replies. As Ava puts the cover over his cage, Mervin chuckles softly. “NIGHT, MONKEY!” he adds.
“Shh now, time for sleeping,” Ava says.
“PRETTY AVA.”
He did say her name!
Alice Kuipers has written many books for young people, and they have been published in dozens of countries. Her work has also been made into plays and produced for radio. She lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She once shared her home with a parrot named Fernando.
City kid Mark has come to a small town to live with his grandmother after his mom goes into rehab. He has to take a school bus home for the first time and quickly decides that all the kids on the bus are nuts and does his best to avoid interacting with any of them. But when the bus is involved in a serious accident, Mark has to work with a couple of other students to get everybody to safety.
Chapter One
I step into the school bus and stand next to the driver’s seat, looking for a place to sit by myself. The bus smells like rotten oranges, sweaty running shoes and cheese. It’s the middle of November, and this is my first time on the bus. In fact, this afternoon is the first time I’ve been on any school bus. Back in Vancouver I took public transit, the city buses. And Gran dropped me off this morning on my first day at this school.
“Keep moving,” the driver says. But she doesn’t bother to look up from the romance novel she’s reading. She’s about as old as Gran, in her sixties. And she wears a fedora. Not just a hat. A fedora. Like, an old man’s hat. I bet she’s like that teacher I had in sixth grade who wore a different hat to school every day. A cowboy hat one day, a crown the next. Thinking she’s being funny or fun. But at least that teacher had pizzazz, energy. This driver appears worn out, like she’s been driving the school bus for a while now. Too long. She nods wearily in my general direction. “Take a seat.”
Yeah, I think, but where? Most of the seats already have at least one kid in them. Super-little kids, probably kindergartners, sit in the first rows at the front, and what look like elementary kids are just behind them. The ones who look like they’re around ten or eleven, younger middle schoolers, take up the middle of the bus. The biggest kids, the cool eighth graders, are at the back.
Seating on the school bus is by age group then, I guess. Well, except for this one girl who’s clearly the weird kid. She’s about my age, thirteen or so, but is sitting three seats from the front with the young kids. She is wearing glasses, and her hair is bunched into a knot. She has these big headphones on and is reading a book. I can see the title. It’s a textbook on how the brain works. A smart kid then.
It’s clear that everyone in each little group knows one another. They’re friends. I’m arriving at this school late in the fall. Even if I wanted to, which I don’t, I doubt I’ll make friends now. Who cares? It’s not like I’m staying long anyway.
I start to make my way down the aisle. A red-haired girl whispers to another girl, and they giggle at me like I’ve got my fly open or something. I check. I don’t. I feel my face heat up.
“Hey, fresh meat!” some guy shouts.
“What’s with the merman hair?” the red-haired girl asks. Oh, so it was my hair they were giggling about. There are a few dye jobs on the bus. But nothing like my bright neon green-and-blue spikes. I just had it done before…well, before.
I ignore them, keeping my eyes on the single empty seat I spotted at the very back. I want nothing to do with these rural freaks. I’m only staying with Gran until Mom gets back on her feet. Then I’m back to the city, first chance I get.
World's Worst Parrot Page 5