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“Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.”

Preface: Meet Elvis

Don’t worry. You can do it.

“Elvis! What are you waiting for?”

“Coming mom, just give me a moment.”

Put yourself together.

It’ll be fine. It’ll be just perfect.

“ELVIS!”

“On my way.

” Trust yourself. If all of them can do it, then I can do it as well.

"I'm ready." Wow! The beautiful smile that always gave me power to keep going, and the gentle caress that always made me feel safe.

“Make me proud, son.”

“I’ll do my best, I promise.”

Take a deep breath. Now go. Hmm… my name is Elvis. No, I wasn’t named after Elvis Presley; it was my friend Robert who chose the name. Gladly, I’ll be your narrator.

I promise that I’ll do my best to give you a complete picture of everything happening around.

I’ll use all of my abilities and skills to make you feel as if you were really there.

I’ll keep you entertained, help my friend Robert through his new life, and make my mom and dad proud of me.

“Elvis, my baby!” “Mom, please don’t cry. I’m online.”

“Oh! Sorry honey, go get them!”

Umm… I promise that I’ll do my best to give you a complete picture of everything happening around…

“Honey, you already said that.”

“Did I?” “Yes.”

“No! I’m ruining it! I knew I’ll waste my chance! I…”

“Baby, calm down.” “What should I do? What should I say? Please help me!”

“Tell them who you are, sweetheart.”

“Yes! Thanks mom. You are the best!”

“Go for it baby. And remember, I’ll always be here for you.”

Ok, I’m back. I’m Elvis… the parrot. I’m Robert’s pet bird and best friend. I’ll be…
“Honey, tell the truth.”

“Ok-ay.” I’m Elvis… the parrot.

I WAS Robert’s pet bird and best friend. I died five years ago, leaving him to suffer alone.

But… I made a promise, and I intend to keep it.

That’s why I’m here; to keep my word. I promised him that I’ll always be around every time he needs me. I promised him that we’ll be friends forever, and nothing would ever separate us… even death. And I’ll do my best to help him get into his new life and finally have his longawaited happiness, even if it’ll cost me my life

. “Honey, you're already dead.”

“Mom, you are not helping.”

“Sorry son, keep going.”

I’m here now at his new house waiting with his family that gathered downstairs for his arrival. He'll be here at any moment, and I’m completely ready for it.

*******************************************

A New Morning: The Arrival

Some minutes passed.

Wait… I can see a car approaching. It pulled over and… YES! He is here! Arriving with that mysterious lawyer, Mr. Johnson, the one

who started all of this from the beginning.

They headed to the house, climbed some stairs towards the porch, and walked slowly towards the main door. Suddenly, Robert, who didn’t

seem very comfortable, stood still. Mr. Johnson stopped and spun around to face him. Robert stared for a while at Mr. Johnson’s confused face,

before finally talking.

“I… don’t know… if I can do this,” he mumbled.

Mr. Johnson sighed and took two steps towards him, gently put his hand on Robert’s shoulder, and drew a warm smile on his lips. He looked him in the eyes and murmured calmly, “We spent years waiting for this to come. You can’t quit now.”

His smile grew bigger, making Robert a shade calmer and convinced. However, he was still too scared to blink or even swallow. His snatching eyes kept scrutinizing Mr. Johnson's smiley face, and his shaking lips kept hardly trying to utter some words. Finally, they succeeded… sort of.

“I… just…” he said with a flat voice. Mr. Johnson interrupted him; touching his other shoulder and using the strong full-of-confidence look to reinforce his steady voice, “You will do great. Trust me.”

He paused, moved closer to Robert while squeezing his shoulders and trying to give him some strength.

“This is your family,”

he added, saying every single word separately and calmly, waiting for a moment between each of them, giving Robert time to grasp their meaning. Robert finally swallowed, hardly. Mr. Johnson went on,

“And guess what? It is a good family as well.”

He paused for a moment.

“They will accept you and love you.” He stopped again, noticed that his smile faded away, and rapidly twisted his lips, bringing the wide smile back.

“Now go. Meet your family. The family that you deserve,”

he added calmly.

Robert nodded once, grudgingly, completely convinced now. Mr. Johnson rubbed his shoulders again, and then let go of him, giving him a chance to walk towards the main door. When he noticed that Robert didn’t move, he pushed him gently, whispering some words into his ear,

“Go…” Robert sighed and started to walk. When he reached the mid point, Mr. Johnson’s voice stopped him.

“Hey, Robert!" Robert turned to him; his pale face didn’t change too much.

“Make me proud in there,”

he beamed. Robert needed some moments before finally approving by nodding once. Mr. Johnson strode to him, wrapped his left arm around his back, and walked him to the door. Once they reached it, he rang the bill without any hesitation. And a moment later, the door opened.

*****************************

“Welcome!”

A beautiful lady exclaimed after opening the door. She has an average body, silky brownish short hair that rested on her shoulders, brown eyes with nothing special about, pale white skin with some freckles on her cheeks, and a big always-smiling mouth. She is wearing a simple long dress which successfully kept track with the simplicity of her features. Once she put her eyes on Robert, she gasped with glee and hugged him tightly. However, he didn’t hug back.

(Who is this lady? Why does she hug me like this? Maybe we are relatives? Let’s just wait and see.)

I wish I could enter his mind and read his thoughts, but for my bad luck, birds can’t do this. The kind lady kept hugging him tightly for some moments, and when she noticed how stunned he was, she moved him a little away from her, while keeping her arms around his neck.

“Sorry, I just can’t believe you are really here.” She sighed, trying to put herself together and overcome the great excitement in her voice. Then, she kept going with a steadier voice, “I’m Marie, your aunt!”

(Ok, a nice lady who is my aunt; this is actually a good start.)

Her eyes were fixed at him, waiting for him to say something, which finally happened after some moments of silence.

“Aunt Marie?” This came out flat and emotionless. Mr. Johnson joined the conversation.

“Yes, Aunt Marie; your father’s sister,”he explained.

Aunt Marie smiled, reinforcing Mr. Johnson words. Robert put a fake smile on his face while stunningly staring at her. She put her arm around his shoulders.

“Let’s go inside; they are eagerly waiting for you!”

Her voice was still very excited, just like how she was. Robert hesitantly walked with her after glancing anxiously at Mr. Johnson who nodded once, encouraging him to go. I know him more than any other person on the whole universe; he was absolutely shaking with fear.

(Keep yourself together. Don’t panic. Breathe, breathe. We can do it, we absolutely can.)

The moment he entered the house, the worse the situation became. His feet nailed to the ground while all the eyes were fixed at him. The beads of sweat started to pour out of his skin, and after some moments, he was sinking on his own sweat.

He hardly swallowed, while his scared eyes were jumping rapidly between the faces without being able to recognize even a single one. Aunt Marie broke the silence.

“Everybody, this is Robert!”

Her yell caused some humming in the room.

She noticed that all of them waited to hear more, but struggled to keep going. I guess she didn’t know what more to say about him; he was completely unknown for her and for everyone else on this hall.

She decided to step back and let him talk. Robert’s eyes widened in fear the same moment he figured out that everyone in the room was waiting to hear him taking.

He needed some moments to put himself together, and then started to talk.

“Uh… umm…”

Exactly as I expected. Suddenly, something caught his eyes. He squinted and stared at a certain target. From above, in where I was standing, I couldn’t see what attracted him that much.

So, I moved and repositioned myself to be just above his shoulders.

And yes!

I had a perfect view of the scene he was seeing. It was a girl, hiding, and holding a big white drawing sheet with something written on it. She raised it high so he would be able to read it.

I wish I could tell you what was written, but you know… birds can’t read.

(“Trust me, I can help you.” What the heck is this?)

The girl moved the sheet away and lifted another one up. And again I couldn’t read it, but it attracted more of Robert’s attention.

(“Read it loudly.” What does she mean?)

The girl removed the sheet again and brought a third one. Robert gazed at it with more concentration. The curiosity was killing me there; I was dying to know what she wrote on these sheets.

(“Start now.” What?!) She repeated the process again.

(“I’m very happy to be here.”)

His expression lightened.

(Wait a moment! She is trying to help me! Thanks God!)

He sighed.

(Ok… All what you should do now is accurately following her instructions.)

He took a deep breath. Finally, he started to talk. “I’m very happy to be here…”

He paused. The girl raised another sheet. He kept going, “I’ve been waiting… for too long…” Again he paused, again she threw the sheet away and got another one, and again he kept going, “For this moment to come…” The same happened again. “And I will wait till…”

Again. “All of you fall asleep…” Same process. “And I will kill you all.” The Girl laughed loudly. Everybody gasped fearfully, and a scared and surprised expression was drawn on all of their faces.

The humming increased, raising Robert’s tense, and making him notice what he has just said. He did his best to overcome the surprise and ease the situation.

“Umm… No… No, no, no… I meant…”

He struggled. I wish I could help him, but there was nothing there I could do. The tense was above the sky. But suddenly, the smiling girl raised another sheet.

“Kiss… you… all…” he mumbled. He sighed with relief after grasping the meaning of what he has just said. “Yes! To kiss you all! It is absolutely ‘kiss’. Sorry… I was just too nervous.”

The girl kept laughing, and all of them sighed with relief. Robert glowered at her and his lips whispered some words.

(I will kill you.)

Whatever Robert has said, it made the hiding girl laugh louder. Then, she raised another sheet. Ok… getting myself a human language dictionary will be at the top of my to-do list, you have my word.

(“You can… dream… of it.” Really? Just wait and see little girl, just wait and see.)

Although I can’t tell you what she said and made Robert that angry, I can absolutely describe her for you. There was certainly something special about this girl. Her deep wide dark hazel eyes can cast a spell on you the moment you catch a sight of them, and force you to stare at them forever, unable to avert your eyes or even to blink. Her eyes were very clear, and this made her wide hazel irises appear darker that you may think they are brown.

Her dark-blonde below-shoulder hair that has some waves near the endings perfectly matched the dark hazel eyes, and completed the calmness of her light pink lips. The fair light tone of her pure clear skin made everything else look very alive and colorful, especially the eyes. She is wearing a bright orange sleeveless T-shirt and simple jeans shorts.

She is about 160 cm height and has an average body. I can’t tell exactly how old she is, but from my experience with the humans, I believe she is thirteen or fourteen.

In addition to the cuteness and prettiness of this girl, the thing I liked the most about her was that since I put an eye on her, the smile never left her face. And this innocent smiley face made me feel very happy and relieved, and made me ready to face the life, while being completely sure that the light of her smile will lead me through its darkness.

The anger made Robert blind to see and feel what I was seeing and feeling. He threatened her with his angry firing eyes. The girl ran inside and left him standing.

He wanted to follow, but Aunt Marie stopped him by grabbing his arm. “Where are you going?”

She wondered. He answered without diverting his eyes from the direction in which the girl ran,

“I… I…” He paused to think something out. “Yes, I need to go to the bathroom.”

He didn’t wait for her reply, released himself from her grasp, and dashed towards the hall entrance behind the gathered members of his family.

“It is at the end on the hall.” She replied anyway, while the amazed expression was dominating on her face. Robert moved towards the entrance. I’m a spirit,

I didn’t need the entrance to enter the hall; I flew directly and penetrated the wall. And being faster than the humans, I reached the hall before he does. I found the girl walking and glancing backward from time to time.

Some moments later, Robert entered the hall. I was standing in between them. She glimpsed backward again to find him in front of her. His searching-for-her eyes caught hers.

“Oh-oh!” “Here you are little devil!” He gave her a fierce glare. She swallowed and started to run, and he followed immediately. “There is no place to run!” he yelled.

“Leave me alone,”

she yelled back. From her voice I could tell that she wasn’t scar

ed, and instead she was having a huge fun. I dashed fast, bypassed her using my enormous speed, and positioned myself in front of her.

My guess was correct; she was smiling. She glanced backward again to find him getting closer.

“No!” She exclaimed and tried to accelerate. “Run girl. Run, run, run.”

She kept trying to encourage herself. Her excitement didn’t ease, not even a little. Her efforts weren’t enough, he was almost there.

“Ha-ha! Get ready to pay little girl!”

He threatened. She stopped suddenly and turned around to face him, while keeping the confident smile on her face. He didn’t see this coming, and neither did I.

He tried to brake to avoid colliding with her,

but he was absolutely heading to a great failure.

The strange thing was how confident and steady the girl was standing, waiting for the massive collision to occur.

A moment before he smacks into her, the girl surprised us again with another move. She dashed left, used her left hand to open a door that we didn’t notice its existence, and entered the bathroom, while stretching her right leg to tackle my poor friend.

Pic Source: Pixabay

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