Jake's Parrot

Jake Stevens felt excited.

The plane came down and he looked out of the window. So this was Dublin Airport.

"Goodbye Californian sun. Hello Irish rain", he thought.

It was warm and the sky was blue when he left his San Francisco home that December morning. Here the sky was dark and cold. But Jake felt good.

He was a writer and he worked for the American computer company BananaTech, in San Francisco. He was in Ireland because the people at BananaTech in Dublin needed help with the company's newest computer game. Jake was the writer of the game, so he knew all about it, of course.

Thirty minutes later, he was in the airport building.

An old friend met him there.

"Hi, Al!", said Jake. Al once worked in the California office, but now he worked in Dublin.

"Hi, Jake!", answered Al. "How are you doing?"

"OK", Jake told him.

Then Jake saw someone with Al - a very pretty girl. His smile was suddenly bigger. "Who's this?", he asked.

"Brigid", Al said. "She works in the office here".

"Hi, Brigid", said Jake.

"Hello, Jake", answered Brigid. She had a nice smile.

"Hmm", Jake thought, "it's my first time in Ireland, but I like it here!". Then he saw Al's bag.

"Are you going away?", he asked.

"Yes. I wanted to tell you before, but I had no time", said Al. "I'm taking the next plane to Los Angeles".

"Los Angeles!", said Jake. "But why?"

"My dad's in hospital now. He's very ill", said Al. "And I need to go and see him".

"Oh!", said Jake. "I'm sorry, I..."

"So you're going to do the presentation for your game at the Irish Computer Exhibition, not me", said Al.

"Oh, OK", said Jake. "But..."

"Look, I'm sorry", said Al. "I must go now. My plane leaves very soon. Brigid can tell you everything. See you!"

"See you!", said Jake. Al walked away, and Jake watched him. Then Jake looked at Brigid. "What now?", he asked.

"Let's take a taxi into town", she said. "You're going to stay at Al's apartment".

"Oh, right", said Jake. He smiled. "Perhaps we can have dinner later".

She smiled back. "Perhaps", she said.

The taxi took them down a long, busy road to the city.

After about twenty minutes, they arrived at a place with lots of modern buildings. Jake was surprised. "So not all the buildings in Dublin are old", he thought.

"Lots of big companies have their offices here", said Brigid. "BananaTech is here, and Al's apartment is very near, too".

Brigid talked about the Dublin office of BananaTech.

"Tomás is the director of BananaTech Ireland. He's OK. Then there's Michael, Oona and Erin. They can answer any of your questions when I'm not there. We've also got an office boy, Aidan. He loves computers, but he's very young. Everyone is very friendly".

"They can't be friendlier than you", said Jake. "Or prettier", he thought.

Some minutes later, they stopped in front of a very tall building. "Al lives here", said Brigid. "It's BananaTech's apartment. You have this key, and I have one at the office".

"OK", said Jake.

They went up to the eighth floor.

The apartment was nice, and very modern. There were pictures on the white walls. Nearly all of them were photographs of Dublin. The chairs were black and white, and there was a TV on a little table, and a bigger table near the window.

Jake walked across to the window and looked out.

"Wonderful", he said. "I can see the sea!" It was grey and cold - very different from the blue Californian sea.

"Arraaaggghhhh!", squawked something.

Jake looked across the room quickly. "What was that?", he asked.

Brigid smiled. "That's Percy", she said. She walked across to a tall table. There was a cage on the table, and a beautiful green and yellow bird in the cage.

"Say hello to Percy", laughed Brigid. "He's Al's parrot".

"Parrot!", squawked the bird. "Al's parrot!"

"He comes from Brazil", said Brigid. "Al's teaching him to talk".

"Oh", said Jake. "Well, I like birds. So that's OK. Hi, Percy".

"Percy!", squawked the bird.

"His food is in the little bottle next to the cage", said Brigid. "Remember to give him food and water every day". She went to the door. "The office is two minutes from here, so I can come for you tomorrow at nine o'clock and we can walk to work".

"OK", said Jake. "But what about dinner? We can find a quiet little restaurant, and you can tell me..."

She smiled. "Not tonight", she said. "Al left some food for you in the kitchen".

"Then what about tomorrow night?", asked Jake.

Brigid laughed. "Perhaps. See you in the morning".

"OK", he said.

After she left, Jake smiled and walked across to the cage. "I like Brigid", he said to the parrot. "But it's dinner for one tonight, Percy. And first I must give you some dinner".

Jake gave some food and water to the bird. Then he went and ate his dinner in the kitchen, and after that he went to bed in his room. He slept at once, and didn't hear Percy in the front room.

"Like Brigid! Like Brigid!", squawked the bird. "Dinner for one!"