The Blue Eyed, Yellow Beaked, Pink Parrot (Part 2)

(This Short Story has been published in a book "Voices and Visions" A collection of short stories from authors all over Pakistan.)

(Part 1 continued)

She cried silently.

After a few minutes, he commanded her to get up. He shook her violently, but she laid there limp.

‘If you tell about this to any one, I swear I’ll kill you and your precious Ammi!” Omer threatened. “Besides, even if you did tell nobody will believe you and every one would think you did all this on purpose. They’ll kick you out of this house!” He laughed.

She was so frightened and distressed by all that had happened to her that she believed what Omer told her. She was young and naïve and didn’t understand that this was not her fault at all. She was over whelmed by the control he had over her small body. She started to cry again and at this Omer slapped her across her cheek.

“Now go clean yourself up! Wash your face. And I’m telling you again, if anyone gets to know about this you know what I can do.” He looked at her with disgust, “you know what I wanted to show you?” He smiled and walked towards the cupboard and returned with one hand behind his back, “I wanted to show you this.”

Her eyes went wide with fright and cold sweat broke all over her face. It was a black shiny pistol.

He smirked at her and pushed her out of his quarters. She stumbled out of the room and looked around to see if anyone had seen her. There was no one there. She ran as fast as she could, into her bathroom. She locked it shut, splashed her face with water and rubbed herself till her skin felt raw. Her flat chest heaved with silent sobs.

She came out and started to play with her doll. It appeared as if nothing had happened at all. She stared at her doll and pulled her hair out strand by strand. Her favorite doll was now bald. Then she pulled her limbs out and cut her dress to shreds with a scissor.

“Beta what are you doing?” Ammi startled her. She didn’t see her Ammi entering the room.

“Playing with my doll.”

“Why did you pull her hair out?”

“I don’t like her hair.”

“But she was your favorite doll. Is everything ok?” Ammi sat down beside her and pulled her in her lap. She began to cry. Ammi hugged her close not understanding her daughter at all.

“I’ll get you a new doll my dear,” she said soothingly, wiping her tears, “why are you crying? Did something happen in school?”

“I want a new doll.” She mumbled

“Yes, of course you can have a new doll! Now stop crying ok?” Ammi said gently, “don’t you remember that Abu is going to bring you a parrot?”

“I don’t want a parrot! I want a doll!” she protested.

Ammi got up and brought her some chilled orange juice from the kitchen, “here, drink it. You are so sweaty dear.”

While she drank the juice, Ammi stroked her hair. She fell asleep in her mother’s arms. Ammi picked her up and laid her on the bed.

*                        *                         *

        

“Look what she did to her doll,” Ammi showed the doll to Abu when he came from work, “I don’t know what got into her. She was alright till lunch then she went to her room and I went into mine to have a nap. I awoke after an hour or so. I went to have a little drink. There I saw her cutting her doll’s dress into shreds.”

Abu looked at the doll then at his wife, his brow was lined with worry, “did anything happen at school?”

“No, she didn’t tell me anything odd.”

“May be she was having a tantrum that kids her age have.”

“May be…” Ammi said still unconvinced.

“Don’t you think that she would like to see the parrot?” He asked.

“She wasn’t very enthusiastic about it when the last time I talked to her, but may be her mood will change when she’ll see you.”

Abu walked into her room, the beige carpet dampened his foot steps, and sat beside her. He kissed her cheek and tenderly pushed away a lock of hair from her face.

“My sweet girl, Abu’s here.”

She opened her eyes and smiled at him.

He picked her up and said, “what am I hearing about you? Huh? You are being a naughty girl.” He tickled her and she laughed.

“Don’t you want to see your parrot?”

“The parrot’s here?” She asked, “Is it pink? With blue eyes and a yellow beak?”

“Why don’t you see it for yourself?”

He took her to the verandah. There was a cube shaped cage and a very frightened green bird inside. She stepped closer to the cage and watched with fascination.

“Let me bring some seeds for it,” Abu said and went inside the house again.

She stepped still closer and poked one finger inside the cage. The frightened bird bit her finger.

“OOWWW!” She exclaimed painfully and tears rolled down her soft cheeks.

“I hate you!” She said loudly, “you ugly green bird! All this happened because of you! You and that Omer are same! You both are bad! You both hurt me…” She started sobbing.

“What happened sweetie?” Abu came running to her at the sound of her crying. She showed him her blood stained finger and started wailing.

*                     *                   *

Her whole life changed from that day onward. Omer would abuse and molest her whenever he got a chance. She kept quiet, suffering all that alone. She grew thin and always looked sick. She wasn’t attentive in her classes and her grades started to fall. She would bump into the parrot’s cage purposely and sometimes shook the cage so hard that the parrot would fell off its feet. She thought all this misfortune was brought by the parrot. She hated it with all her heart. She would accuse the parrot almost every day as if the parrot was her most deadly enemy.

“You know Omer has a gun?” She told the parrot one day when no one was in ear shot. At that the parrot whistled.

“It’s nothing to be so happy about you stupid parrot! He threatens me with it and… He does things… How can you understand?! You are just a stupid parrot…”

*                  *                *

A whole month passed.

One bright Sunday morning she was feeding the parrot at her father’s insistence. The parrot was very talkative that day.

“Mittthhhhooooo bettaaa… OOmeerrrr,” the parrot said and then whistled. She put all the food in the parrot’s tray and was almost going with her Abu when suddenly the parrot said, “guuunnn…”

She froze on the spot her heart racing at the speed of light. She couldn’t believe her ears.

“Miitttthhhhoooo… Omer has guuuuuunnnn!” The parrot said loudly.

She immediately turned, opened the cage and made a grab for the parrot, intending to kill it that very instant.

But Abu pulled her back, “hey what are you doing!? Why are you acting so strange? Omer has a gun? That’s what the parrot said?”

As if to confirm what Abu said the parrot repeated again, “Omer has gun, do’s things to me… stupid parrot!”

He confronted his frightened daughter, “did you say these things to the parrot? Did you?! Tell me!”

She nodded and started crying. He hugged his darling daughter and took her inside in his room. Ammi also came at the sound of the crying. She poured her heart out to her parents. She told them everything from the threats to how he abused her.

Her Ammi was shocked. Abu was furious. He marched into Omer’s quarters, beat him mercilessly and kicked him out of the house. Later they searched his room and found the pistol.

*                          *                             *

A week passed. It was late afternoon, she was standing near the parrot, everyone else in the house was having their afternoon naps. She looked at the green bird, who had grown accustomed to her silent presence.

The parrot too was quietly nibbling at a green chilli that she had brought. She was looking intently at the latch of the door of the cage. Involuntarily she raised her hand and opened the latch. The door swung open slowly. It appeared to her as if everything was going in slow motion; she didn’t even fully comprehend what was happening. The parrot hopped out of the cage and onto her still raised hand. She kissed its head. The parrot tilted its head slightly as if asking something. She closed her eyes, a tear escaped between her eyelids. She opened her eyes. The blue eyed, yellow beaked pink parrot, that she had come to love, was gone.