Lottery Parrot
By Michael Tetzlaff
On a cold November morning a young boy found an injured parrot lying in the gutter and brought it home. At first his parents complained, but the boy promised to look after it. He nursed the parrot back to health and eventually it began to talk. To the delight of the boy, and his parents, the parrot would squawk out numbers every time the lottery was on TV. His mother decided to play using these numbers and to her amazement the ticket won. It was over a thousand pounds – as they lived in poverty this was a small fortune. If this feat could be repeated it would make all the difference in the world to them.
The boy carried on feeding and tending the parrot, and the parrot carried on squawking out winning lottery numbers. Eventually his mother decided to tell her husband what had been going on. At first he was sceptical, and rather suspicious, when he saw the money. But after a practical demonstration of the parrot’s unique ability he was beside himself with joy.
“We can have the best Christmas ever,” he said.
Everyone was happy and everybody prospered. As Christmas neared they bought all kinds of lovely presents and stocked up on fine wine and food.
One day the boy’s father said, “The bird is too precious to be left in the hands of a child; we should take charge of it.”
His wife was reluctant but when he said, “What if it should die? You wouldn’t be able to buy any more nice new clothes,” she was convinced.
So the couple took the parrot away from their son, who was sad but accepted his parents’ decision. Unfortunately neither his mother nor his father knew anything about parrots so did not give the bird what it needed. They became too busy with all the trappings of Christmas to spend any time caring for the parrot.
The poor creature died. The boy was distraught. The parents blamed each other. Despite the wealth of things all around them they had a miserable Christmas.
So remember – do take care of your bird this Christmas.
🙂