A/N: A followup to the movie "Paulie".
Words
"So what are we going to do today?" The words were clear enough, but they came from a blue-crowned conure named Paulie sitting on a coffee table. It craned its neck to side-eye a pile of books sitting on one side of the table, allowing its other eye to look at the man sitting on the couch.
Misha Vilyenkov shrugged his shoulders. "It Thursday. What we always do on Thursday, visit hospital." Misha was a Russian immigrant, once a literary professor before coming to America and finding work as a janitor. Although he was very knowledgeable and certainly educated, English was not his mother tongue and he still struggled with it even though it was improving. He still refused to use the past tense; "Once I come to America, I only live in present tense" he once told Paulie.
The two had become friends when Misha's janitorial duties had taken him to a basement in a research facility where Paulie was kept in a cage, a Purgatory for refusing to cooperate with the scientist in charge of animal communication after he lied to the bird about his intentions. After hearing Paulie's story, he had broken Paulie out of the cage and freed him from the facility, quitting and taking the bird to his rightful owner. Paulie had started out being owned by a little girl named Marie Alweather in New Jersey, and it took years to find her after several owners, a cross-country move and a life as a performer and thief; the bird had quite the adventure tracking her down by which time she had grown into a woman. But Marie was still Marie, and the two were inseparable once again in her home in Cambria, California.
Except on Thursdays. On Thursdays Marie and Misha left the seaside community and drove inland to the city of Paso Robles to visit her father Warren in the veteran's hospital. At first Marie would visit while Misha and Paulie stayed in the car or walked around the town's central square. Lately Misha had been visiting as well, leaving Paulie to wait for the two.
"Why don't you and me stay home today Misha? We can go walk in park and maybe take a nice walk on the beach. Unless there are gulls; I hate gulls, they just make noise. It's like listening to a Yoko Ono marathon."
"Oh no who?" Misha asked.
"Nevermind; she ain't no Tom Jones, that's for sure."
"Ah, he sing 'Pussycat' song."
"Yeah, that's the best. Maybe we can find a concert somewhere, huh? Come on Misha, keep me company."
"You know we go Pasa Rubles. Marie's father very sick. It her chance to see him. I think you see him today too."
"What?" Paulie squawked. When Marie's father had returned from his military service, he had been angry over her pronounced stutter. It was a bad time, and his frustration grew until it boiled over when there was an incident with Marie falling off the roof of the house trying to teach Paulie to fly. Paulie was given away, and he didn't see his owner again for fifteen years until Misha's efforts to reunite them. Warren had sent Paulie away, and the bird wanted nothing to do with him.
"I think it good. He already know about you, how you found Marie again. I think you should talk to him; I don't think he really believe you talk."
"I told you Misha, it has been my experience that talking gets you in trouble. If you want me to I'll go inside and even sit in the room, but I ain't talkin' to him. And it's Paso Robles, anyway. If I'm going to be in purgatory at least get the name right."
"It is start." Marie walked into the room and asked what the conversation was about. "Paulie say he will see your dad today."
Marie ran over and put her face up against Paulie. "Thank you Paulie, I really appreciate that." The bird touched his beak against her cheek. She smiled and bounded away to get ready.
"See, it make her happy" Misha noted.
"Yeah, well I'm doing it for her - not me, not Warren, and not you."
Misha placed his hand on his heart. "You would not do for me?"
"Don't try me, mop monkey." Misha wasn't sure, but he imagined Paulie grinning when he said this even if he wasn't a janitor any longer. Now it was simply a term of affection instead of an insult. Probably.
...
In the veteran's hospital, Marie and Misha stood in the private room of Warren Alweather. A few vases of flowers were scattered around the room, and a picture of his late wife Lila sat on the bedside table. A cart sat nearby with empty plates and cups from the most recent meal, and the drapes were drawn back on the window to allow light to come into the room. It smelled vaguely antiseptic, but not overwhelmingly so.
Through the course of the visit, the conversation had been the usual topics of health, events, and the traditional bit of nostalgia. Although introduced, Paulie had not said a word as he sat stoically on Marie's shoulder. As they always did, things wound down and the visitors prepared to leave.
The two adults said their goodbyes, but as they were turning to leave Warren made a request. "This is going to sound odd, Marie; would you let Paulie stay behind for moment?"
Marie looked at her father, then Misha and finally at Paulie. "If you want to stay for a moment Paulie, it's okay. We'll just be outside in the hallway and we won't leave without you." She lowered her hand down to just above the cover over Warren's legs. The bird hesitated, looked at Marie and then hopped on the covers. "We'll be outside" she closed, before leaving her father with Paulie.
Misha leaned over and whispered "Somebody once say Don't be afraid to speak" before joining Marie in a seat out in the hallway.
Inside, Warren stared down at the bird and cleared his throat. "I, ah, don't know if you can understand this or not but I'm going to say it anyway. I'll never apologize for doing what I thought was best for my girl. I really did think I did the right thing and I don't know if her stutter would have disappeared even if we had kept you. But I know it hurt her, and it hurt Lila and me to see her hurt too. I don't know if you could feel hurt or not, but if you did I do apologize for that. Listen to me, I'm apologizing to a bird." He put his head back.
"You miss Lila, don't you" Paulie said.
"What?" Warren pulled himself up into a sitting position again.
"You miss Lila; you know," he said pointing his beak at the picture "Marie's mom. I barely remember her."
"She was a wonderful woman and a great mom" Warren said, his voice now becoming a little rough. He cleared his throat. "Not a day goes by that I don't think of her. Yeah, I miss her."
"Well, I missed Marie that way. Just like Ivy missed Earl."
"Who's Ivy?"
"A friend that I used to know; her husband was a Marine. But I understand you did what you thought was best, even if you didn't ask me what I thought. What do I know, I'm just a bird and maybe I got to learn some things this way I wouldn't have otherwise. But that was last season's feathers, and the main thing is we're together again. Just to show there's no hard feelings, let me tell you a joke."
Warren waited. He didn't have much choice.
"There was this magician who was booked to work on one of those fancy cruise ships. Every night he did his act, and he would make things disappear and reappear. Rabbits, cards, things like that. The first night the captain watched the show, and he brought along his pet parrot; an African Grey I think. So every night after that the bird showed up to watch the act, and pretty soon he figures it out and starts heckling the magician. It's in his hat, or It's up his sleeve, or It's a fake box; all the magician's secrets. About five days into the cruise, the ship hits an iceberg in the middle of the night and sinks. The next morning the magician wakes up on a big piece of wood, with the parrot sitting on the other end. He just stares at the bird, and the bird stares right back at him for over an hour. Finally, the parrot says to the magician I give up, where did you hide the boat?"
Out in the hallway, Marie and Misha were wondering how long they had to wait when they heard howls of laughter coming from inside the room, laughter that trailed off eventually. "I think that is good sign" Misha observed.
...
"...and then I gave him my Terminator impression" Paulie said as they were driving down the freeway after the visit.
"What impression is that?" Misha asked.
Paulie imitated a rough Austrian accent with a bit of Brooklyn mixed in. "Are you Sarah Conure?" He cackled to himself.
"I don't get" Misha said, shaking his head.
"I get it, but it doesn't make it any better" Marie groaned.
"Heathens. You had to be there I guess" Paulie answered. "Hey, I think that was our turnoff" he blurted out as they continued to travel south on the 101.
"Not today" Marie said. "We're taking a little side trip down to L.A. I talked to a friend who lives down there, and she said we should visit this food truck called Ignacio's. Something about a bird show that has to be seen to be believed. Some bird named Lupe..."
"Lupe? LUPE? LUPE!" Paulie said as he started to bounce up and down. "What are we waiting for?" And he started singing off-key:
Well, I got a woman, way over town
That's good to me, oh yeah
The End
A/N: I remember this movie coming out because it had Cheech Marin in it. Then later after I watched the TV show Monk I knew who Tony Shaloub was so I looked it up and watched it. As an owner of a pair of conures, I'm probably a little biased when I say it was a decent movie. Not great, but decent.