THE FOLLOWING NIGHT, well after all were asleep, Juliet and the two myna birds sat awake. Soren moved close to Fife’s cage and asked in a whisper, “How did you say you were caught?”
Fife explained, “There were three of us and my parents. Our parents were out hunting, and the three of us sat quietly in our nest waiting for them to return. We had almost outgrown our nest, and were close to being able to fly. We heard a whistle that sounded like our mother, and we answered back and got up on the edge of the nest to look for her. We didn’t see her anywhere, but there were two men and a young boy standing at the base of the tree whistling up at us. We tried to hide in our nest, but we were too big. The boy climbed the tree and brought us down in a bag. They moved us to a small box full of rags, and we were taken to a house in a small village where we joined a larger group of young birds and incubating eggs. We never saw our parents again. After a few days more of the two men and the boy collecting birds and eggs, they packed us all up and took us to a market. My sisters and I were sold to a man who just sells myna birds. I saw over one hundred young myna birds there. We were all crated up and put on an airplane. The ride was dangerous. One of my sisters broke her wing, and the other one escaped into the plane somewhere. I was bought by a pet shop not far from here and lived in a cage like this one for a little while, until the twins bought me and took me home.”
Above the pet shop, there was a faint scratching sound on a pipe. The three birds followed the noise with their ears. All went quiet.
Two long nailed hands reached in through Fife’s bars and grabbed him firmly by the beak. Fife tried to pull away but couldn’t break the pack rat’s grip. The pack rat put his feet against Fife’s white bars and pulled on Fife’s beak, holding it closed.
“So, you want to escape?” whispered the pack rat as he pulled Fife’s head closer, face to face. “Say, you look familiar. A crow, perhaps. But, of course, you are not a crow.” The pack rat twisted Fife’s head side to side, and eyed the orange streak behind the myna’s eyes. “Have you ever met a bird named Reo?” The pack rat paused in amazement, and then continued, “No, I don’t suppose you know what I’m talking about.” The pack rat looked at Fife very carefully, and was confused by Fife’s markings. The pack rat changed the subject. “Anyway, I heard there were two of you that wanted out?” The pack rat smiled and loosened his grip slightly, as he stood on the counter again. In the moonlight a gold tooth sparkled in the pack rat’s mouth, a human tooth.
Fife pointed at Soren with his wing. The pack rat put a finger to his lips, “Shhh.” He released Fife and walked around Fife’s cage towards Soren’s cage.
Soren backed up to the middle of his cage.
The pack rat eyed and sniffed at Soren as he walked passed to the edge of the table. He jumped silently to the shelf supporting Juliet’s cage and greeted her. “It’s been a long time, Juliet. How are you?” The pack rat bowed.
“Yes, it has been a long time. I’m managing. I like the new addition to your smile. It’s definitely you,” welcomed Juliet.
“You like it? I found it when I was living under the dentists’ office over on Camino Alto, then I lost it. Did you ever meet my father, Juliet? No matter; he told us, his children—eight of us, five boys and three girls—that the ocean used to be much higher. He advised me to move because the ocean was going to come back some day. I found the tooth again when I was packing to move. It fits now, or I should say, I now have room for it.” The pack rat smiled, showing off his tooth. Then he frowned and said, “I am truly sorry that I will not be hearing any more of your sweet love songs from the roof, now that Romeo has gone. I used to sit near one of the vents on the roof, watch for shooting stars and learn about love through your songs.”
“No, I don’t suppose you will be hearing anymore songs out of me,” Juliet agreed, and changed the subject gracefully, “I’ve been told that when a pack rat, or I should say, when a trade rat, finds something of interest to take, they leave something else in its place. When you found the tooth, what did you trade in its place?”
“Oh, I left a nice flint spring from a classic Zippo lighter,” the pack rat said proudly.
“Very nice. You haven’t lost your touch,” responded Juliet. “You’ll have to excuse me for cutting this social event short, but some of the other animals might wake up and see you or hear us. It could make business arrangements awkward.”
“How true. Yes, back to business. I spoke with your messenger; he said something about a profit motive.” The pack rat jumped back to the display table and the two myna birds in their cages. Scratching his chin with one claw, and then pacing between the cages the pack rat came up with a plan, “Tomorrow night, I’ll be back to open your cages, if you’ve accumulated enough seeds. I’ll open your cage doors and that will be it. You will not follow me out. Getting out of the building is your own problem. I want fifty sunflower seeds per cage door.”
Soren gasped in disbelief.
The pack rat chuckled at the unrealistic number of seeds and said, “Here’s all the information you will ever need.” The pack rat split a sunflower seed in half and bit down on each half with his gold tooth. He spit one half of the shell at Fife, who caught it in his wing and looked at it. The other half of the shell sailed into Soren’s cage, bounced off his head and fell to the floor. Soren looked at his half shell. Stamped inside the shell read the pack rat’s address:
El Paseo Ivy
2nd Floor, 3rd Vine
M.V. Ca.
(Nights Only)
Fife placed the shell deep in his breast feathers.
“Juliet, have you ever thought of singing the blues?” The pack rat hissed through his teeth and smiled with cruel intent. “Saw this guy on television once and, I quote,” the pack rat did his best impersonation and sang softly and deeply, “Since my baby left me, I found a new place to dwell. It’s down at the end of Lonely Street at Heartbreak Hotel. ‘Cause ya see I’m so lonely. I’m so lonely, I could die.” The pack rat bowed.
Fife calmly announced, “Boo. Don’t give up your day job.”
Juliet didn’t answer.
The pack rat shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll see you tomorrow night. Good luck.” The pack rat dropped off the table silently. He waddled down a row of cages, stopping at the cage of his cousins, the rats. The mischief-making rat, Grease, was sprawled out near the door of the cage. The pack rat slammed his tail against the bars, waking the rats, then spun around swiftly, bared his teeth and growled fiercely at the rats. The rats shrieked and jumped to the far side of their cage, crawling all over each other trying to get away. The pack rat vanished. The rats continued to cry in terror.
The pet shop came alive with shrieks of alarm sounding danger. After a few unsettled minutes, everything calmed down and the animals began to go back to sleep.
Fife couldn’t help himself. He had to whisper excitedly, “How do you know a pack rat on the outside, especially that one!?”
“Don’t get your feathers all ruffled. I told you, he’s totally independent of what you do. He has no affiliation with any other company inside or out. He’s a bit of a maverick and very smart. In your case, he’s a bit of an adventure capitalist we could say,” Juliet cooed. “He’s a real trade rat – excommunicated from the syndicated triads long ago. In order for my associate to regain capital for trading, he released all the snakes in a pet shop not far from here.”
Soren watched a shadow crawl against the wall. He looked around his cage uneasily.
Juliet continued, “When the snakes had eaten and left, the pack rat came in before the pet shop opened and collected all the seeds in the cages. Romeo and I were there. We were spared, but I don’t know why for sure. I’d say Romeo had something to do with it. When we were transferred to this pet shop, we realized that the pack rat had made the entire seed market unstable in the whole region. Now the pack rat unloads large amounts of seeds, moving goods and prices at will. Obviously, he doesn’t trade from the floor anymore; he has hired many different animals as brokers for him. Even Dram pays him a commission.” Juliet yawned and ruffled her feathers. “I think we should get some sleep, and maybe pick up this conversation in the morning. And maybe you can explain to me how a pack rat, especially that one, might have recognized you. He did recognize you.”
“Juliet, I can explain everything.”
“Tomorrow,” Juliet refused. “Tell me about it tomorrow. Good night.”
“Until tomorrow then, Juliet,” said Soren.
Fife said nothing. He sat in the quiet of the night trying to put all of the pieces of his present puzzle together. Fife looked at Soren, who had dropped his head between his shoulders for the night. Fife wanted to tell Soren right then about where they were from, but didn’t speak. Fife knew that he and Soren were becoming rare birds, and felt compelled to go home and tell the others, teach them how to avoid traps, and stay away from the humans and their big machines which were taking down the trees the mynas nested in. Fife recognized a positive side as well, amazed at his luck so far; he had gotten into the pet shop with no problems, and to see another Hill Myna bird was lucky indeed. The pack rat’s tooth sparkled in the back of Fife’s mind. He looked around the pet shop; all was quiet. He continued to think about the pack rat, remembering a time when the pack rat and his henchmen tried to catch him in a trap by laying seeds under a ledge and pushing a burlap bag over the edge to close him in. Fife could see it all over again. The burlap bag fell behind him and landed on his tail. He could see light around his tail, so he turned and stuck his beak under the bag and lunged for the day light. He opened his wings too early, catching part of the burlap bag, pulling two smaller pack rats off the ledge above. Fife took flight and saw the pack rat’s tooth sparkle as he yelled at his helpers. Fife remembered climbing high into the sky, and landed near Carleton’s cabin in the Redwoods. That was the beginning of their friendship. Fife drifted off to sleep.