The Parrot Eggs
Sally Shih
Words checked = [2121] Words in Oxford 3000™ = [91%]
Table of Contents Prologue About the author Characters Chapter 1 - Old Ronald’s retirement? Chapter 2 - The announcement Chapter 3 - Game starts! Chapter 4 - A new companion Chapter 5 - Old Ronald’s choice References Acknowledgement Synopsis
ď ľ Prologue What do people do to get fame or fortune? Do people do anything, no matter it is illegal or not to get things they desire for? Old Ronald, the owner of Rondo Bird Park, gave two parrot eggs to two possible candidates of his successor, Gavin and Aaron. Old Ronald asked them to breed the parrots and train them stunts. Old Ronald would choose the one with the more talent parrot as the new owner‌ Who would win this game? ď€
ď€ ď ľ About the author
Sally Shih
Sally Shih is currently a five-year junior college student in her 4th year at Wenzao. She once visited the largest Bird Park of South East Asia, and the experience made the background of the story. This is her first English novel, and it is a totally new experience for her. She hopes the readers can enjoy reading the novel and create pictures in their minds as they read along.
Characters Old Ronald: owner of Rondo Bird Park, a wise man in his 70s
Gavin: a staff member at Rondo Bird Park, truthful, sympathetic towards animals
Hardy: a paperboy, friend of Gavin
Aaron: A staff member at Rondo Bird Park, cruel, eager to inherit the bird shop
Chapter 1 Old Ronald’s retirement? “Huuuuoooouuuaaaahaaa!” It was 10:00 p.m. Old Ronald yawned as he closed the door of Rondo Bird Park. Situated in a rural area in Brazil with over 3,000 species, Rondo Bird Park was the largest bird park in the city. Old Ronald had been the park owner for over 42 years, and he was also known as one of the top international bird trainers. He had trained large birds for many circuses. One of the parrots he trained was once selected as a performer of Circus of the Sun, and it had been on international
news for several days. Being at the age of 75, he was more frequently forgetting things. “My memory and is no longer good as before.� Old Ronald walked toward his bed and thought. Last night, he accidentally fed a white-throated hummingbird twice without feeding another hummingbird. He found his bad memory a serious problem. Recently, something had kept swirling in his mind. He lay on his bed, thinking who the possible candidates would be. He also thought of how to know if one would be
eligible for the position. Soon, his eye lids became heavier and heavier, and gradually he fell asleep‌
Chapter 2 The announcement It was another beautiful sunny day. Birds sang different tunes but in harmony at Rondo Bird Park. “Good morning, Old Ronald!” Gavin, a staff member at Rondo Bird Park greeted Old Ronald as he walked into by entrance. “Good morning, Gavin! Come to the plaza at noon, I’ve got something important to tell you.” There was a plaza in front of the Rondo Bird Shop where the performances and sometimes ceremonies were held.
Gavin nodded and went to begin his work at the Park. Old Ronald walked to the pelican area to look for Aaron, another staff member at the park. Aaron was feeding the pelicans with a bucket of fish in his hand. He grabbed a handful of fish from the bucket, and spin-dried it up and down. The hungry pelicans aimed at their food, moving their heads up and down as well. Old Ronald bursted into laughter as he saw this scene. Aaron knew it was Old Ronald because he had the most recognizable
laugh of all. He turned his head to where the laughter came from. “Hey! Old Ronald!” “Hi! Aaron! I just want to tell you to come to the plaza at noon!” “Okay. I’ll have to continue feeding these starving pelicans!” Old Ronald smiled and walked away. In his mind, there were two possible candidates, Gavin and Aaron. He compared all of the staff members at Rondo’s Bird Park. He considered their working experience, intelligence and behavior, and finally he decided these two
among all of his staff members. At noon, Gavin, Aaron and Old Ronald gathered at the plaza. Old Ronald handed each of them an egg. “What are these eggs for?” asked Gavin. “They are used to choose the new owner of Rondo Bird Park.” “New owner?” Aaron asked in surprise. “Yes. I am thinking of retiring, and it’s about time to find another person to replace my position. You two are chosen as candidates for your outstanding
performance. There is still one final task to decide the owner.” “Now, listen carefully. I’m going to announce the rules,” Old Ronald had a sup of his coffee and continued. “These are parrot eggs. You need to breed up these parrots, and then teach them stunts. Six months later at noon, bring your parrots here, then it’ll be the time to announce the new owner of Rondo Bird Park. Any questions?” “Yes. How would you decide if both of our parrots have excellent performance?” asked Aaron.
“That is something you don’t need to worry about. I’ll be able to make my decision.” affirmed Old Ronald. The new successor of Old Ronald became big news in Brazil the next day. People of the nation now knew that Aaron and Gavin were the candidates, and they were given eggs to hatch.
Chapter 3 Game start! Gavin and Aaron took their own parrot eggs home, anticipated to see their eggs hatch out. However, these two eggs turned out to be gray, ugly birds. They don’t seem to have learning ability, still less do stunts. “How could this ugly bird make me the owner of the Park?” Aaron growled when he saw the bird. “That’s ridiculous!” He fed the baby bird some chips perfunctorily and lingered in his room, thinking about what to do with the bird.
At Gavin’s house, he was preparing whole grain cereal for the baby “parrot.” Gavin was surprised to see the bird was gray when it hatched out, too. “How adorable!” he said. He took good care of the baby bird by providing it a comfortable place and nutrient food. “How will you change when you grow up?” Gavin spoke silently to the baby bird. The baby bird seemed to understand his words and blinked at Gavin. At the moment, Aaron thought of an
idea that he thought was brilliant. “I must have gotten the wrong parrot egg. I’ll go and get another parrot and get rid of this one.” Aaron thought in his mind. “And if the parrot is already trained, that will be a lot easier for me.” Aaron visited Great Mystical Circus, the largest circus in Brazil, he asked the circus owner to sell him a trained parrot. Unfortunately, the owner rejected. “All of our animals here are trained to perform in international events.”
“Do you know who I am? I work for Old Ronald!” “Old Ronald, the well-known bird trainer?” the circus owner asked in surprise. “You got it. If you sell me a parrot, Old Ronald will make it, and also your circus famous.” “Oh, I’d give our parrot to you and you don’t need to pay me anything. My circus and I are going to become famous!” The owner said as he handed Aaron a cage with a beautiful Blue Macaw Parrot in it.
“Ha! Ha! Thanks a lot! ”Aaron laughed with satisfaction and left the circus. On his way home, he chose to take narrow lanes because he was afraid people would see him with the parrot. On that day, Gavin invited his good friend Hardy to visit him. Hardy was a paperboy who sent newspapers at the area. Gavin wanted to show him the baby gray bird. On the way to Gavin’s house, Hardy saw someone sneaking from a lane to another and kept looking around.
“The person looks like…Aaron, another staff member of the competition. But what is he holding in his hand?” When Hardy arrived, he told Gavin about what he had seen on his way. “Are you sure it’s Aaron? Why did Aaron sneak like that?” Gavin asked. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure. Oh! You remind me of the direction he came from, which was…the way to the Great Mystical Circus! He must have gone to the circus!” “But why? Why did he go there?” “I really have no idea. Just forget about it. Let’s go out for lunch.
I’m starving!” “Alright.” Gavin and Hardy went on the street to look for their lunch.
Chapter 4 A new companion “Hey! What shall we eat?” Hardy asked. “How about that new Thai restaurant at the corner? I’ve heard that…What’s that gray thing on the ground over there?” Gavin and Hardy quickly walked toward it. It was a gray little bird that looked exactly like Gavin’s “parrot”. “Hey! It looks just like my parrot at home, doesn’t it?” “Yeah. But it’s so skinny.” “I’ll take it home, then the two birds can keep each other accompany.” Gavin
said happily.” “Where on the world can we find a person as sympathetic as you do?” Hardy said, smiling. Together, they took the gray bird home and fed it some cereal. They also set a bed for the new gray bird next to the “parrot”. The two birds looked happy together.
Chapter 5 Old Ronald’s choice It seemed like an ordinary Sunday at 11:55 as usual, something different was that people on the street seemed like they were in a rush. They were all trotting toward the Rondo Bird Park. The announcement of the new successor was about to begin in 5 minutes! At the plaza in front of the shop, people had already crowded and were discussing who was most likely to win. “Hey, you know what? Last Thursday, I saw Aaron’s parrot doing the…. ” The crowd suddenly became quiet as
the clock at the plaza stroke 12. “Attention everyone. It is great to see you all here joining us. Now let’s welcome our guests today.” Old Ronald said on the stage of the plaza. Aaron walked out to the middle of the plaza with a parrot standing on his hand. The audience applauded as they saw the attractive parrot. The parrot flew to the front of the stage, opened his mouth and said “Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen!” The audience clapped with delight. After that, the parrot put on his little
roller skates and started to roller skate! His waggling body made the crowd laugh even louder. “That was impressive! Next, let us welcome Gavin!” spoke Old Ronald. However, when the audience saw Gavin came out with a gray bird on his shoulder. The applause became dim, and the audience started to whisper to each other. Aaron was stunned when he saw the gray bird. “So Gavin got a gray bird as well?” he thought.
Gavin started to speak,” Well…the bird I took care of couldn’t do any stunts. At that moment, another gray bird flew out from the back stage. The bird quickly flew to Aaron and peaked his ear. Then quickly flew to Gavin. “Oh! Let me introduce another friend of mine. I found it abandoned on the road, and the two birds spend happy times together.” “Okay! Now I’d like to announce the winner.” Old Ronald walked toward Aaron and tapped his shoulder. Aaron smiled, thinking these were all
in his prediction. Old Ronald then continued. “You are out of the game!” The audience gasped. Hardy and Gavin looked at each other, not knowing what was happening. “Even you lie to everyone; you can't lie to your soul” scolded Old Ronald. In hearing this, Aaron kneeled down on his knees. He admitted everything that he had done. Old Ronald just ignored. “Honesty and sympathy makes a great leader.” continued Old Ronald. “I now announce my successor, the new owner of
Rondo Bird Park, Gavin!” Hardy was so happy for Gavin. The crowd shouted as well. Gavin walked toward Aaron and said, “It takes strength and courage to admit the truth. I’ll forgive for all what you’ve done.” The audience all shouted and applauded crazily. At the moment, the parrot and the two gray birds started swirling above the plaza. The birds and the people at Rondo Bird Park make the scene into harmony. -The End-
References http://www.goodreads.com/quote s/tag/honesty http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdiction aries.com/oxford3000/ http://issuu.com/a_painter http://blog.cybertranslator.idv.tw/ ebook
ď ľ Acknowledgement I would like to thank Mr. Smith, our instructor of this course and Angel, my peer-editing partner for giving me comments. They both gave me useful suggestions on how I can improve my novel. Also, I would like to thank my classmates Yuka and Leanne for being in charge of collecting and printing our novels. I really appreciate it.
ď ľ Synopsis Old Ronald wanted to find a capable person to inherit his Rondo Bird Park. There were two possible candidates, Gavin and Aaron. Old Ronald decided to host a game to decide. He gave each of them an egg and asked them to train them into talented parrots. However, these two eggs turned out to be gray, ugly birds, and they didn’t seem to have learning ability. On the day to show Old Ronald the results, he decided his ideal successor‌
Written by Sally Shih of E4A Composition 1 Instructor: Mr. Kenneth M. Smith Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages Kaohsiung, Taiwan June 2013