Because I wasn’t allowed to have pets, the parakeet was a big event when he came home from the mall. No one showed me what to do, how to care for him, and so he would escape his cage and careen around the room, smashing into windows and making me feel inept and freaked out. My mother would come in the room to help, but it wasn’t much use. I had to wait until he was exhausted behind the couch and then reach in to pull him out with shaking hands, like a civilian delivering a baby. Randy Lewis