Three

A friend of a friend finds himself very fond of parrots. An animal-lover, he has had pets all his life, from hamsters to dogs to turtles, and now he has none. Some times, he spends several hours on the internet browsing through pictures of animals just because they are wonderful beings, and thinks that, if he were to be born again some day, he'd rather be a parrot than a person, just because.

Flying must be an amazing experience after all. To feel the air in your face and everywhere else, to spread your wings, to jump off a cliff and float, let go and be carried away by the wind. Of all animals one could choose, the friend of my friend would love to be a parrot. To have their beautiful feathers, to sing and repeat, repeat, repeat.

'Aurora' was her name, and 'Aurora' she used to sing repeatedly. His grandfather gave it to him for his birthday several years ago, when he was a little kid living in Lima. 'Aurora' couldn't fly but she still tried. One time she jumped off the balcony, maybe trying to escape humanity or just the too-loving boy, and flipped her wings as much as she could... in vain. Luckily for her, the too-loving boy caught her before she hit the ground. Unable to say 'thank you', because nobody had said thank you before for her to repeat it, she sang -- 'Aurora', 'Aurora'.

'Aurora' means dawn, and dawn means beginning. At least for the friend of my friend, that is, and 'Aurora' the parrot would never give up on her attempts to break free. She'd start all over every time she failed, and that is the image the friend of my friend cherishes in his heart like only one cherishes memories from their childhood. New attempts. New beginnings. Maybe that is the 'just because' he refers to when he wishes he were a parrot in a future life -- to have that innate instinct to break free and never give up if he failed.

The second memory he has of parrots in his life consists of three red-headed parrots at the bottom of a soup plate. Whenever he spent time at his grandma's, she'd have a hard time trying to make him finish his soup, and so she'd pour it onto the special plate with parrots at the bottom, and trick him into taking it all before the parrots drowned.

"Parrots, no! I'll save you!"