On a very beautiful day, Joelle went to the zoo in New York City. She walked around the zoo. She looked around, and there were elephants and rhinos and lions. She found a crowd around a parrot, who was named Chit Chat because it always talked. Chit Chat looked mostly red with blue and green and a little white. Chit Chat could always start a conversation.

Joelle and the zookeeper were very good friends because Joelle usually came  every day. Since Joelle was trusted by the zookeeper, Dave, he opened the parrot cage only for her. He did this so Joelle could play with Chit Chat. They played hide-and-seek, where Chit Chat flew into the sky and tried to find Joelle.

One winter day, Chit Chat disappeared. The zookeeper was so worried that his boss would fire him because Chit Chat was his responsibility. He was the one who got the parrot out of its cage without permission, and he wasn’t allowed to fly it anywhere. He was supposed to keep it safe. He tried to find it as quickly as possible.

“The parrot is lost!” yelled the zookeeper. All the people at the zoo heard the terrible news. Everybody felt bad for him, so they helped him look. Nobody found the parrot.

Then, Joelle remembered that most birds migrate, so she thought the parrot must have unlocked the cage somehow and escaped.

“YES,” she said. “I got it.” She quickly ran to find the zookeeper to tell him that Chit Chat probably migrated to California because it is warm. The zookeeper said she was probably right.

When spring came, the zookeeper still didn’t see Chit Chat come back. When he looked back where the crowd would usually stand, he noticed the cage was not there. He checked the houses of everybody who worked at the zoo. Joelle helped him. There was still one person that they did not check in the whole entire zoo.

“THE BOSS!” the zookeeper and Joelle said at the same time. The zookeeper said the boss probably did not have the parrot and his cage because he did not like Chit Chat.

Joelle went home to go sleep. The zookeeper did the same. The next morning, Joelle ran to the zoo as fast as she could.

The zookeeper asked Joelle, “What happened?”

“Today, we have to go into the boss’s house,” she replied.

“Once again, the boss probably doesn’t have him,” Dave said.

“There’s a chance the boss might have him,” Joelle said.

“Fine, we’ll go tonight,” Dave said.

While they waited for night, they walked around the zoo. Joelle got to feed the lions and the rhinos. She was not scared because she wanted to be a zookeeper when she grew up.

Five hours later, the zoo started to close, and Joelle had to hide behind the rhinos so the boss wouldn’t see her. If he saw her, he would tell her to go home and watch her walk home. Finally, Joelle and Dave were the only people left in the zoo. The zoo was dark except for the security lights. The bats in the cave were awake, and Joelle heard their wings flapping. This was Joelle’s first time at the zoo at night.

Soon, the boss was a mile away. Joelle and the zookeeper left the zoo and locked it behind them. Then, they started running after the boss. Soon, they started walking so they wouldn’t get too close to him. Then, they got to the boss’s house. It was a small cottage because the boss lived alone. Joelle and Dave knocked on the door.

As the boss opened it and said, “Hello,” they barged into the cottage. Immediately, they saw Chit Chat in a cage on the boss’s desk.

Chit Chat said, “Hello, nice to see you again! How was your sunny day?”

Joelle and Dave replied, “Good. How are you?”

“I’m great, thank you for asking,” Chit Chat said.

“How did you know where my house is?” the boss asked Joelle and Dave.

“Easy, we just followed you after you walked out of the zoo,” Dave said.

“But anyway, why do you have the parrot?” asked Joelle.

“One night when I was about to walk out, I saw Chit Chat looked lonely. I said good night and then, the parrot seemed sad. I asked him why he was so sad, and he said, ‘I am the only parrot. No one talks to me that much.’ So I took him to my house, and we started talking for the whole night, and I started liking him,” the boss said. “I felt bad about stealing the parrot, but I didn’t want to tell anyone because I didn’t want them to think I’m a thief.”

“Why didn’t you tell me and Joelle earlier?” asked the zookeeper calmly.

“Well, you would have asked me a bunch of questions, and I don’t like to answer questions. I was also afraid you would take the parrot back,” the boss said.

“We have more questions now that you’ve told us later,” Dave said.

“Everybody was freaked out about Chit Chat going missing!” Joelle said in a very angry way.

“Sorry about that. I’ll return him to the zoo tomorrow morning,” the boss said.

Joelle and Dave went back to their houses. The next morning, Joelle biked all the way to the zoo, and the crowd was back at Chit Chat’s cage. The people in the crowd were really excited. They kept on asking Dave questions like, “Where was the parrot?” or, “How did Chit Chat feel when you found him?” Joelle got closer to the cage and she saw Chit Chat. He looked annoyed by all the noise.

Then, Joelle and Dave went to the pet store. Joelle bought a parrot that looked exactly the same as Chit Chat. He was mostly red with blue, green, and a little white. He said, “Hello, how are you doing?” to Joelle. Dave bought a very similar parrot, but it was a female.

When they got back to the zoo, they left the male parrot with Chit Chat. Chit Chat slowly started to open his beak and say something.

He finally said, “Thank you so much for the parrot. I’m so happy because I got a buddy like me!”

When the boss came back from break, Joelle and Dave ran up to him and said, “We have a surprise for you!”

“Candy?!”

Joelle and Dave looked at each other, confused. “No, but it’s something way better,” they said. “Your very own parrot!”

The boss started jumping up and down and twirling. Joelle, Dave, Chit Chat, and the boss lived happily ever after.

***

Twenty years later, Joelle became the zookeeper of the zoo and cared for every animal.