Parroting Issues

He has a secret, but someone in the house is a blabber mouth.

Before his eighteenth birthday, Tyler made one solemn vow: nobody would know he planned to get a giant tattoo of a glamorous mermaid across his chest. Not his friends. Not his teachers. And definitely not his grandmother, who still called temporary tattoos “gateway stickers.”

Tyler whispered the plan only once, inside his bedroom.

Unfortunately, his family’s talkative parrot, Captain Beaky, was perched on the curtain rod when he said it.

The next morning, Grandma greeted Tyler with an unusually cheerful smile.

“So,” she said casually, “big plans tomorrow?”

Tyler nearly choked on his cereal. “Nope.”

Captain Beaky flapped onto his shoulder and squawked, “Mermaid chest! Mermaid chest!”

Tyler froze.

Grandma raised an eyebrow.

“Traitor,” Tyler muttered to the bird.

The entire day Captain Beaky followed him around shouting, “Mermaid! Pretty lady! Big tattoo!”

Tyler tried bribing him with crackers. He tried covering the cage. He even attempted teaching him to say, “Nice weather.”

Nothing worked.

On Tyler’s birthday Grandma insisted they go out together. Tyler assumed she’d forgotten.

Instead, she marched him straight past the tattoo studio.

“I know it’s you,” she announced, pointing at the front door. “You’re not fooling anyone.”

Tyler sighed. “Okay, you win.”

Grandma smiled mysteriously and led him into the shop.

The tattoo artist grinned.

“Ready for your appointment, Mrs. Henderson?”

Tyler blinked.

His grandmother rolled up her sleeve, revealing several colorful tattoos already hiding beneath her cardigan.

“I’ve waited fifty years for this,” she said. “I’m getting a full pirate ship.”

She winked at Tyler.

“But you’re still too young for that ridiculous mermaid. Pick something with better taste like a parrot.”
They both laughed, but then Tyler remembered he hates needles. Instead of a tattoo he settled for Mexican food after his grandmother got her's.
WC 292