“Thanks, Gabriella. I needed that.”
“I’ll bet you did.” She took Kizzy’s hand and led her into the dining area where the birdcage was. Her son, the baby bird Noah, hopped up and down and flapped his wings.
Antonio strode over and stuck out his hand for a handshake. Kizzy looked confused but took his hand and shook it. He laughed, then pulled her into a hug. “It’s nice to see you again, Kizzy. Apparently, I’m on my way out to a night game at Fenway.”
“Apparently?”
“Well, that was the plan five minutes ago.”
“Oh. Aren’t you curious about what happened?” She pointed to the cage. “That’s what I came to tell you.”
“I certainly am.” He looked at Gabriella. “Are you sure you want me gone for the evening? I’d really like to stay. I can go to a game anytime. That’s what season tickets are for.”
Gabriella smiled. “Of course you can stay. It’s your house. If we need some privacy for girl talk later, we can just move to the man cave and turn it into a woman cave.” She winked.
“Or I can lock myself in my man cave and let you have the whole rest of the house.”
Gabriella giggled. “That would probably be better. Let me put on some tea, and we can all get comfortable while you tell us what you know, Kizzy. Or would you rather wait for Mallory?”
“Mallory is coming?”
“Yes. She called a few minutes ago. She’ll be here for dinner in thirty or forty minutes. I hope you can stay for dinner too.”
“If it’s no imposition… I’d like to get to know Mallory better—oh, and you two, of course!”
“Wonderful! Have a seat. I’ll be right back with some tea.”
Kizzy and Antonio sat at the dining room table while Gabriella filled the electric teapot and plugged it in. Wishing she had something fancier on hand, she settled for putting some cheese and crackers on a plate and brought that over first.
“I’m afraid we only have one type of tea in the house. Good old Lipton. Is that all right?”
“Perfect,” Kizzy said.
Gabriella put a teabag right in each cup and set them on a tray on the kitchen counter.
Before she sat down with the two of them, Gabriella heard Antonio ask, “Would you like to feed the boys?”
She peeked around the corner as Antonio passed the little Tupperware container with a few strips of beef to Kizzy.
She took it and held up one strip of meat. “Is this what they eat?”
“Yes. You can hold it in your fingers. They won’t bite you.”
“Do they know who I am?”
“They have some of their memories, even though their maturity is in question. Well, not in question so much as just not there yet. They have to grow up all over again in bird form before they can shift back. At least that’s the quickest way to do it. Every time they’re in bird form, they age faster. In human form, they age much more slowly.”
Kizzy took a strip of meat and poked it through the cage. One of the little birds hopped up to her, chirped, then opened his mouth wide. She dropped the meat, and he swallowed it whole.
“Was that Noah?”
“Yes, I believe it was.”
“How can you tell them apart?”
Antonio shrugged. “I’m not the one to ask. Gabriella could tell you for sure.”
Gabriella smiled. “Yes, that was Noah. A mother just knows. So what happened to them?”
