The year I met my husband in Japan, he had an African grey parrot called Cecil in his apartment in California.
My husband told me that his life in California was lonely.
He traveled through busy cities every day, dealing with people for business reasons, and returned to his apartment every night in San Mateo, tired and drained.
But when he opens the door of his apartment, Cecil would use his busy chattering to warmly welcome him back home, he would sit quietly on his shoulder, shared the loneliness of the night with him together.
At that time, we lived in the bustling cities of two different countries.
I'm not as lucky as my husband. At least, he had Cecil's company. I was just a night returnee who took the last train from Tokyo then arrived tiredly to my Yokohama's little home.
There were no animals in my small apartment; occasionally wild cats who wandering on the streets would jump onto my balcony and look at me through the window...
One day, my husband flew to see me from San Francisco. We had dinner together at a Japanese restaurant in Shinjuku, then holding hands walking in the street, wandering among the crowd.
" I'm a country boy." My husband said to me, "I don't like the cold and busy city. Without Cecil's company, I don't know how colorless my life would be..."
My husband gave me the choice of going to the United States, or going back to his New Zealand hometown with him. I chose the last one.
I was exhausted in Japan at that time, and also because I held a Chinese passport.
I felt that my remaining energy was no longer able to deal with the U.S. Immigration department anymore. I just wanted to find an easy way to let two lonely hearts stay together, I thought, at least, New Zealand is the country where he has his family and friends who grew up with him together...
But when we finally made the decision，together return to New Zealand, we found that because of the New Zealand government' law prohibiting the entry of foreign birds, my husband had to leave his beloved little partner Cecil to his good friends in California.
My husband said goodbye to his little friend with tears in his eyes.
We didn't have the internet at the beginning of the years after we returned to New Zealand, his friends who adopted Cecil in California contacted us through phone calls. Whenever my husband could hear cecil over the phone, he would excitedly call the smart parrot, and tried to listen to what he could say to him.
We often find Cecil's feathers in gift packages sent from California. We knew that Cecil's adopted owner put them in there in order to ease the misery of missing Cecil for my husband.
At such moments, he would hold the feathers in his hands and sniff Cecil's smell with tears in his eyes.
Finally, when our two girls got old enough, our family took the opportunity to visit Disneyland in Los Angeles.We went to visit Cecil's home in San Francisco Bay.
Although he hadn't seen him for 10 years, when we walked into our friend's three-story apartment building, the smart parrot moved downstairs along the handrail bit by bit after hearing my husband's voice.
My husband sat on the stairs and reached out his hand toward the little body. The little parrot jumped happily on his outstretched hands and looked at my husband, who was crying softly with his other hand over his mouth.
During the days we spent at our friend's house, Cecil waited for my husband to put him on his bed in his beautiful cage, then cover it with a cotton cover almost every night.
My husband would say, "Good night, Cecil, have a good dream!"
Cecil answered, "Good night, good boy, I love you!"
We sat quietly in the living room of our friend's house, listening to the little parrot repeat "I love you" in his sweet voice, until the sound stopped, knowing that he must have been in the cage, sleeping soundlessly...
After Cecil fell asleep, our family tiptoed away from our friend's apartment and drove to San Francisco Airport in the dark...
My husband looked out the city's night from the car window, silent In the darkness, I felt his strong hand clutching my hand tightly.
Back in New Zealand, we received a message from our friends who adopted Cecil, in which they said that since we left, the little parrot had become very uneasy, constantly imitating my husband's voice and repeating the phrase "Good night, good boy, I love you..." they said, the little parrot must be sad to find out his owner has left him again.
