Chapter 3

3 Reginald Grimster Introduces Reginald Grimster The Human Man threw out another handful of bread and Dave hopped up and raced forward, following the trail of stale crumbs, eager to jump into the Human's hand. 'No!' The hand whipped back into the plastic mac pocket at lightning speed. Dave stopped and took a step back. 'See?' I said, pulling Dave away from the house. 'He doesn't want us here.' 'No, no! I meant "No, don't go!"' the Man panicked. 'Come on in, little pigeons.'

Dave shrugged me off. 'Don't get your tail feathers in a fluff, Skipper. He's asking us to come in.' 'Reginald Grimster wants you to come in,' the Man said. 'See?' Dave said to me. Breadcrumbs showered down on top of us as the Human threw out handful after handful of the stuff. 'Reginald Grimster has more food inside,' he said. 'Who's Reginald Grimster?' Dave asked me as he craned his neck trying to look behind the Man. 'I think it's him,' I replied, nodding at the monogrammed pocket of the man's plastic mac. It was emblazoned with a swirly 'R' and 'G'.

Reginald Grimster continued to back his way towards the house. His bottom hit a closed patio door, and he slid his hand behind himself to slide the glass door open. He didn't once break eye contact with us. 'Come here, pijjy pijjies,' he blurted, as he continued to toss a breadcrumb path for us to follow into his house.

'I really don't have a good feeling about this,' I whispered. Dave kicked me forward towards the darkened patio doors. 'Maybe he's not quite as nice as the Human Lady, and so far he's not too keen on petting us, but at least he'll keep us fed.' 'Reginald Grimster has lots of food here for you,' Reginald Grimster called out from inside his house. 'Besides, I have a great feeling about this,' Dave said, his beak curving up into a smirk. My stomach knotted and my knees felt like melting ice cream, but I followed my friend as he pecked his way towards the house.

'This way, pijjies,' Reginald Grimster's voice came. We hopped over the patio doorframe and into a dark dining room. The light from the windows caused long shadows to fall over a plastic-covered metal dining table and two plastic chairs tucked neatly underneath it. There was a cupboard in the corner stacked full of books. I waddled towards the cupboard. If this was going to be our new home I wanted to make sure there was a typewriter. 'Not there, pijjy!' Reginald Grimster barked at me. He hurried over and stood in my path, shielding the cupboard from me. I couldn't be sure, but I thought I saw two entire shelves of cookbooks

peeking out from behind his legs. 'Skipper, don't upset Reginald.' Dave shook his head at me. 'He's our Human now.' Dave jumped and half-flapped as he followed Reginald Grimster across the dining hall and into a small boxroom in the corner. 'Here, pijjy,' the man clucked at me, beckoning me over. I followed after Dave. 'I wish he would stop calling me "pijjy".' 'Stop being such a misery-beak,' Dave said. 'He's just trying to be nice.' The boxroom had been set up like a pet shop. There were tons of cages and birdhouses of all different shapes and sizes hanging from the ceiling. It was almost as