parakeet n. [鸟]长尾小鹦鹉
Lovebirds. That’s what all our friends called us when we first married. I guess Don and I deserved it. Money was tight because we were both full-time students, working to pay our way through school. Sometimes we‘d have to save up days just for an ice cream cone. Still, our tiny, drab apartment seemed like paradise. Love does that, you know. Anyway, the more we heard the term“lovebirds, ”the more we thought about birds. And one day we started saving up for a couple of lovebirds of our own：the feathery kind. We knew we couldn’t afford to buy both birds and a nice cage, so in his spare moments, Don made the cage himself. We set our cage in front of a shaded window. Then we waited until the crumpled envelope marked“lovebirds”was full of bills and spare change. At last the day came when we were able to walk down to our local pet store to“adopt ”some additions to our little family.
我们刚结婚时朋友们把我们叫做“恩爱鸟”, 我想我和唐不愧于这个名字。由于我们俩都是全日制学生, 靠打工挣学费, 所以手头总是很紧。有时我们为了买个冰淇淋蛋卷就要攒好几天的钱。即使如此, 我们那个狭小、简陋的寓所却像天堂一般, 你要知道, 这是因为有了爱。 不管怎么说, 我们越是听“恩爱鸟”这个词, 就越是琢磨小鸟。我们开始攒钱给自己买一对情侣鹦鹉, 羽毛轻软的那种。唐利用业余时间自己做了个鸟笼, 因为我们知道我们没钱既买鹦鹉又买个像样的鸟笼。 我们把鸟笼放在一个有阴凉的窗下, 然后等待着有一天那个皱巴巴的、上面写着“情侣鹦鹉”的信封里面装满了纸币和多余的硬币。到当地的宠物店为我们的小家“领养”新成员的这一天终于到来了。