Preface

It was a young parrot named Pharaoh who first told me the story of Hector and his travels. He probably wasn’t supposed to tell me at all, but I guess he just wanted someone to talk with as he was the only parrot in the pet shop at our local mall. You see, the store was going out of business soon, and they were selling off their inventory.

The fact is, all birds are sworn to secrecy when it comes to talking with humans. Many birds can understand human speech in at least one human language and they are taught not to reveal to humans that they understand what we say but Pharaoh was young. He had been taken from the nest at an early age, and he was really lonely. That’s why I shelled out my money and bought him at seventy-five percent off the regular retail price. I just felt compelled to do so. Maybe it was because I too, needed someone to talk to.

Pharaoh talked, and he talked, and he talked, and he talked until I thought I was going to go out of my mind, but every time I would start to tell him that I was going to take him back to the pet store or put him in the deep freeze with the Thanksgiving Turkey, he would start telling me the story of Hector’s Flock. I decided to write it down.

I probably wouldn’t have paid so much attention to the story but Pharaoh was so passionate about it. He insisted that every word was true. He claimed that his great, great, great, great grandfather had known Hector when Hector was quite young. Pharaoh insisted that this ancestor of his had been responsible for much of Hector’s education. I don’t know if Pharaoh was telling the truth or not, but it seemed so important to him that I knew he believed it to be true even if it wasn’t.

As birds have yet to learn how to write, and were forced to pass the stories of Hector’s travels through oral traditions like verse, song, and storytelling, I think I am the first to write this story and may well be the first human to ever hear it.

It is indeed an epic saga if there ever was one. And while it might be there have been a few embellishments added to the telling over the many years and many times the story has been passed from generation to generation, this is the story as it was told to me by my parrot friend, Pharaoh, so many years ago. I only wish I had decided to share it with the world sooner.

-Billy Jones, your humble scribe.