My head shook in disbelief at the sight of the flamingo; all the while, my brain created plausible scenarios that overtook any rational thought I had before.

“No, no, this can’t be real.” While backing away from the pink bird, I whispered, “Miss Martha, Louis, this is a joke, right? This flamingo is an animatronic, that’s it?”

Miss Martha and Louis didn’t answer, but looked sadly in my direction as my heart sank.

“Jessica,” Louis said, “Please, let us explain this…”

“Louis, this joke’s gone far enough,” I shouted as feelings of fear and anger rushed through my body in hot flashes. A sliver of hope remained in that moment, that the flamingo in the living room was a joke.

“I’m sorry,” Miss Martha said with a serious look on her face. “We’re both sorry you had to find out this way, Jessica. It’s true. We have a wild flamingo in our house.”

At her admission, my knees buckled and fell to the carpeted floor. While my breath came out in brief spurts. Louis ran to my side to keep me steady, but I pushed him away.

“Don’t touch me!” I gasped. “How could you lie to me, Louis?”

Tears rained from my eyes while Louis tried to console me.

“I’m sorry, Jessica.” he cried, “I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

I turned away from him and hugged myself to keep from falling apart.

“Please understand, Jessica!” Miss Martha pleaded. “There’s an explanation for this. You must hear us out!”

Anger and betrayal mixed into a cocktail within me, but I was still too stunned to let it all out. The flamingo appeared to have sensed my distress and nuzzled my cheek.

“NO! It’s not real, it can’t be real!” I screamed, and tried to push the flamingo away, but weakness overcame me, and at that moment, I blacked out.