'...the parrot appeared, arrived while he slept, a bird 'taller than Jesus, yellow like a sunflower,' a warrior-angel who blinded nuns with its beak, fed upon their eyes, slaughtered them as they 'pleaded for mercy,' then so gently lifted him, enfolded him, winged him away to 'paradise.' Over the years, the bird saves him from '...older children, his father, a faithless girl, a sergeant he'd known in the Army...' After saving him from whatever is causing him harm, there is always an '...Ascension to a paradise...' '...look of unflawed fulfillment, of beatitude, as though at last, and as in one of his dreams, a tall yellow bird had hauled him to heaven.'