"I must be the only person ever to pay two times for this."
"What were you paying for?" asked a bird. This bird just happened to fly by
"Do you want the long story or the short story?" I asked.
"I don't want any story," said the bird. "I just asked a question."
"That's the thing," I said. "It needs to be a story."
"Why?" asked the bird.
"It just does."
"Ok, let's have a story. Long or short. Just make it interesting."
Then there is a pause.
"No story?" asked the bird. "Is your tongue tied?"
The pause continues.
"I'm waiting," said the bird.
Still, a pause.
"Are you building up tension?"
"I think I'll leave my story for another day," I said
"That was a bit of an anti-climax," said the bird. "After all, I was just asking what you paid two times for."
"My funeral," I said. "they double charged me. But now, I'm too damn dead to ask for a refund."
"You're not dead," said the bird. "If you were dead, how could you be talking to me?"
"Well, that's the thing," I replied.
"Excuse me?"
"Do you see that cat over there?"
…..and with that, the bird vanished, peacefully.
Thank you for reading, Written as a freewrite, prompts by 
