Mateship With Birds - By Carrie Tiffany Page 0,6
single file. Betty is in the lead; Harry hangs far enough back so he can watch the way she moves. He likes her plump forearms, the cardigan pushed up around them; the gilt band of her watch digging into her wrist. He likes the sound of her clothes moving around her middle. When she turns to speak to him he notices her softening jaw and her mouth – the lipstick on her front teeth. He’s been watching all of this, over the years, watching her body age and temper.
They reach the fence and turn back again towards the car. Harry scans the bank for a flat section with decent grass. He points it out to her. ‘Sit down there a bit and take your shoes off.’
‘Give my bunions a breather?’
‘I didn’t know you had bunions. That’s a bonus.’ He takes his coat off and lays it down for her. They sit for a while, murmuring the odd comment into the afternoon; watching the birds flit between the trees and the water.
Betty needs to get tea on, and there’s work tomorrow. The day is closing in. He follows her back to the car. The grass has made an intricate scribbled pattern on the backs of her legs. It reminds Harry of ancient Egyptian writing he’s seen in books; hieroglyphics. He wonders if the scholars are mistaken, if hieroglyphics is not a written language after all, but the marks early crops made on the skin of women when they lay down in the fields to rest.
Harry makes the grass brand from a stirrup iron. He solders the plate of patterned tin over the opening where the ball of the foot sits. Two harness traces form a handle. It has taken many hours of work with the tin cutters to match the whorls and intersections in the tin with his memory of the grass pattern on Betty’s legs. Countless times, in the making, he has wiped the tin on a rag and tried it on his own leg.
Sunday evening, Harry wraps the brand in a clean tea towel and walks over to Betty’s. He’s always expected for tea on a Sunday. He has his good jacket on, but his shirt cuffs are still rolled thickly at the elbow so it isn’t sitting right. He’s not sure what he’s going to say to Betty about the brand. He’s hoping explanations won’t be necessary – that she’ll just take it, that she’ll understand.
Dora from the poultry farm is sitting in Harry’s place at the kitchen table. She’s sipping lemon cordial and leaving her orange lipstick on the rim of the glass. A chair is brought in for Harry and he sits at the corner of the table straddling one of its legs. Little Hazel passes Harry the gravy, but she can’t take her eyes off Dora. Betty explains that Dora and Michael are working on a project together for school. Michael mumbles in agreement, a crop of pimples reddening around his nose. Betty returns to her dinner, forking her peas with care. Harry feels uneasy listening to Dora and Michael talk – as if he’s eavesdropping on something encoded and private. Four is comfortable, everyone has their place; five feels lopsided, unbalanced somehow. After dinner Michael and Dora go into the front room to listen to the wireless. Dora is interested in next year’s royal tour. She’s brought her scrapbook in case anything new is mentioned. Betty washes the dishes, Little Hazel dries. Harry sits at the table behind them with his cup of tea cooling in front of him. Little Hazel places the clean plates, the baking dishes, the egg-beater and the slotted spoon on the table. This is the time, after dinner, that Michael would usually get his bird books out and they’d chat about the week’s sightings. The brand is still on Harry’s lap. He considers unwrapping it and putting it on the table with the kitchen utensils, it wouldn’t look out of place – or not immediately so. He says goodnight to Betty and Little Hazel and scratches Louie under the chin. He calls out to Michael in the sitting room, there is no reply. On the way home Harry stops at the dairy. He hangs the brand from a rusty nail on the wall. As time goes by it looks more and more like an implement that every dairy farmer would have.
On the shelf in the dairy: Provet Vaginitis Powder; Ammolene Dairy Cleanser; Hamilton Mammitis Vaccine; Provet Teat Salve; Provet