arms, ignoring his wriggling protests, I hurried out of the flat and down the stairs to the pub. Someone would be there who could rescue the bird – someone taller than me, which meant practically anyone.
But Robbie would be alone in the kitchen, with hot pans on the stovetop that couldn’t be left. Alice was sitting at a table with Maurice and the rest of the pub’s committee, deep in conversation. Fat Don was at his usual place at the bar, no doubt already on his third pint of the day, and would be absolutely no help to me.
I hesitated for a second. Even though Alice wasn’t much taller than me, she was sensible, and so were all the others – Maurice and various worthy people drawn from the local community. One of them would know what to do.
But then Frazzle started to squirm even more determinedly in my arms, his claws raking across my bare shoulder. He freed himself from my grasp, jumped down to the floor with an affronted meow and trotted off towards one of the corner tables.
I hadn’t noticed Adam there. He had the D&D set open on the table and was drawing what looked like a massively complex map on a pad of graph paper. There was a pack of coloured felt-tip pens in front of him, pencils, a ruler and a book called The Mega Monster Companion, which I’d never seen before.
I followed Frazzle towards him, and he raised his head, clocked me and hastily flipped the pad closed. Frazz jumped up on his lap and started to purr.
‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to spy on you,’ I said.
‘I didn’t think you were. I just didn’t want to spoil anything for our next game. I’ve got the day off work and I thought I’d come and do some planning here – it feels like I’m in the zone. How’s Frazzle?’
‘He’s a cold-blooded murderer. Do you know anything about birds?’
I blurted out an explanation of the situation, and Adam got up, scooping Frazzle back onto his chair.
‘You keep that chair warm,’ he instructed the cat. ‘And stay here until you’re called. Understand?’
Frazzle looked at him and blinked, like whatever Adam wanted was fine with him.
‘Thanks so much. I honestly don’t know what to do. It’s up on top of a door and I can’t reach it and I don’t know if it’s hurt.’
‘Come on then,’ Adam said. ‘Rescue mission under way.’
We hurried up the stairs to my flat, and I opened the door cautiously, half expecting the bird to fly out into the stairwell and create a whole new set of problems. But it was still huddled where I had left it.
‘Right.’ Adam glanced around and picked up a T-shirt from the floor. ‘Okay if I use this?’
I nodded and stammered out an apology for the mess, which Adam ignored.
He approached the bird slowly, reached up and lifted it down, wrapped safely in the soft cotton.
‘Wow,’ I said, ‘you just picked it up.’
‘It doesn’t know yet to be afraid of people,’ Adam said. ‘It’s just a baby. Now, have you got a box with a lid?’
I passed him the cardboard crate Jude’s LP records had come in, and he carefully lowered the bird into it.
‘Hot-water bottle?’
‘I’ve got one of those microwave wheat-bag things. I use it after the gym sometimes.’
‘That’ll do, if we wrap it up in something.’
Another T-shirt was pressed into service.
‘He looks okay, doesn’t he?’ I peered into the box, but the baby bird didn’t look back at me; it was hunched down, its newly grown feathers looking ruffled and unkempt. ‘I mean, not like its wing is broken or anything? It seemed to be flying okay.’
‘Yeah, but I think it’s more worrying if Frazzle clawed it.’ Adam’s head leaned over the box, close to mine. He smelled of coffee and shampoo. ‘It’s got no immune resistance to that, and it could get infected and… well…’
‘Die.’
He nodded. ‘There’s a local wildlife rescue place. Want me to call them?’
I nodded. Suddenly I felt like I wouldn’t be able to explain the situation to anyone without starting to cry. It was just a bird – just a blackbird, not even something rare or endangered (other than by my cat), but I was flooded with awareness, all at once, of the fragility of life. How easily that little bird’s first flight could be its last; how everywhere, all the time, lives were being snuffed out like candles on a birthday cake.