‘Hang on. I’ve just remembered a half-eaten packet of crisps in my bag. It’s all I’ve got, but I’ll go and get them.’
She grabbed the crisps and rushed back out, worried that her avian friend would have given up and flown away.
But no, he was still there, looking straight at her, the natural oil in his feathers glinting in the sun.
It would sound fanciful to the others if she said that the bird in front of her had a look of Tony about him. Obviously, he didn’t actually look like him– he was a bird for goodness’s sake– but there was something… probably his persistence, his unwillingness to give up on the hope of food until the very end.
She’d been reading a lot about reincarnation on the internet during the long and lonely evenings, and she liked the idea that a little bit of her husband could be flying or crawling around nearby. But it would make her sound crazy if she said it out loud.
Three crisps should be more than enough. Maddie broke them into pieces and laid them on the table.
The bird was straight in there, tucking into the crisps in full view rather than taking them off to his nest to eat in private. Once they’d gone, he stared expectantly at her.
‘More? You’re a greedy bugger, Tony. But then you always were.’
Maddie broke up another three crisps, which were whipped away in seconds.
‘You can’t be serious.’
Tony was advancing towards the packet with a determined hop. Maddie leaned over and shook out the last bits from it.
‘OK, but don’t blame me if you get too fat to fly, my love.’
A noise behind her made her sit up straight.
‘Mads?’
Maddie prayed that Charlotte hadn’t heard her talking to the bird and calling it Tony. Her friend was standing on the adjacent balcony, the image of a scene in an Impressionist painting, not that she could tell you which one.
A silk dressing gown in greens and reds, embroidered with delicate cranes was loosely belted at the waist, and Charlotte’s elegant and already brown bare feet anchored her on the patterned tiles, while her long blonde hair hung loose in waves down her back.
She looked younger, and less stressed. Maddie wondered for a moment what it must be like to look that effortlessly glamorous first thing in the morning. Not that she’d ever know.
‘Morning.’
‘Who were you talking to earlier?’
‘What?’
Maddie spun round and located the empty crisp packet on the ground. Tony was nowhere to be seen.
‘I could hear you speaking to someone.’
‘No. Probably just singing out loud.’
Charlotte knew what she’d heard hadn’t been singing, but Maddie had looked so startled when she’d mentioned it, that she’d let it drop. Even if the woman was talking to herself, it was her business.
‘OK, if you say so.’
Maddie was desperate to keep this new– she could even say fledgling– relationship between her and the bird a secret. It was a tiny link to her husband. Her smile at her own joke prompted an odd look from Charlotte. She really hoped Tony would be back tomorrow. She’d be ready for him this time.
‘Have you got your phone out here with you?’
‘No, I was giving it a break for half an hour. Call me controversial, but we’re surrounded by all this glorious nature. Why do I need to stare at a screen?’
‘Because Sof messaged to say let’s all meet downstairs for breakfast in half an hour, and you wouldn’t have known otherwise?’
‘Fine. See you there.’
