Page 76 of Hope and Happiness in Bluebell Wood
‘If you’d like to come to mine?’ I ask.
‘Yes. I like your house, and I like your birds.’
‘My house it is, then.’
‘Do you mind if it’s just you on your own with Merlin and Ava?’ Linnet asks Robin cautiously.
‘Where will you be?’ Robin demands again, this time staring hard at his mother.
‘I’m going to go out with a friend, if that’s okay with you?’
Robin thinks about the question. He looks at me, and then he looks at Merlin patiently waiting for him to come and play again. Then he nods. ‘Yes, I will be with my friends, Mum, so it’s good if you’re with yours, too. Now can we walk back with my friends to their house?’
Linnet smiles with utter relief and delight, first at Robin and then at me. ‘Is that all right?’ she asks.
‘Sounds like a great idea to me,’ I say, grinning at them both. ‘Let’s walk back, all friends together.’
Twenty-four
‘What would you like to do first?’ I ask Robin as I close the door of the cottage after Linnet has dropped him off to go on her date with Lonan.
Linnet had looked very pretty as she’d stood on the doorstep reminding Robin to be a good boy, and go to bed when I tell him to.
‘Mummy has a dress on,’ Robin had said, apparently not listening to anything Linnet had just told him. ‘She never wears a dress.’
‘Perhaps this is a special occasion,’ I’d said, winking at Linnet. ‘Have a lovely time, won’t you? And don’t worry about Robin, he’ll be just fine.’
After Linnet had checked for the third time that I had her number, she’d finally left, walking carefully down the path in her strappy sandals, with the skirt of her dress swishing to and fro under her long coat.
‘I want to see your birds,’ Robin says now, already heading towards the French windows with Merlin in tow.
‘I don’t usually get too many in the evening,’ I say, following them. ‘But if you like we can put some food out so they might come and have a pre-bedtime snack.’
‘I would like that,’ Robin says, and I lead him outside towards the shed where I keep the bird food.
‘How do you know what they like to eat?’ Robin asks, as I let him fill the containers I use to carry the food outside. ‘Do they tell you?’
‘Kind of. They usually eat some of the things much more quickly than others, then I know it’s their favourite. Some of the seed they always leave until last, though. I don’t think they like it all that much.’
‘Why do you give it to them, then?’
‘This seed,’ I say, pointing to a large sack of wild bird food, ‘comes already mixed up. I think it must contain the type of food birds are supposed to eat. All these other things I add to make it nicer for them.’
‘Mum does that with my food,’ Robin says, studiously examining the different bags and containers I have full of seeds, nuts, dried fruit and fat pellets. ‘She puts things on my plate I don’t really like, but I’m supposed to eat. Then she lets me have treats if I’m good and eat the nasty stuff.’
‘What do you think is nasty stuff?’ I ask him as we make our way out into the garden with Merlin.
‘I don’t like vegetables,’ Robin says, screwing up his face. ‘They’re nasty.’
‘I’ll let you into a little secret, I don’t like them much either. But they’re very good for us, and you sort of have to eat them so you can have the good stuff as well.’
‘Why do the birds have a house?’ Robin asks, as we approach the bird table.
‘It’s not really a house, it’s a cover so the food doesn’t get wet if it rains, and also it protects the smaller birds from predators.’
‘What’s a ped-a-tor?’
‘Er . . . a predator can be a bigger bird that might want to attack the smaller ones, or even a cat.’
