Birds

Chapter 17 - Nothing strange

Mr. Holmes had gone when they awoke the next morning.

“Where do you think he went?” Sam asked.

“Who?” Peter wondered looking around.

“Mr. Holmes, he’s an owl.” Sam answered and then turned to face Henry again. “Where do you think he went Henry?”

“I dunno Sam,” Henry said.

Sam thought, then his eyes lightened up. “Maybe he flew to the woods, maybe we’ll see him there!”

“Maybe,” Henry said.

“Oh, I wish we could stay another day,” Clare groaned. “ I like it here.”

Henry considered this. “Tell you what, lets spend part of the day here and we’ll fly off later in the afternoon,” he suggested.

The three kids cheered and flew off to discover.

“If that’s so, I think I’ll have a look at that truck with all the food,” Delford said and hurried off wobbling along on his small legs. Henry stared after him his eyebrows raised. He really was a strange dove with a very large problem.

“Henry?” Mr. Dove shouted. The owl flew over to him. “This thing,” Mr. dove said pointing at a large blue shape. “What do you suppose it is?”

Henry stared at the thing. “Em… I’m guessing there’s a big machine under that blue cover, probably a tractor.”

Mr. Dove’s eyes widened. “A tractor?”

“Yeah, probably.”

“I’ve heard about them,” Mr. Dove said smiling. “Neat!”

Mr. Dove circled the blue object with wide eyes, peeping his head under the cover now and then to get a good look at the giant machine underneath. Henry left him with his fascination and flew over to Mrs. Dove who stood cleaning her feathers.

“Good morning Henry,” she said as he landed beside her. “Look at me, I’ve got this stuff all over me.” She said plucking off straws of hay from her wings. She stopped and looked at the owl. “Sam said he met another owl yesterday, is that true?”

Henry nodded. “Mr. Holmes, he was an odd fellow.”

“And you’re not odd?” Mrs. Dove asked teasing.

“Yeah yeah, all right,” Henry said rolling his eyes. “But he was quite odd,” he added.

Mrs. Dove smiled and went back to her plucking. “Have you seen the kids?” she asked.

“Yeah, they’re off exploring. I said we’d fly off in the afternoon instead so that they can have some fun.”

“That was nice.” Mrs. Dove said. Then she looked up at Henry with a serious look. “There aren’t any cats around here are there?”

Henry stiffened, he hadn’t thought about that. He thought of what to say. How would Mrs. Dove react if he said yes? What if one of the little doves had been hurt, or worse killed? Mrs. Dove eyed him questiongly, waiting for his answer. Henry thought, swallowed and then quickly said.

“No, don’t worry. They’re all fine.”

Mrs. Dove gave a quick nod and returned to cleaning her feathers. Henry looked around. He had to go and check if they really were all right. He hadn’t seen any traces of cats, but he knew you could never be too sure.

The three small doves were walking chattering and studying the many strange objects on the shelves in a large room. It was a storage room with everything from chairs to peanut butter and toilet paper. The shelves rose high on both sides of them. Light from the morning sun drained in through the wood planks, the whole place was filled with a yellowish glow. They had all seen most of the stuff before, but once in a while they would find something strange and discuss what it might be.