I was sitting outside the Venta, sipping a Tinto de Verano ("Summer Red Wine") amongst an impromptu gathering of friends and neighbours, when, without saying a word, a man I'd met a few times walked up to me and placed a birdie in my hands.
"That's a Great Tit!" the chap next to me with the ever-so-tactile haircut exclaimed. I deferred to his wider experience of tits (greater and lesser) as well as birds in general and set about observing the feathered creature nestled in my palm. It kept one eye shut and trembled ever-so-slightly. It had flown into a window, I surmised, and looked rather shocked and shaken, making no attempt to move.
It was curious, only the night before I'd been offered a fledgling but I had declined as it was too risky to have it share the house with Sekhmet. I don't like keeping creatures in cages either, for me, birds should fly free.A little girl walked up to me, looked at the bird in my hand and then addressed me solemnly, asking, "Is it real?"She made as if to touch it but the adults around us stopped her, telling her not to. I looked at her and met her eyes. "Are you real?" I asked. She smiled at me and nodded, putting out her finger to touch the bird gently. "It is real," I said. I lifted my finger towards her face, "Can I touch your nose?" She nodded, bemused. I tapped her nose gently with the tip of my index finger and nodded, satisfied, "You're real!" She giggled.After that, we talked about the bird and I told her that it needed to recover, that it had taken a hard knock. I shut my eyes, cupped my other hand over it and breathed. In the background I could hear the girl asking what I was doing and the lady next to me explaining. "It looks like she's fallen asleep!" the little girl observed.When I opened my eyes I looked down at the birdie and saw that the little girl was still in front of me, there was a boy there too, the son of the lady who'd been explaining to the girl. "What now?" the girl asked. I told her it would be best for it to recover in its own time, away from us noisy chattering humans, so she and the boy came with me as I went round the corner to find a suitable perch for the birdie. I set it down on a branch on a bush behind my car and smiled at it as I spoke to it in my mind. Then I walked away with the children, telling them we'd come back in ten minutes or so to check on it.True to form, the kids reminded me about the bird before time was up and we went over to see how it was doing. "It's still there!" the boy cried and the little girl darted ahead of him to see. Just then the birdie flew up, over the road and beyond into the tree-lined valley."Oh, I scared it," said the girl, looking somewhat dismayed."Don't worry," I smiled at her, "Sometimes we need to receive a little fright to give us that push to stretch our wings and take flight."
As I'd driven past the Venta I'd been tempted to stop in, as I had a delivery to organise there, but I was in a rare bad mood and felt reluctant to engage with others until it had passed. I noted the car parked on the drive and saw some people I knew, but carried on regardless. As I rounded the corner, I saw that the car that passed me belonged to one of the people I'd been trying to speak with that day. Following the nudge, I turned in at the dirt track just next to me and hauled a U~turn, slipping back to park outside the Venta.Sure enough, the chap I'd just passed had parked also and we had a quick chat. If I was in a foul mood, he was super stressed, but he tried to help me out anyway, even though my main question could only be adequately answered by the other people I'd been trying (and failing) to reach that day.His wife came up to talk with me and he went in for a drink; it transpired she'd been wanting to ask me something and had been hoping to see or speak with me. When she popped the question I broke into a smile and told her she had just the right person. Within a few minutes I was sitting outside with the banished smokers, enjoying jovial banter, occasionally running my hand over a velvety buzz cut and sipping my Tinto de Verano.It wasn't long after that when a couple drove up and joined us at the table; exactly the people I'd been trying to get in touch with, the ones who could provide me with the solution to my quandary... and so they did! Another car arrived, disgorging three locals and shortly after that another one walked in. Surrounded by new neighbours of sorts, people I have been getting to know during my time on the mountainside, who are happy to help me out and are familiar with my new home and the surrounding area, I felt very fortunate to be among such friendly souls. The sun shone, the birdie had healed and flown. I smiled. I felt happy. My mood was buoyant and bright.I'd made a new friend, the little girl. She'd ended up curling up against me like a cat, cuddling on my lap as we chatted away. "You don't know what an honour that is!" the boy's mother told me. I raised my eyebrows enquiringly. "She doesn't take to people at all, she's usually very shy... but just look at her with you!"
The lady brought the girl's mother out to meet me, as we have a thing or two in common, and we enjoyed a warm and animated exchange. When I finally left, having organised the gifts to be delivered, my heart felt as full as the Moon that would rise later that evening... one that I would enjoy in sweet, special company, making for the most memorable moonlit moments.
*GG♡AA*
