Season 1 · Episode 29
Your Side of the Hedge
Published 25th September 2026
It is an unpleasant adjustment for us both.
Wind in the Oak
The wind had spent the morning knocking rain out of the Square. By noon it had run out of rain and was content to knock the Jacks about instead.
Mr Jack Daw held his place in the Oak with the expression of someone who had personally negotiated with the weather and found it unreliable. The rest of his family arrived in scattered intervals, each certain the best branch was already occupied.
Batman Smith looked beyond the garden roofs.
“If Nigel came over yesterday, he could come over again.”
“He could,” said Mr Jack Daw.
“You sound unconvinced.”
“I am agreeing with you. It is an unpleasant adjustment for us both.”
Batman saw no pigeon that afternoon. His watch was interrupted by another Robin, who took one of the hedge’s favoured positions and seemed surprised to find it favoured by anybody else. Batman went to deal with that and returned to find the sky still empty.
The wind eased as the clouds broke. Long-tailed tits passed through the hedge. Percy flickered through the Oak above a passing Chiffchaff. Batman turned sharply.
“Colin?”
The Chiffchaff was gone before the question reached the other side of the tree.
“That is becoming his answer,” said Mr Jack Daw.
“If it is him.”
“Then it is becoming somebody’s answer.”
As evening cooled, the Jacks gathered in greater numbers. Stirling’s squad worked across the lawn and towards the Vegetable Garden, then withdrew before anyone could ask what they had found. A Rook took a high branch and offered no opinion at all. Somewhere beyond the gardens, a Canada Goose made an abrupt announcement that no one could interpret as local business.
Marjorie at the Hedge
Darkness settled over the hedge that separated Marjorie’s garden from Marlboro’s.
Marjorie arrived alone.
For a time she looked across without saying anything. Mr Jack Daw, tucked farther along the Oak, wondered if Harold’s words had finally reached her. Then Marjorie spoke.
“I am not asking you to come back.”
The neighbouring garden remained quiet.
“You have found your own place. See that you keep it.”
No answer. She moved away, returned, and found fresh objections to an arrangement she had insisted upon herself. The moon rose behind her. The night became cold and still.
Marlboro Answers
Much later, Marlboro answered from next door.
“You are still at my hedge,” Marlboro said.
“I am on my side of it.”
“You keep making certain I know.”
“And you have made certain the entire Square knows where you are.”
“You made me leave.”
Marjorie did not dispute it. “You found a place of your own.”
“You do not get to be proud of the place I had to find.”
Marlboro withdrew beyond sight. Marjorie remained at the boundary, suddenly without a reply she was willing to use.
Night at the Hedge
Harold joined her on the Oak.
“She answered,” he said.
“She is angry.”
“Yes.”
“She thinks I cannot be proud of her.”
Harold looked across the hedge. “You could tell her.”
“I told her to keep her garden.”
“That is not quite the same sentence.”
Marjorie turned on him. “We raised her to manage without us. She is doing it.”
“I know,” said Harold. “You do not have to enjoy being told how.”
For a moment, husband and wife occupied the same branch without improving each other’s mood. Then Harold went farther into the trees. Marjorie remained, guarding a boundary she had once demanded Marlboro cross.
The night cooled further. After a long interval, Marjorie spoke into the neighbouring dark again. No one answered. She tried later, with the same result.
Near the coldest part of the night, Marlboro responded.
“It is freezing over there,” Marjorie said.
“It is freezing here too.”
“Then choose a better branch.”
“I chose this garden.”
“Good.”
Marlboro disappeared from the conversation. Marjorie moved to her own familiar branch and looked out over the hedge. When she spoke again, her daughter answered from farther away, briefly enough to leave the meaning unsettled.
“Do not let anyone else drive you from it,” Marjorie said.
This time nothing came back. She settled on the Oak, on her own side, while Marlboro held the darkness beyond.
Before dawn Marjorie had one last word for the neighbouring garden. Whatever she meant by it, she did not cross the hedge.
A Bright Cold Morning
The morning arrived bright, cold and busy. Batman resumed his post before Steve and Mrs Steve had finished inspecting the wet lawn. Brenda emerged beneath the bird table and objected to the temperature as though someone had chosen it. Mildred kept low in the hedge while Percy and Derek travelled the Oak by routes which appeared to share no principles at all.
The Jacks returned. Clive and a loose party of small tits moved through their branches, taking advantage of every pause in the family consultation. Gary arrived. A little later, Stirling’s squad began to spread across the Vegetable Garden.
“Anything happened?” Gary asked Mr Jack Daw.
“Between whom?”
“You know perfectly well.”
Mr Jack Daw told him only that Marjorie had ordered Marlboro to keep her new garden.
“And?”
“And Marlboro is still angry with Marjorie for making her leave.”
Gary considered how much more could be made of that answer. Across the lawn, Stirling’s squad shifted to the far side of the beds. Gary saw the change, let the subject drop, and became intensely interested in a patch of leaves.
Later, Mortimer passed above the Square. His shadow crossed the Oak without settling there, and the Jacks paused just long enough to notice that they had paused.
Lunch for Nigel
By late morning the wind had returned. Gary reappeared, the squad made one final circuit, and a long-tailed tit passed through on its way elsewhere. Batman looked up whenever the sky opened between the branches. It remained empty.
“Nigel?” Mr Jack Daw asked.
“I was only looking.”
Batman dropped to the bird table and inspected the remaining seeds.
“You have watched the sky all morning,” said Mr Jack Daw.
“Exactly. It has not worked.”
Batman nudged a seed towards the open side of the table.
“Are you setting a trap?” Mr Jack Daw asked.
“For Nigel? I am setting lunch.”
The sky remained empty. Batman settled beside the table anyway.