A Confidence Kept

A Confidence Kept

By lunchtime, Mr Jack Daw had discovered that knowing something and telling the Jacks were two very different activities.

Gary arrived at the Oak to find the family arguing about whether knowing a bird in another territory was the same thing as knowing its address. Nobody had been told why that question mattered. This had not prevented them from forming sides.

“You told them,” Gary said.

“I did not.”

“Then they are more dangerous than I thought.”

Mr Jack Daw gave his relations a long look. “That has been true for years.”

Gary stayed only a moment. He was gone before Stirling’s scouts crossed the lawn. Mr Jack Daw watched them from the branch on which Gary had just stood and found, for perhaps the first time in his life, that he had no wish to make an announcement.

The afternoon was bright and blustery. A little procession of long-tailed tits passed through the hedge. Barry the Great Tit took the Bird Table without asking whose turn it was, which gave Batman Smith a manageable grievance to distract him from the larger one. Above them, the Jacks made up several stories about the neighbouring magpie territory. None came close enough to the truth for Mr Jack Daw to correct.

Stirling Searches

Later, Stirling’s squad appeared in force. They spread across the garden while Jay worked through the trees on one of his secret autumn errands. Each time he changed branches, three Jacks assumed he was avoiding the squirrels. Jay seemed far more interested in whatever he had come to collect.

“Is he carrying a message?” Batman asked.

“He is carrying his own business,” said Mr Jack Daw.

“That could be a message.”

“That is why nobody tells you anything.”

Gary appeared after the squirrels had gone. He did not pretend to have come for the weather.

“Did you speak to Stirling?”

“No,” said Mr Jack Daw.

Gary searched his face for the rest of the answer.

“I could have,” Mr Jack Daw added.

“But you didn’t.”

“It was not mine to tell.”

Gary looked away. “Do not make me grateful in front of your family.”

“Most of them think I told you where Jay put his lunch. You are safe.”

As evening came on, Gary left the Oak. The squad made another pass after he had gone, and the Jacks renewed their argument about whether this was a strategy or a coincidence. Batman wanted to inspect the Summerhouse. Mr Jack Daw suggested he inspect the hedge instead. Batman accepted the assignment as though he had not been living in it all day.

A Speech for the Silence

Darkness brought a cooling wind and broken cloud. Marjorie arrived alone. She took her usual view towards Marlboro’s garden, but this time she did not begin by demanding anything of the silence.

“I had a whole speech,” she said at last.

Nobody answered.

“You would have hated it.”

Marjorie shifted her position, apparently rehearsing a shorter version. That one failed her too. She left the boundary without delivering either speech.

Knowing Is Not Enough

Later, fine rain moved across the Square. Marjorie returned and worked her way farther along the trees, still arguing quietly with whatever she had decided not to say. At the edge of the garden her manner changed; Harold had finally appeared.

“You said we raised her to leave,” she told him.

“I did.”

“I know.”

He waited for the objection.

“I am discovering,” Marjorie said, “that knowing it does not make me good at it.”

For once Harold had nothing ready. Marjorie continued on her way. He remained where he was, with the rain and a remarkably poor selection of helpful things to say.

Before dawn she passed once more, alone. Mist had settled over the lower garden. Marjorie looked towards the trees next door, found them still standing, and went without disturbing her daughter.

The Square Wakes

The Square woke beneath fog. Brenda emerged long enough to object that it was damp inside the hedge as well as out. Steve and Mrs Steve investigated the ground while Batman and the Smiths took up their usual stations. Mildred was already beneath them, quietly attending to matters that did not require an audience.

Gary came early. The Jacks were gathered in the Oak, and Mr Jack Daw kept their questions off him with a dispute about which branch belonged to whom. Gary left. Only then did Stirling’s squad come through the thinning mist, crossing the Vegetable Garden and withdrawing as the sunlight took hold.

“You missed him again,” Batman told Stirling.

Stirling did not ask whom he meant.

“That,” said Mrs Steve from below, “is not an invitation to chase anybody.”

Batman looked disappointed. Stirling’s squirrels carried on without offering him a role.

Two Pinecones

Later the garden warmed and the Jacks grew louder. Mildred held her place beneath the hedge. Jay came through on another unexplained errand, barely pausing when Gary returned. Gary settled beside Mr Jack Daw, who had kept his confidence through an entire morning with his family. It had plainly cost him.

“You cannot keep doing that,” Gary said.

“I can,” said Mr Jack Daw. “I would prefer not to.”

Gary watched the route Stirling’s squad had taken.

“If he wants the truth,” Gary said, “he can hear it from me.”

“And when will that be?”

Gary looked at the empty Vegetable Garden. “When he asks a question he hasn’t already answered for himself.”

A pinecone struck the path below them. Gary looked towards the Pine. Nothing moved.

Then a second pinecone struck the path.

DUFF. DUFF. DUFF-DUFF-DUFF.

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