The Things Jimmy Did Not Hear

The First Evening

The rain arrived at lunchtime, just as Batman Smith had settled on the fence to explain that he had no intention of interfering with anyone’s affairs.

“You have come to the wrong fence,” said Mrs Steve.

Batman looked offended. “I was explaining my intentions.”

“To the entire garden.”

By late afternoon the rain had cleared. Jay resumed his autumn errands without disclosing where he kept the proceeds. A Rook passed above the Oak, ignored an invitation to join the Jacks, and kept going. Mr Jack Daw envied him.

Gary appeared as the last light slipped away. He found Jack with his cousin, who was pretending to have an interest in a leaf on the next branch.

“Does he ever go elsewhere?” Gary asked.

“Frequently,” said Jack. “He comes back with questions.”

“I heard that,” said the cousin.

“Remarkable,” said Gary.

The cousin examined the leaf harder. Gary could have asked Jack whether Stirling had returned. He did not want the answer with an audience in attendance, so he left the Oak to its committee and the growing cold.

Marjorie and the Boundary

Marjorie crossed the Square after dark. The clear air had made the boundary seem unusually close and the garden next door unusually far away. Marlboro had made a home there. Marjorie was proud of her. Neither fact helped with the words she had not yet said to her daughter.

“I shall say them when I see her,” she told the Oak.

The Oak, which had been asked to keep too many secrets lately, offered no opinion.

Marjorie went on with her night. Later she returned, then went away again, as if every route through the trees brought her back to the same unfinished sentence. She was still about when the first birds began their morning business. Batman, who believed an early start entitled him to an explanation from everyone else, looked up from the hedge.

“Have you been here all night?”

“I have been where I chose to be.”

“Ah. A private matter.”

“You do understand the concept.”

“I understand it very well,” Batman said, and immediately went to tell Mrs Steve.

The Square grew crowded as the day warmed. Long-tailed tits hurried through in a travelling party; Clive appeared among the smaller birds and soon had somewhere more important to be. A line of geese went overhead. They offered no opinions on the arrangements below, though the Jacks argued about their destination for most of the morning.

Gary came and went while Mr Jack Daw fended off his cousin’s latest theory: that a bird who refused to answer a question must be concealing the question as well as the answer. By evening the long-tailed tits had returned in force. They swept through the Fruit Tree with such purpose that Batman stepped aside before remembering he had not been asked.

That night Marjorie kept to the trees again. She was no longer trying to decide whether she was proud of Marlboro. She was trying to decide why Jolene had wanted to know where Marlboro had settled. Jolene did not appear to make the decision easier.

“Curiosity,” Marjorie said to the dark, “is not an explanation.”

The dark declined to defend Jolene.

A Kestrel Crosses

The following morning brought redwings passing through, a Rook, and enough activity around the Oak to revive the Jacks’ committee. Then a Kestrel crossed the Square. Batman dropped into the hedge halfway through an objection. The smaller birds found cover among the leaves; the Jacks, who had the Oak and an incurable need to comment, carried on. Gary arrived almost on the Kestrel’s heels.

“I was assessing the situation,” Batman said when he reappeared.

“From inside the hedge,” said Gary.

“A useful vantage point.”

Stirling’s squad arrived later, after Gary had moved on. They missed one another by the width of a garden and several opinions from Batman. Derek meanwhile worked his way up the Oak by a route Batman still considered improper.

“That bird is doing it again,” Batman said.

“Yes,” said Mrs Steve. “He has a name, and you have already asked him why.”

“I have not accepted the answer.”

Mortimer arrived around midday and took a high branch without requesting permission. Below him, Gary moved between the Fruit Tree and the Oak. Stirling’s squirrels were not there yet, but Jack saw Gary glance towards the Summerhouse.

“You needn’t stay on my account,” Jack said.

“I wasn’t planning to.”

“You are still here.”

Gary had no reply to that.

The Question Stirling Asks

The squad returned while the afternoon was bright. Stirling crossed the lawn; Gary did not leave. For one rare moment both of them seemed to have arrived at the same conversation on purpose. The Jacks gathered above it with a speed that would have impressed Teeny Tiny Bird.

“You told Jack something you will not tell me,” Stirling said.

“Jack did not begin by calling me a thief.”

Stirling held his gaze. “Then I should not have begun there.”

Gary had prepared for an accusation. An apology, however limited, left him without his next line.

“You asked what I took,” he said at last. “You never asked what it cost me to leave.”

“What did it cost?”

Gary looked up. Every Jack on the Oak developed a sudden interest in the same section of bark. One cousin edged closer than the rest.

“Jimmy, you’d better not be listening again,” Gary said without turning.

“I am counting squirrels.”

“Jim,” said Mr Jack Daw.

That stopped him. Everyone called Jack’s cousin Jimmy; Jack used his proper name only when being told off.

“I can count from over there,” Jimmy said, and retreated to a branch from which he could see almost as well.

Stirling watched him go. “You are not going to answer while they are here.”

“Would you?” Gary asked.

“No.”

The squirrels remained on the lawn after Gary moved away. Stirling sent them across it once more, then departed without touching the Summerhouse. Gary returned later, when they were gone. Mortimer watched him from a distance and wisely did not suggest that this counted as progress.

Harold Has No Advice

After dark, a lonely figure came through the trees. Harold had spent much of the week letting Marjorie reach her own conclusions about Marlboro and Jolene. Tonight he had no advice to offer and, for once, no one expecting him to invent some. He settled among the farther branches, then shifted away again. Whatever he might have said to Marjorie remained unsaid; she was not there to hear it.

The next day cloud covered the Square. Jimmy announced that Stirling and Gary had held a secret meeting. Mr Jack Daw pointed out that Jimmy had spent the important part of it counting squirrels from a distance.

“How many did you count?” Jack asked.

“More than you expected,” Jimmy said.

“You do not know what I expected.”

“Then you cannot prove I was listening.”

The Goldfinches swept in later and commandeered his audience. Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia had opinions of their own, none of which involved Jimmy’s investigation. Gary returned during the bustle, but Stirling’s squad crossed the garden only after he had gone. By evening Mrs Steve had talked Batman out of pursuing a Rook simply because it had declined to introduce itself.

Marjorie came through the clouded night without company. She and Harold had missed each other the night before, and she had not seen Marlboro either. She was beginning to suspect that one could spend a great deal of time preparing to speak and none at all doing it.

Marlboro Next Door

The rain returned and occupied almost the whole of the following day. Clive made one brisk appearance, Gary appeared and disappeared, and the Jacks discovered that a committee under wet leaves was still a committee. Batman reported a considerable reduction in social life. Mrs Steve told him to enjoy the opportunity.

Marjorie ventured out when the rain eased. From beyond the Pine came another presence, too far into the dark for anyone to demand a name. She did not pursue it. Later, in the neighbouring trees, Marlboro stirred in the place she had made her own. She had no wish to be summoned home and no reason to believe anyone had tried. The garden held its questions until dawn.

Jimmy Offers to Help

The weather broke unevenly. Wind pushed showers through the Square; Mortimer appeared, Gary came by, and then the Oak filled with Jacks again. Jimmy approached Gary with the air of a bird offering a public service.

“I could carry a message to Stirling.”

“I have not given you one.”

“That is why I came to ask.”

“You came to ask what it says.”

Jimmy considered denying it. Mr Jack Daw was close enough to say Jim, so Jimmy left before the word became necessary.

By the next day the air was cooler. Derek worked the Fruit Tree, Clive crossed with another loose travelling party, and the Goldfinches arrived with fresh opinions. Mortimer appeared more than once. Gary stayed within the Square long enough for Jack to hope he might say something about Stirling; he spoke instead about the weather. Jack let him.

At dusk an owl passed along the dark edge of the garden without offering a name. The Square let the question follow it into the trees.

The Right Question

Rain greeted the last morning of the week. Stirling’s squad passed through early, before Gary arrived. Gary spent a short while near the Oak, saw no squirrel there, and went on. Later Stirling returned with his squad and found Mr Jack Daw instead.

“He was here,” Jack said.

“I know.”

Jimmy leaned down from a branch above them. Jack looked up. Jimmy moved back, but not far.

Stirling studied the empty path Gary had taken. “Tell him I am ready to ask the right question.”

“Which one?” Jimmy asked.

Stirling looked at him. “That,” he said, “is for Gary.”

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