22 Britannia Road - Amanda Hodgkinson [97]
‘They rip boys’ eyes out.’
Peter laughs. ‘Liar!’
He stubs his cigarette out, grinding it under his shoe.
‘You going up there?’
Aurek nods. He’s going to go up and get a rook’s egg. Easy as that. He’ll take it home for the enemy. A present for him. He’s pleased with this idea. Proud of it.
He spits on his hands, accepts the leg-up Peter offers him, grabs a branch and pulls himself up. He is small and lithe and his hands and feet find tiny ledges and places to grip. It’s a terrific feeling being up a tree, far away from everybody, swinging through the branches like Tarzan of the jungle. Aurek stops halfway up and looks down.
‘You all right?’ calls Peter from below.
Aurek waves back at him. Above him, the nest is huge, a big mess of broken sticks and branches fashioned into a globe, a dirty sun caught in the tree.
He pulls himself up to it and the two rooks swoop over him, beating their wings in his face, chattering angrily. Aurek swings his body away from the tree as far as he dares, but the birds won’t leave him alone. He loses his footing for a moment and bangs against the rough bark of the tree, hitting his nose hard. Tears spring to his eyes. He touches his mouth and brings his hand away, slicked red. His nose is bleeding.
His legs feel weak and he loses his grip, snatching at branches. His right leg is hooked over a branch and it anchors him. He grabs a branch and pulls himself up again. The birds circle him, pecking at the air. Aurek closes his eyes and clings to the tree, the beating of wings loud in his ears.
‘Aurek!’ Peter calls. ‘Don’t let go!’
Aurek can hear him yelling but his fingers are slipping and the birds keep flying at him. He tucks his face down, the tree bark grazing his cheek, and tries to hold on even as he knows he is going to fall.
‘Mama!’ he yells. ‘Mama!’ His stomach turns in on itself. Everything is out of his reach. His legs kick and jerk, swimming in the air. One sandal slips off and he thinks he is already falling. The other shakes loose. He looks down, sees himself dead on the ground below, a bundle of bones and bright bruises, a fledgling fallen from its nest.
Silvana is up on her stockinged feet, running towards Peter, grabbing him by the shoulders. Peter points to the top of the tree, the birds circling and squawking. Aurek swings back and forth in the branches, one arm holding on, the other trying to protect his head. He must be about twenty feet up. She couldn’t catch him from that height. There is nothing to spread out on the hard ground to save him when he falls. And he will fall. She has always known the world is a place that demands justice and that some day Aurek would be taken from her. This is her punishment. This is the day she loses the boy.
‘Hold on,’ Tony says, coming up behind Silvana. He picks up a stone and aims it at the birds.
Silvana grabs his hand. ‘No! You might hit Aurek.’
‘But we’ve got to get the birds away from him.’
‘No stones! Help me get up the tree. Aurek? I’m coming.’ Silvana hitches up her skirts and reaches out for the lowest branch of the tree.
‘Don’t be crazy, you can’t climb up there.’
Tony tries to pull her away, but Silvana brings her elbow back sharply into his stomach. She scrambles into the lower branches of the tree. Tony tries again to grab her but she kicks him away and pulls herself up higher, out of his reach.
She climbs quickly without care, desperate to reach the boy. Her stockings rip as she clambers inexpertly in the branches, the rough bark scraping her thighs. Twigs catch in her hair. A branch whips into her eye, blinding her with pain. She feels as if her eyelid has been cut and her cheek is wet with tears. Still she climbs, and all the time the only image in her head is of the child falling. It will not happen. She cannot lose her son. Not this time.
Her hands search out branches, and she feels the weight of her body burning the muscles in her arms as she tries to get higher. She peers at the air in front of her.
‘Aurek? Aurek, don’t move.’
She wedges herself into a cleft and forces