Feathers in the Wind Page 4

  ‘I only hope the publicity campaign the vets and volunteers have been running will lead to fewer kites flying in the early morning and evening when greater numbers of birds are around,’ his mother continued.

  ‘You can’t do more than you’re doing,’ Peter reassured her, ‘and for some of these people tomorrow is the highlight of their year. You can’t take that away from them.’

  ‘If only vultures weren’t quite so endangered.’ Binti sighed again.

  ‘I bet you’ll save loads of them,’ said Joe, trying to cheer her up.

  They finished dinner and called for Ravi to take Binti to the rescue centre before returning to the hotel. Joe gave her a big hug.

  ‘We’ll miss you,’ he said.

  Alone in his hotel room, he placed the package containing his kite on a chair and prepared for bed. He didn’t like his mother not being with them, even though it happened quite often because of her work. I wish I could go and help her, he said to himself. I’m sure there’s something I could do.

  Joe must have fallen asleep, because when he next opened his eyes he could see slivers of daylight through the curtains. He rolled over, unwilling to accept that it might be time to get up. He was still tired from the excitement of the night before. He would wait until his mother or father knocked on the door.

  And then he remembered. He leapt out of bed, ran to the window and pushed his way between the heavy curtains. Sunshine streamed into the room, blinding him for a moment, and then he saw.

  ‘Wow!’ he cried.

  There were kites everywhere he looked and people were flying them from the rooftops. From the seventh floor of their hotel, he had the perfect view. He wanted to open the windows so that he could feel part of it, but the room was air-conditioned and the windows firmly sealed.

  ‘Dad, come here, Dad!’

  He ran into his father’s adjoining room, which was still in darkness. ‘Come and see, Dad.’ Joe shook him by the shoulder. ‘The kites are flying. It’s amazing! There’s one that looks like a giant caterpillar.’

  Peter looked at his watch. ‘Giant caterpillar or no giant caterpillar, I’m not getting up at six-thirty in the morning.’

  ‘Aw, come on, Dad,’ Joe persisted. ‘It’s brilliant. I bet Mum’s up already.’

  ‘I shall be grumpy all day,’ Peter protested, crawling out of bed nevertheless.

  Joe drew the curtains. ‘See,’ he said triumphantly. ‘It’s a great view from here. People are flying kites from the roofs of their houses! It’s clever the way they can lift them into the air from such a small space.’

  Peter stood and looked. ‘We certainly couldn’t do that back home,’ he observed, ‘or we would be the endangered species.’

  Joe giggled. ‘It’s cool to be able to climb up on the roof of your house.’

  ‘I haven’t found it cool since I’ve been here,’ Peter joked.

  Joe groaned. ‘You tell such terrible jokes, Dad.’

  ‘What do you expect at six-thirty in the morning?’ Peter replied. ‘Can I go back to bed now?’

  Joe shook his head, laughing, and grabbed one of the pillows. ‘No, I won’t let you, and if you try I’ll jump up and down on you until you give in.’

  ‘Binti, come back and help me!’ Peter cried. ‘Your son has stolen my sleep and is threatening me with a pillow.’

  Joe threw the pillow at him and for a few moments – to Joe’s delight – they indulged in a pillow fight, until they both fell back on the bed exhausted.

  ‘Are you ready to give in and get up?’ Joe demanded.

  ‘When your sister wakes, which could be hours.’ Peter snorted.

  ‘She’s awake. It’s difficult not to be with the racket you’ve been making.’ Aesha came into the room through an adjoining door on the other side and walked over to the window. ‘Have you seen the kites? They’re amazing! And people are flying them from their roofs! Can we go out?’

  Joe was delighted and more than surprised to have his sister on his side. He went and stood next to her. Peter, complaining that he didn’t have a chance pitted against the two of them, joined them.

  ‘There’s the giant caterpillar.’ Joe pointed.

  Just at that moment, another kite crossed strings with it. The kites’ owners tried to free themselves, manipulating the lines one way then the other until, all of a sudden, the caterpillar plunged downward. At the same time, the other kite soared upward in a dance of triumph.

  Joe felt a pang of sadness as he watched the caterpillar fall. He hoped his own kite would fare better and was determined to keep it away from any fighter kites. That’s what happens to the vultures, he thought. One minute they’re flying happily, the next minute they’re plunging to the ground. It was only then that he noticed there were birds in the sky over the city.

  Chapter 11

  They had already decided that the best place to fly their kites would be from the field where Sachin had taken Joe. They travelled there by autorickshaw at Aesha and Joe’s request, and because they knew that Ravi would want to spend the day with his son. The scene that met them on arrival was completely different from when Joe had gone there previously. This time there were groups of people dotted all over the place, some of them guiding kites in the sky, some in the process of launching them, some taking photographs, others simply watching and enjoying the incredible aerodynamic skills of the more expert flyers.

  Joe, his father and sister stood for a while and watched, before finding themselves a spot where there was enough room for them to launch their own kites. Joe pulled his squid from its bag and opened it out. He was pleased all over again with his choice, especially since nobody else seemed to be flying a squid.

  ‘Hold it up,’ Peter said, and quickly took a photograph of him. ‘And you, Aesha.’

  Aesha did as she was told, then asked for his help.

  ‘Your brother’s the expert,’ said Peter. ‘What do we do to get your sister airborne, Joe?’

  Delighted to be asked, Joe attached a spool to his sister’s arrowhead kite and showed her how to roll out the line once the kite was sky-bound. He took the kite from her, licked his finger and held it up, and began to walk away.

  ‘As soon as I let go,’ he called, ‘pull on the line, not too hard and not too soft, and try to pick up the wind.’

  He let go of the kite. Aesha pulled too hard and it skidded on to the grass.

  ‘More gently,’ Joe instructed.

  They tried several times, but each time the kite failed to take off.

  ‘Are you sure you’re doing it right?’ Aesha cried.

  Joe could hear the frustration and accusation in her voice, while recognising that she might shortly throw her toys out of the pram and it would be all his fault. Come on, Joe, he said to himself. This time.

  ‘Once more,’ he called. ‘The minute you feel the kite start to tug, let out more line.’

  He launched the kite into the air and willed it upward. Peter stepped in to help Aesha feel the wind and then, with a sharp whip of its tail, the arrow soared.

  ‘Let out the line, keep letting out the line,’ Joe said as he moved to his sister’s side.

  ‘Look at it go!’ she cried.

  ‘Well done, Joe,’ said Peter, picking up Joe’s kite. ‘Your turn now.’

  He copied what Joe had done, moving away from him and then launching the kite into the air. Joe caught the direction of the wind and the giant squid was sky-bound instantly.

  ‘Wow! That’s the best yet!’ Joe couldn’t contain his pleasure at succeeding at the first attempt. ‘Look at the way the squid’s tentacles are waving.’

  ‘Keep them up there while I take some photos,’ Peter said, loading more film into his camera.

  Joe was feeling full of confidence and bravado now. He manipulated the line of his kite, shortening it and lengthening it again, giving it quick sharp tugs, then swinging it to and fro.

  ‘I can make my squid dance!’ he shouted.

  ‘My arrow’s piercing the clou
ds!’ Aesha laughed as she let out more and more line.

  Peter videoed them both, then turned his attention to some of the other kites and their owners. He moved around the field, sometimes taking video footage, sometimes taking still photographs, checking back frequently to see where Joe and Aesha were.

  Joe spotted danger from a large black and red kite that had already cut down two others. He wound in his line to move out of the way and accidentally lost the current of air he had been riding. He tried hard to keep the squid flying, but little by little it wafted down to the ground.

  ‘I kept mine up longer than you,’ Aesha boasted.

  Joe growled inwardly. He was about to look for his father to ask for help to relaunch the squid, determined that this time he would not be beaten by his sister, when a loud squeal made him turn to her instead. She was staring at the sky, where her arrow had become entangled with the black and red fighter kite. In an instant, the fighter kite had severed Aesha’s line and the arrow was cut free. It began to fall, not straight down but in fits and starts, drifting further and further away from them over the heads of the crowds.

  Joe tried to watch where it was going, but it was swallowed up among the other kites and he could no longer see it.

  ‘Come on, Aesha,’ he cried. ‘Let’s go after it before someone else finds it.’

  He quickly rolled up the squid and thrust it into his rucksack, then ran in the direction he had last seen his sister’s kite. Aesha followed him. He caught sight of it briefly once, then again. It was drifting towards the network of streets that bordered the field.

  ‘We’d better leave it,’ Aesha yelled from somewhere behind, but Joe ran on.

  ‘It can’t go much further,’ he yelled back. ‘You’ll be upset if we don’t find it.’

  He glimpsed the kite one last time as it dropped down among the houses. He came to a halt, trying to work out which street would take him to its landing place. Aesha drew up next to him.

  ‘Did you see where it went?’ she asked anxiously.

  Joe thought he knew and marched forward. ‘This way,’ he said. ‘It won’t be far.’

  ‘What about Dad?’ Aesha hesitated before going after him.

  ‘We’ll be back before he notices we’re not there,’ Joe reassured her.

  Chapter 12

  Once they had left the field and were walking along a narrow side street, Joe felt less confident about where the kite might be. This part of the city seemed to be deserted, with rows of shops and businesses closed for the day. There was nobody about who might help, but they could hear shouts and music coming from several of the rooftops and glimpsed the occasional flash of colour.

  They reached another street and hurried down it.

  ‘What if it’s landed on one of the roofs?’ Aesha said. ‘We’ll never find it then.’

  She’s right, Joe thought, but we can’t just give up. He felt bad for having been so competitive and wanted Aesha to get her kite back.

  A young boy appeared on a pathway that crossed in front of them. He stopped to stare at them and seemed as if he was about to say something, but continued on his way.

  ‘He’s probably searching for his kite as well,’ Joe observed.

  ‘Come on, let’s go back.’ Aesha was more insistent. ‘Dad will be worrying.’

  ‘Why don’t we just look down this street and the next one and then give up if we don’t find it?’ suggested Joe. ‘We won’t get lost.’

  Aesha agreed reluctantly. ‘Two more streets and then we’re going back, no argument.’

  They walked as fast as they could, scanning doorways and side alleys, until Joe realised it was a hopeless task. There were just too many places where the kite might have gone, and he wasn’t even convinced they had set off in the right direction originally. He was on the point of saying so, when he spotted what looked like a pile of old rags quivering by a gatepost. At the same time, he heard a dog bark from somewhere close by.

  ‘What’s that over there?’ he said, pointing to the shape.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Aesha replied, ‘and I don’t care. Let’s go. I don’t like the dogs.’

  ‘But it moved,’ Joe insisted.

  He crept slowly towards it. The barking grew louder. All of a sudden, a large black dog appeared a few metres from them on the other side of the shape. It growled threateningly when it saw Joe and Aesha.

  They stood totally still, hoping it would go away.

  ‘Come on, Joe,’ said Aesha. ‘Leave it.’

  ‘It’s a vulture, I know it is,’ Joe hissed. ‘We can’t leave it. What would Mum think?’

  ‘We’ve got to leave it, Joe. That dog’s dangerous. It might have rabies.’

  Aesha grabbed his arm and attempted to pull him back, which made Joe even more determined to check the vulture was all right. He took the last few steps towards it, aware that the dog was standing its ground just beyond.

  ‘Throw a stone or something to distract it, please, Aesha,’ Joe pleaded with his sister.

  ‘That’ll make it even more angry,’ Aesha replied. ‘Please, Joe, let’s go. We’ll get Dad and come back.’

  ‘I’m not leaving the vulture,’ Joe said stubbornly. ‘It will die if we leave it. Throw something at the dog to give me time to pick it up.’

  He glared at Aesha. She glared back, but bent down and grabbed a potato that was lying in the gutter. She hurled it as hard as she could at the dog. It missed, but the dog, mistaking it for something it might want to eat, hared after it.

  ‘Quick!’ Joe cried. ‘In case it comes back.’

  He leant over the vulture. ‘One of its wings has been ripped and there’s a cut to its neck,’ he muttered.

  Joe held the vulture’s head and carefully locked his arms round it, surprised at how light and soft it was. Aesha, rather gingerly, helped support it so its beak couldn’t hurt them. They began to walk as fast as they could back down the street. They hadn’t got far before they heard a menacing snarl behind them. Aesha turned to look.

  ‘The dog – it’s coming after us!’ she said urgently.

  Joe had visions of it leaping at his back and accelerated his pace, worried at the same time that he might be harming the vulture. And then he stopped in his tracks. Ahead of them stood another big dog.

  ‘Oh no!’ Aesha wailed. ‘Two of them, and we’re stuck in the middle.’

  Joe was scared now as well. These weren’t domestic dogs. They were wild and, from the look of them, very hungry. In rescuing the vulture, Joe had probably taken their first chance of a meal in days. Perhaps we should dump the bird and run, he thought. It probably won’t survive, anyway. But he remembered Binti’s determination to save every single injured vulture. We can’t just leave it to be torn apart by wild dogs.

  ‘Up there,’ Aesha was shrieking at him. ‘Come on, Joe.’

  Some concrete stairs led up the side of a derelict-looking building. Aesha was pushing him towards them.

  ‘What if they follow us?’ Joe demanded anxiously, but doing as he was told.

  ‘There’s a door at the top.’

  They clambered awkwardly up the stairs, their progress hampered by concern for the vulture. Below them the two dogs were facing off against each other. Joe listened to the terrible baying and snarling, and was hugely relieved when they reached the door, pushed against it and it fell open. In the nick of time, Aesha closed it behind them, just as one of the dogs hurtled up the stairs.

  As they stood there in the semi-darkness, Joe and Aesha could hear the dog scratching at the door, whining continuously.

  Joe felt the vulture shudder in his arms. ‘Now what do we do?’ he said.

  Chapter 13

  The room they were in was bare, apart from a swivel chair with its springs protruding through the seat and an ink-stained wooden table with only three legs. With some relief, Joe had released the vulture on to the floor. It had struggled momentarily to get away, but collapsed again.

  ‘I think it’s very weak,’ Joe said to
Aesha. ‘How long do you think we’ll have to wait?’

  They had already decided that as soon as the dogs had gone they would escape and fetch help, but the occasional bark and scratching at the door left them in no doubt that it was still unsafe to leave.

  Aesha shrugged and sighed loudly. ‘We could be here all day at this rate. Dad will be worried sick.’

  ‘What do you think he’ll do?’ Joe asked.

  ‘He’s probably searched the entire field and he’ll be going round a second time and a third. It’ll be like we’ve disappeared into thin air.’

  Aesha stared out of the small window set in one of the walls, which was the only source of light. One of the panes of glass was broken and let in air, but the window couldn’t be opened. Outside, below the level of the window, was a flat roof, but there was nothing opposite except a high solid wall.

  ‘We should never have gone after my kite in the first place without telling Dad,’ she said.

  ‘We didn’t know this was going to happen,’ Joe protested, though he knew deep down that his sister was right. ‘We might not have found the vulture if we’d done things differently.’

  ‘Who cares about the stupid vulture?’ Aesha snapped. ‘We wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for the vulture. I hated vultures before and I hate them even more now!’

  Joe knelt down on the floor and gazed at the bird. He studied its feathers, with their delicate patterns of browns and greys. He took in the shape of its beak, which it used to strip the meat from dead animals, and thought what an extraordinary tool it was. He examined its head, knowing that it was bald for the purpose of cleanliness. You are ugly, he thought, but you’re beautiful as well, and I’m not going to let you die.

  ‘It’s not the vulture’s fault,’ he muttered. ‘And Mum’s a vet and I’m going to be a vet and we should do our best to save endangered species.’

  ‘Not if it means putting ourselves in danger,’ Aesha retorted.

  ‘We’re not in danger, not really,’ replied Joe.