LITTLE BIRD

Each morning it would arrive as regularly as the mailman. Raymond would brew up a cafetière of coffee and sit on his porch waiting for his greenish grey feathered friend to arrive at 7 AM promptly.

"Hey, Little Bird. Good to see you."

It never talked back as such but it chirped with its melodic sounding songs and calls.

Little Bird arrived just after Justine left him and he wouldn't have thought anything of it the first time but after a week of it turning up each day to sit with him, he couldn't help but imagine the chickadee to be a a sign from God or the universe or whatever the hell cosmic iteration he believed in these days. He'd actually forgotten. All he knew was he needed something to believe in and right now it came in the form of Little Bird.

When he was younger, Raymond was adamant he didn't need God or miracles to help him through life. But now he was older, and the toll of heartbreak had caused greater damage to his ageing spirit, he desperately needed something to believe in otherwise he'd lose all hope altogether. Some of his more pious friends would say that was self-serving of him. Only needing miracles when he was feeling blue. But he never asked for Little Bird to turn up. It just did. And he was happy about it. Probably the only thing he was happy about lately.

"How you been sleeping Little Bird? You look pretty perky."

With his neck always leaning to one side, Little Bird always seemed sympathetic to Raymond as if it were saying, "No, but how are you, pal?" perhaps knowing that the dishevelled man was clearly out of sorts.

Leaving a feeder fully stocked and a small bowl of water for his winged protecter to take a bath in, Raymond always had the sense that once Little Bird had checked he hadn't done injury to himself the black capped creature would leave as quickly as it arrived. He even wondered if perhaps Little Bird had whole blocks of broken hearted people to visit each morning and he was just one of many along the way.

And what would happen if one day he did find love again? Would Little Bird sense his repair? Raymond came to realise that the only reason he was compelled to keep going and get up each morning was because he knew Little Bird would be there for him.

Once he was accountable to someone he loved, Little Bird would no doubt fly away.

But until that time, he was grateful that his little friend kept an eye out for him. It helped knowing someone cared about him in his current broken state.

"Thanks for checking on me little pal."

As the chickadee flew off into the misty morning October sky, Raymond saluted his miniature saviour and poured himself another cup of coffee.

Today would be a better day than yesterday and tomorrow better still.