"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." She apologized. "Here." Ellen removed her scarf, the collar of her dress conceal bruises along her neck, but a few were noticeable now that they were uncovered. Ellen didn't acknowledge it though. She wrapped her scarf cozily about the time baby bird. The poor thing wouldn't last long. She knew that much. But it would be easy to console James than it would to get rid of the bird before it died. James didn't just abandon things, his heart was to big.
James lifted his fingers to his mouth to nervously chew off bits of skin. "How are we gonna feed it?"
"My papa has worms we can squish and feed to it. But I have a better question:" She smiled. "What shall we name it?"
He spat out a bit of cuticle off his lips. "Um," he smiled with crooked teeth, "Leanord,"
With a nod. Ellen lowered his hand from his mouth. "Leanord it is." She stated. She ran a hand down his head. "How about you gather some stuff for a nice nest for Leanord, hmm?"
James's eyes glittered at the idea of being helpful. "Okay!" He chirped, and puttered off.
Smiling after him, Ellen looked to the bird she her hands. "Hello little, did you get rejected as well?"
The little bird reared its naked head and gaped its cherry red mouth, begging for food.
Ellen thought for a moment before standing. She set the baby bird in his makeshift nest of wooly scarf on the garden bed beside her. "I'll be right back, little Leanord." She told the bird. "James!" She called to her comrade. "I'm going to get those worms, our little friend is hungry. I'll be back."
Disappearing into her home, she kept her head and eyes down on the ground. Her father had friends over. They smoked cigars in her father's library. She could hear them through the open door.
"Okay!" James called back.
Ellen scurried quickly through the house and into a nearby storage closet, retrieving a small sheet of parchment and tweezers on the way. Fetching the worms, she carried the items quietly back out to the garden, keeping her head down just in case anyone say her.
James was sitting by where she had been, a pile of small twigs in front of him.
"I've got them!" She announced, even as her heart hammered in her chest. She was always nervous when it came to her parents. Crossing the backyard towards James, she stopped before him, setting on the ground. "I'll feed him while you make the nest, okay?"
"I don't know how to make a nest," James contested with anxiety in his eyes.
She placed a hand on his cheek. "Calm, James. It's alright. Here, how about this." She set her supplies to the side and scooped up Leanord, who'd snuggled happily into his new home, and put him in James's hands. "Hold Leanord while I feed him, then we can make the nest together. Okay?"
"Okay," he murmured, looking down at the fleshy creature.
"Good." Ellen unscrewed the cap on the jar of worms and picked one with her tweezers. "Here you go, Leanord." She cooed.
The bird lifted its bulbous head and opened its thin beak.
Ellen lowered the worm into the bird's mouth, waiting until it got a hold of it to let go.
The bird bit at it and swallowed a bunch.
With a laugh, Ellen continued to feed the baby bird. "I wonder when he fell from his nest. It couldn't have been yesterday, he would've froze during the night." She thought aloud.
"I dunno," James replied quietly.
"Did you find him near the oak tree? Where you found the lizard?" She asked.
"Yeah," he spoke, looking up at his friend.
"You're a very lucky boy. You always find such wonderful creatures. I don't know anyone else who can do that." Ellen praised him.