Feathers in the Wind (6 page)

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.

‘Try telling that to the dog outside,’ snorted Aesha. ‘And we’re lost as well.’

Are we lost?
Joe asked himself. They had certainly wandered quite some distance from the field, but he was sure they’d be able to find their way back.

They fell silent, partly listening out for the dog and partly because neither of them felt able to say anything, until Joe asked Aesha, ‘You’d be sad if the vulture died, wouldn’t you?’

Aesha knelt down next to him and stared hard at the bird. ‘Yes,’ she said after a while. ‘I would be sad.’

The vulture stirred a little as if in response and then became still again. Joe scrambled to his feet and went to the window. He could hear voices, faint but persistent. He tried to identify which direction they were coming from.
If we can hear them, can we make them hear us?
he wondered.

‘What if we stand here and keep yelling “Help!”?’ he suggested. ‘Someone’s bound to hear us eventually.’

Aesha looked doubtful. ‘Everyone’s focused on the kites,’ she replied.

‘What if I could get out of the window?’ Joe said. ‘What if we break the glass and I climb through it?’

‘Then what?’ Aesha was curious.

‘I shout for help – or . . .’ Joe was warming to his idea ‘. . . or I fly the squid in the hope that Dad sees it.’

Aesha looked doubtful now. ‘You’ll never be able to fly your kite from such a small space,’ she said.

‘I can give it a go,’ he said simply.

Aesha nodded. ‘I’ll break the window,’ she said. ‘I’m stronger than you and you might hurt yourself. Stand clear.’

Joe pulled a face, but he was too pleased that his sister had agreed to want to argue with her. He moved out of the way. Without a second’s hesitation, and to his utter astonishment, Aesha picked up the swivel chair and crashed its wheels against the glass, shattering it into a thousand pieces.

‘Wow!’ was all he could find to say. He would never have told Aesha, but in that moment she grew in his estimation.

‘I’m not just a pretty face,’ she said loftily.

Taking great care not to cut themselves, they removed the remaining shards of glass from the window frame and placed the table underneath the gaping hole. Joe grabbed his kite from his rucksack and clambered on to the table.
I’m going to be first out!

‘Wait, Joe.’ Aesha held him back. ‘What if the roo
f
’s not safe?’

Joe hadn’t thought of that, but he was certain that flying his kite would be the only way to alert his father to their whereabouts.

‘I’ll spread my weight until I’m sure it’s OK,’ Joe promised.

He crawled through the window and once he was on the roof he went down on all fours. He was pleased to discover that the roof was larger than he’d first thought. It seemed to be solidly built as well, with a parapet protecting the edge.

‘It’s fine,’ he called back to Aesha. ‘It’s perfectly safe.’

He stood up and walked to the parapet. The street below was empty. The surrounding buildings were taller than the building they were in, which meant he was unable to see beyond them. But there were kites in the sky not too far away.
That must be the field over there
, he thought.
Please, Dad, look up here!

Aesha crawled through the window and joined him. ‘Let’s give it a try then,’ she said. ‘I’m worried the vulture’s getting worse.’

Chapter 14

The roof might have been bigger than he’d expected, but there was very little space compared to the vast expanse of the field, and there was hardly any breeze because of the tall buildings nearby.

‘This is hopeless!’ Aesha was close to screaming with frustration after many failed attempts at launching the squid. ‘I’m going to see if the dogs are still there.’

Joe watched her climb back through the window and waited, the squid’s crossed eyes seeming to mock him. ‘Why won’t you fly?’ he muttered. ‘It can’t be that difficult.’

It was a few minutes before his sister returned, the sound of a dog’s bark telling him what he needed to know, followed by Aesha’s furious face.

‘I thought they had gone. I got all the way to the bottom of the stairs and the street was empty, then one came bounding back round the corner,’ she said, joining him on the roof again.

‘Let’s try the kite once more,’ said Joe.

‘You can’t fly a kite without any wind,’ Aesha hissed.

‘There’s the odd current of air,’ Joe contended. ‘We just need to be patient and make sure we catch it. And we don’t have a lot of choice, unless you can think of anything better.’

Aesha snatched the squid from his hands and walked away from him as far as she could go. ‘This is never going to work, even if we do manage to launch the kite,’ she grumbled loudly. ‘Nobody’s going to see it.’

Joe told her to hush while he focused on the breeze and ignored it when she pulled a face at him. He asked her to move slightly to her left, a bit further, then a bit further still.

‘Make up your mind!’ she groaned. ‘Are you sure you don’t want me to stand on the parapet?’

Briefly, Joe thought that wouldn’t be a bad idea, but dismissed it with a wry smile.

‘Right, stay there,’ he said, ‘and when I say “now” I want you to hold the kite above your head and let it go.’

A few seconds later, he shouted his instruction, pulled the line tight and the kite, falteringly, took off. Joe let out more line, slowly but surely. The squid somersaulted and threatened to plunge, then it was ambushed by a strong current of air and swept upward. Joe and Aesha watched with their hearts in their mouths, unable to speak until they were sure it was safely sky-bound.