by Mary Kelly
“Poor little thing,” said Evan.
“We’ll be feeding it up,” Courtney added, on a more cheerful note. “This little bird will enjoy getting lots of tasty seeds and juicy mealworms.”
Courtney shut the doors to the van and gave them both a big smile. “I’d better get going,” she said, “so we can start work on freeing the robin as soon as possible. It is very fiddly,” she admitted, “and it will be traumatic for the robin, but he’ll be looked after by professionals. So I really want to thank you both. By finding that robin and calling us, you’ve most likely saved that little bird’s life.”
She climbed inside her van, gave them a wave and started up the engine. Evan and Hannah watched as she turned the van around in the cul-de-sac, then began heading out again. They ran after her a little way along the pavement, waving until she was out of sight.
They walked back towards Evan’s house, noticing how thickly the snow lay over the ground.
“I really hope the robin’s going to be OK,” said Hannah, taking one last look at where he had been.
“Me, too,” said Evan, a frown creasing his brow. Then he smiled at Hannah, as if trying to cheer them both up. “I don’t know about you, but I’m freezing. I definitely think it’s time for that hot chocolate!”
“Deal!” said Hannah. “What a start to the Christmas holidays – snow and a robin rescue. I just hope they manage to save him. That really would make it the perfect Christmas.”
“Wheeee!” Evan shot down the hill on his toboggan, loving the feel of the wind on his face, the trees, the snow, the faces all flying past in a blur of speed.
“I’m coming up behind you,” shouted Hannah. “I’m going to win.”
“Oh no you’re not,” Evan called back, crouching low. He sped down the last part of the slope and reached the bottom first. “I am the winner!” he crowed.
Hannah just laughed. “OK, you might have won this time, but let’s have a rematch.”
They turned back up the hill again, dragging their toboggans behind them. It had snowed all through the night, and now it was as if the whole world had turned white. The branches on the trees drooped low, laden down with snow, and the hill was covered with children, all laughing and calling to each other as they flew down its snowy slopes. Some people had brought proper wooden toboggans, others were zooming down in makeshift sledges made from plastic lids or trays.
Evan’s parents and Poppy were waiting for them at the top of the hill.
“Well done, you two,” Evan’s mum called out. “That was super-speedy.”
“Poppy’s turn!” cried Poppy, trying to take hold of Evan’s toboggan.
“Oh no you don’t,” said Dad. “You can go down on my knee, but you’re not going down on your own.”
“Hooray!” cried Poppy. “Go down now!”
Dad gave an exaggerated sigh and pulled Poppy on to his knee.
“Poppy really loves the snow, doesn’t she?” said Hannah, turning to Evan’s mum.
“Well, it’s the first time in her life she’s seen it, so it’s pretty exciting. Actually, to be honest, I’m excited, too. Now, who’s ready for lunch?”
“Me!” cried Evan. “My tummy can’t stop rumbling.”
“Must be the cold,” said Dad. “I’m starving. Let’s go for lunch at the café at the bottom of the hill.”
“Can we toboggan down?” asked Hannah. “I still have to beat Evan!”
“Go on then,” laughed Mum. “We’ll see you there.”
Hannah and Evan sped down the hill towards the café. Hannah tried to copy Evan’s move, leaning forward so the wind whistled over her back. She thought at one point she was going to win, but then he pulled up beside her and they finished in a draw.
“I wanted to beat you!” laughed Hannah.
“Never!” cried Evan. “I’m the champion.”
“Just you wait, Evan Smith. I’ll beat you yet,” Hannah teased.
They left their toboggans outside the café and strolled inside to wait for the others.
“What an awesome day,” said Evan, as they found a table. “Snow and toboggans and the Christmas holidays. What more could we want!”
“I know,” Hannah agreed. “There is one thing though – I wish I knew how our robin was doing.”
As soon as Hannah mentioned the robin, Evan was aware of a feeling that had been nagging him all morning – like a TV programme he never saw the end of, or a book left unfinished.
“Me, too,” he admitted. “I kept thinking about it all last night, as well. It doesn’t seem right, not to find out what happened to it.”
“I did some research on the Internet,” Hannah went on. “I read up on robins. I found out that they eat earthworms and spiders and insects, but in winter they eat fruit and berries. And did you realize the feathers on their breast are actually orange, not red? I’d never thought about that before.”
“Nor had I. I’m always going to think of them as being red though! Robin redbreast sounds much better than robin orangebreast.”
Hannah laughed. “That’s true,” she said.
“I looked up robins, too,” Evan confessed. “I suppose finding out about them made me feel like I was still in touch with our robin. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could see it again?”
Before Hannah could reply, the others all piled into the café. “What will it be?” asked Evan’s dad. “Hot chocolate all round?”
“Yes, please,” said Hannah.
“And me!” added Poppy, who hated being left out of anything.
“So,” said Dad, once he’d ordered their hot chocolates. “I want to hear all about this robin you found.”
Evan and Hannah exchanged glances. As Mum filled Evan’s dad in on all the details, Evan couldn’t help admitting how they felt.
“We really want to know if the robin is all right,” he said once Mum had finished. “We’re worried about it.”
“We don’t even know if it made it out of the glue trap,” Hannah added. “And even if it did, Courtney said the robin had lost some of its tail feathers. Do you think that means it won’t be able to fly again?”
“I’m sure the RSPCA are taking very good care of it,” said Mum. “The robin is in the best possible hands.”
“I know,” Evan replied. “It’s just that we got so involved in its rescue. It’s hard not knowing what will happen to it.”
They were interrupted by the arrival of their hot chocolates. Evan grinned when he saw they were piled high with marshmallows, melting deliciously into the chocolate to make an amazingly sweet goo.
“Where’s mine?” demanded Poppy.
“We didn’t think you’d manage a whole one,” laughed Mum.
“You can share mine,” offered Hannah.
As Poppy took a spoonful of marshmallow, Hannah brought the conversation back to the robin. “So,” she said, rather hesitantly, “do you think the robin will be OK? I kept thinking about it last night, before I went to sleep.”
“I know it’s worrying,” said Dad, kindly. “But the main thing is that you called the RSPCA and you watched over it, so you did everything you could.”
“And Courtney did say we may well have saved its life,” added Evan.
“Exactly,” said Mum, seeing Hannah’s anxious expression. She gazed around the café for a moment, as if trying to think of something to distract them. “Now,” she went on, including all of them in her smile, “did I ever tell you any of the old wives’ tales about robins?”
Evan shook his head and grinned at his mum, realizing exactly what she was up to. “No,” he said. “Go on then, tell us.”
“Well my dad, your granddad, always used to say that if you saw a robin redbreast on Christmas Day, you had to make a wish before it flew away.”
“Oh, I like that one,” said Hannah. “My mum said that if a r
obin is the first bird you see on Valentine’s Day, then you’re going to marry a sailor!”
Dad pulled out his phone. “I’m going to see if there are any more on the Internet,” he said. “Here we go – if you see a robin singing out in the open, it means sunny weather. But if you see it singing under shelter, it means it’s going to rain.”
“That’s a good one, too,” said Mum. “Are there any more?”
“Oh yes,” said Dad, winking at Hannah and Evan. “If you rescue a robin from a glue trap, you will get all the Christmas presents you want.”
“Very funny, Dad,” said Evan. “Does that mean I’m going to get my computer game?”
“You’ll have to wait and see,” said his mum, smiling at him.
Evan laughed along with them, but under the table he was crossing his fingers. As much as his parents tried to distract him, he couldn’t stop thinking about the little robin. He’d give anything to know it was getting better.
A few days later, Evan was woken by his mother gently shaking him awake. “Wake up, sleepyhead,” she said. “We’ve got a very special adventure planned for you today.”
For a fleeting moment, he realized he’d been dreaming about the robin again. He tried to remember what had happened in his dream, but his memory of it was vanishing as he took in his mum bustling about his room, attempting to clear up the racetrack on the floor.
“It’s not more Christmas shopping, is it?” Evan groaned. “I don’t think I can take any more. Not after yesterday and the clothes shopping.”
“It’s not clothes shopping,” laughed his mum. “This is something you’ll really enjoy. Now hurry up, get dressed and come and have some breakfast.”
Evan jumped out of bed. He put on his clothes as quickly as possible, managing to put his trousers on back to front in his excitement. Then he ran down the stairs. Poppy was already at the breakfast table, her doll propped up next to her, making a strange mush out of her cereal.
“Mornin’,” she said, waving her spoon at him. Pieces of cereal went flying across the table.
Evan deliberately chose the chair furthest from Poppy.
“Good decision,” said his dad. “I’ve already been covered in cereal this morning.”
Poppy ignored them both and began feeding cereal to her doll.
“Will you tell me what the surprise is?” Evan begged.
“No, I can’t!” laughed his dad. “Otherwise it won’t be a surprise.”
“Me come too?” asked Poppy.
“Not today,” said her dad, ruffling her hair.
“We’re going to stay at home and make a gingerbread house,” said her mum.
Poppy seemed happy with this and went back to feeding her doll.
“Just give me a clue!” pleaded Evan. “Have I ever been there before?”
“No, you haven’t,” replied his dad, “and that’s the last question I’m answering. Here’s some toast. Now eat up as we have to go soon.”
Evan munched down his toast, his brain in a whirl.
He was just opening his mouth to beg for more details when the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it!” he cried, jumping up from his chair. He ran to the door, hoping it might reveal the surprise.
“Oh!” he said. Hannah and her dad were standing on the doorstep. Hannah was looking just as confused as he was.
“Are you coming on the surprise trip, too?” Evan asked.
Hannah nodded. “Does that mean you don’t know what it is either?” she whispered.
“No one’s telling me anything!” Evan whispered back. He stepped aside as he spoke, smiling at Hannah’s dad as he let them into the house.
“Great!” said Evan’s dad, clapping his hands together. “All present and correct. We can set off.”
Evan noticed his parents were grinning from ear to ear, as if they’d done something they were really pleased about. Whatever this surprise was, his parents obviously thought it was a brilliant idea.
“How are we getting there?” Hannah asked.
“In the car,” replied Evan’s dad. “I’m driving you both.”
“Cool,” said Evan, high-fiving Hannah. They clearly weren’t going to find out where they were going beforehand. He might as well get in the spirit of the adventure.
Hannah hugged her dad goodbye, then she and Evan sat together in the back of the car, gazing out of the window as Evan’s dad navigated the snowy roads out through the town and into the countryside. The narrow roads flanked by buildings were gradually replaced by fields, all covered under thick layers of snow.
“There’s even more snow out here, isn’t there?” said Hannah.
Evan nodded. He hadn’t really been taking in the view. He was too busy trying to work out where they were going.
“Oh, look – a field of horses!” said Hannah. “I feel like I really am in the countryside now. And there’s a flock of starlings over there.”
Evan craned over to Hannah’s side of the car to take a look.
“Every time I see a bird, I can’t help thinking of our robin.”
“Me, too,” confided Hannah, just as Dad turned off the road into a driveway.
“Here we are,” he said.
“Wow!” gasped Evan and Hannah together. The sign outside said “RSPCA Wildlife Centre”.
“This is awesome!” cried Evan.
“Is this where our robin was taken?” asked Hannah, desperate to know. “Are we going to see it?”
Dad turned round, smiling at them. “It is,” he said. “And it really is a special treat as members of the public aren’t usually allowed. But the RSPCA agreed to it just on this occasion, because of your help in the robin rescue.”
“Double wow!” said Evan. “And that must mean our robin is doing OK, too, don’t you think? They must have got him off the glue trap.”
“Let’s go in and find out,” said Dad.
They walked up to the entrance and rang the bell. A woman came to meet them. She was dressed in a black jacket lined with a red fleece, with RSPCA embroidered on the pocket. “Hi,” she said, smiling at them. “You must be Evan and Hannah. I’m Karen, the manager here.”
She shook hands with them all. Dad introduced himself, too, and then Karen led them out of the cold and into the warmth of the building.
“We’ve heard all about how you helped rescue the robin,” she went on. “Would you like to see how he’s getting on?”
“Yes, please,” they said at the same time.
“Is our robin really a ‘he’?” asked Hannah. “I always thought of him as a boy.”
“Yes, he really is,” laughed Karen. “We’ll take you to see him first, and then if you like you can have a tour of the centre.”
“That sounds amazing,” said Evan.
“How is he?” asked Hannah quickly. She couldn’t bear not knowing any longer. “Did you get him off the glue trap OK? Did he lose many feathers? Will he be able to fly again?”
Karen held up her hands, as if to ward off the barrage of questions. “He’s doing really well,” she said, smiling at Hannah. “But you’ll soon see for yourself.”
Hannah smiled back at her, relief flooding her face.
“Our robin’s OK,” she mouthed to Evan. In reply, Evan gave her a huge thumbs up.
They walked past the front office, where a smiling woman with glasses waved at them. Evan saw that there were pictures of animals all over the walls and lots of posters up about feeding birds in winter.
“I’ll tell you what,” said Karen. “As we go, I’ll take you through what’s been happening to the robin since you last saw him. So first,” she went on, pointing to a computer in a little cubbyhole off the passage, “we logged him in here. All the animals that come into the centre go on the database, and are given a case number.”
“What’s the number for?” asked Evan.
“It’s so we can compare similar cases and look up how they’ve been treated.”
“That’s clever,” said Evan’s dad.
“Well, we get around a hundred and fifty different species a year, so we need to keep track of them all,” explained Karen. “And just through here,” she added, leading them down a long corridor, “is the examination room. That’s where we take animals as soon as they arrive, to assess them. We weigh them, to see if they need feeding up, and decide on the treatment plan.”
Evan peered in at the little room. It looked a lot like a vet’s surgery, with an examination table, a weighing machine and a small cupboard full of equipment. He imagined what it must have been like for the robin arriving here, and how terrified he would have been. “Is this where you removed him from the glue trap?” he asked.
“Yes,” said Karen. “Although it wasn’t done by me, but one of our veterinary nurses. She cleaned off the rest of the glue and then washed off the oil with washing-up liquid. It’s a really complicated job, and should only be done by a trained professional, so it was brilliant that you rang us.”
Hannah and Evan exchanged smiling glances.
“After that,” Karen went on, “he was put under a lamp to dry.”
“He must have been really scared,” said Hannah.
“Small birds do get very distressed,” agreed Karen. “That’s one of the risks of treating them. But your brave little robin made it through.”
Evan and Hannah grinned at each other at that. They liked how Karen had referred to the robin as “theirs”.
“And if you’d like to follow me through here,” she said, leading them back out into the corridor, “I’ll show you where he went after that.”
“Wow,” said Evan’s dad, “he’s been on quite a journey.”
Karen stopped outside another room filled with small cages with wire fronts. “This is where we put our animals to stabilize after their examination. The whole experience can be very stressful for them, so we like to put them somewhere warm and quiet.”