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    Birds In Words: Short Stories
    Birds In Words: Short Stories
    Birds In Words: Short Stories
    Ebook55 pages44 minutes

    Birds In Words: Short Stories

    By Nick Flittner

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    About this ebook

    These four short stories take their inspiration from birds. Three are quintessential Australian birds – the dainty Collared Dove, the raucous Spangled Drongo, and the extraordinary Straw Necked Ibis. The fourth story takes place in Scotland, and features the king of British birds, the Golden Eagle.
    These stories are not really about birds, but the birds are essential characters in the stories. The stories are set in real places but have an element of fantasy about them. Or perhaps the supernatural. The stories look at elements of grief, identity, belonging and the sheer, unadulterated joy of just being alive.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNick Flittner
    Release dateDec 1, 2014
    ISBN9781310743351
    Birds In Words: Short Stories

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      Book preview

      Birds In Words - Nick Flittner

      Birds In Words

      Short Stories

      Australian Edition

      By

      Nick Flittner

      Text Copyright © Nick Flittner

      All Rights Reserved

      Smashwords Edition

      Other titles by Nick Flittner

      Poetry

      Birds in Words – Poems – Australian Edition

      Magnetic Island Reflections – a year on the island

      Seven Places – poems from seven Tasmanian National trust properties

      Contact Nick Flittner on nickflittner@yahoo.com.au

      This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, the please return to your favourite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Nuts and Seeds

      Spangled Drongo

      Ibis

      The Bird

      Other titles by Nick Flittner

      Contact Nick

      Introduction

      These four short stories take their inspiration from birds. Three are quintessential Australian birds – the dainty Collared Dove, the raucous Spangled Drongo, and the extraordinary Straw Necked Ibis. The fourth story takes place in Scotland, and features the king of British birds, the Golden Eagle.

      These stories are not really about birds, but the birds are essential characters in the stories. The stories are set in real places but have an element of fantasy about them. Or perhaps the supernatural. The stories look at elements of grief, identity, belonging and the sheer, unadulterated joy of just being alive.

      I hope you enjoy the stories.

      Nick Flittner

      Nuts and Seeds

      They were married on Christmas Day. They bought their house on April Fool’s Day, had their first child on mid-summer’s day, and buried the child in the back garden on mid-winter’s day. Alice stood on the veranda looking at the little grave for two weeks. She didn’t eat. She only brightened up when the collared doves came to the garden, pecking and cooing. They seemed to soothe her. Tom was concerned, but he had his own grief to deal with and couldn’t help his wife. He didn’t know what to do, so he did nothing and left her to herself. She didn’t seem to mind, she just stood alone and looked at the little grave at the end of the garden. Days came and went, the sun gave way to rain. The sun returned and dried everything in a cloud of vapour. The little grave was washed clean, and the stone glinted in the morning light.

      Then at the end of the two weeks she suddenly seemed to snap out of it. In a flurry of movement she began transforming the garden into an oasis of greenery. She pulled and pushed and built and dug and planted, she was unstoppable. Out came the scrubby old bushes that had never flowered or produced fruit and in went new trees and shrubs, fruit bearing and flower rich. Down came the shed and the lean-to and up went the chicken house and the pergola. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it, no plan was evident, but in what seemed like a few weeks the garden was transformed - a vegetable garden complete with metal surrounds and wire to keep out the wildlife; a big fish pond full of a variety of aquatic plants and one small goldfish, nicely shaded by a big-leaved bush in one corner; there were many garden beds, some raised with sleepers or trunks from the trees that had come down, others merely a bump on the ground marked by a line

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