Homing Bird

The front door clicked shut, and Harry gestured towards the street, as if to say “shall we?” The two of us started towards my uncle’s house, and I kicked a rock out in front of me as we walked. Holmes Chapel nights felt similar to Michigan nights: the humidity rests for the evening, and the world becomes quiet and cool. A car passed us on the left and I summoned the courage to say something to the man walking beside me.

“So how long will you be in Holmes Chapel?” Harry asked just as I opened my mouth to speak.

“Just the summer. My uncle needed someone to look after the house while he’s away on some big archeological dig, and I’m treating this summer as a sort of gap year. I need to go back to school come September, but I haven’t had much of a chance to go abroad in my life—I spent a week in London for Spring Break once in my undergraduate years, but that was it. This seemed like an opportunity to see something new.” The rock I had been kicking skipped into the grass to my left.

“Traveling is such fun. Did you like London when you went?”

Ah. London. “Yeah, it was fine.”

“Cool, very cool.”

I found another rock to kick along the sidewalk, but I kicked it too far and it bounced off the curb as we rounded a corner. Harry was tall, and I had to move quickly just to keep up with his leisurely pace. He walked with his hands in his pockets, and would whistle a tune whenever there was a lull in conversation. I wondered if it was because he always had a song in his head, or if he needed something to distract himself from the tension of walking a stranger home.

“What’s been your favorite place to visit?” I ventured to ask.

He took one hand out of his pocket to smooth some curls out of his face. “Um, I’m not sure. It’s all been really great. Uh...maybe Australia at the moment? It’s a new experience every time. But I think there’s a lot of fun things to do there, and the crowds are always great in Sydney when I’ve played.” He seemed to settle on that answer with a nod of his head.

“I’ve never been to Australia. In fact, this is only my second time outside of the United States.”

“Oh, really? Yeah, traveling is both the best and worst part of my job.”

“I bet. Do you miss your family when you’re out on tour?” I thought about my own family across the sea. I miss them, of course, but after having been away from them for so long during my university days, it’s not that hard anymore.

“Yeah, I miss my family, but you kind of start to make a new family on the road. I’m really close with my bandmates, as well as the production crew and whatnot. You learn about their families and you share very unique experiences with everyone. It starts to feel like you’ve got one bigger family with you on tour.”

“I suppose that’s how it is at university, too. I saw my parents maybe twice a semester, and my friends became my family outside of that.” Harry turned to look at me as I talked, nodding every now and then to make sure I knew he was listening.

“What is university like, anyways? And law school! I always thought that I might be a lawyer if the music thing didn’t work out for me.”

I laughed. “You don’t want to go to law school. It’s a lot of work. But I really loved university, and law school, as well. I met a lot of cool friends, took a lot of fun classes. Yeah, I was fortunate to have that experience.”

We turned one last corner onto my street. I could spot the light from the lamp I had left on in the living room glowing from a window on the near side of the house. With only another 500 feet left, this walk home had felt like a second and an eternity all in one. I took my phone out of the pocket of my jeans: 11:13. Butters was fast asleep, probably on my bed, but it wasn’t as late as I thought it would be.

Harry walked me up the front steps of my house, taking two at a time, and stopped at the door.

“Thanks for walking me home,” I said, digging for my keys amidst loose change and tubes of chapstick in my pocket.

“Don’t worry about it. Again, only the gentlemanly thing to do.” He winked at me and I felt my face flush.

I pulled out my keys and unlocked the front door. “Do you need me to call you an Uber? Or do you have a driver or something that can take you home?” I didn’t know what the protocol was as far as what to do from here.

“No and no. I think I’ll just walk home from here.”

“Are you sure? It’s dark and late.”

“Kath, look at how tough I am,” Harry said, gesturing to his upper body. He flexed his arms and contorted himself into several bodybuilding poses on my front stoop. He laughed and buttoned up his jacket. “In all seriousness, I think I’ll be okay.”

“Are you positive?”

“Yes. Remember, we just walked from there and nothing happened. If I can do it once, I can do it again.” He flashed another charming grin at me.

“Alright, alright. Sounds good.” I rocked on the back of my heels, not wanting to be the first one to say goodbye, even though my door was wide open.

“Thanks for hanging out with my mum, I’m glad she has someone to talk to while I’m gone. I think she gets lonely while I’m away.” Harry said, glancing at the opened door.

“Yeah, no problem! I’m thankful that she took me in. It’s been difficult trying to make friends here recently, especially with all of the case work that I’ve been doing.”

“Has it been? A lot of the people our age—wait, how old are you?”

“24.”

“Oh, me too! So, yeah. A lot of people our age have moved away for work or university. I understand how it can be difficult. Or maybe you just prefer to hang out with middle-aged women.”“Your mother is a very kind lady and I enjoy spending time with her!”

“So your preferred friendship demographic IS middle-aged women!” He laughed at me and I folded my arms.

“I never confirmed or denied that. All I said was that it’s been a little bit difficult trying to find friends my—our—age here.”

Harry mirrored me and folded his arms across his chest, drumming his fingers on his left forearm. “I’m not knocking your taste in friends. I, too, enjoy spending time with middle-aged women.”

“So then why are you mocking me?”

“I’m not mocking you! I’m just wondering what you’re doing tomorrow. As in, do you have plans with friends?”

“I don’t have plans with friends, but I do have a date with the big stack of legal briefings on my kitchen counter.”

“Sexy. Would you like to have plans with a friend?”

“It depends on the plans.”

Harry checked his phone as it buzzed in his pocket. He typed a quick text, put it away, and turned to me again.

“I have to start writing again for the second album I’m working on, and I’ll be in town for the next few days. I’d like to see all the ladies from the bakery as long as I’m in town, so if you’ve got legal briefings or whatever lawyer stuff you need to do tomorrow, maybe we could go to the bakery and get some work done.”

Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god.

“Yeah, that sounds nice. What time?”

Harry checked the time on his phone. “How about I pick you up at 9?”

“Works for me!”

“Great. I will see you tomorrow, then.”

“Perfect. Thank you for walking me home.”

“Of course. It’s what any gentleman would do.” With a wave, he bounded down the front steps and down the street. With Harry turned away from me I allowed my face to burn red with excitement. As he walked he whistled a Beatles tune and sent a few texts. I watched from my front stoop until he rounded the corner and left my sight. I closed the front door that had been left open and walked into the kitchen, opening up my laptop to check for any emails that might have been sent to me since the dinner party. Nothing.

Hanging my jacket on the hook of my door, I began to put on pajamas and settle in for the night. Butters had made himself at home on my bed and had left a pool of hair on the bottom right corner. I heard my phone buzz from my bedside table and went to check it.

A text from Anne: “Hope you made it home safely!”

I smiled and opened the app to message her back.

“Yes, I did. Thank you for having Harry walk me home. It was very gentlemanly of him.”

Notes