'The Shape of an Encounter': a small character cameo

A little cameo to secure relationships between character, because in life we also require a little time to get to know one another and sometimes it can be as minor as plumping up the cushions for someone to sit on — those small dents left behind, you recall them long after — the shape of an encounter.

Edith enjoyed Nurse’s company because Nurse had few topics other than her birds, and she liked the feel of the place, which is vague, but Edith hadn’t got to the bottom of it in her own mind. Something about the way Nurse put things around -- those soft cushions with small dents -- everything was a nest ready to receive and warm flesh. Edith sunk in, there were always biscuits to munch on, and Nurse was at ease, her legs swinging open and closed like a jolly drunken sailor as she tipped seeds into her bird cages and petted her birds like lovers. Edith wondered if the birds were drunk too and whether they loved her back. Perhaps during feeding time when they pecked affectionately, and Nurse pecked too. Edith watched the broad back of Nurse bent over her tiny kin, listened to her cooing and gentle murmuring and understood this was love.  

Nurse might have been a man, and perhaps in another life she was, certainly she had the sway and could make anyone sit up or sit down and adjust their manners. Edith was comfortable, but she always knew at any point there might be a sea-change, and she would suddenly find herself grubbing around on the floor for something ‘terribly important.’ Nurse’s glasses, Nurse’s slippers, Nurse’s purse where she kept a red and white kerchief filled with thin slices of carrot. ‘A little treat, something sweet to make them tweet,’ and Nurse grinned her thick toothy grin. Time passed quickly and when she stepped back out into the sooty night Nurse’s grin was there, a torch flashing through the dark, and all the way she carried the bulky outline of woman and bird and the sound of wings fluttering and pecking between metal bars. Nice Nurse Brown, Nice Nurse Brown, Nice Nurse Brown. And with that, Edith went back to her uncomfortable life.