Four birds and a quote along the collarbone
Lettering · Shoulder · Black and grey · Photo
Four small solid black bird silhouettes sit above and beside two lines of italic serif script that follow the collarbone toward the shoulder. The lettering is crisp and even, and the birds are filled in solid black with no shading. The ink is black only, shown against smooth skin in a close, slightly angled photograph.
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A story inspired by this tattoo · fiction
Dear Mags,
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The ward went quiet around three, the way it does when the pumps have settled and the corridor lights drop to their night setting. I took my tea to the window at the end of Bay C because from there you can see the car park and the wires strung along the railway embankment. Four starlings were sitting on the top line, shoulder to shoulder, not moving at all. I thought of you telling me they never sleep, only take turns.
Mr Okafor in bed six asked me this evening whether the birds outside were his wife's. I said I didn't know whose they were, but he seemed pleased with that answer. He has been counting the days since she stopped visiting, and he told me she used to say the two of them saw things nobody else in the family bothered to look for. I didn't know what to say, so I refilled his water jug and checked his line twice.
Something happened just before dawn. The cloud broke over the embankment and the four birds lifted together, wheeled once over the hospital roof, and dropped past the window so close I could see the pale edges of their wings. When I looked back at bed six he was awake and watching the same sky, his hand flat on the blanket as if he were keeping time.
I'm posting this on the way home, and I'll tell you the rest when you're back on Sunday. Save me a seat by the kettle. Love, Jen.
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