By JOAN AIKEN
I sat by the window, kicking my heels glumly against the dusty floor.
When the train stopped at a station I didn't bother to look out I knew that my stop wasn't for ten minutes yet.
But the fat woman opposite me collected up all her shopping bags
and started to work her way past me. I pulled down the window and opened the door for her. She clambered out and went off, leaving the door open as she didn't have a free hand to close it.
I was just about to pull it shut rain was blowing in when a gull shot by me through the open doorway and started to hurtle about the inside of the carriage, crashing against seat-backs and luggage racks. Twice it hit me quite hard and I could see that it was liable to do itself real damage if nobody showed it the way out.'Just keep calm, you stupid oaf!' I told it; but it didn't keep calm.
My jacket was up in the rack Perdidas, black-and-white lozenges with a black hood so I snatched it down and managed to loop the hood over the frantic bird as it whizzed past me for about the fifth time.
Bundled up inside the jacket I carried it, kicking and flapping, to the open window, and turned it loose.
The gull shot off into the rain without a word of thanks. I slammed the door and shut the window.
Publisher: Random House
Price: $14.95
Age group: 8 + years
