The Nightingale by E. E. Rhodes

El Rhodes

El Rhodes

I’m an archaeologist who lives between Cardiff, Wiltshire, and a small hamlet in Hertfordshire. I’m bookish and quiet but tell a good story. My work features in a wide range of anthologies, journals and competitions. In November 2021 my book ‘My Fami...

I was out in the cotton-soft dusk. Nearby, a dozen shadows loomed against the shutter-stall trees. It grew darker. Night-scopes and lenses flashed in the torchlight. Ready for something in the steadfast gloom.

They moved slowly. One man passed within touching distance and I murmured a query. His head-torch swung to me, startled, bright and brittle-glinting. He tipped his chin towards the path into the trees.

I followed. Pausing as they did. Listening.

A wood-dense trill excited the line. Then a spit-sad mutter reached me, just a common starling. We waited again.

The man accepted tea from my flask, offered me a nip from his. Hoping for a nightingale, he muttered. He’d heard one in his childhood, and had been waiting seventy years since. Now he tipped along with this bunch, hoping and hoping and hoping against hope. The torchlight gave him a dedicated gleam.

At 3 a.m. regret rippled through the group. Enough. Some had work to go to. Up with the lark as well as out with the owl. They drifted away, the torchlight bobbing through the wood into the silk-slubbed dawn.

The man shrugged. Maybe the starling had learned the song from a nightingale. Maybe there was one to hear. If the night was right. We listened again, but everything was still. He sighed, shouldering his rucksack.

I asked why this wood in particular? Why here at all? Only because of gossip on a birder forum, he told me. Only because of a rumour of joy.

One thought on “The Nightingale by E. E. Rhodes

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Also check out

Post
“Walking Home” writing competition winners announced

26 Sep, 2022

Write About Walking and Listening
longlist
Dolce et decorum est pro patria mori by E. E. Rhodes

1 Sep, 2021

Post
New
The Chalk Walk: the comfort of the familiar

25 Feb, 2023

Post
Walking Home shortlist published in an illustrated chapbook

11 Mar, 2022

Announcing the publication of WALKING (2022) (see feature image) ISBN 978-1-912960-95-8, the illustrated anthology of poetry and prose that includes the shortlisted pieces in the "Walking Home" writing competition. €4.99+p&p

Post
Walking Home writing competition – pick your shortlist

1 Mar, 2022

Find out which of the 90 + submissions made it to the judges' Top 24 in our Walking Home writing competition - and pick your own shortlist

Write About Walking and Listening
winner
Walk, Look, Listen, Slow Marathon: Cabrach – Huntly by Claudia Zeiske

1 Sep, 2021

Post
Writing competition Shortlist announced

9 Sep, 2021

We are delighted to announce the shortlist of writing pieces in our inaugural writing competition on the theme of "Walking and Listening".

Post
From

1 Mar, 2022

Post
WRITE ABOUT WALKING & LISTENING – the long list is published!

1 Sep, 2021

20 authors who have been long listed in our inaugural writing competition.

Write About Walking and Listening
longlist
Garth Hill by Nathan Munday

1 Sep, 2021

Write About Walking and Listening
longlist
Deep within the woods by Tesni Jones-Edwards

1 Sep, 2021

Write About Walking and Listening
longlist
The sound of footfall by Angela Findlay

1 Sep, 2021