Fiction and Drama

Mohamed Kheir

The bird had nothing to tell

Iman Dabbous, Boy . 2025, solvent transfer on fabric. 13 ⅘ × 19 ⅗". Courtesy of the artist.

Lost

I t was the shadow he saw first, the shadow of a bird sweeping the wall from right to left, and abandoning his game, he swiveled and saw it in the top left-hand corner of the large pane, holding in midair. The window was shut tight, as it always was when he was left alone in the house, and so he stood at the sill, content simply to watch. It hovered in place, gently rising and falling, wings beating so hard that they were almost invisible, like the blades of the red fan in the living room. Then it cocked its head, fixed him with a stare, and flicked away.

He sat down abruptly, his breathing almost at a standstill. At last he’d seen it, the sparrow that his mother said watched him for her, which told her everything he did, which he’d always hoped he might catch sight of and never had.…