Little Bird

Novel Extract

This is an extract from my upcoming second novella AKRON, which will be releasing on the 20th April 2026.

LITTLE BIRD

My grandmother has skin cancer.
It’d be wrong for me to feel overly sad about it, as she seems to barely care. She is eighty-six, and a devout Christian. She believes in no small way that there is an afterlife; she is steadfast in her Faith. It is she that is responsible for all the Faith in my family, she is a matriarch in that sense.

When I was a child, she fussed over me in ridiculous ways. I remember her telling me I was a “child of light,” a phrase I was too young to understand, but still remember to this day.

She saw the best in me, always, justifying any bad behaviour, always taking my side above everybody else's. I was a Golden Child to her, something Holy.

I’d run around the house as a very young child, chasing the dog, knocking things over. Then I’d run into her and throw my arms around her, hiding my head under her long cardigan and refusing to leave her side when it was time to go home.

I’d fling myself at her far too roughly when she was sitting down, and nuzzle into her chest underneath her arm. Far too rough for an old lady, but she never protested. When my mum would come and collect me, she’d tell her of this rough-housing, and when she described me under her arm she’d say I was like a little bird.

It was impossible for her to see me as a boisterous, unruly boy, even in my worst behaviours. Even then, she likened me to the delicate little birds that landed on the garden wall, little colourful puffballs, with legs like blackened matchsticks.

My grandmother has skin cancer, and she is the only reason I have ever even entertained the idea of there being a God.
I worry about what will happen to my Faith when she dies.

My first novella, LIBERTINE DISSOLVES, is available to buy here.