A brown-paper parcel waited outside Mara’s repair shop with no return address, and Mara wondered if its sender was afraid to be found.

When Mara opened the shop at nine, she carried it to her workbench and untied the string.

The wooden bird inside had its left wing missing, and Mara decided Kit’s note—“Can it fly again?”—deserved a careful answer.

Mara chose a cedar scrap because its grain ran like the feathers on the bird’s good wing.

The next morning, she fitted the new wing and wound the small brass key beneath the bird’s tail.

When the bird chirped and a child outside pressed both hands to the glass, Mara knew the sender had come back, so she opened the door.

[Workshop sounds between passages four and five; bird chirp between five and six.]
