It’s a late March morning and I’m walking with Elisa to the south gate of our apartment compound. It is one of those mornings in spring where it feels warmer outside. Two birds in a tree above us catch our attention. They are making a racket, either fighting or playing. I ask Elisa which. She says fighting since they both probably want the same part of the tree. 100 feet in front of us we see a black bird with white strips swoop down onto the path. It walks a bit and then picks up a tree branch. The bird climbs effortlessly with the branch looking awkward in it’s beak. Halfway up a nearby tree it lands and uses the branch as part of the nest she is building. I don’t recall every seeing that firsthand before
Elisa and I get to the apartment compound gate and have to wait a couple of minutes for the car. I check my phone and show her the car location and tell her the last three license plate digits. We mostly stand in silence. When the car gets there we climb in back, Elisa in first so that I can get out first to protect her from bikes when we do get to her school. I check news and sports and my day’s schedule on the ride in. I ask Elisa if she has any tests that day which isn’t probably a great choice of topic. We get to school and we get out. Her friend arrives at the same time and she squeals Elisa’s Chinese name when she sees Elisa. Elisa scoots over and they walk hand and hand into the school.
I turn the other way. Power on my headphones, pull up the hoodie, and do the 10 minute walk to the subway station.  Crab into a car. I will be at work and hour later, in time for my 8:30am call.
On this day I need to meet Elisa after school because somewhat unexpectedly the ayi had the day off. I meet her and Elisa’s eyes light up when I say “video game?” which is what we call the arcade at a nearby mall. She plays for a bit while I stand. We then go for one of her favorites, what she calls “chinese hamburgers” because I can’t remember the name of the food. We devour a burger a piece. We then call a didi (like uber) to take us home where Aidan and Lydia are waiting.
Thinking about the bird from this morning I realize the nest is a little bit stronger.