Sophie’s Red Kite

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Not all life insurance blogs need to be in depth on critical illness cover, over 50s plans, or finding cheaper life insurance premiums! Take a break with this short story about a little girl’s walk in the woods...

Sophie held her Daddy’s hand tight as they went into the wood. The sun was shining through the leafy canopy and cut like golden ribbons through the trees, making everything glow with a magical warmth that inspired Sophie to feel as if everything would always be all right.

“What are we looking for?” she asked in a whisper. Daddy had said that he wanted to show her something special.

“There’s a bird nest I want you to see, it’s just a little walk along.” He squeezed her hand tightly in that way he did to make her feel safe.

Sophie smiled as they walked, watching her feet as they kicked at the twigs and leaves that lay on the soft muddy floor. She was wearing her new wellies with the purple flowers on; maybe she’d see a purple flower.

Together, Sophie and her Daddy crossed a little stream – him stepping over lightly, but her having to jump and then spin around her arm as he held her high above the water. She laughed as he put her down, and then slipped anyway, getting the bottom of her boot wet.

“It doesn’t matter!” she said, “It’s a wellie!”

Daddy smiled, “That’s what it’s for,” he agreed. Daddy coughed a little then and they had to wait before continuing so he could catch his breath.

It wasn’t more than ten minutes later that they came to a stop. Daddy leant down with his finger over his lips and whispered at Sophie to look up. She did what he said and could immediately see a huge bird perched on a branch high above her head.

“It’s an eagle!” she said with excitement.

“Actually,” whispered her Daddy, “it’s called a red kite. A long time ago people thought they were all going to be gone, but they’ve come back and there’s quite a few of them around.”

“It looks like an eagle,” Sophie insisted.

“I think it’s friends with an eagle,” Daddy smiled. “Can you see its nest?”

Sophie couldn’t, but after a few minutes of trying to follow Daddy’s finger up the tree and around the curving branches and leaves, she thought she kind of could, so she said she could.

“I was here the other day,” Daddy explained, “and something funny happened. We had an earthquake - just a little one.”

Sophie remembered; she had been playing with Mummy and Dribble in the kitchen. Dribble was really scared because the room had shaken. Mummy said it was very unusual to get an earthquake out here and she didn’t think it could happen. Dribble had needed lots of cuddles – he was like that.

“I remember,” she told her Daddy.

“Well, a funny thing happened,” said Daddy. “I was watching the red kite in her nest when the earthquake came. All the trees shook and lots of things fell – most of them were just leaves, but one of the things was a little baby red kite. It just lay there, poking its little beak into the air.”

“Was it OK?” Sophie asked, worried.

“I was going to go and check, but I had a bit of a cough and couldn’t, so I had to just watch. I was worried the baby bird was going to get hurt but its Mummy came down to protect it. She just stood over it for a moment, and though some twigs and things fell on her back, she didn’t mind. She wanted to look after her baby.”

“That’s nice – did she take it back home afterwards?”

“She did. It was really good to see.”

“You should have videoed it.”

“You always say that! I don’t think of videoing things as much as you do.”

“You should have videoed that, though.”

“You are probably right.”

Sophie nodded, sure that she definitely was right.

“It made me think,” her Daddy went on. “How even the birds care about their children. You know how I care about you?”

“Of course,” Sophie thought about his warm hand squeezes.

“That’s good, because Sophie, I love you very much and if anything ever happened to me, I’d want you to be OK.”

“OK. I will be.” Sophie smiled.

“I have this thing, called Life Insurance. It’ll look after you if I’m gone.”

“That’s silly – why don’t you just not go and then you can look after me yourself?”

Daddy coughed – he kept doing that these days. Then he laughed. “That’s a very good idea. I think I should just do that.”

Sophie nodded and took his hand. “Shall we go home?”

Daddy let her pull him up. “We should,” he said with a smile.

“Bye-bye, Birdie,” called Sophie, “Well done for looking after your little birdies. See you later.”

“Bye-bye, Birdie,” agreed Daddy.

And together, the two of them walked home.