Let There Be Sound update Oct23

A hidden magpie on arrival at Faisal’s. The foliage overhead on Nicholson Street was dense now; in another few years the strip would draw the crowds. Over the last 4-5 years, identifying that particular warbler had been more or less instantaneous after Robbie Bell’s memorable imitation back in ‘17. With eight years on the equator the earlier calling from the top of the Norfolk Pine in Bab’s front yard had been more or less forgotten, certainly the distinct timbre and melody. There had been one or two masterful mimics of birdcalls in Singapore; and many more no doubt who had hidden their talent. Only a few weeks before Deng the Sudanese had drifted off from the Nicholson table to his teen cowherd years by the marshes and waterways back home, quietly reprising the song of some unnameable bird hidden in that past life. What was so striking about Robbie’s performance in that first Spring meeting was his revelation that as a schoolboy he had spent two years mute. There had been some bullying in the early years of secondary school, something clearly devastating for the lad. Robbie still had an occasional stutter, yet on the phone the voice was radio announcer smooth. During the mute period you would bet Robbie had been listening hard, to birds and all other aural information.