They called her Sarah-the-birds. She called herself many different names, depending on what the weather was like and what sounds she had heard in the trees recently. She was easily influenced. Nevertheless, she did her two jobs with the reliability of the tides. Her jobs were: delivereing the mail (the job she did for money), and keeping up with the affairs of the birds (the job she did for a reason that nobody knew).
One day, she delivered mail to Lou's house. Lou's sister ran out, socks getting soaked with the dew that was still on the grass. She snatched the envelope from the hands of Sarah-the-birds and tore it open. Rejection. Another one.
'They've negotiated a truce, did you hear?', asked Sarah-the-birds.
'Uh huh', said Lou's sister.
'You heard? I doubt it, they only announced it this morning', she surveyed Lou's sister's pyjamas and hair-rollers. 'It's the first time they've had negotiations like this. Truly unprecedented. The negotiators have become quite the public figures, the way it was broadcast and followed by everyone. I can hardly believe it. I had been lulled into thinking they would be fighting and negotiating forever. I guess we all had.' She let out a breathless laugh.
'That's nice, Sarah-the-birds',
'What?'
'That's nice Sarah',
'Oh.' A pause. 'Did you hear the song they played over broadcast this morning?' She sighed, 'wow. wow. just... so beautiful and sad. There was something eternal in that song.'
'Uh huh',
A pause. 'Sorry, you must be busy', said Sarah-the-birds.
'Uh huh', said Lou's sister. She was still looking at the letter she had opened.
A bead of dew fell off a blade of grass and onto Sarah-the-birds' foot. She shuffled it away. She flicked through the letters in her bag. The sun was starting to turn things pink. Eventually, Lou's sister folded the letter (crisply, in half) and looked Sarah-the-birds right in the eyes.
'Sorry Sarah', she said, 'I was really hoping that would have been the one. But it's ok. There will be next time', she tucked the envelope into her pyjama pocket. 'Tell me about the truce again?'
'Um yes', said Sarah-the-birds, 'Yes don't worry about it. Um. Sorry about the... the thing'.
Lou's sister nodded.
'The truce was between the birds-of-the-rocks-on-the-western-shore and the birds-of-the-mud-by-the-estuary...