Big storm come blowing up through the valley. Must be knocked him out the nest. Found him squawking under the tree when him was just a baby. I took him to Calla and she fixed him up good. Dug out a big calabash. Made a bed of dry grass for him to lay down in. Mixed up grubs with little bits of herbs, showed me how to feed him.

One day Calla told me, patting and cooing to him all the while, ‘This young hawk. Him never going learn to fly. Need him mama and papa to teach him.’

Calla didn’t want to see him fly. She wanted take him away, keep him for herself. Make him a pet. Use him feather them in her night-time ritual. So I turned papa and mama. Took him with me out to the pasture. Made him try to fly day after day till one day, him suddenly lifted up on the wind and gone.

When Calla found out, she plenty angry. Plenty sorry to see that bird go.

‘Next time you listen to me if you know what good for you!’ using her bony knuckles to knock me on the head. ‘Now that bird gone. Nobody happy.’

And every time after that when she ran cross me, she reminded me how foolish it was to let that bird slip away.

‘Freedom is a powerful thing,’ she told me. ‘No bird, no man, no beast desire to enter a locked cage.’

Was the first time I didn’t listen to Calla. She full of wisdom. Teach me many things, but in the glimmering I come to understand that sometimes you must follow you own mind. Walk down you own road. Is the only way to know if what you do is wrong, or what you do is right.

Every chance I got, kept watch under the birth tree, praying to the Ancestors for that hawk to return. I almost gave up hope when, one day, I heard a lonesome cry come echoing on the wind. Saw a shadow curving fast cross the field. A flash of red – him tail. Dark brown – him wings. White, the underbelly as him circled round and round. Listened as the cry got closer and closer, till I finally saw him circle, swoop down on some frightened creature. Had him fill before him dropped what’s left at me feet. And when I saw him, heard him, received him little gift, the biggest happiness bubbled up inside. Is then I decided to give him me name and called him William. William the Second, just like the king and queen them in that Mother Country Massa always boasting bout.