Cora and the Loose Shutter

Cora heard the first tap as the sun slipped behind the trees. It was a light sound, followed by silence and then two taps close together. She turned in the evening air and listened.

Below her, warm light glowed at one window of Cozy Cottage. Shadow crossed the yard while Luna sat near the door. When the sound came again, it followed the same uneven pattern. Tap. Tap-tap.

Cora flew closer, but stopped at the edge of the yard. "Is everything all right down there?" she called.

Shadow looked up at once. His ears turned toward Cora, though the rest of him remained ready to spring. "Yes. Why?"

Cora stayed beyond the yard while she answered. "I hear something tapping near your window. May I come closer?"

Luna rose and looked toward the darkening wall. "Please do. I heard the wind, but not the tap."

Cora glided to a low fence post and folded her wings. The sound came again as a breeze crossed the grass. "There," she said. "It pauses when the wind pauses."

Shadow bounded to the window just as the shutter knocked against the cottage wall. He caught it with both paws. "Found it."

"You found what moved," Luna said as she studied the hinges. "We have not found why it moved."

Shadow pushed the shutter closed and tested the latch with one paw. The wind was the obvious answer, and he said so. Cora almost let the matter rest. Shadow was already checking the latch, and Luna was already studying the wood. They were larger than Cora and much closer to the problem. Then another gust crossed the yard. The shutter pulled away from Shadow's paws, and its upper hinge jerked.

Beneath the tapping, Cora heard a thin scrape. She leaned forward on the post and listened through the next gust. "The top moves before the bottom," she said.

Luna followed the scrape to the top corner and looked up. "The upper hinge is loose."

Shadow stood on his hind paws and braced the shutter before the next gust could pull it outward. "I can hold it."

Across the road, leaves lifted in a dark wave. A stronger gust was moving toward the cottage. Cora's ears turned toward a faint sound below the window, where something rolled beneath the leaves and struck a stone.

Cora kept her eyes on the place where the sound had ended. "There is something in the grass. May I look?"

When Luna nodded, Cora dropped from the post and landed beside the stone. A short dark pin lay half hidden among the leaves. It matched the empty space in the upper hinge.

Cora brushed a leaf from the metal and held it where Luna could see. She called that it seemed to have fallen from the hinge. Without releasing his grip on the shutter, Shadow asked whether it could go back.

Luna examined the two parts of the hinge. "Yes, if we line them up. Bring me the pin, Cora, and listen for the next gust."

The pin sat awkwardly between Cora's claws, but she carried it to Luna. Then she turned toward the road. Leaves rose, spun, and fell while the wind pressed against her wings in waves. She listened past the loud rush for the quiet space behind it.

Cora watched the moving leaves and listened for the gap behind the wind. "Not yet. Hold it. Hold it. Now."

Shadow pushed the shutter against the wall. Luna raised the upper hinge until its two loops met, then slid the pin through the first loop. It stopped before the second.

Cora watched the leaves rise again along the road. "A little left. Three breaths before the gust."

Shadow shifted the shutter. The pin dropped into place just as the next gust swept across the yard. The wooden panel shuddered, but it held. All three waited for the sound to return.

The cottage wall stayed silent through the next gust. Shadow kept both paws in place until the leaves settled, then let go one careful inch at a time. "Fixed."

Luna tested the hinge once more and watched the pin remain seated. "For tonight. We should check it again in daylight, when we can see every part."

Cora flew back to the fence post and folded her wings. "I almost kept quiet. You were both already looking."

Shadow glanced at the pin and admitted that he had been watching the latch. Luna had been studying the wood. Neither of them had heard the scrape beneath the tapping.

Cora tilted her head toward the silent wall and promised that she would keep listening. Luna answered with a slow, certain nod. The answer was quiet, but Cora no longer wondered whether it had been heard.

Shadow settled beneath the window now that he no longer had to brace it. "Especially if you hear breakfast."

Cora laughed, and the last of her hesitation left with the sound. Breakfast, she assured him, was never quiet. The wind moved on through the trees while Cozy Cottage glowed beside the road, its shutter firm against the wall. The night began without another tap.