The white squirrel hunt

There's a white squirrel in town. Leanne sent me a video, sent to her by D. I decided to seek out the creature as my car was in for a service and I was kind of on that side of town.

It took me, despite being "on that side of town", the best part of an hour to walk to where D saw the squirrel. There I stood, opposite a bus stop, in front of someone's house, staring at the roof of a shed.

The shed was below a tree, a horse chestnut, I think. I had been told the squirrel lives in a hole in the tree.

There I stood.

I watched starlings, pigeons, blackbirds.

My hands were cold.

And I was starting to feel like a bit of a clump. When a woman walked past, I felt I had to say something. But as I said, "I am waiting for a white squirrel" I feared what her response would be.

"Oh yes!" she said, "there are loads over near B.... Road."

Loads?? I got directions and set off.

Half an hour later, I wasn't sure if I had the right place. There was a wood and I went in. A scruffy wood in a suburb. A man was sawing up a fallen tree. For firewood, I assumed. "Excuse me, I'm looking for a white squirrel."

"Yes," he said, "there's one in this wood. Check over by the bins. The greys go in and the white one's always at the back."

I went to the bins and as I got there, something burst out one of those big industrial waste things and shot up a tree.