Today a new bird showed up in our arching cherry laurels. It sang a constant, repetitive two-note "step-here, step-here," as insistent as the Go-Away bird in Botswana, that time you took me on safari.

Remember how, day and night, the infernal sound invaded everything -- our treks through the bush and tea on the lawn and the report of the rifles and cries of the trackers -- always scolding us to leave Africa, away away away? If only a bird had the power to oust invaders. There would…