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and got its talons caught in my hair. The other one clawed up my leg and pecked at my thigh. I spun and slapped at them, but they attacked my hands. All the while I could have sworn I heard them speaking to each other, cheering each other on.
    Then Walker was there, swinging at them with a tree branch. The birds backed off, but they didn’t leave. They circled me until Green and Jed ran forward shouting with big sticks and they and Walker chased the two crows across the park. Green took a straw out of his back pocket and blew something, a rock or a bead, at one of them. He hit it, the crow gave a little squeal, “that hurt!” and fled, the other one following, and Jed and Green high-fived each other.
    I put my head between my knees. I had imagined I could understand them. Not that it was difficult to figure out what a crow would say, but between that and the attack, the scratches and peck marks, I was dizzy.
    â€œHas that ever happened before?” Walker ran up to me.
    â€œYeah, of course. Crows attack me all the time.”
    â€œYou should have asked me to go with you.”
    â€œTo the bathroom?”
    â€œOr take Luisa.”
    â€œGood idea,” I scoffed. “Luisa, who seems to have disappeared. Bet she’s hiding under a picnic table.”
    â€œHere I am.” Luisa came out of the bathroom with her ever-present Frisbee. “All clear,” she said to Walker.
    And then I screamed as she let her Frisbee fly. I ducked, turned and saw her Frisbee smack into a final crow coming my way. The crow squealed—as much as a crow can—and flew away fast. An impressive, perfect shot. I’d never seen a Frisbee used as a weapon before. Then again, I’d never been attacked by crows before either.
    Luisa trotted over to get her Frisbee. I looked from her to Walker to Green and Jed and back around again. They were all staring at me. Green cocked his head like a puppy, as if something about me was puzzling. He turned to Walker.
    â€œThat was interesting.”
    Luisa said, “Your dad makes birdhouses, doesn’t he?”
    â€œHe does. And I like birds too. Really.” On cue, two small birds tweeted above me. I looked up. “Cactus wrens, campylorhynchus brunneicapillus.”
    â€œHuh?” asked Jed.
    â€œMy one skill. For some reason I remember all the Latin names.”
    The little birds were pretty with speckled bellies and darker stripes of brown on their wings. They looked at me one way and then the other.
    â€œWe won’t let them hurt her,” said one.
    â€œHate those crows,” said the other.
    â€œMe too. Me too. Me too.”
    I was sure I was losing my mind. “I have to go home.”
    â€œBut we only just got here,” Green said.
    â€œYou can’t go now,” Jeb echoed.
    â€œDon’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.” Walker said. He gestured at the others. “We won’t.”
    I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe he and they could really truly take care of me. Mostly, I wanted to curl myself against his soft gray sweater and into his arms. My want was tangible; I felt it like the breeze on my skin, or my hunger, or my need to pee. I didn’t like the feeling. I blinked my eyes to stop the tears.
    â€œTurning eighteen wasn’t such a big deal for me,” Luisa said to Walker.
    â€œShe’s very strong. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
    I turned to him. “I thought you had questions for me about college.”
    Luisa looked incredulous. “You still want to go to college?”
    â€œI want to be a veterinarian, maybe a zoologist. Or an ornithologist. You know, study birds. I love animals.”
    Walker shook his head. “You don’t have to go to school to do that.”
    â€œThat’s like me saying you don’t have to go to school to study people. Isn’t that what psychology is? The study of people’s behaviors and