“Bye,” she said, mimicking his wave.

The boys stepped into the creek because the shores were too thick with shrubs for walking. She watched until they disappeared around the bend.

It was sad but also exciting—because everything they had said and done could not disappear with them.

4

Raven didn’t tell Mama about the boys. She felt bad.

But she also felt good. She liked to think about the boys. Just imagining their faces made her happy.

She had gone to the big dictionary that night and looked up some of the words the boys had said. She got frustrated when she couldn’t find warewolf or veegin. She figured out she was spelling divorst wrong when she found the word divorce. There were two meanings in the dictionary: To end one’s marriage with one’s spouse and To make or keep separate. Raven didn’t understand the first meaning. She supposed the boys had meant the second meaning when they asked if she was the girl who lived with the rich, divorced lady. Mama kept herself and Raven separate from other people because of the secrets they knew about the earth.

But how had the boys known? It worried her a little.

The next morning, Mama woke Raven at first light. Because that was when mama birds fed their babies. Raven was glad to have an excuse to be away from the house and her lessons. As the day warmed and the baby jay’s belly filled, Raven made her way toward the stream. She hoped the boys would swim again. By afternoon, the weather was hot enough.

But they didn’t come that day. Or the next. When they hadn’t returned on the third day, Raven decided she had to make a serious Asking. She did it right there next to the stream. That had to be the best place to ask for what she wanted.

Beneath a cedar tree that overhung the water, she put four leaves of different colors in a flower pattern touching each other. Green, yellow, brown, and orange, all the colors in Jackie’s eyes. Next to the flower “eye,” she put an orange mushroom for Reece with his pretty hair. On the other side of Jackie’s eye, she put a brown stone for Huck with his dark eyes and strong body.

She studied her Asking. It seemed to need something more. But what?

It needed her. Of course.

She took out her knife and cut some hair off the end of one braid. She sprinkled the hair over the three boys, bonding her to them. She felt good about it. Very good. She knew they would come back. Tomorrow or the next day.

Baby, as Raven now called her, was crying for food. She had fully accepted Raven as her mama.

As the sun sank behind the wooded hills, Raven made her way back home, searching for insects along the way.

“Look how your baby is growing!” Mama said when she got home. “You’re feeding her well. You must be hungry, too.”

She was. Mama gave her lunch to take with her when she was out feeding the bird, but it never seemed enough to fill her up.

Raven cleaned Baby’s nest and put her on her warming pad for the night. Mama set a big plate of food on the table. Ham, baked potato, squash, and green beans. The delivery from the grocery store had come that day. Mama rarely went out to stores.

They sat across from each other at the table. “What did you see and learn today?” she asked.

“I learned a baby bird is always hungry,” she said.

“You have a new appreciation for the work a bird must do. And imagine more than one in the nest.”

“That would be so hard!” Raven said.

“What else did you see?”

“I saw a coyote. And a doe with a fawn. I saw many birds. I saw a raven and told him I’m taking good care of the baby he gave me.”

Mama smiled and nodded.

“I found a white flower I never saw before. I saw a dead snake being eaten by ants. Oh, and in the morning, there was a spider’s web that looked like it had little pieces of glass all over it. It was so pretty.”

“Wonderful,” Mama said.

Raven looked down at her plate. She felt bad about hiding her Asking from Mama. But she was afraid she would say she must never see the boys again. Raven couldn’t let that happen.

Later, Mama tucked her into bed and kissed her cheek. “Good night, Daughter of Raven, my sweet miracle.”

“Good night, Mama.”

Raven was almost too excited to sleep, thinking about seeing the boys the next day.

But they didn’t come. Her Asking was still there next to the stream.

The next day, she went straight to the stream to do all her insect searching. When the sun was high in the sky and Baby slept, Raven ate the lunch Mama had given her. Afterward, she lay down, put her hands under her head, and looked up at the sun shimmering through the cedar branches.

She sat up when someone said, “Hi, Raven.”

Jackie and his brother were wading in the stream.

“How’s the bird?” Jackie asked as he came closer.

“She’s getting big.” She held Baby out for him and Huck to see. That woke up Baby and made her beg for food.

“She has lots more feathers,” Jackie said.

“She’s good with taking the insects now. She thinks I’m her mama.”

Huck was looking at Raven curiously. “Were you waiting for us?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“For how many days?”

“Every day.”

“I told you!” Jackie said.