Chapter 23

It wasn’t Grandma Helen’s voice she heard, but it was something. Out the window next to her, she heard a few soft peeping sounds. Memory swiped at her eyes and leaned forward, squinting into the darkness. Cardinals? This time of evening? Why would a pair of cardinals be out when it was dark? And perhaps more importantly, why did she feel as if they were speaking to her?

A male and a female perched on the outer windowsill, looking in at her, their eyes gleaming in the faint light. Memory moved a little closer, dropping down on her knees. She assumed they’d fly away, but they didn’t. “Hey, are you guys talking to me?” She laughed, thinking how miserable she must look, even to a couple of birds, sitting in a dark, practically empty room crying. “Did I worry you?”

The male fluttered around slightly, the female chirping, and Memory remembered the last time she’d seen them, there had been