Birds of the Shade

“The birds, Regina! The birds! The birds!” he cried out. “You don’t hear? Our child…Issachar!…Issachar!…Regina!…That bird…Issachar…that bird…that bird.…”

When Luna entered the room with her bridegroom, holding a plate of squash by order of her father, she found him shaking on her mother’s bed and weeping out the name of her dead brother. In the few…