Chapter 1: Billy
How did one tell a boy she loved him? Serena’s iPhone 13 shook, and she nearly dropped it into the muddy puddle under the park bench. An ovenbird, a strange bird to see in the Midwest, landed on the bench’s headrest, its thrush puffed out like it was cold. Serena slid to the bench’s end, but the bird only followed. She blushed and hid behind her phone. The ovenbird vanished, but then Serena heard someone:
“What’s with the long face?” A boy had appeared beside her. His freckles and chocolate ponytail drew Serena in like a siren and sailor.
“Who are you?” Serena searched for the ovenbird. “Where’s the bird?” She expected anxiety to bop her head due to being so close to a stranger, but it never did.
“I’m Billy,” the boy explained, offering his pale hand.
“There was a bird! I swear!” Serena whacked him away.
“You’re funny. I like you.” Serena noticed a Southern accent in Billy’s voice. It spelled twelve or thirteen years old. “I saw no bird.” Was he saying Serena was crazy? “How bout I show you around? You look new.”
“We moved here three days ago.” Serena missed San Francisco. The boy she loved, Todd, remained there, and she never took the opportunity to say she loved him. Now, Serena was stuck in the Midwest with a strange boy.
Billy stood. “You ever been to Kansas?”
“No.”
“Then let me help.”
Serena was more interested in the bird than in Billy. She also acquired a new nail polish set and wanted to paint her nails like a madman back home, dreaming about Todd.
“You in love?” Billy asked out of the blue.
“No! Of course not!” Nevertheless, Serena leaped off the bench. She crossed her arms and turned away from Billy. He was like an annoying little brother. “Go find someone else to bother.”
No answer.
“Oh, I see how it is. Now you’re suddenly shy?”
No answer.
“Hello?” Serena faced the bench again, and her emerald green eyes widened. No longer did Billy sit there, but the ovenbird.
It opened its wings and hovered before Serena, staring at her with dark eyes.
“What the—?” she said, slightly freaked out. “Billy?” Was this a dream, or was she going crazy? How could he disappear just like that?
The bird gestured for Serena to follow it.
She wanted to, but at the same time, she didn’t. Who trusted random birds who replaced boys out of nowhere? Little fourteen-year-olds like her.
Serena found herself drawn to the bird. Before she knew it, she followed it through the park, past the playground and basketball field, to the wide-open plains of corn, grass, and the occasional farmhouse. The scent of dung and hay filled her nostrils, and she sneezed under the hot sun, closing her eyes.
“Bless you.”
“What the—?”
Billy appeared behind a haystack, the bird no longer in sight.
Serena swore—what was going on? Whatever it was, she couldn’t wait for the dream to end.
