"It's from a bird at the shelter," Cal says. "It's - weird. The shelter's only designed for dogs and cats. We don't have the space or the equipment to take care of any other kinds of animals. People bring them in sometimes, but we have a list of shelters that do take care of other animals, so we'll send people there. If they have time or they don't feel like making the extra trip or whatever, Elaine can usually find a way to keep the animal maybe overnight and take it herself the next day. She's really particular about it. She doesn't like to have them in an environment that's not suited for them any longer than they have to be.

"Except we've had this bird for a couple of weeks now. She keeps it in her office, it never makes a sound that I've heard, and I've been in a couple of times to check on it and I'm pretty sure she's never changed the newspaper lining the cage."

He shakes his head. "No one else is really saying anything about it - I guess she does this sometimes? I don't know, most of the others have been there for years, I'm still kinda the new guy, so I haven't asked about it much. But it's just weird. Anyone else, I'd call it neglect, but I know how Elaine is with animals. I've never seen anyone so protective of them. It's why I started working there, because I knew she wouldn't let me do anything until she was sure I wouldn't fuck it up. It just doesn't make any sense. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but . . ."

But Cal knows that his new world has possible explanations that his old world didn't, and his instincts have been tugging at him insistently for days.