"She does, yeah," Cal says. "But the newspaper's had the same picture on top for - at least a week now, since I first noticed it. And it's still clean. I mean, I don't know anything about birds, maybe they're really clean."

He shakes his head a little.

"I know there's a rational explanation for everything I'm saying, I didn't even really start thinking about it until a few days ago. I could just be making it all up. But - it bugs me."

He holds the feather closer. "Does this look real to you?" It's a genuine question. He can't tell. All he knows about feathers is that the quills are hollow. He would have asked Alex what she thought of the last one, but he hadn't realized then that there was anything to ask.