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parents came into the city and stopped at her apartment one Sunday, their knock at her door woke her even though it was two in the afternoon.
    Lucy pulled her aside. “What's wrong?”
    â€œThere's nothing wrong! Why do you always think the worst of me?”
    â€œI know when something's wrong,” Lucy Heller told her daughter.
    â€œReally? Then you should have known it throughout my childhood. You didn't seem to care back then. You didn't seem to even notice me.”
    Her mother was taken aback.
    â€œHow can you say that? Of course I noticed you,” Lucy said. “I noticed how much alike we were. Haven't you?”

    M ADDY THOUGHT ABOUT the time she had run away from home after her parents split up. She'd worn a raincoat and her winter boots; it was spring and everything was damp. It was so easy to run away. She opened the door and walked into the dark. She knew exactly where she was going. She went through the yard, past the sycamore tree. Allie had told her that the blue heron would come for the one he truly loved. The grass was wet and spongy and Maddy sank into it. The mud covered her boots. There were no stars and the moon sat behind the clouds, but it was enough to light her way.
    It didn't take very long to get down to the marshes. Once she was there she slipped between the reeds. They were tall and feathery, silver gray. Everything smelled foul. Maddy's boots made a sloshing sound as she walked along the shore. She could hear things that were alive: snails, nesting birds, the rising wind. There were probably spiders and leeches as well; there were most likely bats in the trees. Maddy was the sister who was always afraid, who cried when she was left alone, who pouted, who didn't know how to cook or clean or even button her heavy winter coat. She was nervous about the thornbushes in the marsh and the crabs that might bite your toes, but for once she didn't think about these things. It took a while, but at last she found it, the place where her mother said the blue heron lived. She made her way through the brambles and there was the nest, up in a willow tree.
    Maddy wore a blue nightgown under her coat. She slipped off her rain boots. She was good at climbing trees; she was light and much stronger than she looked. She was breathing hard when she got up to the nest. She thought it would be made of long grass and moss, but it was made of sticks. Some were silver and some were black. The heron wasn't there, so Maddy crept into the nest. It could have crashed and then she would have fallen to the ground and broken every bone. But the sticks held her weight. Maddy wanted to see if what her mother said was true, if the heron would watch over her. Herons had no choice but to be loyal, her mother had said, it was in their nature.
    When Maddy woke up, her legs were cramping from sleeping in the tree. There were red bug bites on her elbows and knees. The sky was breaking with the first streaks of light. She heard water and what sounded like her sister's voice. Maddy looked down at the marsh and there was Allie, standing in the shallow water with the blue heron. Anyone would guess that a heron would be afraid of a girl and that a girl would be afraid as well, but that didn't seem to be the case. Allie got so close she was almost touching him before he flew away. She turned to wave at the sky and when she did she saw Maddy, up in the tree. Allie's pale hair was the color of the reeds. Of course he had chosen her.

    P AUL DIDN'T COME to the Lion Park the next day, even though she had left a message on his answering machine making it clear she would consider phoning Allie to tell her everything. She had resorted to threats. She didn't care how low she'd sunk. Maddy had left word at the desk that she was expecting a visitor; they could ring her room when he arrived. She had the impulse to say it was her husband she was waiting for, but even she couldn't tell a lie that big.
    She sat in the hot room until she