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sporting goods store.
    â€œOh!” Natasha said, stumbling backward.
    â€œIndeed!” the woman said, and she winked.
    Natasha was unnerved. When someone barreled into you, you didn’t respond by winking. Winking made no sense.
    Little about the old lady made sense. Not only had she appeared out of nowhere, but she had on the most peculiar outfit Natasha had ever seen—and that included the many creative choices Ava had made over the years.
    It was late February, and snow blanketed the town. It would remain snowy for several more weeks at least, and yet the lady Natasha bumped into wore fleecy pink pajama bottoms and bunny slippers. With bunny ears. A bright yellow raincoat was layered over a wool sweater, and topping off the ensemble was a blue silk scarf.
    The scarf, which was wrapped around the old lady’s shoulders, was beautifully embroidered. It depicted a little girl with a basket looped over her bent elbow. The girl wore a hooded cape and was looking over her shoulder.
    Natasha recognized the girl immediately. InAmerica, she was called Little Red Riding Hood. Natasha’s Russian ancestors would have called her Little Red Cap.
    Natasha’s mother had owned a similar “story” scarf, only hers showed a girl being spirited away by an enormous goose.
    â€œI’m so sorry,” Natasha said to the old lady. She had the feeling she knew her, or was supposed to. “Are you all right?”
    The old lady wagged her finger. “No, no, no,” she chided.
    Natasha frowned. No, no, no what? No, the old lady wasn’t all right?
    She looked all right. She looked more than all right. Her cheeks were wrinkled, but rosy, and her eyes gleamed with intelligence.
    Then again, her fingernails were ragged and torn, and her hair was a nest of tangled gray fluff. Natasha spotted twigs among the strands. Twigs and leaves and—was that a sparrow? Was a sparrow peering at Natasha through the thicket of the old lady’s hair?
    The sparrow cocked its head and chirped.
    Natasha jumped. The old lady laughed, and Natasha grew warm from head to toe.
    But that’s how Natasha knew her. Of course. Shewas the Bird Lady, Willow Hill’s resident eccentric.
    She wasn’t just old; she was ancient. No one could remember a time before the Bird Lady. Some said there would never be an after . Rumor had it that her impossible wish was to live forever. Others joked that actually, that was the wish she’d made come true herself.
    Also, the Bird Lady knew things, things that she shouldn’t.
    Some blamed the town’s birds, accusing them of gathering secrets like seeds and whispering them into the Bird Lady’s ear.
    Others argued that the Bird Lady turned into a bird and did her eavesdropping in that form.
    Still others waved their hands at such nonsense. They said the Bird Lady was odd, but harmless. That birds flocked around her because she scattered crumbs for them, that she should eat the food people gave her instead of wasting it, and that if she knew too much about the townspeople’s business, it was because the townspeople spoke too freely around her, as if she weren’t even there.
    Natasha could understand how that might happen. It was as if the Bird Lady had been invisible right up until the moment Natasha bumped into her.
    Natasha gathered herself together. “I’m so sorry,”she said for the second time. “I didn’t see you, which was totally my fault.”
    â€œWell, yes,” the Bird Lady said. “Anyone could see that. Anyone with half a brain, that is.”
    â€œExcuse me?”
    The Bird Lady cocked her head. The sparrow nesting in the Bird Lady’s hair cocked its head.
    Natasha, without meaning to, cocked her head.
    The Bird Lady laughed. “Silly girl. Emily was a silly girl, too.”
    Emily? Who the heck was Emily?
    â€œThere’s nothing wrong with silly girls,” the Bird Lady said. “I, myself, like silly