Friday, April 1, 2022 Waverly Diner, West Village, Manhattan, New York, United States

They sat together at a table in a diner. Isaac nursing the scrape on the side of his face.

“You alright honey?” asked the waitress.

“Just fine ma’am. Tripped and fell. These ladies helped me out and I’m just buying them a little thanks.” Isaac said smoothly.

“Your voice is different,” Ella observed.

“Girls go for the Texan cowboy thing.”

Charlie snickered, “You from Montana like I heard? Or just a bridge-and-tunnel poseur?”

“Yep. From Montana. And no more B&T than a southern lady like you.”

“Touché,” said Charlie, clearly enjoying the repartee.

Ella took firmer control of the conversation, “Let’s start over. I’m Ella. This is my friend Charlie. Who are you?”

“Name’s Isaac Black Wolf.”

“Your mother not like you very much?” Charlie asked.

“My ma likes me just fine. I’m half Crow tribe, on my pa’s side.”

“And you really were a police officer?”

“Yes ma’am.” And damn if he didn’t tip his hat.

“And now you are a law student at Columbia?”

He nodded yes.

“So what’s the deal with the bird?”

Isaac looked at both of them. Really looked.

“She,” pointing to Charlie, “can’t see it, can she? But you can.” His finger moved over to point to Ella.

“Observant.”

“Gotta be as a police officer.”

“So? The bird.”

“Okay, okay,” Isaac was talking directly to his left shoulder. “The ‘bird’s’ name is Peelatchachía. It means ‘White Raven’ in Crow.”

“Not very creative on the name, is it?” asked Charlie.

“Shut up bird. It says at least it can see you. And… something about a ‘scorpion boy’?”

Charlie blushed and muttered “smartass ghost bird.”

“So… the bird?”

“Wait, how can you see it?”

“You first.”

He sat back and hmmm'ed a bit. Then leaned forward, “This story ain’t pretty. You sure you want to know?”

Ella and Charlie couldn’t have been pried away with a crowbar.

“It all started when I found a poor little 10 year old boy, dead in the snow…”

He recounted the bodies, the missing organs, omitting the rapes. Then the Sun Dance and the dream of the white raven and the eventual shooting of the murderer.

Ella sat back and thought for a bit.

“Okay. I am going to go back on my word a bit.”

Isaac just watched her.

“Here is my email and phone,” and she quickly wrote on a napkin her phone number and email.

“I can tell you how I can see the raven. And I have a good idea about part of what happened to that murderer that drove him nuts. But…” and she sat there thinking how to say it.

“It ain’t safe to know, pardner,” interrupted Charlie.

“That is right. Knowing even some of it would put you in danger maybe. And I can’t tell you everything even then. So think about it.” Ella sat back and watched Isaac.

He looked at them and looked down at the napkin.

He then put the napkin in his pocket, “Well tonight isn’t a complete bust, got a girl’s digits.” And he winked.

But his face became serious and he leaned forward, “I can tell you now I want to know.”

“The danger is the kind of stuff that raven represents.”

“Figured. I still want to know.”

“Okay. Let’s go… we need somewhere private.”

“Dates getting better and better.”

“You aren’t getting lucky tonight, you know that, right?”

He laughed. “Just kidding.”

And then his face got serious again, Ella was fascinated by how his expressions could shift. “But, I would like to take you out, like on a date.”

Ella looked at him. He was quite absurdly handsome. Maybe not Etana gorgeous, but he had cheekbones that an actor would envy, a square jaw, and a nice ass from what she remembered scoping him out at the bar. And then she blushed, cursing herself for letting her mind go there.

Another shift and he was laughing, “I’ll take that as a yes…. anyway, you take the lead.”

They finished the coffees in front of them and headed out, and for want of a better place, back to the alley where she had mugged him.

She turned to face him, reached up, and slid her contacts out of her eyes.

And let her eyes glow.

“This is why I can see your bird.”

“Yeah.” Isaac didn’t have much to say to that.

Later they were walking back to the subway station.

“It’s the cowboy hat, isn’t it?” Charlie asked.

Ella determinately looked straight ahead and didn’t answer.

“Or his butt,” Charlie pressed forward.

Ella couldn’t help it, she laughed.