She gave her name in a whisper but it didn't chill him. He supposed he should be, maybe, scared or something. She was a ghost - but Mia radiated kindness. What was frightening, was the blood on her night gown. He was sure it was blood. Had to be blood. Speckled and spattered down her front.

Mathias caught himself staring but Mia might not have noticed with her head down like that. He was glad, if she hadn't noticed because she seemed so timid and fragile. He didn't want to scare her away. And how strange was that? He didn't want to scare the ghost!

She had offered to introduce him to her songbird. "I'd love to meet Oli" Mathias replied, with real feeling.

Mathias looked out the window. It was almost full dark now. The sun had dipped below the horizon while they'd been chatting. "It's pretty dark. Does he nest outside?" Somehow, Matty didn't think so. In his fuzzy memories of seeing a crimson songbird swooping about in the yard, Matty could recall watching it flit up into the eaves of the house. He wondered if maybe Mia and Oliver stayed in the attic but he never heard or felt or sensed anything up there. Oliver's bird-song had never wafted down the ladder-steps.

Of course it was hard to hear much of anything over his parents fighting.