Copper stopped and stared at it with deep mistrust. So did Selena.
It was definitely a peacock. There was nothing else it could be. He was bright blue and had a tail made for strutting and he was wildly out of place.
Peacocks don’t live in the desert. Peacocks are, like ... jungle birds, right?
The misplaced peacock turned his head and said, “Ai-yowp! Ai-yowp!”
The door of the old adobe banged open, and a woman came out.
She was a little taller than Selena, wearing a faded cotton skirt and an open leather vest. Silver and turquoise bangles clattered on bony wrists.
“Goddamn bird!” The woman charged at the peacock, arms waving. “Git! Go back home! Swear to the Lord, I’m gonna go down there and tell Jack to put you in a stew!”
“Ai-yowp!” shrieked the peacock, pacing down the wall toward Selena.
Selena took a deep breath. “Excuse me ...”
“Sweet Jesus!” She reeled back, hand to heart. “Sorry, didn’t see you there. I was yelling at the bird, not you.”
“No, it’s okay. I figured that.” Selena glanced at the adobe, saw it had a blue door. “Um. I’m looking for ... uh ... Jackrabbit Hole House?”
“Sure, it’s just a little bit up the way. Follow the road. You can almost see it, but there’s trees in the way.” The woman stuck out a hand. “I’m Grandma Billy.”
“Selena.” Selena shook. She had shaken a lot of hands today. “Grandma ...?” she asked tentatively.
“Grandma Billy,” said Grandma Billy firmly. “Billy was my second husband and I’m too old to change it now.”
Selena nodded.
The peacock, apparently annoyed that he wasn’t the center of attention, shrieked next to Selena’s ear. She jumped away, startled, and Copper let out a warning bark.
“Damn bird, you’re causing nothing but trouble. Go on! Git!” Grandma flapped her skirt at the bird. He stuck his beak in the air and stalked away down the road, back toward town.
“That’s Merv,” said Grandma. “Samuel’s oldest mail-ordered some chicks from the city, supposed to be some kind of new super-chicken. Half of ’em didn’t hatch and the other half were peacocks, but he’s never been able to admit he was had.” She glared down the road after the retreating peacock. “Stupid bird comes around and my rooster loses his damn mind. I tell him he can’t compete with a peacock, but he about kills himself trying.”
“Well, they’re very pretty,” said Selena, carefully.Was that a stupid thing to say? That was probably stupid.Obviouslythey’re pretty. Damn.
“Sure are,” said Grandma. “Up on the mesas, they call ’em ‘sun turkeys,’ or so I’m told. Pretty sort of name. Shame about the personality. Can I get you something to drink?”
Fortunately Selena had lots of scripts for this sort of thing. “That would be lovely,” she said, “if it’s not too much trouble.”
“No trouble,” said Grandma. “You must be about parched. This lady too.” She crouched down on her heels, skirt making a broad circle in the dust. Silver chimed as she held out a hand to Copper.
Copper, who knew that she was being approached correctly, perked her ears forward and gave Grandma’s hand an emphatic lick, then thumped her broad skull into the waiting fingers. Grandma petted the Lab’s ears gravely.
“She a chicken killer?”
Selena blinked. “I don’t think Copper’s ever met a chicken.”
“We’ll play it safe, then. Some good dogs out there that can’t be around chickens. Stay out here on the front porch, I’ll be right back.”
She swept through the blue door. Selena wasn’t sure if it was okay to sit down on the porch, even though there were rocking chairs with woven blankets thrown over them.
She leaned against one of the porch pillars instead. Copper, who had no such compunctions, flopped down on the boards.
There was a wooden plaque next to the door that saidBlue Horned Toad House, with a little drawing of a lizard under it, painted bright blue.
It was oddly quiet. The cicadas were buzzing, but you didn’t notice the sound until they stopped. It didn’t seem like noise as much as a manifestation of the heat, like the ripples coming off the road.
