Where Vultures Fly

De: Darlene Zagata

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

The vultures knew before anyone else.

They circled high above the ocotillo and barrel cactus, riding the thermals that rose from the baked earth like prayers to an indifferent sky. Seven of them, maybe eight—it was hard to count when they wheeled and turned, their shadows racing across the desert floor.

Kate Brennan shielded her eyes with her hand and watched them from her kitchen window. Coffee grew cold in her cup as she counted the lazy circles, each revolution tightening the knot in her stomach. The birds had been there since dawn, and now the sun was climbing toward its merciless peak.

"Mija," she called to her daughter, who was getting ready for school. "Stay close to town today. No shortcuts through the desert."

"Why, Mama?"

Kate didn't answer. How could she explain that the vultures always knew? That in Perdition Wells, when the birds gathered, someone was about to become lost to the desert forever.

By noon, seventeen-year-old Cassie Brennan would be reported missing.

By sunset, the vultures would be gone.

And Kate would spend the rest of her life wondering if she should have done more than just watch from her window, counting circles in the sky.