A scuffling in the bushes outside the living room window caught my ear after I turned the TV off, and a chirpy little voice I didn't recognize: "So, now, wait. You want us to...what?" El Brujo's voice answered, "It's very simple," and I felt both relief and wariness. She'd gone out earlier in the morning and then hadn't shown up when I'd rolled out to watch the new My Little Pony episode even though making snoring noises and snarky comments during my shows has always been one of her favorite pastimes. That she'd missed a session had worried me, but discovering that she was lurking in the bushes outside, I found, worried me even more. I worked my way a little closer to the partially- opened window, the getting-on-toward-becoming warm March breeze ruffling the curtains, and listened. "You build your nest here," El Brujo was saying, "and I'll keep it safe from all the other predators." "Wow!" a different chirpy voice said. "That's a great idea, honey! Someone to watch over the--" "Uh-huh," came the first chirpy voice. "And when you say 'the other predators,' you mean other than yourself, is that it?" A little silence, then a loud cracking and rustling. I pulled the curtains back in time to see two sparrows winging off over Mrs. Hartson's house, El Brujo sitting partially sunk in the top of the hedge, her eyes also on the fleeing birds. I cleared my throat. "No one buying what you're selling today?" She leaned forward and dropped gracefully from the bush to the dirt of Mrs. Hartson's garden, still bare this early in the spring. "Just a failed experiment, August." She looked up at me, her tail flicking slightly. "One never knows, after all, unless one tries."
It then continues with 6.
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