The Ingathering

What bad did I do?
The silence surrounding the sudden loss of everyone and everything torments Alex with this question, as if he were powerful enough to cause the winds of misfortune to blow his world away.
Robert has suffered losses this year, too: his divorce and the death of his father and his parrot, Benjie. The house is quiet—too quiet—until Robert calls the Roseville Avian Rescue and Rehabilitation Sanctuary for another parrot. That parrot is Alex.
The assistant manager, Sarah, a thoroughly modern miss with a heart for home and husband, helps Robert with his adoption. They are attracted to each other and start dating after Robert adopts a friend for Alex. “Friends leave,” Alex says. “Moms and Dads leave.”
Annie comes with a slight defect; she bites. “I bite to protect myself. I’m afraid.” A cage of fear is all she’s known. Flying is for the birds beyond her window.
Alex, a grand eclectus and mathematician extraordinaire, can’t abide a bird that bites. “Gone! I want her gone!” This draws the attention of Ima Knowalot, Trustee of the Bird Kingdom, and she appears to reason with him. But Alex is angry. “I wasn’t informed, and now I find out that our dear, sweet, mild-tempered, easygoing Annie bites. Had they named her Fang, I might have guessed.”
The terrain ahead is strewn with small tripping stones for tolerance and trust are not easily learned nor are hardened habits easily broken. Will Alex, Annie, Robert, and Sarah wend their way together to weave an unusual flock, or will threads fray with every fall?
Stephanie Langson’s debut novella The Ingathering: A Tale of Two Species is a quirky tale of four characters drawn together by the need to give and the need to receive.