“It’s not what we want, but what we need.”

“And that is?”

“Well, um…do threes have names?” It was the first one, who, along with each confirmation of the statements of the other, became more deferential.

“Of course we have names.”

“Such that they are.”

“It’s Taryn.”

“See?”

“Fine, what are your names if they’re so great?”

And then the first one said something so beautiful and grand and important yet true that Taryn couldn’t breathe for the pure perfection.

“OK, that’s pretty great. I’ll never ve able to say it but it’s great.”

“You think so? It’s kind of plain. You can call us Alex and Sam. Can you pronounce that?”

“Yeah I can swing it. Can I keep walking? Because people are starting to stare.”

“Walking? Is that what that peculiar motion is called? Feel free, we’ll talk as we go.”

Taryn took a huge swig of her coffee, now on the warm side of hot, covering the rest of the distance to her building while trying to ignore the random “fives” coming at her. The crow kept pace, apparently eager to see how it all played out.

“You didn’t say what you needed me for,” she said, the donut bag rustling as she walked.

“Nothing huge,” said the second one, the one who’d chosen Sam. “You just need to save all that ever was, is, and will be.”

She froze as her neighbor wandered out of the building and back to the mailbox,  lest he heard her. “Yeah, sure, right. Everything evewhere–“

“And when,” Alex offered helpfully.

“Fine, I’ll bite. From what?”

“From him.”

Until next time…