Taw-weet, taw-weet, taw-weet…

The sound distracted her from her homework. (Of course, she hated Algebra, so maybe she was looking for distractions.) A cardinal was perched outside her window. It began tweeting again.

She stared at it for a long while. Her mom always said that cardinals were a sign that departed loved ones were visiting. She didn’t know if it was true, but she knew that her Aunt Phoebe had always loved math. She’d been getting her degree in statistics before the car accident.

“Hey, Aunt Phoebe,” she told the cardinal. She smiled, a little sadly and a little hopefully, and then returned to her equations.