“I have been waiting for a sign. I knew that if I waited here long enough my bird, that tarishawk that rests here each day, I knew that he would come. Our Mother said that if he flew from the right, then I would have good fortune. If he came from the left, my journey would be disastrous for me, and it would bear no positive fruits for you.â€
“And the hawk? Which way did it come? Did it come from the left?â€
Dore smiled once more; his smile was always the most cheerless aspect of him. “The hawk has not come at all,†he said.
George Alec Effinger