My dreams are so real that I wake up uncertain if it was just a hallucination. I was watching in horror, my 3 crows get at a defenseless song bird. I am aware that they are natural predators, but I never imagined the brutality of predator and prey. I was abruptly awakened by screaming caws into my apartment from my balcony. I am so relieved, it’s one of of my stray black birds, Ocho. Ocho saved me from enduring a bloody nightmare by gifting me pieces of abalone shell and coins at the bottom of her food dish. I’ve been waiting for this moment for weeks. It’s finally here and the feeling is everything I imagined it would be- euphoria. It wasn’t daytime or night, but it is very important that I know when I should expect to receive from the crows that I’ve been feeding for months. Outside while inside, attempting to understand time, suddenly there is a crash followed by a bang. A stranger is trying to break into my home. I am in a real nightmare. I can feel the desperation in the form of a swish of breeze that lightly moves my hair with every strike of the door. The feeling is intense, but I am still as I succumb to impending torture. Ocho screams into my apartment again and again, I am awake, looking into bottom of the food dish for the seashells.