The Someday Birds

Charlie feels tired of driving. The dog is stinky, and the car is too small. He tries to ask Ludmila about her life to distract himself. She doesn’t answer his questions directly and instead tells him a story about her brother, Amar. Charlie wonders if he’s dead but doesn’t ask.

Charlie and his family stop near a mountain in Wyoming. They let the dog out in the dark. Finally, Ludmila’s friend Dr. Joan comes down the mountain in a truck to pick them up. Charlie wants to call Gram but gets distracted when Dr. Joan points out a great horned owl, or GHO, flying overhead. He can’t wait to tell Dad that he’s checked one bird off their list.

Dr. Joan and her graduate students run an infrared observatory at the top of the mountain, and she’s letting Charlie’s family stay with her for the night. In the morning, they’re going to take her RV Old Bessie and leave Ludmila’s little car behind. Charlie also learns that Dr. Joan was one of Ludmila’s foster mothers and overhears her talking about Amar. Charlie realizes Ludmila’s brother is dead.

After everyone eats and settles in, one of Dr. Joan’s students takes Charlie to the observatory to see the telescope. Afterwards, Dr. Joan invites Charlie to go outside to see the night sky with her. Charlie doesn’t want to wear the dirty coat she offers him, but he agrees. Once outside, he’s excited to see the stars and the GHO again. Walking back to the house, Dr. Joan tells Charlie that Amar died in Afghanistan, which is why Ludmila has been visiting Dad. She and Amar “were war orphans” whose family died during the Bosnian siege in the 1990s (105).

Charlie and his family pack up and leave Wyoming in Old Bessie the next morning. Charlie secretly hopes they can visit the Sanctuary Marsh that Tiberius has written about, as it’s not far from Dad’s hospital in Virginia. However, the inside of the RV is dirty and stinky, and Charlie isn’t sure he’s going to survive the rest of the drive to Virginia (111). However, he is happy when he looks up and sees that there are stars on the RV ceiling.

Ludmila tells Charlie and his siblings that Gram wants them to take their time and have fun on the road. Dad’s tests are going well, and his new doctor, Dr. Spielman, is taking good care of him. Ludmila asks the kids what they want to see along the way. Everyone groans when Charlie says he wants to go places where they can find more birds on his list.

Charlie’s family arrives in Yellowstone National Park, where Charlie hopes to find a trumpeter swan. They park the RV at a campsite and go to a store for food. Charlie is upset when he realizes he doesn’t want any of the food and discovers that the bathroom is out of soap. He begs Ludmila to take him to the Old Faithful Lodge restroom, which is supposedly the cleanest one at the park (121). Meanwhile, the twins approach some bison, and a young man named Tony warns them about upsetting the animals.

Charlie used to be able to count on Davis. She helped him understand people’s facial expressions and would tell him not to worry when people bullied him. Now Charlie doesn’t know if Davis is on his side. She rushes him in the bathroom, insisting he’s going to miss the geyser and won’t be able to find his swan if he doesn’t stop washing his hands. Back outside, Charlie spots some swans in the distance but can’t tell if they’re trumpeters. He marks them down as a maybe in his Bird Book.

Charlie lies in his bunk with the dog while his family has a bonfire outside the camper. He wonders what they should name the dog and decides to call him Tiberius. After everyone’s asleep later, Charlie reads Shaw’s journal and thinks about flockers and loners. In the morning, he takes Tiberius out and studies a maple leaf while he waits. He then sees screech owl and decides to add it to his list. He wishes he didn’t have to get back in the camper and could hide in a hole like the owl instead.