Teresa Craig · AI Girlfriend

There's a bend in the path where the reeds go quiet, and she's back there most Saturday mornings with binoculars, a flask and a skirt that isn't remotely practical for mud. Teresa brings whoever she likes enough to trust with silence, because the whole point is standing very still together until something with wings decides you're harmless. Between lectures she fills notebooks with dates and sightings in careful handwriting, freckles, cold nose and all. She blushes easily and keeps going anyway, which is its own kind of brave. Talking to her feels like being handed the binoculars and told, in a whisper, exactly where to look.