Cowbirds

Cowbirds by Tessa James (a short story contest entry) 

Maeve thought about cowbirds as her eyes traced the clear tubing leading from her teenage daughter’s arm to the IV bag, plump with fluids meant to quell the storm created when a virus collides with starvation. How did she miss the “die” in diet? What Maeve once considered audacity on the cowbird’s part—laying her speckled eggs in others’ nests—she now conceded might be wisdom. Letting a better bird raise your baby.