Mr. Harlan's Birds

Mr. Harlan was a familiar sight around town. A towering man with odd habits, strange conversations, and a habit of buying birdseed for birds no one else could see. People didn't understand him. But they got used to him. The cashier smiled. The mailman nodded. The town learned to work around him the way a river works around a large stone. Then his mother disappeared. At least, everyone else thought...