Flanders, George and His Pimavanserin

All crows are smart, but Pimavanserin is the smartest. It was she who long ago domesticated the fierce coyotes of the desert. Now, she perches atop the highest spire of their roost, the most splendorous cactus in this land of red clay, and waits⁠—every day⁠—for Flanders, George.Crows have no equals except, perhaps, for the great apes. The beasts seldom bother the flock, confined instead to their shiny white building, transported away and back again by the metal boxes they’ve tamed. Occasionally, the crows need some service from the apes, so they’ll ingratiate themselves with an offering⁠—a gift⁠—invariably taken from another of their kind. (Apes haven’t the intelligence to consider the origin of things.) Still, it’s never happened that one has humbled himself enough to make a crow such an offering. That is, until Pimavanserin.Flanders, George is a hairy ape. He wears a gown to just past his knees and a pair of slippers that sometimes falls off in the sand. Shoeless or not, he smiles…