Li Yang's prediction was wrong. As they drew closer to the corner of the street, they saw a man emerge from the house right on that corner. He appeared to be waving a stick over his head. When they got closer, they saw that the man was very old, and that the stick he was waving was an elegant, wooden walking stick.
The man hobbled onto what once had been a front lawn, presently functioning as a plot for growing food. He heard Li Yang and Jake approaching and stopped and turned and looked at them. He shook the walking stick above his head and screeched:
"Thievin' little bastards!"
To Li Yang's surprise, Jake slowed down instead of speeding up, and stopped in front of the old man.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"The boids," the old man said. "The boids are back."
He drew his head back and pointed with his stick.
"See?" he said. "They're back."
