The Crow’s Sweet Gift

A clunk and sharp pain announced the first gift he’d gotten in… months? Probably months. Everything ran together. Even the seasons were confused.

Time was kept differently now. It was kept by how many times you’d eaten since you’d slept, how much fresh water you had, and how many steps it would take to rush to shelter.

Ollie snatched the source of his new pain as it fell while instinctively slapping his other hand over his mouth to muffle a yelp. Something had crashed from above, cracking him heavily on his head. “The sky is falling, chicken little,” he thought with a suppressed giggle as he scanned the wide open skies.

After he was satisfied that nothing else was going to come careening down on him, Ollie looked at the offending bit of sky he’d caught. It turned out that it wasn’t a bit of sky at all. In his hand was a little heart shaped pendant and it’s weathered leather cord. A cutesy scrolling pattern covered it’s tarnished silver surface. Turning it over, Ollie noticed a hair line along the edge. Prying with his filthy thumb nail, and then with his much cleaner knife, finally snapped it open. He hadn’t known what to expect to find in the locket, but he was disappointed anyway. The inside was as empty as Ollie’s stomach.

Ca-AWW! For the second time, Ollie instinctively slapped his hand over his mouth to stifle a cry. Out of the bright sky that had just assaulted him dropped an enormous bird. Metallic emeralds shimmered in it’s blackest black feathers as it examined Ollie with inky, glinting eyes before taking several deliberate hops in his direction.

Not sure what else to do, Ollie took several corresponding steps back. Even before The Crash, he’d not been much for animals. They were cute and all, but he’d preferred his birds fried on a plate.

Ca-AWW! The crow shuffle hopped around. CaaaW AWWWW!

“OH! Is this your’s?” he asked the excited bird. Then he felt ridiculous for expecting a response. “Why am I talking to it?” crossed his mind as he gently tossed the little locket over.

The crow’s beady black eyes watched the necklace plop onto the ground in front of it. It looked back up at Ollie. Ca-AWW! “What do you want?” he asked.

Carefully scooping the locket’s cord up in his beak, the crow took slow steps over to what it now considered to be quite an exasperating human. Why did they always have to be exasperating? It laid the locket at Ollie’s feet with deliberation.

Not knowing what else to do, Ollie scooped it up and slipped it onto his neck. He was surprised how good the weight of it felt on his chest. Like it was always supposed to be there. “Thank you,” he smiled. “I don’t have anything to give you back though.”

The last raid had wiped him out. People were doing what they could after The Crash. Everything was gone. No one knew how to grow food or where they were supposed to find livestock. Well, no one that he knew knew any of those things. There were runs on supplies as record inflation closed more and more companies. Now people don't go to grocery stores. It wasn’t safe and they were empty now anyway.

Ollie thought he’d found a good place with the little group out in the suburbs. Well north of the city, they’d uncovered a well and even rigged up filtration. Ollie hadn’t understood how it all worked, but it was his job to drop narrow plastic containers down the well, draw up water, and carefully pour it through this bigger container that had layers of stuff in it. It was monotonous and tiring, but he thought that was as close to happy as he was going to get right now. At least he didn’t go hungry or thirsty while he was there.

But it didn’t last. Nothing did anymore. Someone was always looking to take what you had because they didn’t have anything. When they came, Ollie hadn’t even tried to fight back. He grabbed what he could and took off. He hoped everyone else would be okay. They’d probably be okay. Maybe he should have stayed to see if he’d have been okay too.

There’s only so far you can stretch a couple cans of food and one jug of water. It got him away though. He had no way of knowing what happened to the dozens of other people he’d been with.

“Let’s change the subject,” he said out loud. Ca-AWW! replied the crow. Ollie surprised himself with a grin. He decided the bird was better than having no company at all.

“Ok, we need food today. I don’t think I ate yesterday and I’d rather not eat you.” CaaaW AWWWW! “Glad you agree.”

They had a goal now, but Ollie had no plan. He hadn’t known quite where he was and anyway…

CaaaW AWWWW! CaaaW! The crow launched off the ground and flew toward the afternoon sun. When Ollie didn’t immediately follow, his new feathered friend zig zagged until he got the message. Why did they always have to be exasperating?

The afternoon sun had become an evening sun by the time the mismatched friends tumbled from the back roads. Ollie froze. A handful of buildings huddled around a small intersection up ahead. Just an old burnt out gas station, a dollar store, and a few other nondescript single story structures. Boards were haphazardly nailed over the windows, signs were busted, and doors hung ajar. Catching his breath and straining his ears, every muscle in his body was taunt and ready to flee. Songbirds trilled as they started to wind down for the day. A light breeze ruffled the leaves in the scattered trees and something metallic squeaked.

CaaaW AWWWW! For the third time, Ollie’s hand smacked over his mouth. For the third time, that crow almost made him cry out. Scowling at the bird, he hissed “That needs to be the last time you do that to me. Otherwise, we can’t be friends.”

Lazily circling just overhead, the crow quorked back and wondered again how something so exasperating could have ruled the world for so long. The sun would be down soon. They needed to get a move on. CaaaW AWWWW!

Zigging and zagging didn’t prompt Ollie to follow the crow this time. After several attempts to encourage this exasperating human forward, the bird disappeared into the clutch of buildings.

“No… No, don’t leave me here,” Ollie hoarsely whispered, to his own surprise. He reached up to his chest and laid a shaky hand on that precious, painful gift. The locket sat heavy over his heart. Why did he care about this random bird? Prickly holly leaves picked at Ollie’s clothes as he crouched by the empty roadside. Squinting into the setting sun, he tried to catch a glance of those shiny black feathers again.

It was barely more than a couple minutes, but it felt like hours before Ollie saw a familiar shadow rise from the dark shell of the dollar store. He was glad no one was around to see him rub the wetness from his eyes.

Ca-AWW! The crow flapped back to his new friend with a new gift, dropping a protein bar on the road in front of a stunned Ollie. Eyes wide and mouth hung open, he just stood there staring at it, not feeling like it was quite real.

Turning its head this way and that, watching this exasperating human stare at the little rumbled package at his feet, the bird’s patience wore thin. Why did they always have to be exasperating? Finally the crow hopped over and nudged the food closer with its beak. Ca-AWW!

Ollie jolted out from the bush and snatched the protein bar from the ground. Tearing into it, he ate nearly all of it in one bite. It took everything in him not to gobble the whole thing, but that seemed rude. Saving a bit, he tossed it to his new best friend. The crow regarded the offered morsel. If birds could shrug, he would have as he hopped over and ate the offered tidbit.

“Thank you! Oh my gosh! I… I just… Is there more?” Ollie focused on those buildings. They had been terrifying before, but the unknown was now full of food. How much more could be there? The specter of enemies in the shadows disappeared as his stomach gurgled and made demands. “Let’s go find more.”

FINALLY! Exasperating things. Quorking triumphantly, the crow pushed off and spun a few victory loops over Ollie’s head before cruising across the road toward the buildings.

One creeping step at a time, Ollie followed. Though he was ready to explore and hunt for more food, he couldn’t force himself to move faster. His feet filled with frigid concrete and he couldn’t make himself take a full breath. Ollie couldn’t remember when hunger had last been fully saited. After a few bites of protein bar, his body demanded access to that store.

Long shadows fell as twilight slinked into the sky. “Maybe I can stay here. Tonight at least,” mumbled Ollie. “Maybe.” The door to the dollar store faced East and he had no flashlight, so the interior was deeply cloaked. He tried to listen to that darkness, but couldn’t hear anything over the badgering of his stomach.

Hands extended, Ollie felt his way through the glass doors that had been broken and propped open a while ago. Last fall’s crunchy leaves were scattered around just inside the entrance. The checkout counter was on the left and had a thick coating of dust over it’s yellow top. Someone had been there at some point because the register was smashed on the floor and only a few lonely pennies had been left behind.

Ca-AWW! Fourth time. Fourth time that dang crow made Ollie stifle himself. He couldn’t be mad about it this time. Not after the gifts his new friend had brought him. Sliding his hand off his mouth, he squeezed the locket. The sweat and trembling made it hard to grasp it, but it was still comforting.

The crow was quorking from somewhere deep in the shelves that loomed in the dark. Tip toeing further, Ollie squinted as he groped for food or anything else he could find on those shelves. These must have been cleared off when the register was looted. There was nothing but more dust and some shreds of plastic. He’d have to go deeper and keep following that quorking.

“That is a mighty fine necklace you have there, boy.”

Pure ice ran up his spine and poured into his gut. Spinning in place, Ollie plunged back toward the dim rectangle of light marking the doors. His feet tangled on nothing and he pitched forward, smashing face first into the filthy floor.

“Here! Take it!” Ollie turned and flung the locket into the dark.

“It’s not nice to throw away gifts,” said a bearish voice. “We always appreciate the gifts that the crow brings us.” Scattered muffled laughter filled Ollie’s ears. “Such delicious gifts.”

His own screams filled Ollie’s ears.

The next morning, the crow flapped lazily out into the bright day, a tarnished locket dangling from its beak. It was time to make a new friend.