Something On the Wind

Something odd occurred this morning when I arrived at work. As has been my custom for years, I took crackers and a few leftover rolls and sprinkled them on the ground for the crows. The black birds were already there waiting for me, perched in the trees ringing the parking lot and atop a couple of the light poles. They watched me with their expressionless faces while I put their breakfast in place, and I went on into the building.

About ten o’clock, a fire alarm went off in the building and we all filed out into the parking lot per protocol to wait for the all-clear. I detached myself from the gossiping gaggle of whisperers and strolled over near where I park. I noticed that the bread and crackers were still where I’d left it — odd. Then I noticed that six of the crows were in the lower parking lot outside a nearby building. This was most unusual at that time of day. The crows were not feeding on anything. They were just standing in a loose group down in that parking lot. And they were looking up in my direction.

I picked up a few pieces of bread and tossed it up in the air to try and draw their interest. The crows seemed to be still watching me, but they were as still as the stripes painted on the asphalt next to them. In a while, we got the all-clear signal and returned to work.

I thought about this unusual behavior for the rest of the morning. Every day since I started my morning ritual with the corvids, the birds swoop down and gather the bread or crackers as soon as I get just a few paces away. They usually eat just a bite and then scoop up the rest and soar off to wherever they nest. But today…they didn’t touch a crumb. And they waited, apparently for hours. And they saw me.

And I asked myself the question that loomed up in my mind as dark as a rain cloud. Did they happen to catch a fragment of the prayer I pushed up into the skies last night while Jinx and I were making our way home, the clouds split apart by dry and rainless thunder and lit from within by an eerie, seashell-colored light? Did they hear my request, and did they discuss it amongst themselves the way my coworkers cluck and fuss at any stimuli that comes their way? 

Inwardly twitchy man that I am, I will be watching for signs and portents and symbols in the coming days. And I will still be pushing prayers up into the dark skies when I walk alone with the dear friend who never speaks to me except with his eyes and in my mind.

~ S. K. Orr