watchfulcrows

Watchful Crows

It is a dark night. A night that makes dark bodies comfortable in their invisibility. It is a city night, dense with fog to block out the stars and confuse the streetlights. Apartment windows piled on top of each other frown down on the alleys below, and the evil creatures that live there.

Perched on a cracked and crumbling ledge hanging over a doorframe sit three companions: Flip, Jed and Beak. All three of them are enjoying the night, ruffling their feathers against the cold and occasionally shifting their bony yellow feet. Their eyes glint now and then as they survey the passers by, knowing that the dark night is their camouflage, blending in with their black feathers and dark pointed grins.

They watch as people sit and talk below them at a coffee shop. All of them are hoping that someone will drop a scrap of food for them but this is the second night in a row that they have gone hungry. Most people are simply sitting and drinking, except for one table. They watch in unison as an oversized woman sits, unwrapping an oversized cookie and talks to a man.

“I can't believe they haven't caught him yet!” The woman complains. The three companions watch in unison as she lifts the cookie to her mouth and tears off a large chunk. Not a single crumb escapes her jaws. “I mean you would think that all these police officers that aren't too busy to sit on the side of the road and pass out speeding tickets could get out there and do some real detective work… like catching a murdering rapist!” The man nods silently and sips his coffee. Again, Flip, Jed and Beak watch in unison as the cookie makes its way from the napkin to her gaping mouth, and then back again without so much as a single crumb hitting the ground.

A worker comes around as the coffee shop is closing and begins to gather up all the left over paper cups. The woman glances at her cookie and then tosses it in the workers trash bin as he it tying it up. The three companions caw and flap their wings in frustration. It seems they will go hungry for at least one more night. The woman, still talking, and the man get in their car and leave as the worker locks the door and takes the trash out back to the dumpsters.

For a while, the night is silent. The crows sit still, hesitant to leave, should any more food show up, but reluctant to remain in the quiet. After a half hour, a lone figure approaches from the distant dark. All three crows watch, as she makes her way up the sidewalk.

Beak cocks his head and caws as the lonely woman clicks her shoes against the sidewalk. The echo of his call bounces through the silence as she pulls relentlessly on the sides of her coat to keep out the cold. Jed flaps his wings slowly, as if he is enjoying the eerie mood. He is feeding on the woman's fear. Flip seems to enjoy it too and caws a few more times as the woman glances around, wide-eyed, and begins to click her heels faster.

Inevitably, one of her heels catches in a crack and she topples over. Her brown bag of groceries hits the pavement and the contents splatter onto the sidewalk. A slice of bread escapes and the crows are in the air before the woman pushes herself up. They circle cautiously, cawing in anticipation, as if the slice of bread were a carcass. The woman slowly rises to her feet, and then she bends down and collects her things before she continues clicking onward. The slice of bread remains, its white flesh glowing in the fog.

Jed, less cautious then the others and driven by his hunger, dives down first, mouth open; ready to tear away at the bread's flesh. At the last minute, he hears something and flaps to a halt, retreating to the protection of a garbage can. A man in black appears from the foggy dark and, without noticing, crushes the slice of bread under a heavy boot. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP , and continues onward. Jed peeks his head out from the shadows cautiously, cocking a gleaming eye toward the mysterious man. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. His heavy boots continue on in the night with the smashed slice of bread stuck to the left sole. Jed flutters from the metal bin to the sidewalk. Following the THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, of the boot that holds his prize.

Flip and Beak, too scared to follow Jed, are flapping at a safe distance above the woman in hopes that more food will fall from her bag. Her heels are clicking faster and faster but the brown paper bag remains tight within her grasp. She looks behind her as the THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, echoes in the distance. Beak is still enjoying the show and issues a menacing caw that reverberates off the cement. Flip swoops down quickly to catch a glance inside the woman's paper bag and then glides back up to join Beak. The dark figure of the man appears as the THUMP, THUMP, THUMP, of his boots gets louder. Jed is still hop, hop, hopping behind him, wings spread wide for balance, chasing after his whole grain carcass.

Flip and Beak watch as the woman turns around one more time, screams and breaks into a clicking run. Soon her shoes fly off on either side of her and the clicking turns into the fleshy slap of skin and concrete but she holds the bag tight. Flip and Beak swoop back and forth, making lazy S curves as they follow along after her, anxious to feed. Jed is beginning to hop faster and flap his wings as the THUMP, THUMP, THUMP of the dark man's boots speed up and begins to close in on the terrified woman.

As Flip and Beak are making their lazy swoops, Beak notices the street opening up ahead into an intersection. He makes a warning caw to Flip to let him know as the woman approaches it at a full sprint. As Beak anticipated, she turns to the right and out of view of Jed and the dark man, but the two birds are right over top of her still. Before the dark man can turn the corner, the woman turns again and goes into a black alleyway where she crouches quietly behind a large metal dumpster. Flip and Beak also flap to a halt, just above her on an over hang. They hunch their shoulders and wait for another prize to fall from her magical brown bag.

Jed is so intent on the slice of bread that he hardly notices as the dark man turns the corner. Then the man stops. Jed flaps to a halt behind him, cocking his head in every direction, trying to figure out a way to release the food from beneath the boot. For a moment, the night is silent again, except for the heavy breathing of the dark man. Jed watches as the dark man holds his breath. In the stillness, a muffled croak of impatience, hunger and frustration comes from the alleyway, then the man lets his shoulders relax. A pointed shiny piece of metal appears in his hand and he begins to THUMP, THUMP, THUMP toward the alley.

Flip and Beak finally take their eyes off the bag as they see the figure of a man appear in the alleyway. Beak squawks in recognition as Jed flap/hops around the corner too, still chasing after the bread. The man pauses for a moment. Then THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. He lurches over to the dumpster. Now Beak starts to watch the woman again, noting that her breathing is picking up and she is beginning to shake. Her eyes are also beginning to water.

The man rounds the corner and comes in full view of the woman. She rises and backs away at the same time. The man takes one eager step forward, and then Jed hops around the corner, wings spread wide and beak open, like an evil sidekick. The man is THUMP, THUMP, THUMP ing slowly now. Flip notices the moon glint off of his white teeth. The woman backs all the way against the back wall, holding tight to the grocery bag as if it were her life.

THUMP

Jed, still following the boot, is close enough to notice the woman's slender white legs protruding from beneath her skirt. They are trembling. Beak and Flip watch as the man slowly raises the pointed shining piece of metal up to the woman's throat. Then he leans in and takes a deep breath by her neck. The woman does not move, except for small shakes and muffled whimpers. The man moves the shining piece of metal from one hand to the other. Then with his empty hand, he slowly reaches down and touches the woman's thigh. Then he begins to drag his hand upwards, lifting the skirt as he goes.

Beak seems interested in the action that is taking place, as Flip caws and flaps his wings with impatience, eyeing only the brown bag. Jed, down below, is still trying to figure a way to get underneath the boot and get what scraps are left from the piece of bread. The man's hand has almost reached her lower buttocks now as the woman lets out an unsettling whimper, which turns into a growl halfway through. Her muscles tighten and she launches the brown paper bag of groceries into the man's face. The man falters back a few steps as food flies everywhere. A jar of peanut butter cracks open against his forehead and there is an explosion of white grains of rice. A heavy boot misses Jed by a fraction of an inch as he flaps his hardest to get out of the way of the commotion. Beak begins to caw loudly as he launches into the air to avoid any danger. Flip is reluctant to follow. Peanut butter and uncooked rice are stuck all over the man's face. As he is beginning to regain himself, Flip cannot wait any longer. He dives down and begins to peck away at the tiny grains of rice. The man drops his knife and swings his arms to get the bird away. As soon as he does, the woman seizes the opportunity, grabs the knife, stabs the man in the knee and runs. Behind the man's agonizing howl, the slap of the woman's bare feet can be heard against the sidewalk, and away into the fog.

As Flip tears away at his long-awaited feast, his beak penetrates something wet and spongy. Immediately, the man screams again as blood begins to gush from his eye. He takes a hand from his mutilated knee and slaps Flip away.

With the man's left knee unmovable, Jed is finally enjoying his meal as well. He is digging between the heavy treads of the boot to get the soggy and blackened bits of bread that he has been chasing for so long. Occasionally he lets out a squawk of satisfaction and flaps his wings. Beak is the only one who has not eaten. He is still circling and cawing a warning now and then. After several minutes of the two others eating and the man not moving, Beak finally decides to settle down and fill his own belly as well. There is another slice of bread half way out of the supine bag and Beak begins to enjoy it, occasionally cocking an eye toward the unconscious and bleeding rapist.

By the time red and blue lights are flashing and the yellow tape has been raised, it is sunrise. The three companions sit perched on the same cracked and crumbling ledge as before, watching with full stomachs the morning rush at the coffee shop. As they sit and watch, Flip begins to squawk and flap his wings. The grains of rice are beginning to expand in his stomach. He shuffles his feet back and forth, but nothing seems to help. The coffee shop door opens and the large woman exits, with her cookie in one hand, coffee in another and a large bag slung over her shoulder.

Just as she is walking out the door, Flip falls from the ledge and makes a brown splash in the woman's coffee and all over her blouse. He is dead. The woman screams and throws her coffee. Then she stands and curses the air for a few minutes. Finally, with everyone around her ignoring her, she walks away. As the woman leaves, Beak and Jed caw and flap their wings too as if to say, “Good riddance.”