Ravens

Funny. I never thought I'd be glad to see a raven.

I used to shoot ravens in the winter at the local golf course. Rarely hit one. But when I did, and he fell dead, suddenly the sky would fill with 20 or 30 of them. Seemed like a thousand. They would circle and fall to the ground and walk around the body like they were at a memorial. Caw-caw-cawing the entire time. Filled me with dread and guilt.

But recently we lost a lot of ravens to West Nile virus. Then the stupid seagulls moved in. Rats with wings. There were seagulls in trees, what an odd sight. Seagulls in the parking lots. Seagulls everywhere.

And then a couple mornings ago I saw five ravens on my walk to the train. All sitting together on a fence by the baseball field.

"Ravens!" I said. "You won! You're back and you've beaten the seagulls!" I realized then that I hadn't seen any gulls for the past week or so. Four of the ravens flew off at the sound of my voice. The last one looked at me, then at the sky, then at me.

"I'm glad to see you back," I said.

I think he nodded. Then he, too, flew away.