The Lessons Life Teaches, A Collection of Short Stories.

The Raven

I currently work night shift at a youth training facility in Elko, Nevada. Admittedly, I do not believe it is a job most people would prefer to do. But as for me, it fits my needs. One or two nights a week. I fill in for my supervisor on his days off. On those days, I roam the campus from dorm to dorm and do a variety of other tasks. One of them used to be to check the kitchen at about 5am to let the kitchen staff know which youth were scheduled to work with them that day.

On this spring morning, I arrived at the back door of the kitchen a little early and was waiting for the staff member to arrive. Suddenly, this big, I mean big, raven flew into the tree next to me and started squawking at a small songbird who had a nest there. I assumed that the raven wanted to steal the eggs or young chicks from the songbird's nest. The little bird was putting up a valiant effort to deter the fierce sounding raven. Always being one to stick up for the underdog, I thought I would try to do something to help the little bird. At first, I shouted at the raven and then clapped my hands. I was totally ignored by both birds. So, then I picked up a small rock and tossed it up in the tree to hopefully scare off the raven. Again, to no avail. Not to be deterred, I looked around for another small rock. I then tossed it up in the tree and much to my surprise accidently hit the raven right in the side. The raven was, for lack of a better word, pissed. It started crowing at me and then flew off over my head.

After the cook arrived, I walked back toward one of the dorms near the office, past the kids play yard. There sat a group of about six ravens on the monkey bars all staring at me. I could almost hear one of them say "Is that the one?" and the other one saying. "Yah, that's him." It was a moment right out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. They just leered at me when walked by and then one of them let out an unnerving loud caw. I told the story to the supervisor at the dorm when I arrived. They thought it was funny and said I had better be careful because ravens are incredibly smart, and they probably hold a grudge. A short time later, I drove home after work. When I arrived, there were about six large ravens sitting on the powerline in front of my home. I thought "Oh oh ... they know where I live ..."