Familiar

“Apus.  It’s where I used to live.  Seemingly on the edge of civilization and almost in the middle of nowhere.  An unassuming town by all accounts with a population nearing one thousand.  It was the kind of place that was just there.  Nothing special or exciting ever happened.  Except of course for the earthquake lights that the town was named after.  When the town was founded, a small series or earthquakes occurred.  The last of these produced several lights in the sky that strangely resembled the Apus constellation.  The founders took this as a sign of finally finding a home to settle in.  After the lights, no earthquakes had occurred since then and nothing of note had happened since.”  I shifted my weight on my car hood and nodded at the hooded stranger in front of me.

    They made no reaction so I continued, “It was a nice enough place. Real friendly and warm.  Everyone knew each other; for better or worse.  It was a pleasant enough childhood.  I never much got along with people.  It’s not like I hated them.  People are fine.  It’s just that though.  They’re just fine.  Life teaches you that.  Because of that, I didn’t have many friends growing up, but I was happy.  Why?  Well I suppose I misspoke. I had friends, it’s just that most of them weren’t human.  Dogs, cats, lizards, birds.  Hell even a fox!”  At this point in my story, I figured the person wasn’t going to comment on anything.

    “Now at a young age, I knew what I wanted out of life.  More or less.  Animals!  You see, when I was a small boy, I found this raven in our backyard, and he was hurt real bad.  Now I know everyone says bad things about them, but animals are animals.  They deserve good things too.  They can’t control what people say about them.  So I took it inside and cared for it.  It took a while, but I was able to get it back and on it’s feet.  I set it loose, and as I watched it fly away, I knew I wanted to help animals,” I exclaimed with an enormous grin on my face as I cupped my hands and motioned towards the sky with them.  Of course the stranger had to response.

    I reeled my excitement in and resumed my tale, “Now I’m not the smartest man.  By my own admission, of course.  My family wasn’t rolling in money either, so by the time I was old enough to work, I got a job at the local pet store.  My idea was to save up enough money to go and become a vet.  It didn’t matter in the end.  The owner and I grew close over the years and he taught me everything he knew.  When he retired, he made me the owner of the store.  I tell you, it was the happiest moment I can recall.  All of this happened because of a little raven.  I know I never saw him again, but I hope he had a good life.”  I lowered the brim of my hat and took a moment to watch the clouds rolling by.

    “That was my life.  For a good long while at least.  Until, well now I suppose.  See it all started about a week ago.  One morning I came in and opened up shop like normal.  That’s when I noticed it.  A raven perched right on top of my place of business.  He was a solemn looking fella and we locked eyes for a while.  I feel like I’m pretty good with animals.  I’m not saying I’m an animal whisper or nothin’ like that, but I can generally communicate with them better than others I know.  This raven though.  We just stared at each other and my attempts at getting it to come to me went nowhere,” I motioned with my hands as to bring something down from up high. “A few minutes passed and I figured I needed to get workin’.  As I opened the door, that’s when I heard it.  Seven caws.  After the first I looked back up at him, but he just kept goin.  After the seventh he stared me dead in the eye and flew off.”  It was at this point that I decided to stretch my legs a little and began to walk around some.

    The figure’s gaze followed me so I carried on with my story, “I didn’t really think much of it.  I mean, why would I?  The next day it happened again though, except it was only six caws this time.  It kept repeating, but everyday was one less than the one before it.  Now I’m not exactly superstitious, but when something like that consistently happens to you, it starts to look like less of a coincidence and more of a warning.”

    “On the day he only cawed once, I figured that I might be due for a little vacation, so I told my employees that I’d be gone for a while.  I packed up a nice little suitcase and loaded it all up in my car.  The next morning would be the one I would leave. Just for a little while at least. It just ft like the right time.  I let my neighbor know and they agreed to watch over my pets and my workers could watch the store fine for a week or so.  I told my pets I’d be back.  I have pets by the way.  A lovely Australian Shepard with a predominately silver coat with specks of black and brown.  Lovely sky blue eyes too!  His names Blue.  I know, not very creative, but it just fits, you know?  I also have a red tabby cat with beautiful copper eyes.  Her names Red.  Blue and Red.  I love em’ both!  But enough about them, even though I could go on all day about em’!”  My eyes wandered to my back seat where they were sound asleep.

    I perched myself back on the hood of my car and spoke, “I decided to drop by the store before we actually opened to say goodbye to all my wonderful friends inside as well.  And lo and behold, the raven was back again, only this time there were no words spoken.  He stared me down something fierce.  It was unlike any of the previous encounters.  I could feel a cold tingle run down my spine as we gazed into each other’s eyes.  It flew off after not too long with nary a caw this time.  Only a single black feather that gently drifted downwards, and as the feather fell, I felt a drop in my gut as well.  Something told me I needed to leave.  There was a sense of foreboding that followed the ravens’ exit and I couldn’t shake it,” I said with a hand over my stomach.

    “I changed my mind and headed straight home as fast I could.  I brought Blue and Red with me and a few of their necessities because I just felt like I had to.  And I mean HAD to.  After we all got in the car, I drove off as fast as I could from little ol’ Apus.  Now I wasn’t too far from town, still close enough to see it’s fading image, when I saw it in my rear-view mirror.  I’m not expert, but I knew what I was seeing.  A bomb,“ I slowly brought my clenched hand down as I whistled. “It landed right on my hometown and created this terrifying mushroom-like cloud.  I was still close enough to feel a sort of shockwave from it and Red and Blue wouldn’t stop making all kinds of sounds.  I abruptly stopped the car and quickly got out to see what I could.  When something like that happens, you just can’t find words for it.  At least not right away.”  I let a small sigh escape from my lips as I turned once more towards Apus.  

    “Anyways, thanks for listening to my story.  It helps to let it out, you know?”  I looked up at the sky to see a raven circling overhead, coming ever closer.  It landed right on the shoulder of the person I was chatting up.  They stroked the raven’s chin and produced a single feather from him.  

    “Your friend cares for you very greatly.”   Muttered the figure in a raspy voice.

    “You alright pal?  You sound kind of sick.”  

    “A gift.  For remembrance.”  The figure offered the feather to me with an outstretched hand.

    “Gee, thanks!”  I replied as I accepted it.  As I reached for it, I finally noticed something off about this stranger.  The extended hand was extremely thin and lacking.  I could swear it was nothing but bone.  I received my gift and no sooner did the raven begin to fade.  “Wait, what’s-“

    “Till we meet again.”  The figure stopped me short and began to walk away towards the town I called home.  I left it at that and looked over the feather as a single tear ran down my face.  I felt a sense of familiarity from it; like a memento from an old friend.

    “Thank you, raven.”