The baby and the raven

The raven was with the family before the baby. By about ten months before the baby boy's birth. The father found the injured bird among the bushes in the backyard of his small home. At first, the father did nothing with the bird. He had work to do. However, at the end of the day when the father found the injured bird at the same small spot where it was the beginning of the day, he took it home to take care of it. He did have to make sure that the cat, Lucy, did not eat the little bird up. So the cat was kicked out doors while the baby raven was cared for.

It did not take long before the raven was feeling better, only around five days, and then the cat was let back into the small home and the raven was put outside to take flight and fly away. Except, the raven never left. It did fly around, testing its newly healed wings, but it always stayed around the house and the nearby trees. The small family, only two members before baby was born, three if you count the cat, lived in a small town nearby a major road. The father taught at the small school, while the wife taught in another school further down the road. It was a farming community, and the houses were very far apart. So the raven did have a lot of area that it could fly around, and a lot of corn and other raven foods available. It just decided to stay near the small house and the two large trees. It also enjoyed stealing food from the cat and trying out the cat's food.

It also started to bring gifts. These gifts mostly consisted of shiny things like pieces of glass, bits of metal, and sometimes small stones and sticks.

It was when the baby was born that it first brought money. It was only a small silver coin, but the interesting bit was that it dropped it right onto the baby's stomach. The baby was asleep, so it did not notice. However, the mother did. She had only turned away from the sleeping kid for a few small moments to like at the book she was trying to read. She was terrified that the bird was going to hurt the baby. She was right next to the bird and baby, but she did not make a move and stayed as still as she possible could because she did not wanted to startle the bird.

The bird did not hurt the baby boy, whose first name was Arthur, the father taught literature. Instead, after it dropped the small silver coin, it watched the baby. Turning its head side to side as it watched. At one point it backed up when the baby yawned. After what felt like ages to the mother, the big black bird flew away. But it only landed nearby on one of the branches of the tree, where it only continued to watch.

From then on, the baby and the raven were always together. When either parent drive with the baby, they always noticed that the raven was following them. At one point, it followed them into a large grocery store keeping to the the high ceilings of the store. It must not have liked that, because it only did that once. Afterwards, it would stay near the entrance's of buildings until the family came back out and then it

followed them home. The raven still brought gifts, but it was always to the baby. At first was the regular things as before, but after seeing the mother get rid of the small stones and pieces of glass a few times it switched to bigger sticks, paper money, and small flowers.

Soon the baby and raven started playing together and the mother allowed the bird into the house as another pet, now the raven was too big for the cat to be a threat, but unfortunately this was a friendship that would last only short time.

The day it did end was when the mother was by herself at the park with the raven, the cat, and the baby. So not truly alone. The mother was reading another novel, this one being another murder mystery with the baby sleeping right next to her. Then the mother needed to pee.

She looked around and there was a small bathroom. She also could see no one else in the park. She very quietly got up, making sure not wake the cat or the baby, who was a very light sleepy. She did think about taking the baby with her, but she knew that it was a nasty public bathroom, and there was no one else in park. Besides, it was only going to be a quick pee. So she left the baby and went to the bathroom. However, there was some else there at the park.

While he had no real contact with her for years, the guy that had been stalking the mother had always thought of her as his property. He hated the father, having been a classmate with both of them, and at this point in the story he felt like his time had come. When the mother went into the bathroom, he got out of his hiding place and ran over to get the baby. He gave little thought on what he would do with the baby once he had it, he just wanted a bit of the mother for his own. It was his kicking of the cat and the following screams of Lucy that made the mother realize she made a mistake.

She got a glimpse of the evil man, as she ran out of the bathroom. He was running towards a large black truck that had been hidden out of sight from the mother. He was carrying the baby in its car seat with his right hand. Not evening noticing the screams of the baby or the number of times that the car seat hit the ground. It was heavier than he anticipated. The mother gave chase, running faster then she had before, which was pretty darn fast, she had been on her high school's and college's track team. But the man had too much of a head start. She only had time to read the license plate has it drive off.

However, this is where the hero of the story appears. It is still not known how, but somehow the raven was in the car with the man and the baby. The car was just exiting the park when it started going crazy. It made several circle in the empty street before running into a tree. The mother ran to the truck already talking with the police. To her relief the baby was fine. The driver, who was later identified but whose name is not important to the story, was died. Later both the parents were told that the driver's eyes had been bitten out.

Sadly the raven died that day as well, however, the family did make a proper grave for the raven outside the house where their buried the raven. It reads "Here lays Merlin guardian angel of Arthur."