Member-only story
The Crow
A Short Story
The crow settled on the upstairs balcony, as he had every day from the start of summer. She had learned how to recognize this particular one. His demeanor carried a certain aloofness. He was utterly careless about the fact that he infringed on what she considered to be her own private space.
She was eleven years old, left to fend for herself at her grandparents’ home in a different city, in a foreign country. It was just the three of them, which often made it feel like it was just her. She vaguely understood the reason for this “vacation.” Her parents were separating, and they wanted her to remain as naive as possible to the mess they had made.
At first, the crow annoyed her. No matter how many times she attempted to shoo him away, he stayed put. His face remained stoic through all of her fuss. Eventually, his relentlessness caused her to begrudgingly accept him as her sole companion on the balcony.
He was quite an ugly bird, as crows tend to go. She named him Handsome for the irony. Over time, she even began talking to him, sharing her secret thoughts. She told him how much she missed her friends. She confessed that she missed her parents too, even though she was angry at them for abandoning her here. He listened quietly.
In the evening, his attention would turn away from her, toward the children…
