Come Together

A Story by Regann Lain

A silly story I wrote a school assignment a couple years ago. I don't know if it's any good, but here it is. Submitted for the 'Writing Flesh' contest.

When I opened my eyes, it felt like it had been forever since I opened them. It was an odd sensation but I didn’t think much about it at the time.

I found myself standing upright, claws gripped around cool medal.

‘Claws’ I thought, ‘how strange’ I was still so use to having feet. I wonder why I didn’t see then why something was wrong.

In front of me my vision was distorted by some kind of mesh. But below me- I almost lost my balance and stumbled down- all the way down.

Below me was the Earth, the stars, and all the galaxies. I could see them all at once. And above me was the same thing. It gave me one hell of a headache.

I closed my eyes and opened them again, wanting to see my ceiling above me, or my bed underneath me. I wanted to feel the sensation of being in a familiar place. I wished for it so long and hard I thought it would work. It of course didn’t work.

I tried to pull my last memory from my head. I couldn’t. It was the strangest feeling, I could, in fact remember everything, I was just unable to figure out what order the memories went in. This was frustrating beyond anything I had ever encountered. More frustrating the day my mother gave me a baseball mitten for my birthday when I had asked for a toy solider. More frustrating than how my Aunt Margret pinched my cheeks until I was 37. More frustrating than the day my finance threw our engagement ring at me when I was 26. More frustrating than watching Jay Leno make a fool out of himself on national television

I shook my head, deciding for now to ignore the memories. I was worried if I kept going they would never stop, and I would never figure out where the hell I was. I took a deep breath pushing away the urge to remember the day I was driving too fast and hit the car in front of me spilling hot coffee in my lap, and focus on my surroundings, and finding out where the hell I was.

To my left, the metal pole I was standing on, continued into oblivion, to my right the same. And behind, there was nothing but black.

I tried to keep myself as calm as possible, there had to be an explanation. No point in getting worked up over it, right? I looked around me, not another soul in sight. I felt completely and utterly, alone.

I heard a noise to my right and turned quickly, again nearly losing my balance. I flapped my wings to stay upright.

There was a crow, bigger than me standing by my side looking at me with interest. It’s feathers were nearly black as the black behind them. It was a good thing it was so beautiful, or you would never be able to see him through all this eerie darkness.

“Er- hello,” I said sidestepping so I wasn’t so close.

“Who are you?” Asked the other crow. It sounded almost like a statement.

“I’m-well I don’t know.” Many different names were in my head, but I wasn’t sure which one to pull out and declare as my own.

“That’s the delirium, it’ll go away. Your one of the lucky ones you know.” The other bird said almost proudly.

“You seem to have your wits about you, maybe you can tell me were I am.” I was so very ecstatic about seeing another living thing, I didn’t even care if my manners weren’t at my best.

“Call it whatever you want, I call it ‘No Man’s Land.’” The other crow looked strait into the air.

“Could you be more clear, I can see you’re a fan of metaphors but-”

The other Crow looked right at me and shook it’s head. Well-what I imagined was shaking it’s head, it more of bobbed it’s entire body up and down “Not metaphors, just Billy Joel.”

I blinked not sure of what to think about it. “Who are you?”

“I was given strict orders not to give my name out.” The Crow shuffled, as if he felt he might be offending me.

“By who?”

“By no one really, I just know not too.” The crow tilted his head as if thinking about it for the very first time. “But enough about me! You are a lucky one. Sitting here, staring into the black of space and having all the knowledge in the world crammed into your head, and you didn’t go the least bit crazy!”

“All the knowledge in the world? Now that’s just nonsense.” I snapped taking another side step away from the other bird. He followed by taking two steps closer to me.

“Right over there.” The crow said presently and I followed the crows eye site to were it landed, and we were suddenly in front of a white house with green shutters. “This is were I lived when I was alive, can’t say I like the people who moved in now, got rid of my lazy boy. I loved my lazy boy.”

“Alive? But I’m sure your alive now.”

“Oh no, no, no. Certainly not. Neither are you.” The situation made much more sense to me now, and the realization must have played across my face for the other crow said. “Shocker innit? Your just a soul now. A partly empty shell. It‘s not all that bad, you get to live forever and be horribly annoying. I can show you this coffee shop down town-swear.to.god. They make the most delicious blueberry scones this side of the pacific. ”

I stood not saying anything, just staring back as the house in front of me.

“Where did you use to live?”

I thought for a moment, and as easy as that, we were in front of my house. It was a place I always loved, I could never imagine a world outside it.

“So over there, that must be you funeral. Quite the turn out, you must have been very popular. I had about five people come to mine. Makes my life seem pathetic in comparison.” The words were grim but the tone in which the other crow said them were not at all grim.

I looked and there was my family and friends. They looked sad and they all had tissues, like in some cheesy movie, or soap opera. I smiled at them and wanted them to be able to hear me, but I didn’t try because I knew they wouldn’t, I couldn’t even understand what they were saying.

“Come along.” The Crow said, “There’s much more to be seen.”

I didn’t think I really wanted to stay and watch this anyways. People always make jokes in life about being late to their own funerals, and by the looks of it I really was. Actually staying and watching your entire funeral just seemed a little conceded. I had refused to be called conceded in living, so I will refused to be called so in death. I turned quickly and hopped after him, simply glad I wasn’t alone.

I wondered what I would see next. And I wondered why this man (crow?) was showing it to me. I wondered if I had lead a good life, or if I was remembering someone else’s. I wondered why I was a crow, instead of a man. I think I will miss wearing shoes, I rather liked shoes. I wondered if living life a crow was really worth living, and that after I had died in this form, what form I would take in my next lifetime. I hoped I’d get to be a human again sometime, and feel my fingers and toes, instead of these claws and beak. I hoped I’d see things more beautiful than I had in living, because at that moment I was fairly sure I was a stock-broker who had never been outside of the city. I hoped I’d be able to be more than fairly sure who I was at sometime in the near future.

I hoped. I wondered. And I followed the most magnificent crow I had ever seen to my answers, and my future.

© 2009 Regann Lain

Author's Note

The ending might seem a little fast because when I wrote the story I was in a bit of a hurry as it was already late for submission. I added the last three paragraphs on to this story to try to make the ending a little more fluid. How'd I do?