Article: 178531 of talk.bizarre
From: tristessa@pacifier.com (G.M. Deal)
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: The ravens
Date: 1 Dec 1994 09:29:05 -0800
Organization: gma
Lines: 35
Message-ID: <3bl151$srj@pacifier.com>
Status: O

   every year at this time we rendezvous by a cave here on this
mountain.   the ravens always get there first and wait for me,
impatiently hopping from foot to foot.   it's odd, ever since i was
eight we have met like this.   i remember the first time we did it;
when i woke up that morning i felt the need to go out, after wandering
for hours i stumbled upon them, it felt so natural.
   now, twenty years later, here i am approaching the cave once again.
they wait in their usual spot, but this time they seem strangely
anxious.   when the pair spots me they leap into the air, flapping
their wings with an urgency i have never felt before.   this is the
first time i have seen them in the air and it frightens me.
   as soon as they land they start in, rasping discordant syllables
strung together to form barely recognizable words, "enslave tibet!
satanic gay rites!   ban apartheid, kill all racists...kill EVERYONE!
make love, make war!   health care for all, and compulsory plastic
surgery!   DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE."
   shocked and stunned, i cringe and stumble backwards over some
fallen branches.   the pair of ravens leap to my chest and thrust
their long black beaks into my face.   i feel my mind beginning to go
black, i cannot handle this.   in my semi-conscious state the ravens'
faces seem to twist into strangely human expressions full of rage and
malice.   as the last vestiges of my mind slip away i feel their beaks
digging deep into my face, tearing and tearing.

   it is months later, i am in a sterile white hospital room.   three
days ago i came out of my coma screaming and batting at my face.
since then i have re-evaluated my life, i now see what the ravens were
trying to tell me.   their words haunt my every waking minute, they
inhabit my dreams, everything i see reflects their message.   only God
knows why they did this to me, surely i did not deserve it.   but the
fact is they did, and i can only thank them for their gift and try to
make good use of it in my last few years of life.


gabriel