birdsong6

I picked up my pace to outdistance the bastard. CAW CAW CAW!! was the response from my right.

�Shut the fuck up,� I muttered. By now I was cooking along the road, raising a little dust cloud. But no matter how fast I walked, the hidden black rat kept pace. SKCREE CREE CAW CAW!!

Goddam, I thought, go find some beetles or something to eat. I mean, don�t crows have lives? Things to do? Digestive functions? What is up with this crow-stalking shit?

I stopped and peered into the thick trees and brush, but although I couldn�t catch sight, I had no problem hearing the little pest.

I began to jog, but it was no use. Obviously the brat was prepared to hound me to the last circle of hell until satisfied.

Just as I stopped again I distinctly heard this: We love you, *** [my given name].

The sound was a cross between a crow�s caw and a human voice � though leaning towards crowish.

I was, to say the least, dumbfounded. I couldn�t believe what I had heard. The problem was, I had clearly heard it. I do not hear voices, nor do I deny my own experiences. What else to go by?

The effect was instantaneous and very emotional.

There was no further cawing in the brush, no more flapping of wings.

I started down the Fire Road again. I felt like I was back in Merlin's grove, immersed in the Nymph�s Pool at Midsummer's noon, the cleansing blackness scouring me, water straight from Shamballah, so cold it burned.

What a spoiled child I am!

All these years striving to raise matter, and all the time it was raising me.