Skyward by Mary Alice Monroe

Author:Mary Alice Monroe [Monroe, Mary Alice]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Literary
ISBN: 9781459205277
Google: 2cMaGvndvFkC
Amazon: 1441853065
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2011-05-24T00:00:00+00:00

Later that week, Marion stood inside the crows’ pen with Lijah. She looked up at him and scrunched up her face in doubt.

“You’re sure that crow can talk?”

“Not just now, missy, but he can. If you teach it to.”

Lijah was down on one knee and Marion was leaning against his shoulder, listening to him with rapt attention. Most mornings, Lijah found Marion hanging around the crow pen, peering in and jabbering to them. She especially liked Little Crow, having watched him grow from a nestling. Lijah figured that she thought of Little Crow as just another child to play with.

She tilted her head from left to right. “I never heard of a bird that could talk.”

“Missy, there be lots of birds that can talk. Parrots, mynahs, even budgies.” He pointed a long finger to Big Crow and Little Crow sitting on a perch a few feet away inside their pen. “Buh Crow, though, he the cleverest of birds. Did you know that when lots of crows are all flocked together, they send lookouts high up to a branch? The scouts sit quiet and keep their eyes peeled. If they see something bad, they let loose that screechy caw-caw they do to warn all the mama crows and their children. You know the one I’m talking about.” He cupped his hands around his mouth, took a breath and released a perfect imitation of a crow’s cackle.

The two crows roused their feathers and hopped with animation from one perch to the other, their shiny black eyes alert with curiosity. Marion giggled and covered her mouth.

“Sounds just like an alarm, don’t it?” he said, grinning slyly. “Sometimes when they migrating south, the winter roosts number a thousand, maybe more. When they take high, high to the sky…” He shook his head, grinning wide. “It’s something to see.”

“But how can I teach it to talk?” she asked with persistence.

“It’s not hard, but it takes a heap of patience. You got patience, child?”

She nodded her head with the positive confidence of a five-year-old.

“Okay, then,” he said, eyeing her seriously. “Let’s do like this. Come every day to visit Little Crow. He be young and has the temperament for it. Don’t be in a hurry. Bide your time till things are peaceful between you and Little Crow. Then, when you sure you got his eye, go on and tell him hello.”

Marion burst from his side and ran up to the small crow and called out, “Hi, Crow!”

Little Crow cawed and flustered, flung open its wings and joined Big Crow on the opposite perch. Both crows glared back at her while nervously hopping from the perch to the wall and back.

“They never like me,” she cried.

Lijah waved her back to his side. She returned, shoulders drooping and mouth downturned.

“They don’t like the way you scared them, is all.”

“I didn’t mean to.”

“I know, missy, but that don’t change things. First, you have to tie your mouth and listen, ’cause here’s the way you got to do. You ever see Buh Rabbit out in the field?”

“My daddy showed him to me.

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