A tale of woe for big children
The crow flew down from the tree and landed beside the rabbit. It inspected the rabbit carefully. The rabbit stared back but it didn’t blink, and it was lying on its side. Unfortunately it had died in a recent car accident. (Maybe the rabbit should have looked both ways before crossing the road. Or it should have only crossed where the cars go slower, like in a 40 zone. But rabbits can’t read, and never went to school).
I might say that the crow didn’t really know that it was a crow (It’s brain was fully taken up with knowledge of how to fly, takeoff and landing, as well as thinking about food. All the rest of the brain was taken up with arrogance. You would truly believe this if you ever saw a crow strutting around on the ground. And sometimes, you can hear them say rude words).
The crow did know that it wasn’t a rabbit. It didn’t actually know what a rabbit was. And when it came to understanding that it was a crow, it probably thought of itself as one of those flappy things, just like all the other flappy things. The rabbit didn’t know what it was any more either, on account of being dead (very sad indeed). In true sense, technically, there was nobody home and in fact the body was not home at all. The crow was quite keen on the rabbit, mostly because it looked like good food and the crow was hungry.
Just then a shadow passed over the crow and the crow worried that it was a big hawk or an eagle (except of course these were just great big flappy things that crows had to be scared of). So the crow was looking up for it or whatever it was, and it was very high up, making a buzzing sound and it didn’t seem to be flapping so it probably wasn’t a flappy thing like a bird. The crow didn’t even try to work out what it was up there.
It’s probably very difficult when you are a bird to know that you are a bird and to know what is a bird and isn’t a bird. Something is either like the crow or not like it, and something different. So they are either like you, or not like you. Sometimes, there are other things that are like you, or like you and want to eat you. Now, that is the scary part.
The crow’s brother turned up and brought his friends along too. Well, the first crow didn’t really like that because it was a bit worried about having to share the food so it said to the other crows ‘go away’. And they said ‘no there are more of us. Why don’t you go away’
Now there were twice as many crows as what there were before, all arguing in the loudest way and saying rude words at each other.
Gradually, they all became aware of a great big sound, a kind of roar and rushing sound. A car was coming down the road very fast. The crows didn’t know it was a car. All they knew was that it one of those things that just went rushing by every so often along the open space between the grasses in the hedges.
At the last moment the crows all took to the air in flight and fright. They flew up out of the way of the noisy machine as it roared by, thus avoiding a murder of crows.
And so we can wonder how the story might end. Will the crows eat the rabbit? Or will they keep fighting and arguing, while some other animal gets to eat the rabbit?
Poor rabbit. It’s time finished too soon, but at least it can become food for the other animals. Well, like the flying crows, we will just have to leave the story up in the air.
