A Murder of Crows
When I was like 8 years old, we had just moved into our new house. It was the fall. I can remember the color of the trees. The leaves were a mixture of browns and reds, very few yellows. They rustled in the wind. I remember the sound of them... The wind was crazy on this particular day. I had the windows open because it was warm. I remember hopping up on the counter to close the window above the sink. The wind was strong enough to actually blow my homework across the kitchen.
Being the ADHD kid that I was, as I tiptoed like I was on a tightrope back to the other side of the counter as gracefully as I could in cowboy boots (oh, if my mom had seen me, I would have caught hell), I got distracted by the dull silver colored boom box sitting on the countertop. Ah ha! I could play music while I did my homework! That would be awesome! Yeah, working with music is always a good idea!
I plopped down on the counter and grabbed the box of casettes sitting that was sitting next to boom box. I started rifling through it. Bach, Beethoven, Edvard Greig, Mozart. C'mon, there had to be at least one of my dad's tapes in here. I found the closest thing I could to what I could listen to without too much objection. My Mom was teaching downstairs and I didn't want to play the music too loud anyway. The solution? The Chariots of Fire Motion Picture Soundtrack.
OH. YEAH.
Insert slow-motion running seen from way before Baywatch was even a thought and featuring the amazing, Oscar Winner, Ben Cross. The running! The men's faces contorting! Reaching! Trying to win! And that soundtrack it builds and builds. I loved that soundtrack. I popped it in the tape deck, pressed play, and sat down to do my homework.
The music begins and I start working on my homework. I didn't want to do my homework, I would much rather be outside, playing in my tree house or on my monkey bars. I yearned to be upside down on my monkey bars. But no, I was inspired by this music. The song, Vangelis, is playing. It's building, the story is being told. The wind has stilled outside, the wind is no longer blowing. That's when I noticed the crows.
A few crows land in the small forest behind our house. I see fluttering. There's more than a few crows. There is at least a dozen. My young eyebrows furrough, something is not right. I shrug it off and go back to my homework.
There I am, doing my worksheet and out of the corner of my eye I keep seeing birds. Lots of flapping. Lots of trees shaking. My young brain just could not comprehend. What was going on? I jump down off the bar stool and walk to the sliding glass doors. At that moment, Vangelis is crescendoing with the piano, the chhh chhh chhh aah aah aah of the "running", the pounding beat. And the crows.
Crows!
EVERYWHERE!!
My 8 year old brain remembers there being hundreds of birds, more landing in the trees behind our home. I'd love to say that I'm remembering wrong. I'd love to say that there were maybe 20 crows.
There were more than 20 crows. I may have been bad at math at the time and struggled with my division and stuff, but I know how many 20 crows. There were far more than 20. What should I do? What did this mean? What were these crows doing here? Why were there so many? Mom was gonna be pissed if I interrupted her lessons. So, I decided to call my Dad at the college. I turned off the boom box and picked up the phone that was on the wall next to it. The crows are starting to fly away, cawing as they go.
What the heck? What was going on? I hung up the phone, shrugged, and went back to my homework. I climbed back up on the barstool closest to the boombox, dragged my homework over and hit play, answering the questions. Let's go Chariots of Fire! Take me over the finish line and help me get this homework done!
I see movement out of the corner of my eyes. I shrug it off, trying and failing to concentrate on my assignment. More movement. That's flapping. That's a LOT of flapping. What's happening? I turn off the tape and scamper to the glass patio doors. Just as I look out, I see hundreds of crows (okay, maybe like 100, but it was a lot!) flying out of the trees heading skyward.
My eyes went wide. Was I calling the crows to me with Chariots of Fire? Did I have that power? Was I suddenly going to be a superhero like the Wonder Twins! Ooh! Who was going to be my wonder twin? Did I even need one? What if I could be my own superhero like Supergirl? I could have a cute little skirt and a cape! Yeah! Love it! Let's make this happen!
I pressed play on the tape deck and turned up the music. I was gonna get myself some crows and train a bunch of them to carry me like I was flying. It was going to be awesome!
Optimistically, I waited, nose pressed to the sliding glass door. I looked in the direction that the crows had flown. It took seconds before the first FEW came into view. Then, more flew into the trees. The crows came back! It took what seemed like mere seconds for the trees to look like they were bending under the weight of too many crows.
I.
WAS.
A.
GODDDDDDD!!!!!!
And then the crows were flying away. What was happening? No! Not my new bird friends!
I was grabbed by the arm, my Mom was yelling my name, shaking me gently. I came back to the planet. I looked at her and pointed out the window. "The crows..." I began.
My Mom proceeded to ask me if I had finished my homework. Her tone speaking volumes about how she did not care anything about any crows and to not even begin to bring it up. I shook my head no and went back to the counter to complete my homework. My Mom then began to unplug the boom box.
NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
The crows flew away. Fairly sure there was a meltdown involved.
I got to play music on the boom box again a few days later. I tried to call the crows back with Chariots of Fire. They didn't come back. I played that tape over and over for several hours, undoubtedly driving my parents nuts.
I am attributing this to the main reason why my Dad bought me Madonna's True Blue album. There's only so much Chariots of Fire a person can take.
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