To Our Brother, The Raven

A couple of weeks ago, after the semester ended, I got in contact again with my friends that I hadn't seen for a few months. I had not seen them, or gotten to just hang out with them, in months, and had heard something about a bird, a raven I think it was, it was quick so I couldn't remember to well. So I was talking to them online and on the phone to see when I could hang out at the earliest convenience. I cannot remember what day it was, after classes are over I don't keep track of days well and such. But before I went over I reminded them I wanted to see the bird. Well the first time things happened and it was a bust. My very good friend took care of this raven for about a week, took it outside the garage all the time to make sure it could still fly, the only reason it was in the garage was to keep it from the other animals/kids. finally my friend could see that the raven was able to use its wing well enough to get a couple feet above my friends head to pirch, off the ground. The first days it was the roof of the garage, then he would watch it outside on top of the wall and in the tree. So it was time to set it free. for not only could they not keep it as a regular pet of course, but its against the law in utah to do anything of the sort. His girlfriend went to get her camera, they had already done me the honor of inviting me over to be with them and the raven as it was able to fly again, we all thought it was be a great, natural experiance to watch it take off on its own into the distance.

He went into the garage to get the raven, she went to get her camera to get some pictures of it for memories of course. I see him come around the corner of the garage with nothing, before she came back out, "he took off already" "darn" I answered him and shrugged it off. We went to the front of there place to wait for his girlfriend to come out and he told her that he got on the wall and flew off before we could do anything, but it was meant to be. we could both see the look of disappointment on her face because we both felt it a little too, but we knew it was for the better none the less. She decided she didn't need her camera so took it back into the house. My friend turned to me and asked "what do you want to do", "shinai in the name of the raven?" i replied. He smilled at me, "i'll be right back out" and turned in to the house to get the shinais. I am sitting on the front yard waiting for him when in my peripheral I see something shinny move... Its the raven, walking up the side street next there house. Now before I proced I need to say, my friend found this raven walking in the middle of the canyon road which is very busy with people not obeying the posted signs, even with the school across the street, all the time. so i'm watching the raven walk up the side street, back the the main street highway road where it was walking to start with, which I actually didn't remember. By the time my friend had gotten back outside with the shinais the raven had made it to the street corner of the sidestreet and the highway road. So my friend and I preceded to watch as we were about to shinai. But we both know how 95% of the people coming off of that mountain road drive as they pass by there house, so insteed of trying to start shinaiing with one another, we watched the raven start into the road after a few cars passed, to look for food. It made its way through the main lane in time it was fine, and mind you this is a raven, by far one of the smartest birds on the planet because of the way there brain developes while growing to maturity, so its just on the yellow dotted line, still looking for food.
The sound of a great big black jacked up truck is heard at the end of the road at the mouth of the canyon. My friend and I watch the raven, it spots the truck coming, which hadn't slowed down to the posted 30mph at all, the raven jumps 5 inches more into the middle of the road, away from the yellow line and the other lane. The truck had slowed down until it got right in front of the house we were at, noticed the raven walk away from the line which designates the lane, said truck is occupying. Suddenly the truck speed up a bit, went over the yellow line about 3 inches, enough to snag the wing of the bird, which noticed the truck move and tried to take off, but to late. This big black jacked up redneck mobil ran over this raven, which couldn't fly, and then speed off on his way, leaving the smashed remains of the baby bird my friend tried to rescue, behind in the middle of the road. Devistated and unable to speak, my friend walks into the middle of the road, and I watched him drop to his knees in the road and pray in a native song, as completely unknowing and uncareing motorist continue to drive by, swerving not to hit him. He picked him up, carried him over to the side of the house and as we both came to tears my friend began to ritualistically bury our friend and brother, the raven.