Chapter Two

Matt's confronts Edwin about his pastime. News report missing child.

“Well, you can’t blame me for this.”

I ran my hand through my hair, hating the fact that I was yet again caught in this sort of argument. It seemed that we did this every time I turned around. Well, that wasn’t true, but it happened a lot more often than I would like it to. Then again, what else was I to expect. It was my fault I was in this position anyway…Sort of. “Remind me why I can’t blame you for this, again.”

“Well, I am just a bird.”

I looked over at Edwin to see the large, black raven shrugging his wings as if to say, what can be done about it. “Well, maybe it’s a good thing you’re just a bird. I’d hate to see what sort of trouble you could get into if you were actually human…or something that had any real size to it.”

“I’m not sure why you are so angry with me, Matt,” he said in that strange, cultured accent of his. I might have been able to identify it if it hadn’t been for the fact that a beak wasn’t designed to make the same sounds as a human voice, and his words tended to make sort of a clacking sound at the end. As it was, Edwin’s voice sounded rather hallow and echoing, in a strange way. I’d spent years listening to him, two decades to be precise, and had had plenty of time in all those years to get used to his voice, so I understood him pretty well by now, but most others would probably have some trouble telling what he was saying, and they probably wouldn’t pick up on his accent at all, not like I did.

I shook the phone bill in my hand at him, the one with the incredibly high number on it with the dollar sign next to it, and cried out, “There’s half a dozen 900 numbers on here! I sure as heck haven’t been calling those numbers. I wasn’t even home when those calls were being made.”

Edwin again shrugged his wings, pulling one of them forward to look at the tips of the feathers, as if he were looking at his nails to make sure they were clean, not that he had any nails to look at, but he gave a pretty good impression of that being what he was trying to do. I couldn’t even begin to fathom how he could move his limbs that way. It just didn’t look all that natural to me. “Well, a bird does get lonely from time to time, and I can’t very well take up a conversation with the pizza delivery man, now can I? Besides, he always hangs up after ten minutes or so.”

I stared at him, exasperated and severally perturbed. “You don’t even have fingers. How on earth did you dial the numbers.”

He looked down his beak at me, and said, “Thank goodness they got rid of rotary phones so long ago. I’d never be able to get my beak in the holes, and turning the wheel would have been a real b***h and a half, now wouldn’t it?”

“You…use your beak?” I asked, and then shook my hands in front of me. “No, no I don’t want to know. I don’t need to know how you fuel your sick pastime. Edwin?
“Yes?”

“You really need to get a hobby.”

He glared at me, and it was all I could do not to laugh. I had struck a nerve with that one, which was just what I had intended to do with my little comment. “Oh, really? Well, I would love to take up some sort of useful, productive pastime, but I really can’t do that can I?” he stated, holding up his wings for me to see. “It’s sort of hard to do much when you’ve got wings instead of hands to work with, and I can‘t do everything I would like to do with just this beak to work with.”

I shrugged. “Well, what can you do?”

“You could have put me in a different body,” he huffed. “A raven. A raven?! Whatever possessed you to torture another soul by placing him in the body of a raven? Why could you have not chosen something a bit more…oh, I don’t know, versatile. Maybe something with fingers, at least. A monkey. Why could you not have put me in the body of a monkey?”

“Would you have liked to be in the body of a monkey?” I asked, unable to keep the smile of my face.

Edwin was quite for sometime before finally saying. “Well…No, no I don’t think I would have been happy in the body of a monkey, but a bird?”

“Hey, I was a kid at the time. I thought a talking raven would be the coolest thing in the world to have.”

“Well, it would have been nice if you could have discussed it with me, first.”

I glared at him, hands on my hips. “You know I couldn’t talk to you before I put your soul in a body.”

“Well, yes, I do know that. It was just a figure of speech, that was all.”

“Be happy I put you in any sort of a body. I could have just left you where you were.”

Edwin fell silent for sometime, and I felt sorry for what I had said. Edwin had died over 400 years ago, and when he had been reborn in the body of a bird, or when I had put him in that body, he had lost all the memories he had possessed from the time of his death to his rebirth. He had no idea what the after life was like, and didn’t know if he had been in heaven or hell when my voice had called his being back into the world of the living. I sometimes felt like an a*s when I thought of what I might have taken him from. When I had done it, I had been a kid, and didn’t know fully how the spell worked. I had gotten all the ingredients together, and had cast the spell, not thinking of what I might be doing to the soul that I brought through into the world of the living. It was stupid and rash of me, and I thank God everyday that I did grow up somewhere along the way. Feeling like a heel now, I moved over to pet Edwin, brushing his shiny feathers with my hand. “Look, I’m sorry about that. I shouldn’t have said that. Not that. I was just sort of…upset.”

Edwin sniffed, or that’s what it sounded like anyway, and said, “You have any idea how much those words hurt. And here I was, just trying not to be so lonely when you are off on your little quests. It’s not like I’m able to have much in the way of friends, you know. The occasional pigeon who decides to roost on the windowsill for a short while doesn‘t make for good conversations, you know.”

Not able to help myself, I said, “I could buy you a parakeet to talk to when I’m not here. At least I could teach it to say ‘Edwin, don‘t do that‘.”

Puffing up his feathers to show me how much he did not like that statement, Edwin said, “Why don’t you get a collie to keep you company when you are here if you don’t like having me around.”

I held up my hands in surrender. “Hey, I was just kidding.” Flopping into the worn couch I kept mainly because it was a hand-me-down from one of my favorite aunts, Aunt Penny, I waved at the television set sitting off to one side of the room. “Why don’t you try watching some tv every now and then, instead of indulging in pastimes I really can‘t afford. That would keep you occupied and out of trouble.”

“And let my brain rot like most of the people of this wretched century?” he cried indignantly. “Really, what do you take me for. Back in my time, we wouldn’t think of even wasting our time with such meaningless dribble that the people of this time find entertaining. The Bachelor indeed. Shakespeare, now there was a way to spend one’s time, and he knew what he was talking about. Most entertaining that man was, and quite skilled in the art of telling a story. I honestly think if the people of this century were forced to make up story lines like that, they would eat their heads off just to escape having to do so.”

“This coming from a guy who calls 900 numbers.”

“I get bored, and they have to listen to me. It’s their job.”

“For 5$ a minute. That sounds a bit extreme to me.”

“Well, I’m not paying the bill, and I don’t quite understand how your currency works. Paper bills, never made since to me. Give me a gold piece, and then I could tell you the worth of it.”

“You wouldn’t know the worth of a gold nugget now a days.”

“And that is because of how much humanity has screwed up everything. You make things so complicated anymore. Things were so much more simpler in my day, and a lot more enjoyable, I must say. Now, if you would excuse me, I’ve got matters to attend to.” With that, Edwin went about with the business of cleaning his feathers, which did indeed mean a conversation was over. He wouldn’t look up at me again until he felt he was perfectly clean, and that could take an hour or two. I had never seen a bird clean himself so much in my life, and wondered often if it was a left over trait from his years as a human. He must have been one very compulsive hand washer when he was alive.

I turned of the tv I had mentioned earlier, and turned to the news. As I watched the happenings of the day, I could hear my avian companion muttering to himself every now and then, and knew better than to ask him to repeat what he was saying. I had made that mistake in the past, and all it would do was start a very long debate on who’s century was better, and no matter what I said, he would never see it my way, so I just kept my mouth shut on the matter anymore.

The worse thing in the local news, which I usually got to hear a bit better for Edwin wasn’t as inclined to comment on it as much as the world news, was that a boy had disappeared from a local school. Walking home from school, he had just vanished, more or less, into thin air. No one had seen him do this, of course. He had been seen at the school, and then he had gone home by himself, but he never made it there. Police were looking for the boy, but there had been no leads yet, and they were now asking for anyone’s help in finding the kid. He was twelve, with light blonde hair and dark blue eyes. He had been wearing a shirt with a Chinese symbol on it, blue jeans and adidas sneakers. If anyone had seen him, they were to contact the police immediately. Of course, if he was with someone else, the caller was not to approach, etc, etc and all that other good cop stuff.

I heard a tsking sound from behind me, and turned to see Edwin staring intently at the tv. Shaking his raven’s head, he kept saying, “Poor child, poor boy.”

“And what makes you so concerned for the kid?” I asked. He usually didn’t show this much interest in the affairs of small numbers of people. It was usually the world at large that got his attention.

Once again, Edwin ruffled up his feathers, making him appear about twice as large as he usual did, and huffed, “I can show my concern for the safety of a child.”

“Yeah, but this isn’t actually like you. What gives?
“It’s a child. Why should I not show my concern for him. I may be a bird now, but I was once human, and still have human feelings, you know.”

“Yeah, from time to time you can amaze me with them.”

“Well, that wasn’t very nice of you. I think you’re just jealous because I’m more worried about that poor child than you are. Shows which one of us is more heartless.”

I started ignoring him, not wanting to get into such a discussion with a bird. Who cared more about a boy was just a silly thing to have a fight over, besides, what could I really do for the kid. No one would believe me if I told them what I was, and it wasn’t something I liked to talk to just about anyone with. Granted, I did have friends in high places who might let me in on the investigation, but she usually came to me if she needed my help, not the other way around.

I wouldn’t exactly call myself heartless, just a little more cautious than your average Joe, then again, I think I’ve got a right to be, what with being what I am and how the world views my kind. Yeah, some people would greet me with open arms, but then there are others who would rather torch me than say hello, due to the fact that they think I’m of the devil, which I really don’t think so. It isn’t what you’re born as, but the actions you take through the course of your life that leads you down one path or the other, or so I like to think. Granted, some people are just born with a soul predestined towards one side or the other, but it’s not nice to judge them until your sure.

Okay, so some magic users are just plain evil, have been that way since the day they were born, but then again, a lot of normals are that way, too.

Anyway, I got through the rest of the news without any problems, and then headed off to my study to go over some books I had been wanting to look over for a while. I can be a pretty busy guy, and don’t always get the time to do the things I want to do, so when I get the chance to do them, I lash on and hold on to for dear life. I left Edwin in the living area, not knowing what he would spend the rest of the night doing, and not realizing how much of my time it would take up over the next several days.

Author's Note

First Draft