behindtheax

an excerpt

here is a little of the story. remember it is very rough.

“Lets go,” Sam said and started jogging along the fence, to its far corner and around it, towards their hidden entrance. As they ran, Joe peered into the pinewood. He could only see a short distant into it. The long green needles of the branches and the rigged bark of trunks were all he could make out clearly. The rest was cast in shadows and undefined bush. A few sparrows swooped in and out of the branches and a chipmunk, which was startled by the humans running by, hopped and scurried around a few trees before disappearing but nothing else moved. He wondered how the natural wildlife around these parts were dealing with the scent of all those new wild things just beyond the big fence. Do the native animals wonder what new types of predators are in their woods with them now? Do they hear the big cats roar at night and do they move deeper into these once peaceful woods to get away from that sound? How would the deer and rabbit know that these strange new animals were all behind bars?

It didn’t take them as long today to find the hole beneath the fence like it had the first time in the rain and it was nice to see that the puddle had dried up to just a small smudging of slick mud at the bottom which they were able to wiggle over without getting down into it. In minutes all three were standing on the inside of the fence and looking everywhere at once to see if they could spot any workers. But it was as just as quiet as the last time. No, it was much quieter without the rain.

Sarah started forward but Joe pulled her back to him

“We first need somewhat of a plan, Sarah?” Joe whispered.

“I want to check out the aviary. We didn’t get a great look at it the last time. Did you notice any Ravens in any of the cages?” Sarah asked.

“Our Raven isn’t in a cage.” Sam commented as he scanned the skies wondering if it would just show up with Sarah’s ring in its mouth.

“But it might have came from one. Do you know what that Raven and this zoo have in common?” Sarah started.

Oh no, Joe thought she is about to let us in on one of her Sarah theories again.

“What?” Sam said with interest. He, on the other hand, happened to love Sarah’s theories on things even if many of them were never very sound.

“Every one of these animals is not completely normal.” She started. “ The tapir has three toes in front, the jaguar is much too big. The one at the city zoo was only half that size and the alligator is as big as a boat and I can’t quite put my finger on it but the animals all seemed a little bit too grand or too perfect here. Even the spider monkeys were all sitting around on our last visit, looking like they were waiting for the evening news to come on.”

Sam chuckled, ‘Yeah I guess they were a pretty subdued bunch of monkeys.”

“So, doesn’t it just seem to fit that a raven with blue eyes belongs to this place? Maybe it escaped.”

Sam’s eyes widened, “Maybe it was trained to take people’s expensive jewelry. I think I read a story like that once. Maybe that is how Dr. Hedley is so rich?”

Joe looked at both of them and rolled his eyes. “Lets not go there, Sam! Lets go to the aviary.”

They walked across the short cut grass and onto one of the cobblestone paths. They found the sign with an arrow that simply read BIRDS and followed it up a short path, around newly planted hedges and into an open area surrounded by a wall of high narrow cages each housing a different species of bird. In the first cage sat a noble looking bald eagle. He was perched near the top of the cage on a thick branch and he stared down at the three children with his piercing yellow eyes. His white head was smooth and clean and his dark brown body was straight and elegant with its wings folded in close to its body. In the cage beside him was another bird of prey, a great horned owl, and it sat blinking repeatedly at them, ruffling not as much as a tiny feather. Sarah and the boys followed the line of cages as it circled around the open space, looking in all of them, hoping to spot the bird they were looking for but not a single bird had blue eyes in these cages. Until they came to the great Amazon macaw's cage. It started a racked as soon as they approached it, making a deep throated sound, almost like a continuous purring or rolling r sound, and flapped its blue and yellow wings, hopping from foot to foot on its wide perch.

“Well, here is a bird with blue eyes, Sarah!” Joe declared, stopping.

‘Yeah but it is suppose to have blue eyes.” Sarah answered

Sam laughed and said, “It looks like it is dancing.”

“Wow, it has every colour of the rainbow in its feathers on its back and chest.” Sarah said, “but look at its belly, it has spots of black and white feathers. They kind of look like Dalmatian spots. That is a little odd, don’t you think?

“Little odd,” the bird clearly said as it started nodding it heads up and down. It indeed was a colorful bird, mainly yellow and blue along its back and wing feathers but where Sarah had pointed there was, almost in a perfect circle on its lower belly, beneath its green and orange chest, a white area decorated with small black spots.

“It speaks!” Joe declared, walking closer to its cage.

“Not really,” said a cackling voice behind them, “it merely mimics.”


The three of them didn’t turn around immediately. Sarah closed her eyes and began trying to quickly calculate an answer to give this Zoo employee about why they were here in the Zoo when it was closed to the public. Sam reached up and pulled his red sox cap down over his eyes a little lower hoping maybe he could pretend for a little while longer they weren’t just caught and Joe was waiting for his heart to slow down a fraction. It was beating pretty heavy. The voice startled him worst than the others because he had just scanned the area moments before and all was quiet.


“So, are you not going to turn around, so I can introduce myself too you three?” the voice continued. They turned around slowly to face the open area and the cages on the other side of the circle but there was no one there. The great horn owl hooted low and long. Many other of the caged birds began to squawk, tweet, whistle and screech. Sarah put her hands to her ears. They stood in the center of a very bad choir, everyone on a different page.

“Quiet!” yelled the same crackly voice. The birds all hushed up at once. Sarah raised her eyes to follow the voice and there sitting on top of the hornbill’s cage sat the raven. It had a tint of mischievous in its blue eyes and its black beak was open slightly as it stared at the three kids.

Sarah just raised a shaky hand and pointed to it. “It’s the bird that took my ring.” She whispered.

Joe and Sam were still looking around trying to find the owner of the voice they had heard.

“Boys pay attention and cast your eyes on my beautiful black feathers for a moment will ya.” The raven said as it hopped a little on top of the cage to make its presence a little bigger.

Joe and Sam gasped loudly.


“Now first of all, don’t freak out on me. It wasn’t that easy for me to get you guys back out here. Not only did it take me about an hour and a half to get your window open, Sarah. I also had to whisper into your ear as you slept that if you wanted your ring back, come back to the Zoo. But I think you would have clued in anyway. You are a bright bird. ” The bird stated as it stretched its wings out, ruffled them, and tucked them neatly back along its sides again.

The three of them kept standing speechless, looking up at the raven. Sam licked his dried lips and Joe pinched himself hard on the hand.

W-W-Where is my mother’s ring?” Sarah said. She tried for it to sound stern but it came out raspy and weak sounding.

“I kind of need to hold on to it for a while but I will get it back to you I promise?” the raven said. “and I didn’t mean to scare you the last time, I just wanted to slow you down, hoping you would look around the Zoo abit more. What you see here is not the half of this place.”

“Do you belong to Dr. Hedley.” Asked Sam. “Did he train you too talk?”

“Sam, buddy, give your head a wee shake. First of all I don’t belong to anyone, at least not anymore, and second of all I taught myself to talk. Georgia over there, on the other claw is a trained parrot and yes, she does say a few words now and again but she will never be able to describe things in full and complex sentences. Got that? And it isn’t because she isn’t smart, she has a whole head full of wonderful thoughts but she just doesn’t have the capability to communicate with you guys. Cause she is 99.9% bird O.K.”

“You’re a bird.” Sarah declared after her initial shock began morphing into fascination. This was so truly incredible that she had not blinked for fear of the raven disappearing and now her eyes were beginning to water. She wiped the tears away with the back of her sleeve and continued, “and you are talking in some pretty complex sentence?”

“Precisely, and this is the reason I need you guys to look a little deeper into the going ons around here. You see, I have a few friends in low places that need your help. I had promised them that once I got out, I would come back and break them out but I can’t do it on my own. I’ve been trying with little success. When I noticed you guys sneaking around a few weeks ago, I figured it was time to initiate some human help.” The raven took a few hops, stretched his wings out to their full length and took flight, flapping his wings in a steady, working beat. The three of them leaned their necks back to watch him as he took to the clear sky above and circled the area for a few moments before sailing gracefully back to his spot on the top of the hornbill’s cage.
A little out of breath the raven continued. “It is still quiet but the guards will be up and making their rounds shortly.

“Guards?” Joe asked.

‘The Zoo employees, you met the other day on your school trip.” The Raven answered. “I got to know if you guys are in? If you are, I will tell you the whole story later at a safer location and Sarah, I will return your ring with an apology attached. What do you say?”

“OF COURSE WE”RE IN. Tell us all.” Sarah said excitedly.

Joe pulled Sarah over closer to him and whispered in her ear. “Can we at least have a little time to think this over? Perhaps see a doctor first and explain to him that a huge talking Raven is soliciting the three of us for help. Maybe it’s just me but what is taking place right now is pretty nuts, Sarah, and you girl want to rush right into it!”

“Oh it gets crazier.” The raven interrupted, stretching his neck upward to have a sweep of the perimeter. “And I am telling you guys I could really use some help here.”

Sam nodded his head. His eyes were spellbound on the great bird. “A-A-Are you the only talking animal here?”

The raven paused and coxed his ebony head to one side. The sunlight was shining on his smooth head feathers making them shine. “OH NO here we go! Hate to break up the party but I hear the humming of the underground doors opening, so you three better get out of here fast. I’ll swoop low over them when they come out because there is nothing, right now, they would love to do more than to catch me and silence the talking bird. That will give you plenty of time to get back under the fence and away from here. But I got to know right now!” he was beginning to jump around a bit, loosing his confident composer, “Are you in or not?”

Sarah looked quickly at Joe with a pleading look. Sam was nodding his head to the Raven.


There was a second of silence and then Joe said, “Sure.”

“O.K. guys get out of here, I will send a note at a later date where the next meeting will be.” The Raven said hurriedly, finishing his sentence with a loud caw and taking flight once again.

“A note? It writes too?” Joe looked a bit green now.

In the distance they could hear someone shouting and without further hesitation all three of them broke out into a run towards the fence. The great eagle flapped its wings twice and called out in one loud shriek that sounded very much to Joe like encouragement. They ran for all they were worth, and were down on the ground and crawling quickly under the fence before anyone spotted them. Once outside the fence they ran swiftly along it towards their bikes. As they ran in the shadow of the high wooden structure they heard two loud cracks.

Joe turned back to look at Sam and Sarah as he ran and mouthed the words “Gunshots?”

Sarah and Sam, both wore red on their cheeks and worry in their eyes as they kept running as fast they could behind Joe. Sarah had enough adrenalin pumping through her system to fuel a small spacecraft and she kept up easily with the guys. Her sneakered feet were doing all the work, propelling her forward automatically because her mind was engaged now in complete thought as she started dividing up all the things that were strange about this zoo and the dangers they might be stepping knee deep into.

posted by mary j. @ 9:36 PM