The Story of Kaleb
The children gathered around me, their faces shining
for a new story. “One with adventure!”A little boy cried out, only to be
silenced by his mother.
A shadow caught my interest and looking up I saw
Kaleb circling the children, cawing just as eagerly for a tale. Of course,
I thought suddenly, the kids haven’t heard the story of Kaleb. I
cleared my throat, silence fell, and I began.
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It was a beautiful Paris morning and I decided to
go for an early morning walk to avoid the trouble Sovereign always got
into before breakfast. Rounding a corner I heard loud yelling, scuffing
of feet and noisy cawing. Looking up I saw two bulky soldiers beating on
a small filthy crow. “Stupid bird!” one of them exclaimed clearly enjoying
at least one moment of superiority. There was a shout from across the street,
and the two men went to investigate, giving the bird one last kick.
I went over to the poor feathered creature and bent
down to pick it up. It gave a weak caw as I scooped it up and wrapped it
in my purple shawl. Then I went to see what Sovereign had tosay about a
new house guest. I found her in the tent, making breakfast for the two
of us. I left the crow outside and went in.
Cautiously I asked her, “Wouldn’t you love a pet
Brigand?” She raised her eyebrows questioningly, so I went on. “I just
happened to come across one I thought you would like this morning.”
“What is it?’ she asked dubiously. “Just a...um...well
ya see...um...it’s sorta...well..a...oh...bird thing...ya know?”
“It’s not an eagle is it?” she gave me a suspicious
look.
“No,” I told her innocently.
Shaking her head exasperatedly she said,
“All right, what is it?” Instead of answering I went
out of to where I had left the crow, to show Brigand it wasn’t an eagle,
or anything like that.
“It’s gone!” I exclaimed rounding the tent to see
if it had hopped off. Apparently it wasn’t as sick as I thought.
“What’s gone?” Sovereign asked coming out of our
shelter too.
“My pet,” I answered, then ran off in search of it,
hoping I could hear it from it’s cawing. I was right, I heard some yelling
and cawing just as I rounded the bend.
The bird had found Clopin’s hat, probably been attracted
to the feather, and was now sitting on it, cawing as Clopin frantically
waved his arms to try and get it off.
“What is this Rayne!?” he exclaimed annoyed as I
stood by, trying to think of how I could get it off.
“It’s a crow,” I replied, and continued before Clopin
could tell me he knew that. “Take your hat off slowly, and throw it on
the ground,” I instructed.
Clopin did just that and the crow, apparently bored
of the feather by this time, flew off. Brigand arrived just as I was running
off. “Rayne!” she called after me. “Come here this minute and apologize.”
I stopped, yelled I couldn’t, and continued on in
the direction I thought the bird had flown. I heard the noise before I
saw anything. The crow’s cawing, a goat bleating and a woman shouting curses
to the crow.
Rounding a corner, I saw the bird attacking Djali,
Esmerelda’s goat. He was pulling Djali’s tail and dive bombing it. Esmerelda
was yelling at him, and as soon as she saw me, and realized who the crow
belonged to, yelled at me too.
The crow flew off, apparently had enough fun. I ran
after the bird then too, right into our tent. Their he was, sitting innocently
on Brigand’s shoulder, sleeping. “What is this!” she bellowed.
“It’s a crow,” I said calmly. “The one that was hurt.
Can we keep him?”
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“Sovereign let me keep him on one account. That I
would apologize to Clopin, and Esmerelda. They were both pretty mad, but
accepted my apologies. We named the crow Kaleb, after our father. Kaleb
still likes to get in trouble,” Kaleb cawed to admit this and the children
laughed. “And that is the story of Kaleb.” The children clapped, and even
some of the parents looked pleased. Kaleb hopped off my shoulder and started
to peck at one of the older women who wasn’t clapping.
“Kaleb!!!” I shouted, but he flew off. He's can't
help himself, I thought. He has to get into trouble. With that
thought on my mind, I started to run after him. It was going to be a long
day.