Away The Crow Road

Ouma Betsy died. The next morning I was awoken by a strange noise coming from our roof, from what eventually came clear was an unidentified creature. Was it a rat? It might have been cat. We live in a old one story terraced cottage, with a tin roof, so the scratching and clawing was amplified. It was possible that something had gotten into the roof space.

Eventually the sound, like the low dull screeching of a cats mating became so perturbing I had to get up and look. It was dawn and walked out the front door of off the stoop and straight into the street. I was practically on the other side of the street before I could see the ridge of the house clearly. Sitting alone on our roof right over where our bed was I saw a singular crow, not any crow but a white breasted on sitting alone. The crow took one look at me an flew off.  We had lived in the house for two years and we had never knowingly had a crow land on our roof and behave this way.  Ouma had sent a message? Crows are a forewarning of death although they can send messages. Was it really about Ouma? It felt like a message from Ouma. The crow was in my mind it certainly seemed to be an augur. 

The day passed with an even landscapes, no disruptions. Victor came home and asked if I had heard anything. I said there was some loud noises about 20 minutes ago but that was normal. The police were in the next street. One we often drive down to access our own street. Victor wanted to investigate. We walked out the house up onto the main street, where we rarely walk at night and onto the corner where a crowd of people had gathered. Two police cars blocked the road and a plastic cordon guarded the way. There in the street a crumpled misshapen space blanket glared at us clearly disguising what was the unmistakable shape of a body, a human that had been alive only a few moments earlier. Shot dead at point blank range the blood still seeped out of his body and glistened in the glinting  light of the street. 

He was a Congolese minister, who had been dropping off some kids at home after some late night church function. The kids were safe and unhurt. The minister had driven a Kia Soul and the hijackers had shot him and stolen it.