Raven’s Call- Full Version

“Jo? You’re zoning out on me again.”

She smirked, leaning across the table to look into my eyes with hers: deep brown eyes, soulful and sweet. I noticed for the first time that one of her eyes has a speck of brown outside of the actual iris. I wonder why that is? I noticed for the first time too, how the ends of her lips curled up a little more when she smiled genuinely, exposing the little dimples on her cheeks.

I smiled back at her, maybe looking too intently. Oh no. I thought. Oh no, oh no, oh no. I can’t mess this up.

I looked away.
“I don’t know how to be in love. I don’t think I can.”
Milo stared blankly at me from across the table.
“I’m… I’m sorry? What do you mean you don’t know how to fall in love?”

I fiddled with the small teacup in my hand. Peering down, the mostly empty liquid and deep reddish-brown tea leaves swirl and seem to arrange into two birds drifting through the tea away from one another. They almost look like ravens… I could swear I saw one earlier this morning too.

“Jo?”

I glanced up, startled.

“Yeah, right, sorry. I don’t know, it just seems like, for my entire life, relationships have crumbled around me. Maybe it’s melodramatic, but it feels like they always fall apart and I’m always the cause.”

Milo blinked at me, then leaned forward with her coffee mug in her hands, her eyes closing slightly in confusion.

“Jo, your relationship status or how well romantic relationships have gone for you in the past doesn’t define who you are as a person.”

I didn’t respond.

“Look, just because you haven’t had a ‘successful’ relationship doesn’t necessarily mean that you aren’t capable of it,” her hands floated in the air, forming quotation marks around ‘successful’.

I nodded emptily, setting my cup down and leaning back in my seat. I glanced around me. In the far right corner, beyond the counter where the shrill shriek of steaming milk filled the air, a couple was gazing into one another’s eyes lovingly. One of them presented in a very

androgynous way, wearing a dark green sweatshirt, loose black pants, and a beanie. The other person presented in a very feminine fashion and wore a black crop top, a long deep green skirt, and a color block cardigan. They held hands on the table, one of them rubbing the other one’s thumb. As I continued watching them, their hands slowly drifted apart, their eyes narrowing. One of them stood up from the table, her skirt momentarily getting stuck on the leg of the chair, the screeching sound of metal alerting everyone’s eyes in that direction.

“I just don’t think we’re right for each other. Not anymore, at least.” she expressed –an intended whisper– before noticing the eyes of the shop on her and scurrying out. Her partner sat silently at the table, shellshocked.

“What do you think happened?” Milo whispered in my direction, watching the lone survivor of a sudden argument sitting at their table alone, staring aimlessly at the wall.

I looked around me, noticing another couple looking in the same direction, looking confused. I immediately glanced out the window. Three ravens, in a startling unison, hopped off of an electrical role across the street and glided towards the shop. I could swear that they were picking up speed, so much so that they would slam into the window, but when I blinked, they were gone.

I quickly reached out and tapped Milos’s hand, still clutching her coffee mug.

“Should we head out now?” I asked her, careful to avoid looking over her shoulder towards the window.

She looked surprised and then checked her watch.

“Oh crap, you’ll be late! I can walk you to work if you’d like?”

“That would be great actually, thank you!”

I walked over to the counter where the barista was trying to hide that she was watching the victim of a surprise breakup in the corner and I set our mugs in front of her. Milo and I left the coffee shop, passing countless more as we walked down the street, right by our favorite flower shop. Someone opened the door as we walked by and I breathed deep, smelling the sweetness in the air and spotting a bouquet of peonies in the corner: her favorite.

“Just not worth that emotional turmoil for me.”

I realized that I zoned out and missed what Milo said. We had somehow found ourselves at a crosswalk, the signal suddenly turning white.

“Sorry?”

We start across the road.

“Relationships. Just not worth the hurt they seem to cause. I don’t know, maybe it’s not that bad, but if something happens, if a relationship ends for whatever reason, it seems to cause people more hurt than joy, so it doesn’t seem– hey, watch out!”

Milo grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side as we narrowly avoided the bike headed straight towards us. I swung around facing behind me as the wind still swirling around us, and for a moment saw the face of the bicyclist. They were wearing all black, a dark coat against the cold, and a white scarf around their neck, obscuring the lower half of their face, but even still, there was something about them, something about their eyes that felt deeply familiar to me.

“God, no one watches where they’re going anymore. Are you okay?” Milo looked towards me with concern.

I kept looking behind me, hoping the bicyclist would turn around again, but they just kept going. I started to take a step towards them, wondering how quickly I could run and catch up with someone on a bike but then I remembered: Milo. I turned back to make sure she was okay, but instead, I was greeted by the worst sound I have ever heard, the screeching of tires at a decibel that feels so high it feels like it goes straight to my eardrums. I heard the sound of scraping metal, the desperation of a driver. Then Milo isn’t in front of me anymore.

I opened my mouth to scream.

*

We find ourselves inside a warm coffee shop, taking solace in its cozy environment. Two baristas are chatting at the counter as another seems to be making a drink for someone. There are few people inside, but everyone has a partner, someone that they seem to be conversing with. Everyone has someone. Everything feels perfect. Even still, I could swear that I hear the sound of wings flapping. But not inside the shop, there’s no way.

“Jo? You’re zoning out on me again.”

In front of me is Milo, leaning towards me, pure joy in her eyes– god, her eyes– as she gives me a cocky grin.

“Right, sorry. I just… I don’t know how to explain it. I feel like something bad is happening but I can’t do anything to stop it.”

“Something bad? Like what?”

“You know that feeling when you walk into a room to get something, but the second you walk into the room, you forget what you’re looking for? It’s like that, but I can kind of remember what I’m looking for, like I’m given a chance to stop something bad from happening but I can’t remember what causes the bad thing to happen. Does that make any sense?”

SCREECH!

I jump for a moment, half expecting to see a car barreling through the window, but instead, my eyes find a barista steaming some coconut milk, the high-pitched shrill filling the air.

“I think so?” Milo said. “ I don’t know what you can do to stop it either, maybe just trust your gut. Our natural intuition is stronger than you’d think.”

Another shrill sound fills the air, the scraping of metal, and I instinctively reach for Milo’s hand, but she’s occupied watching the couple behind us have a dispute. She turns towards me as the woman storms out.

“What do you think happened?” she whispers.

I remember this. This has happened before, I think more than once. It wasn’t my fault that time. I swear it wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t. Was it?

Milo glances down at her watch.
“Oh crap, you’ll be late! I can walk you to work if you’d like?”

I know that I remember this. This is where it all went wrong. Maybe if we just stay for a few minutes longer, we’ll be okay.

“What if we stayed here forever? In this coffee shop. Just you and me.”

I don’t look away from Milo. I think for a moment that I hear the flapping of wings but there’s no way, not inside a coffee shop. She smiles warmly at me.

“It’s a nice idea, but you have work! Unfortunate, but if you want to keep your job, we should head back.”

“My work isn’t as important as you, Milo. Please, let’s just stay a little longer.”

She looks at me strangely and I watch her eyes flit back and forth between my left and right eye, trying to read further into my expression.

“Okay. We can stay. If your boss chews you out later, just don’t tell me about it.”

I nod and sit back, looking into my cup. The leaves swirl in the small amount of tea remaining and rest at the bottom, resembling a black bird, with a long beak moving back and forth as it floated. I push the cup away from me, focusing instead on Milo’s expression but she is staring in awe outside of the window.

“Jo, are you seeing this?”

I hadn’t even noticed that the coffee shop had gotten darker. Outside, a flock of ravens fills the sky, wing after wing stacked on one another, moving as one mass to blot out the sun. Some of them swoop down on top of electrical poles and street lights, and some fly past the door of the coffee shop. At first, nothing seems to happen, just a mass of creatures filling the air outside, but the wind picks up, dangerously close to swinging the door of the shop open.

“What do you think they’re trying to do? Shouldn’t they be flying south or something?”

“Milo? I’m so sorry. I’ll fix this, okay? I’ll find a way.”

She turns back and faces me, surprised at the seriousness in my tone as the door slams open, ravens swarming inside.

I look into her eyes one last time and try to reach for her hand before dark wings flood my vision, like the night sky filling the space around us.

*

I find myself in a coffee shop. Familiar, but I can’t tell why. I look around for something I recognize clearly and see Milo walk through the front door, a bell announcing her presence. She grins at me and unwraps the white scarf from around her neck and takes off her black coat, wrapping them around the chair in front of me. There was something, something I was supposed to remember. But all I can remember are her eyes.