Uncle told me that there is an urban legend about crows and road kill.  I had no idea what he was cawing about.   He said that when a creature is killed on a road that we have a feast.   What is killed and road mean?  The plan was tomorrow morning when the sun came up we would find out.  The best time to find this mystery food is at dawn before anyone else grabs it.

Next day the darkness started to go and our family rustled out of the tree.   Uncle had us follow but not after lecturing us.   The rules of the road are if you hear or see a car coming you have to jump or fly out of the way.   Again, I have no idea what he was talking about.   He tried to explain that a car was a big metal thing that humans drive around in.  They can’t fly like us crows and had to get from place to place in these monsters on wheels.  Again what is a wheel?  The danger was worth it to get those tasty morsels I guess.   He was so excited he could hardly wait for all of us to get wide awake.

We flew the opposite direction from the beach.  Up over the Madrona forest we love to play in and where we feel so safe.   Up high over the crest of the hill we went.   Next thing I see are human things but these are bigger than that thing in the woods next to where the Osprey was.   You couldn’t see into them either except through holes in the sides.   Running between these big boxes was a black ribbon of flat surface.   It had a funny yellow strip down the middle.   It was flat like the beach but no rocks and it was hard, not soft like the sand part of the beach.

Our family flew over this ribbon of black searching for the mysterious road kill.   We wound around the human boxes getting farther and farther from our forest.   Lizzie and I were starting to get scared because we didn’t know this place at all.   Mom had the family stop and perch on a high up black wire so we youngsters could rest a little.  As we perched a noise started up & before we knew it that noise was on the black road below.   We saw our first car.  It was so big and loud.   We wanted to fly away but Uncle said to stay brave.   He said now you know if you are on the road why you must jump away if you hear one.

When our hearts quit pounding it was time to move on and we flew a little ways farther.  Then we saw it.  Dad said it had been a squirrel but now was dead.   We had talked to the tree squirrels in our forest but this didn’t look like them.   Instead it was flat and squished looking.   Uncle flew down on the road and started poking the road kill.   He cawed for all of us to come join in the feast.

And it was very tasty.   Not as salty or sandy as the beach food.  Now I know why we went so far from home.  This was good and made my tummy feel full and warm.   I wanted more but there wasn’t that much once everyone had a bite.   All of a sudden we heard the car coming.   This one was louder and it was moving towards us fast.  It was so much bigger than the first one we had seen earlier.

Everyone jumped off the road or back up on the wire.   Then it whizzed by us.  It was so big and moving fast enough to create its own wind storm.   Uncle said that it was a bus.   So, we now know not all of these monsters are cars.

Once the wind died down we saw that the road kill was now really flat.   It dawned on me that this was how the squirrel became road kill.  It was run over.   And if we were not careful we would be road kill too.