CATE HARVEY

Other Minds

IT WAS EARLY MORNING . Still, cold air and soft grass. The smell of dew and the glow of the rising sun peeking through the trees. One singular shaggy-throated raven flew above it all, the beating of its wings the only sound in the otherwise silent morning. The bird flew several graceful circles in the air, then came to land on the soft, wet grass. The raven hopped along slowly but purposefully, scanning the ground for any interesting trinkets. The creature moved along in this way for twenty minutes or so until it eventually found something. Nestled in a patch of weeds was a small, muddied button. The raven picked up the little treasure in its beak and, now satisfied, flew quickly to a nearby fence.

Soon after this, humans began to wake and leave their houses on their way to work. As people walked past on a path adjacent to the fence, the solitary raven flew down from its perch and gingerly dropped the button at the feet of one of the passers-by, a stern-looking man in a suit. The man merely gave a quick glance at the bird’s gift before continuing on his way. The raven quickly retrieved the button and hopped to the side of the path.

Several minutes later, the bird tried again, dropping the gift at the feet of another human on their way to work, but this time was shooed away aggressively.

The raven made one last attempt, placing that muddied button in front of a mother and child on their way to school. The child ran forward and kicked the button away across the path, and then went gleefully to chase after the bird. The raven squawked and hopped away before the mother ran forward to reign in her child.

Disappointed at the disdain shown towards its gift, the bird made its way to the button, picked it up carefully, and hid it in a patch of grass that had grown particularly high next to the path. The raven then made its way slowly back to the fence on which it had previously perched, ready to rest. The bird sat there for a time, unmoving, watching more and more people stroll briskly past on their way to wherever it was they needed to be. The people paid no attention to their surroundings, not even briefly, just rushed along the tarmac path to their jobs.

Then, one person stopped. A young woman turned, looked at the shaggy-throated raven on the fence, and pulled out a phone to photograph the creature. The raven noticed this, and hopped down, quickly retrieving the button from that patch of grass, and placed it at the woman’s feet. She looked at the gift and bent down to pick it up. The woman inspected the small, round, muddied gift, smiled at the raven who had given her this little treasure, and put it in her coat pocket. Then she went on her way.