THE CHRISTMAS CROWS

NOTE: A few years ago I started writing a new Christmas story each Christmas. The first story was “Jungle Bells” and the next year I wrote “The Nefarious History of a Former Christmas Tree” and if you keep reading now you will hear about “The Christmas Crows.”

“Do you know about the Christmas crows?”

“I don’t. No.”

“It’s been said that if you write a letter using the feather from a Christmas crow, and you make a wish in that letter, it will come true.”

“Who says that?”

“I just did.”

“Okay?”

“You know crows. You know Christmas. If these exist on the same day, they are Christmas crows, just like there are Christmas songs, trees, sweaters, cookies, carols, stories, lights, gifts, socks, movies, beverages…”

“Does that mean that there’s Christmas grass, cars, leaves, omelettes, bacon, chairs, and racquetballs? Are there Christmas racquetballs?”

“Absolutely.”

“What’s your point?”

“Crows congregate. They caw. They talk to each other, swarm overhead. A group of crows is known as a murder of crows- and like that term suggests they are a nuisance or a bad omen. But the Christmas crows are different.”

“Because on Christmas you look at things a little different, and -”

“No, but that’s good. I told you about the crows that wait outside my classroom window at school.”

“Yes. Sometimes they get in through the front door and wander into class. Once one hopped onto a desk and kept squawking and squawking and so you started opening the doors of the school on Saturday and sometimes you’d have an entire class of crows sitting on top of desks listening to you drone on and on about literary terms and symbolism and tell story after story. And you never say this part, but each time you tell me you hint at it, that in the eyes of some of the crows you see students from years ago. There was something they needed, but didn’t get, and that’s why they’re back.”

“Do I really drone on and on?”

“Sometimes.”

“It’s been said that if you write a letter with the feather of a crow on Christmas, and you write a wish in that letter, it will come true.”

“Has this ever happened?”

“I doubt it’s ever been tried.”