Lilly drove down Rainwater Road. It was afternoon. The clouds were building in the sky. She was trying to get back to her dad’s house before the storm came. Traffic was heavy, cars going north and south, traveling at interstate speeds in the 35 mph zone. She approached the stoplight, foot on the gas. It went from green to yellow. She looked at the stretch of pavement in front of her, laid out like a lithe gray cat in stretch mode. It was too long to run the light. She always judged that way. Her foot hovered the brake and then gently touched it, growing steadily more heavy as she got closer to the light. She stopped.

Raindrops started to fall. Suddenly a black crow landed on the hood of her car. It was huge and its pointed black beak reminded Lilly of a sharpened pencil tip. His head swiveled and looked at Lilly through the windshield. Their eyes met. The stoplight turned green. The crow seemed to notice, for he lifted himself and flew off, his large wings outstretched in flight. The car behind her honked, one of those honks that doesn’t mean “hi,” but rather, “Hurry up!” Lilly snapped out of her moment of wonder in this too busy city.

A car came racing through the intersection at 75 miles an hour, obviously having run his red light. The car behind Lilly honked again, louder this time. She looked around and then gently pressed the gas to proceed through the intersection.

Rain started falling harder and harder as she drove closer to her dad’s house. She pulled up to her dad’s small home, barely visible through the pummeling rain. She got out of her car and jogged up the sidewalk, making out the pale face of her 79-year-old father, who was drenched.

“Dad, I’m so sorry! Come on, let’s get you inside,” she said as she raced up the steps.

He was soaking wet, his glasses fogged. Lilly helped position his walker and helped him up, opening the front door as they approached. Once her dad entered the house, she looked to her right and saw on the railing of the porch the great black crow she’d seen at the intersection. Lilly’s dad waited just inside the screen door for her.

“That’s James. I told him to guide you home. Mr. White just left here and he’d been drinking. His sister just called me and said he ran his car into a telephone pole just after the Rainwater Road and Cornelia intersection.” ~