Short Stories

Lovebirds

A man dressed in funeral attire walks among the headstones of his local cemetery. He comes upon three ravens, each one resting their claws on their own headstone. The man looks upon them and thinks for a moment. He lets out a heavy sigh and speaks.

"Oh dear messengers of the world beyond the veil, please allow an answer to pass your beaks for my question. Should I tell the person I admire that I love them so?" The man did not expect an answer, simply rhetorical.

"Do not." Comes the sound from the first raven, his feathers darker than the rest. The man reels back in surprise. He must be going insane, he thinks to himself. After a moment of shock and horror, he shrugs. If he is insane, he may as well have fun with it.

"Pray tell, why not?" He asks, confused and concerned.

"They will betray you. You will hurt." The dark first raven speaks.

"Perhaps that opinion is just yours. What of you, will you speak your answer aloud?" He asks, turning to raven number two. His feathers, pale and unkempt.

"Do not." Was the answer of the second for the second time.

"And why not?" The man asks, more shaken now.

"You are not good enough. Your shoes do not shine." The unclean avian is incapable of smirking, but the man can hear how pompous the bird sounds.

"Well... your feathers are dirty." The man says, now more ashamed and made unpleasant from this conversation. Before the insanity ends, he feels he must at least indulge the third in its answer why he should not. He puts his head in hand and asks the third and final raven his answer. "What about you? You stare off glassy-eyed as I asked the other two."

"Do." Comes the voice of the glass-eyed raven. The man comes more surprised by the answer than the fact the raven speaks it.

"What? But I might be betrayed and my shoes do not shine."

"My boy. The answer to love does not matter on its risks and how you appear. True love prevails over all faults." The raven cannot smile, but it can certainly sound happy. "Your shoes do not shine, but your smile when you see them does. Love is not perfect, true love most of all. You will be challenged at every step, but if you are willing to walk your path with them through it all, you are ready." The man smiles at the blind bird's kind words. He continues his walk through the graveyard.