Chapter 249 19: Rain Crow
Heavy rain.
At dusk in the evening, the dark clouds changed color, and a rare thunderstorm of the season hit this small seaport town with a Mediterranean climate in southern Europe.
The fishing boats lined up at the pier were rising and falling in the waves, and their wet flags were flapping in the strong wind.
Every household has its doors and windows tightly closed, and some people’s windows are not tightly closed, making clanging noises in the strong wind, which makes people feel depressed.
People staying at home used the stored food to make dinner, and sometimes looked out the window worriedly, hoping that their loved ones returning home had not encountered any accidents.
A little girl wearing a knitted hat sat on the dining table, supporting her cheek with her hands, staring blankly at the small cake on the table that her mother had prepared early in the morning, kicking her feet, wondering what she was thinking.
There was lightning and thunder outside, and raindrops hit the doors, windows, walls, and iron sheets, making different sounds of pattering.
Amidst this complicated noise, the door suddenly banged twice, the volume was quite high, as if someone was knocking deliberately.
The young mother who had been leaning against the window and watching, pinching the line that showed that no one had answered the phone, suddenly came to her senses. With the hope of relief, she quickly walked to the door, still chanting Nagging, like complaining.
"Nas, why are you on your phone-"
The wind and rain poured in crazily as the door opened. Even in summer, there was a chill that made people feel chilly.
But her expectations were disappointed. There was no one outside the door, the sky was full of flying garbage, and the Mediterranean pine at the door was bent by the strong wind, swinging one after another, trying hard to resist.
"Nas, is that you?!"
Blocking her eyes with her hands, she reluctantly stuck her head out and looked around the door to make sure there was no one else there. Instead, he took a step forward and kicked a small lantern-like object lying on the ground that blew from nowhere. There was faint blue fire inside, but it was obviously sealed. How could there be fire?
It was probably a decoration scraped from somewhere.
The blue fire seemed to have a soul-stirring power, which made her unable to help but be fascinated by it even in the violent storm. After being soaked in the rain for a while, as a bolt of lightning flashed across, the sky and the earth turned white for a moment. , she woke up with a start, looked around, picked up the lantern and hurriedly closed the door with doubts.
Boom.
The huge thunder resounded throughout the small town, making people feel depressed.
"Mom, hasn't dad come back yet?" The little girl looked up at her wet mother worriedly.
The woman forced a smile, put down the lantern casually, straightened her wet hair, wiped her hands, then walked to the child and squatted down, holding her little fleshy face: "Dear, daddy may be I was delayed on the road. You see, it’s raining so heavily that the car can’t move. I can only stay at the gas station and wait for the rain to pass. Don’t worry. He left me a message before, saying that if he can’t make it back, let’s go first. Eat cake."
"But I want to wait for dad to come with me."
"Same, let's eat first, and I'll videotape it for you to show how long our baby Phaedra is. One year older." The woman whispered softly, "Don't you want to know what dad is doing? I'll tell you secretly, and you can pretend not to know when he comes back."
"Yes!" Phaedra nodded seriously.
The woman took down the frame of the children's crayon drawing hanging on the wall. The painting was barely recognizable as a family of three. Behind her, there was a large area painted purple: "Far, far away. , well, it’s the place you saw last time you watched TV. There is your favorite lavender field, which is full of lavender. At this time of year, when the breeze blows, there is a continuous purple ocean. He, I just went to take pictures of the sea for you.”
"Okay, I have become a traitor. You have to promise me that you don't know anything about anything. Do you understand?"
"I understand!"
Phaedra's eyes were full of longing, and her heart was full of admiration. The uneasiness was immediately diluted a lot.
“Come, let’s eat cake.”
“Okay!”
When you open the lid of the cake, you will see that it is lavender in color, with no greasy cream on it. It looks like an ordinary home-baked cake, with some syrup used to draw a lavender pattern on it.
"My little angel, make a wish. I'll record it for you and show it to dad then." After lighting the candles, my mother held her cell phone to record the video.
“I, I hope”
Cang Dang!
The two of them were stunned. The window on the second floor seemed to have been smashed by something, and the howling wind could be heard downstairs.
"Honey, wait for me first, I'll go up and take a look."
My mother put down her phone and hurried over.
Phaedra watched her mother leave, then turned around and saw the candles on the cake swaying and almost going out. She was so frightened that she quickly stood up and protected herself in front of the cake.
“Where does the wind come from?”
Phaedra looked around and found that the window seemed to be open a crack, and a slight coolness came in.
She carefully opened her arms, blocking the way between the wind and the cake, in a large font shape, and slowly and carefully moved towards the window step by step.
“Hey!”
With a little force, she closed the window tightly.
"Huh? What is this?" Phaedra, who had closed the window, discovered the small lantern with a faint blue light. Her attention was suddenly drawn to it, and she held it up carefully, looking at it in fascination.
Behind me, footsteps came down the stairs, and my mother complained: "A crow blew from nowhere and broke the window of the study room on the second floor. The bookshelf almost got wet. Really”
Phaedra turned her head and walked away with the blue lantern: "Crow, mother, what does a crow look like?"
"It's just like this, don't touch it! There may be some virus, and it may peck What about you?" Mother frightened Phaedra a little.
Although Phaedra shrank her hands, her eyes were full of curiosity about other lives.
It was a lying bird with jet black feathers all over its body. It looked like an ordinary crow. There seemed to be burnt marks on the corners of the black feathers.
Phaedra seemed to have seen this kind of bird on TV, but it was not as realistic as what she actually saw.
My mother was a little worried. Birds like crows have a strong symbolic meaning, good or bad. Both interpretations are possible. It can be said to bring disaster, or it can be interpreted to be a blessing. But in terms of the overall cultural memory, Said, it usually means something bad, but at this time, crows entered the house. Could it be?
"Don't scare yourself." She shook her head violently, trying her best to brush away those bad premonitions.
Putting the crow on the kitchen counter, she warned her daughter: "I'm going to take a bath first. Remember, you must not touch it, you know?"
"I know, mom. "Phaedra hid the blue lantern behind her and nodded.
The woman left with satisfaction and was going to take a shower and change her clothes. First she opened the door and got half wet. Then she was renovating the study room and she was completely soaked. If she didn't change her clothes, she might catch a cold.
Seeing her mother leave, Phaedra obediently sat on the dining table chair with the cake. She was a little anxious when she saw half of the candles were gone, so she decided to blow out the candles first.
"Santa Claus, this is not a wish I made. I just want to wait for my mother to make a wish together. Please forgive me and let the candles go out for a while." She didn't seem to understand that birthday wishes do not belong to Santa Claus. Tube.
Sitting on the chair, the aroma of the cake kept tempting her, but it was not as curious as the crow, so she stretched her neck like a giraffe, wanting to see what the crow had. There was no movement, but it seemed that all I could see was breathing coming and going.
At least he's still alive.
"Mom, it takes a long time to take a bath." Phaedra muttered a few words, peeked back a few times guiltily, ran a few steps to the counter, and observed the bird carefully from a distance. The comatose crow.
"It seems like it's all wet." She quickly pulled out a dry towel and carefully covered the crow's body, thinking that this would help it absorb the moisture. She just put her head on the counter and looked at the crow in front of her quietly, feeling the tenacity of life.
After all, her mother said not to touch her. No matter how much she wanted to touch her, she had to wait until her mother came out of the bath. She has always been an obedient child.
But while waiting, the small lantern she had been holding seemed to be trembling inexplicably.
She lowered her head and looked up and down carefully, but she didn't seem to find any switch. When she looked up again, she saw that the crow had stood up at some point, and its eyes were staring straight at her, seemingly full of murderous intent. .
"Mr. Crow? Miss?"
The Crow ignored her and turned to the small lantern in her hand. His eyes showed a humane look of anxiety. He opened his mouth wide, made a crow sound, and flapped his wings. It flew towards her.
“Ah!”
Duang!
"Ga"
Phaedra, who held her head and closed her eyes, slowly opened her eyes. The small lantern in her hand was no longer in her hand, but was lying quietly on the floor under the window together with the crow.
Obviously, the crow just suddenly wanted to snatch the lantern in her hand, and then wanted to leave, but because it was too anxious, it suddenly hit the edge of the glass frame and passed out again.
Not only that, there was a little blood on the ground, and it looked like the injury was more serious than before.
"Crow! Crow!" Phaedra walked up to the crow, stretched out her hand and retracted it, spinning around anxiously, "That's right! Towel, towel, using a towel doesn't count as touching."
She picked up the towel that had been dropped on the floor, wrapped the crow gently, and hurriedly put it back in its place.
"Do you like this?" Phaedra also picked up the lantern, thought about it, and put it next to the crow.
"Mom, mom, are you okay? The crow is bleeding. The crow just hit the glass again. Bang, it was loud and painful!" Phaedra ran to the bathroom door, shouting and using His hands imitated wings and hit the wall, making a slight thumping sound.
After a while, the helpless mother hurriedly finished her bath, and was led by Phaedra by the hand to the crow.
“Let me see, alas, no pet hospital is open in this weather. I will clean it and put it in the box to see if I can save it. Don’t be sad, my dear, we have already Try your best."
"Oh, oh." Phaedra looked at the crow closely, she believed her mother.
After cleaning and packing the crow, he emptied out a small storage box and was about to put some useless clothes in it to keep warm when he saw that Phaedra was already holding a pile of her clothes, the height of which blocked her view. , making her stagger.
My mother couldn't help but patted her forehead: "Phaedra, the little crow can't use so many clothes."
"I, I just want it to pick and choose which one. I like it," Phaedra said softly.
"That's it. Then let me help it choose this one. It's your favorite lavender pattern. I think the little crow will also like it." The mother picked out a piece of clothing that Phaedra had worn when she was a child. Now He probably can't wear much anymore.
Phaedra nodded: "Well, is that enough? Isn't it warm enough?"
"Enough is enough."
Sending her daughter away, she used the dress to decorate it a little, then took a small container to put some grains in, and a temporary crow sanatorium was ready.
It was just that she was a little worried, fearing that the bird might carry some disease. Phaedra was already very weak and needed to rest at home, but she saw her daughter trotting over with a smile after putting away her clothes. , her heart suddenly softened again.
“Remember, don’t touch it. If you accidentally touch it, you must wash it off quickly and stay away. It can easily scare it if you get too close. Maybe it was just touched by you. I bumped into the glass when I was scared.”
The mother said that she felt strange that the crow hit two pieces of glass, and even one of them was broken, but it was still alive. It was the quality of the glass or the crow. The vitality is too tenacious.
After repeated instructions, she placed the box in the corner of the living room and celebrated her daughter's unfinished birthday.
Phaedra even cut a small piece from the cake and put it in the box.
"Mom, why is the crow alone?"
"Maybe it was just lost. It also had a home, but the wind and rain were too strong and knocked it down. Then, it met Our little angel Phaedra, I think she will be infected by the magic of your love, recover as soon as possible, and return to her home. After all, there is a family there who has been waiting for her for a long time. "
"Dad is also lost. ”
"Well, it should just be blocked, didn't you say? That place is far, far away."
"I, can I not take the photo? I want dad to come back quickly and eat me The cake left for him cannot be eaten after it has been left for a long time. "
"Dad will be very happy if he sees you thinking about him so much. Don't worry, he will come back to eat the cake you left for him. ”
Phaedra looked at the crow, which still showed no sign of waking up but was still breathing. As it rose and fell, her eyelids, sitting in her mother’s arms, gradually became heavy and she slowly closed them. got up.
The mother held her in her arms, slowly walked up the steps, put her back in the room, and covered her with a quilt.
"Good night."
Turn off the lights and leave. She returned downstairs and stroked her heart blankly, as if something was making it difficult for her to breathe.
The phone rang suddenly, startling her, but more of a surprise. She hurriedly connected the phone and pressed it to her ear, even her breathing slowed down.
“Is this Ms. Thalia?”
“Yes, yes, does my husband have any news?”
"I'm sorry, we can only find the last record of your husband, Mr. Nass. He set off from Provovne to the local countryside. According to passers-by who communicated with him, he was looking for lavender fields that were still in bloom, but Gao After the investigation, the Lu police found no trace of your husband.”
“It’s impossible, he, he just wanted to take pictures, and he will come back after taking pictures. He must be there, at his most beautiful. On the lavender field!”
“Don’t get excited, madam, it’s just a preliminary investigation, we are still following up, please wait for our news, we will try our best to get Mr. Nass home safely.”
"Thank you, thank you"
She didn't know when she hung up the phone and stared blankly at the group photo on the screen of her phone. She covered her mouth and cried silently.
In her tear-filled eyes, she seemed to see something flicker.
Drying her tears a little, it turned out to be the blue lantern she picked up. It seemed to be flickering just now, but it might just be her hallucination. Now that she looked carefully, there was no movement at all. It was still the same. That faint blue light.
Picking up the lantern, she stared at it in confusion for a long time.
“My dear, where are you?”
The blue light was dim and there was no answer.
Thalia laughed at herself: "I was so stupid, I thought you were a magic lamp."
Putting away her tears, she turned off the lights in the room and returned to the room with the small lantern.
In the darkness and the sound of night rain, in the small box, the crow's wings moved slightly.
(End of this chapter)