May 2, 2019

We were in the cafeteria when a giant bird crashed into the hall through the skylight. The human-sized raven hopped towards me and gripped the fingers on my right hand with its beak. I struggled and tried to run away but every time I broke free, the bird would continue following me. I finally turned around and asked what it wanted. It spoke " You have an uncanny ability for detecting death." It dropped what seemed to be an elementary school worksheet as it spoke. It was dated 2005, and it had the last name of my third grade teacher in the upper right corner. I turned to my friends and asked if anyone might happen to know who, or what, “Death” is. No one had a clue. I turned around and asked the Raven where it came from. “Kenya”, they said.

Our third grade teacher came towards us on a moving walkway - which we took as a sign to ask questions. “XXX, did we ever talk about death?” We were quickly shot down, “No.” and he continued moving past us, carried by the walkway beneath him. Someone suddenly recalled that the worksheet itself had a reference to death. We turned to the last person who had it. He apologized for ripping it up when we thought it was a dead end.

We were back to square one - and it wasn’t helping that someone in the group was trying to look as ominous as possible, as they found the notion of being dubbed “Death” appealing. “I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not working” I told him.