The crow dropped my daughter’s hair clip at my feet three hours after she disappeared.
It was a little pink plastic butterfly. The kind they sell in packs of twelve at the drugstore for three dollars. Birdie had worn it that morning, clipped crooked over her left ear, because she said butterflies were supposed to sit on the side, not the top.
I was standing in my driveway in the rain. There were flashing red and blue lights all down Larkspur Lane. Neighbors in rain jackets were walking in lines across the field behind our subdivision, calling her name. A search dog was barking somewhere near the canal. A helicopter had come and gone twice.
And then Edgar came down out of the gray sky, landed on the wet concrete two feet in front of me, and set that pink butterfly clip down by my shoe.
He looked up at me. He made a sound I’d never heard him make before. Not his usual morning caw. Something lower and faster. Urgent.
Then he flew to the top of the fence post at the end of the driveway and turned around and looked at me again.
“That’s hers,” I said. I picked up the clip with shaking fingers. “That’s Birdie’s. She was wearing this. He has her clip.”
The sheriff’s deputy standing beside me was a big man with a gray mustache and a rain cover on his hat. Deputy Ray Hollis. He’d been patient with me for three hours. He’d been kind. But I saw the look he gave the volunteer next to him.
“Ma’am,” he said gently, “birds pick up shiny things. She probably dropped it in the yard this morning.”
“No. She was wearing it when she went outside. I put it in her hair myself.” I held it up. “This is from wherever she is. He knows where she is.”
Edgar cawed from the fence post. Loud. Then he flew to the next post down the road. And turned around. And cawed again.
“He wants us to follow him.”
“Ma’am, I don’t think—”
I was already running.
But before I tell you what happened next, I need to tell you about the crow. And about the man who tried to take him away from us.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
Sophia holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Toronto, where she developed her skills in news reporting, media ethics, and digital journalism. Her expertise lies in identifying key stories, crafting compelling narratives, and ensuring journalistic integrity in every piece she edits.
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