Joachim and the crow (chapter 2)
This is the final chapter of a fable about the friendship between a man and a crow in Germany during the mini ice age. To read the first chapter first, please click here.
One day Joaquim noticed that the crow, always so punctual for his daily meetings, was late in arriving. Worried, he walked along the edge of the woods, scanning the treetops in search of the bird. Before long, he spotted his friend perched on a branch that wasn't very high, displaying a peculiar attitude. He was so interested in something he was examining from afar that he barely moved. Following the bird's gaze, Joaquim noticed the carcass of a skeletal dog lying on the snow. Eventually, the crow flew towards the carcass and lay motionless beside it, its wings outstretched and its eyes half-closed. Anyone who saw it like that, so still and vulnerable, would surely believe it was dead. Shortly afterwards, another crow approached, attracted by the smell of the carcass, but as soon as he saw the other crow lying inert beside him, he hesitated. Was it poisoned? After examining the scene carefully and concluding that the situation was too risky, he gave up his meal and took flight again. Schlau then stood up, shook out his feathers and began to eat the carcass greedily.
- How clever! - said Joaquim, smiling in amazement at his friend's cleverness - the name I chose for this crow couldn't have been more appropriate!
While Joaquim enjoyed the scene, the neighbor and his children approached to investigate what was so interesting there. But they soon realized that the carcass belonged to their old dog, who had disappeared the day before. At the sound of the youngster crying and screaming, the neighbor and his older children decided to interrupt the shocking scene with a slingshot. Soon the crow was lying bloodied on the snow next to the dog.
In the evening, Helena found her husband sitting on the balcony in a state of shock. Although she harassed him with questions, nothing could shake him out of his muteness. That night, he went to bed without eating, which was repeated the next day, and the next. Joaquim seemed to have given up on living.
The days went by and Joaquim's despondency persisted. When he finally left the house and told his wife he was going for a walk in the woods, she felt relieved. After all, nothing is better for the mood than a bit of fresh air and physical exercise. But when evening came and he still hadn't returned, she despaired. Had he, always so attentive to the hours, been taken by surprise by nightfall?
Before long, a group of neighbors were roaming the woods with torches, calling for Joaquim at the top of their voices. But the inevitable had happened. Deeply beaten down by hunger and the gloomy weather, Joaquim had ended up succumbing to the clutches of depression when he saw his winged friend unjustly stoned. His neighbors found him hanging from a tree, completely naked. His clothes had been neatly folded and placed in a shelter from the weather.
That Sunday, the Lutheran pastor gave a long speech to the congregation in which he condemned Joaquim's suicide as a violation of the fifth commandment and forbade his burial in consecrated ground. His wife returned home inconsolable. How was it possible that her husband, who had always been such an upright and God-fearing man, had been condemned by the pastor to wander the earth like a lost soul, without rest for all eternity?
A few days later, while tending to her garden, she heard a call that made her blood run cold.
- Helena! Helena! - it was her husband's voice calling her. Unusual, but unmistakable.
She turned around, but there was no one in sight, only a crow perched on the balcony railing looking straight at her with its small black eyes. The crow continued to come every day and call her name, just as her husband did. It was as if Joaquim was still there by her side and continued to look after her through his new winged friend. This creature's calls maintained the link between the two worlds - the living and the afterlife - transcending the silence of death.
Even though Helena felt happy with the consolation provided by the bird, she went to seek the pastor's help to better understand what was happening. However, he accused her of being in league with the devil and ordered her to ignore the voices from then on. Helena left wondering what kind of God this was, who ignored the pleas of his people for food and consolation for a desperate soul, and who, with his incomprehensible rules, had condemned her husband to wander through eternity.
With her soul broken by the incomprehension of her congregation and her pastor, Helena decided to abandon everyone and follow her husband's soul in his wandering life on earth. Anyone who came across her on the roads of God's world would see a black crow flying close by. Only a closer look would be able to catch a glimpse of the spirit of her faithful companion following by her side.