Raven's End

Today it was squirrels, spaced at seemingly regular intervals, perched  a couple of feet into my lane.  They all made it off the road.  The image of the squirrels brought to mind a scene from the novel, Raven's End by Ben Gaad.  This is lovely book that I highly recommend to readers of all ages.  There is a scene in the book where the squirrels are discussing the "ritual" of essentially playing chicken on the highway to prove their worth.  (My daughter has the book at college with her so I couldn't get a direct quote.)

If I could choose, I would rather have squirrels at regular intervals than the small flocks of birds that gather in the centre of the highway in the early spring. I'll never forget one day while driving to the ski-hill I saw a truck swerve into a flock of those birds.  I couldn't count the number left feebly flapping on the road. On one of my first drives home it was terribly windy.  I was following a  transport truck and suddenly a bird flew right into my windshield.  It was a horrible, helpless feeling as I looked in my rear view.  I had that feeling again the other day as I saw what appeared to be a bird weakly flapping in the middle of the road.  I chuckled when I realized it was a paperback.  Was it that bad a book?  Had it been left on a roof after a roadside read beside the river in the sun?  I am an avowed print junkie; it was all I could do to not stop and check the title.

When I was living in Montreal in the late 1980s I spent most of my time walking around that amazing city.  One evening as I neared my home I saw someone kicking something down the sidewalk, much like one would kick a rock for blocks and blocks, except it was a 33 1/3 vinyl record.  I couldn't resist.  I followed this odd image until all that was left was a few shards on the sidewalk.  I could read the label though, The Bay City Rollers.  Somehow appropriate.