One Spring day I was walking down the road towards the MFP cannery and I noticed there was a raven standing with a bunch of seagulls. At first I thought the raven was there to rip off some fish they might have caught, but the more I watched the more I knew he was there just mingling. He even seemed to be speaking the seagull's language. Never in my life had I seen such a thing, So I went to the eldest elder in the village and asked what might be happening there. The old man told me that the raven was actually there looking for a mate to marry. I was so astounded, I didn't know what to say or think. I thought nobody would believe me, so I decided to keep it to myself.

The next day, as I walked the same road towards the MFP, the raven and the seagull took off together. I had a hunch where they might have gone, so I walked back up towards the dump site and the airport to see if they were flying around there. After awhile I saw them on the ground at the airport. As I watched, the wings of both birds spread out and they began running in a circle. It was so weird I couldn't believe what was going on. But I remembered what the old man had also told me that day, to never interrupt the raven and seagull's ceremony because something bad may happen. For instance, bad fishing, or bad weather. He said this ceremony came every ten to twenty years and that it happened only on a certain day of the year.

As I studied the two birds a strange wind began to blow and I never felt so alone as I did then while watching them. I began to get a little scared and didn't know what to do, so I decided to walk back home. Just at that moment though the birds flew away, and I noticed the seagull had turn black.

While walking home I thought hard to myself about how in the world I was going to get people to believe my story. Everyone would surely think it was a fake? All I had on my side was the story from the old man who believed it himself. So I just decided to keep the experience to myself. Until now!

Carmen Pitka