The Disappearance of Raven Sky Island

"Oh, Daddy!" I cried, leaping into his arms. He laughed a melodious laugh I hadn't heard in ages. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" "Oh, my little Evie, where has she gone?" He faked a sigh. "They grow up so fast..." He said, wiping away fake tears. I giggled. Sometimes he could be so corny. "But, you know, I'm not the only one to thank," He said, nodding toward Aunt Lucinda, who was whittling at a piece of wood. "You know, she carved that very accurate figure of you atop that cake." I walked over to Aunt Lucinda. "Oh, thank you for the wonderful carving Aunt Lucinda!" I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. She looked up from her work, a small parrot, and grinned at me. Extending her hand, she stroked the length of my jaw-bone. "Evanegelliene..." she murmured. That was usually all she said, considering her age, which was ninety-four years, eleven months and two days. She counted every night before bed. Years ago, she had had an accident that had put her into a coma for two years and it was a miracle she survived at all. Ever since, she had been a little fuzzy about most everything.

Although her hair was such a white in color and her body was withering away, she was one of the most respected elders in the village, also the most frightening. Aunt Lucinda had pure white eyes, she was blind, for she hadn't closed nor blinked them in nearly seventeen years.

"Daddy," I said. "Can I hear the story now?"

A tradition in my family was that every birthday you were to be told your story. My father had told me my story many times now, and I always looked forward to them. "Alright, Evie." He sighed. And he proceeded to tell me the story he had repeated to me since my first birthday, but this time it was much different:

Once upon a time there was a great vast land called 'America'. Many, many years ago I was a little boy, I lived with your grandmother and grandfather in America, our home was a place called 'New York'. There was many different rules in New York than here. My mother and father were scientists, travelling all over and bringing me with them. I was a young boy of six when they decided to go on an expedition in Iceland. Iceland was very beautiful, as I vaguely remember, until we went on the two-day water tour. We shared a small boat to explore the rocky shores of the Arctic. One windy day, just me, my mother, and my father were on the boat. We went out alittle farther than usual when the storm hit. Waves as big as trees. Strong, cold winds carrying sheets of frozen hail. And fog. Fog so thick you could barely see your hand two inches from your face. Eventually, the boat capsized and I don't remember much after that. The next thing I knew, I woke up on the sandy shore of an island ringed with mountains, black birds high in the air. Raven Sky Island. My parents were no where to be found, I would never see them again. I was alone and scared, and also mighty hungry. I was deserted along the shores for almost five hours and on the verge of death when a woman found me. She was beautiful. She had brown hair and brown eyes and her skin was very tanned. She held a large jug under her arm and I suppose she was going to get water, when she spotted a sniffling , lost, six-year-old boy on the beach. She came over to me and asked me where I was from, who my parents were, and with every question she got more and more confused. She had never heard of 'America', much less 'New York'. But, bless her kind soul, she understood that my parents were dead, and took me in as her own. She knew she could never replace my own mother, so she told me to call her Aunt, Aunt Lucinda. Aunt Lucinda took me through the thick jungle until I came upon a large clearing filled with huts and stands and fresh fruit aplenty. Everyone in the village adored me, and they looked like the same people from home, they weren't Native Americans of any kind. Over the course of the next eleven years, I had transformed into a native of Raven Sky Island, I had many friends and knew all the ways of the people. I had lived with Aunt Lucinda in her small hut where she liked to tell me stories of her husband, Marvius, who was killed by leopards shortly before I came to her. But then my seventeenth birthday rolled around. It was then I was told the rules: Fifteen of the elders on Raven Sky Island known as 'The Council' were to bless me into adulthood but also read my prophecy. The prophecy at first just seemed like a stupid fortune, until I realized they were dead serious. Some of my peers already had theirs and they were good things, and bad things. One of my good friend's prophecy was: "Beware of the sky! Not only ravens lurk there, something more obvious, not usually a scare." Not two months later he was struck in the head with a falling coconut and died. Finally it was my turn for the prophecy, and everything went smoothly. But my prophecy was quite vague. The head Council Leader, an old man named Jakobus Bonishakara, quite frankly whispered worriedly in my ear: "You'll find HER." I wasn't sure at all what that meant, but the council seemed very disappointed with me. I figured my prophecy meant I was to get married. I had had several girlfriends before, but nothing serious.The night of my prophecy was freezing, it was February and the winter had been relentless. I was pondering my prophecy when I literally walked right on it. Half buried in the snow was a young girl about my age, her body a pale blue because she was almost frozen completely. I picked her up, she wasn't very heavy, and carried her back to Aunt Lucinda's hut. Over the next two day, we nursed this poor girl back to health. Her hair was the palest blond and her eyes were the same azure-blue as yours. When she finally came to, her voice no more than a whisper, the only thing she whispered was, "Thank you..." before drifting off again. She finally did come along, telling us she had no idea where she had came from and no idea where she was. She was seventeen, the same as I. Her name, she told us, was Annelise. Just Annelise. Aunt Lucinda took a quick liking to her quiet nature and beautiful looks and decided she could stay with us. Sometime over the next two years I fell madly in love with Annelise. She was my best friend. We would walk together down moonlit paths at night and go skinny dipping in the lagoon. She loved to sing and would sing the most beautiful tunes that only she knew. We were more than friends, boy-friend and girl-friend, we were soul mates. The way her lips fit perfectly with mine, like puzzle pieces. On the eve of my nineteenth birthday, I had spent nearly the last year looking through so many clams and mussels for it. The perfect pearl. I found i eventually, and went and got it put on a silver band: a ring. That night I asked the love of my life to marry me. Of course, she said yes. She wasn't just Annelise anymore, she was My Annelise. We had our wedding over the jetty by the lagoon, her dress even whiter than her hair. Together, as we said our vows, we were finally at peace. For the next year after our wedding, we gathered bamboo and papyrus and built our own sturdy hut. It was the end of one long day that everything changed. I was just finishing the last touches on the roof when a heard a thump. I looked over the side and there was my wife, lying out cold on the ground. I rushed to her, but she was limp. I immediately called Aunt Lucinda, she was very good with medicine. She didn't live far, and showed up within minutes. Aunt Lucinda, who was very attached to Annelise, was heartbroken at the sight of her daughter-in-law on the ground. But as we revived her, Aunt Lucinda was overjoyed to report the news, I was going to be a father. When we found out Annelise was pregnant, our love got much stronger. We would finally be complete. Everything went calmly, nothing unexpected. We added a baby room and sewed little blankets and outfits. When Annelise was eight months pregnant they called a council meeting for Aunt Lucinda, Annelise, and I. The council house was a large towering stucco hut at the center of the village. They had us all wait in a small side room with a small table. We had no idea what the meeting was for, probably something involving our baby. I was thirsty, so I left the room to go to a water fountain. As I was finishing, I saw a man all dressed in black come down the hall. My instincts hold me something wasn't right. I dove into the bathroom, just to see him lock the door where my wife and mother were. As soon as he was gone, I started speed-walking down the hall, I had to tell the main official that something wasn't right. But before I made it to the end of the hall, I heard the most horrific scream. Annelise. I ran back to the door and just as my hand touched the doorknob, the world exploded. I went flying through debris, just vaguely remembering what was happening. My eyes flipped open, the sky spinning. I could smell my own arm hair burning, but otherwise I was fine. I dizzily stood up, and stared. The huge council house was reduced to ashes. "Annelise!" I remember yelling. Nothing. No one. Why wasn't anyone helping us? I couldn't see or hear anyone else. I tripped over Aunt Lucinda, who was lolled on her stomach, barely alive. There wasn't a scratch on her besides her eyes, which were open in terror. I had a feeling I was being watched. I looked around. I thought I saw people staring at me, but then they were gone. Suddenly, I heard it: a long scream, then silence. A stumbled towards the noise, which was now a low whimper. "Annelise...?" I murmured, before spotting her mangled, bloody body on the ground. There she was. Staring right at me. Dead. I was silently sobbing, tears running down my face. But something was perplexing about it all together. She wasn't dead from the explosion. There was a knife sticking out of her neck, blood still pouring out. Next to her, written in the ashes was: "Evanegelliene". There was the whimper. I looked down and saw the face of a baby, my baby, my daughter, whose name was Evangelliene. Then pain. I remember waking up in my bed, some of my dear friends surrounding me. "We're so sorry," they would say. "It's very uncommon for a woman to die in childbirth." I knew that wasn't how she died, but some part of me knew that I should just go along with it. I knew in my heart that that was the day so many things changed.

I gasped at this new information, the cruelty, the mystery of it all. My father was now sobbing quietly in his hands, the grief suddenly unearthed again. Aunt Lucinda looked terrified. What had I done? Why? I didn't think I'd ever know. But that afternoon, I would know. I would know it all.