Red Raven and the Fisherwoman

Trickster
Red Raven
Loved shiny objects
She heard of a fisherwoman who lived in the country
by a lake and kept a round bright shiny thing
In a beautifully carved cedar box.
The fisherwoman kept it locked away, it was said,
From those who would steal it
Some called it 'the Moon'

Red Raven wanted that Moon

She flew all day
She flew all night
She flew to the house of the fisherwoman
And used her magic to turn herself Into a baby girl
with copper hair and green eyes
She lay down on the fisherwoman’s doorstep
And filled her eyes with salty tears
She began to cry
Waaa Waaaa

The fisherwoman found the baby girl on the doorstep
“My heavens,” She exclaimed
It was the most beautiful baby she had ever seen.

The baby appeared to be the most wonderful of babies.
She held out her little arms to be picked up and cuddled
She sucked her small thumb and made soft cooing sounds.
The fisherwoman fell instantly in love with her.

The fisherwoman noticed the little girl had cold hands and cold feet
“Tch, Tch,” said the fisherwoman. “If I want to keep you,
I must make you warm, and dry and clean.”
She did not know the baby was really Red Raven with a cold, cold heart.

She might not have cared if she did;
For she loved that baby so very much.

The baby was very hungry. The fisherwoman fed her and fed her.
“This baby certainly does eat a lot,” she thought.
The baby girl smiled and cuddled and laughed and gurgled
And that night,
The fisherwoman took her to her own bed.

No sooner had the fisherwoman fallen asleep when
Waaa, Waaaa,
The baby began to cry.

The fisherwoman woke up and sleepily told the baby stories
And rubbed her back and sang her songs
And tickled her toes
And kissed her cheeks
And cuddled her
But the baby would not stop crying
Nothing could stop her
The fisherwoman grew very tired.
She said,
“This baby has eaten, she is warm, she is dry and still she cries…”
She could think of nothing else to do.

The baby reached her tiny fingers towards the beautiful
carved cedar box by the bed.
“Oh you can’t have that,” said the fisherwoman
“That is not a toy for babies. It is my Moon. I could die without it.”
But the baby filled her green eyes with big shiny tears.
They overflowed and plopped on the pillows.
She opened her lovely little mouth and howled.
Waaa Waaa Waaa
She sobbed.
She wailed.
The fisherwoman couldn’t stand it.

“All right,” she said, “you can look at it but you mustn’t touch.”
And she opened the cedar box with her Moon inside
And placed it beside the baby.
At once, the baby cooed and cooed.
The happy noises made the fisherwoman sleepy.
She yawned and rubbed her eyes.
She tried to stay awake but finally,
She fell asleep.

The baby that was Red Raven looked at the shining Moon laying
on the soft piece of fur in the cedar box.
She plucked it out and held it up
The light from the Moon shone on
The fisherwoman’s face and she stirred
Then she opened her eyes.
There was a Red Raven holding her Moon in her beak!
But where was her baby?
Red Raven flew about the little house squawking and gloating.

The fisherwoman cried,
“Take my Moon if you wish, I’ll do without it-
But give me back my baby”
But Red Raven only laughed and flew out the window.

She flew high into the sky,
Up, up, up to the stars she went
But the higher Red Raven flew, the heavier was the Moon she carried.

Finally, because she loved shiny things,
Red Raven became much more interested in the stars
They twinkled brightly all around her.

She dropped the heavy Moon and
It caught on the corner of a cloud.

Back on the earth the fisherwoman was weeping

She wept for the loss of her beautiful baby
She wept for the loss of her Moon
The fisherwoman could see it shining far, far up in the sky
out of reach

She just wept and wept

Finally,
Her tears washed her away
into the lake.
And, because of her tears
It became an ocean.
Soon,
her tides
Rose and fell
and
Rose and fell
Her waves reached up towards all that
She once had truly loved
and lost

And so it was
forever