The crow stared at Erich Ochard from its skeletal branch grimly. It cawed once, cocked its head to side, and resumed its gaze.
"What's up with it?" whispered Rob, taking a sip of cherry punch from the pitcher Miss Delino had set on one of the wooden picnic tables. Rob and Erich were friends since the third grade.
"I dunno," said Erich. His shirt was starting to stick to his sweaty chest. His styrofoam cup was empty, and he wanted to go get a refill, but there was something about the crow's beady eyes which bothered him. "It's weird," he added.
He decided to break his gaze from it, and looked around the church's backyard. His parents were sitting at a table talking to the Kauffman family (Rob's family), Father Barr and the other adults were conversing over a light lunch, and some of the little kids were clamoring to show Miss Delino their drawings from yesterday.
Erich's parents had driven him and his big brother Ace to Father Barr's church so the kids could wind down for the summer while the adults talked about grown matters. Erich was excited to see his best friend Rob, sure, but the real reason for his swelling merriment was the corn maze behind the church, in the fields.
When he first saw it a few months ago, (When the Ochard family first started going to this particular church) Erich had been frozen in awe. "Probably 'bout the size of half a football field," he remembered Ace saying when he saw his younger brothers eyes shine bright with wonder. To Erich, though, it had been the size of the ocean. He would've most likely bolted straight through the wooden gate serving as an entrance if it hadn't been for his mother's and Father Barr's reassurance that he would eventually get to go when it was summer.
Now Erich stood impatiently in the midst of summer heat, praying to God that Father Barr would finish doing whatever it was he was doing and just open the locked gate with the ring of keys he kept in his pocket. Rob must've seen his irritableness, since he said, "Hey, when the grown-ups open the corn maze, we can race, if you want to."
"Like, see who gets to the end first?"
"Yeah!" Rob beamed.
"Ho-kay," Erich said, finally summoning the courage to go get a refill at Miss Delino's pitcher. He thought he could still feel the crow's gaze, though.
Ace sauntered over and ruffled Erich's hair. "What's up, kid?"
"That crow's lookin' at me funny."
He scanned the scene before spotting the bird perched on the outstretched oak branch. "Want me 'ta throw a rock at it or somethin'?"
Erich shrugged. "No? It feels bad to look at it."
Ace frowned. "What do you mean?"
"I dunno. It feels like somethings gonna happen. I dunno what, though."
His big brother's frown persisted, though now he seemed more confused than upset. Erich didn't like seeing his big brother frowning, either way. "D'you wanna go to the corn maze with me?"
Ace's frown melted away. "Yeah, that'd be kinda cool, huh? I gotta make sure ya don't get lost, right?"
Now Erich was the one frowning, though it was playful in intent. "Nuh-uh! Dad says I'm better at mazes than you anyways!" This was partially true; Erich had only done mazes before on paper.
He smiled slyly. "Well, I'm also your elder, so..." He made a face and stuck out his tongue.
"Whatever," retorted Erich. He walked away to rejoin with Rob, who was still looking at the oak tree. He nudged Erich. "Look," he said, pointing at the higher branches.
At first, Erich didn't know what it was he saw. Then, the outline of forms within the tree's shadows became clear. There were now about a dozen other crows, a few ravens, even, tucked together within the dark confines of the oaks branches and leaves. Their eyes were all identical. Several small pools of abysmal ebony stared back at him. The world seemed to grow distant for a bit, before Rob shook him. "Hey," he said, "Father Barr says the corn maze's open. We were gonna race, remember?"
It took Erich a good five seconds to remember. He felt like he'd just woken up from a long, deep sleep. "Yeah," he said, looking at the corn maze. It no longer seemed so... welcoming. He felt that someone could get lost in there, really get lost, and never come back out. In fact, he was kind of glad he'd gotten Ace to come with him. 'Wuss,' he scolded himself, but he was still very afraid.
The tall corn stalks swayed to and fro in the warm breeze. People walked through the open wooden gate and into the undulating green maze. Erich stood before the gate, slightly hesitant.
Someone poked him hard in the side- he saw for a brief moment red hair and knew it was Rob -and sprinted into the maze. "You're it!" he yelled back.
Ace looked at the corn, then back at Erich. "Come on, you're not gonna let 'em push you around like that, right? Let's go get 'em." He went into the maze in a light jog. After he was sure he was ready, Erich went into the maze as well.
The corn stalks were huge, towering green poles, and Erich's small size seemed to multiply their height even more. There were so many clustered so tightly together that footsteps were slightly muffled. It was impossible to see anything between them; there was only more green.
Erich looked up and saw nothing but clouds drifting by. He began to travel through the lightly swaying labyrinth, traversing twisting little passages which all looked alike, reaching dead-ends, retracing old paths, and encountering other wanderers as well. None of them were Rob, which worried him. He had no way of knowing how much progress Rob had made, or if he had already found the exit.
He found Ace at an intersection of dirt paths. He looked at Erich and something clicked in his mind. "Hey, Erich, get on my shoulders and tell me what you see up there." Erich nodded.
He clambered onto the lanky teen's shoulders and looked across the hundreds of planted corn to see the bobbing hats and heads of churchgoers lost in the turning passages. He climbed back down carefully. "Let's try that way," he said, pointing at a snaking path to the left. They went.
Although in reality it had only taken them twenty or so minutes to find an exit, (upon finding the exit they found that there were in fact three) it felt as though the duo had been in there for hours.
Eventually, almost everyone had made it out of the corn maze. It was only during a headcount they realized that one kid was missing: Robert Kauffman. They waited for a bit. He did not come. They called for him. He did not answer.
