Having made a concrete decision about what his path would be going forward, John felt generally more relaxed. He went about his work for the rest of the day without any more distractions from the black egg. He went online and booked a flight to New York that was departing the next afternoon and called the leader of the New York chapter of The Church of the Golden Goose to ask him to make arrangements for accommodations for him. His plan was not to tell anybody about the raven or the black egg as they could interpret his cooperation with the raven as a betrayal of the goose, which, of course, it was. John felt entirely comfortable with his duplicity. When his alliance with the Raven bore fruit and he was able to present to his followers the answers that they had been waiting to receive from the goose then they would all understand why he had done what he had done.

John was by now completely convinced that the Raven was a purely positive presence in his life, which was further proven to him when he returned home from work and Laura gave him the most effusive welcome he'd ever received from her when he walked through the door. She ran to him, jumped off the floor and grabbed onto him and kissed him all over his face.

"You sweet, sweet man," she said to him when she was done kissing him.

"What's all this for?" He asked her, taken aback by her uncharacteristic demonstrativeness.

"Don't act like you don't know."

She took his hand and led him to the door that opened into the garage. She opened it and parked where her fifteen year old Renault was usually parked was a brand new Corvette with a big pink bow wrapped around it.

"Just when I thought I was going to have to leave you because I didn't believe you would ever do anything nice for me you go and surprise me with this."

John could think of only one explanation for the Corvette's presence in their garage: the Raven. The Raven had recognized the trouble in his marriage--something he had been oblivious to--and had very generously and thoughtfully taken action to remedy things between them. John accepted the credit for purchasing the car for her and that night they enjoyed a lovely dinner and made love after for the first time in over a year. John got his opportunity to thank the Raven for what it had done for him later that night when he had gone to his study to do some work after Laura had fallen asleep.

"You are most welcome, though I must confess that improving things between you and your wife wasn't primary reason for my benevolence."

"Why did you do it then?"

"I did it because moving forward we can't afford to have any distractions and I feared that your wife's unhappiness could prove a major distraction."

"Still, you did something nice for us and for that I'm grateful."

"That's good to hear, because we're moving into a phase of our cooperation in which there can be no wavering."

"I won't be doing any wavering, that I can promise you."

John made all of his preparations for his trip to New York and, taking the Raven's advice, he told Laura to spend the time that he was away looking for a new house for them to move into. Finances, the Raven assured him, would not be an issue. With Laura walking on air, John was able to board his flight to New York with a clear mind. The Raven had thus far only done good things for him and believing that would continue to be the case going forward he was eager to discover what awaited him in New York. John had booked himself a seat in coach but was informed at his boarding gate that coach had been overbooked and that they would be bumping him up to first class. During the flight John experienced peace and comfort like he'd never experienced on a flight before, and he ate the best steak meal of his life. And it didn't end there. A car service was waiting for him at JFK when he landed which took him to the Waldorf where a room had been booked for him for a full week.

The Raven's generosity was so excessive that John started entertaining thoughts about the Raven seducing him with its wares as a way to distract him from things it didn't want him noticing. John decided to put these thoughts aside and give the Raven the benefit of the doubt until after he had met with Huntsman; after everything that the Raven had done for him in such a short space of time he owed it that much.