Owls

I never did really like owls. They are always in the scary stories, hooting and communicating with haunted spirits. How does every single ghost story has an owl, sitting on a branch of a tree right outside or near to the story setting, and hoots all night? That is enough to send any child screaming and running away.

That’s exactly what I did when I saw an owl swoop down on me while coming back from school one day. It scared the daylights out of me and I didn’t stop running till I reached home. “Mom, mooooom. There’s an owl attacking me.” My mom looked outside from the door and looked back at me with a puzzled expression. “There’s no one there. And owls don’t attack without reason. Did you throw something at it?” “No, I swear I didn’t. I was walking back from school like a good boy that I am and this owl swooped down on me.” Mom smiled, “it must have been hunting for something that was near you, Ben. It wasn’t attacking you. It was minding its own business and fixing its dinner. Now you stop crying and get ready for your already-fixed dinner”

But I didn’t stop crying till mom agreed to sleep with me that night. I am so glad I did because there was an owl sitting right outside my window at night when I woke up to pee. It goes without saying that I didn’t go to pee that night and snuggled up closer to mom and buried my head deep inside the covers. If I can’t see the owl, it can’t hurt me, right?

We had recently moved to this new town and I was going to a new school. This was only my second day in school and second week in the new house. So, no one appeared concerned when there appeared another owl in front of our porch when I opened the door to go to school the next day. I cried and cried and refused to go to school that day. Mom and Dad had to call the school and lie that I was not feeling well. I didn’t feel bad. I didn’t even open the shades of my window that day. What if that stupid, scary, monstrous owl was sitting right by my window and waiting for me to open the window so it could hurl ghosts into my room?

However, when mom called me for breakfast, I did go down. She was making pancakes. Try saying no to pancakes! “Make the pancakes in the shape of an owl, Jane” Dad teased me while going to get the mail. “That should be the payback he receives for making us lie to his school.” “Best idea ever, Ed,” Mom laughed at that but I wasn’t sure if she took Dad seriously, so I decided to keep a close eye on the pancake she’s making for me. Dad brought the mail to the kitchen island and started sorting through them. “Bill, bill, junk, junk, hey Jane, here’s your subscription you had been waiting for, junk, junk, ju….. wait a minute! Jane, come see this.”

Dad and Mom huddled over an envelope, staring at the front section for a very long time. My pancake was getting burnt. “Mom, my pancake please,” I tried to remind them. At my voice, both of them turned to me and started a tennis match, staring at me and the envelope in turn. That got me worried a bit. I had gone to school only for one day. Did I already get in trouble? “Dad, what’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked them very carefully.

Dad had a bewildered expression on his face. “Ben, did you apply for something?” The question confused me. “No, at least I don’t remember doing anything. Why? What’s wrong?” Mom looked at Dad and a slow smile of pure joy started on her face. “Ed, I think … I think this is what we had been waiting for. I should have known when he told me yesterday… Anyway, Ed, I think we should let him open this.” By this time, my Dad was also grinning like a mad man.

“Ben, something has come in the mail for you. Why don’t you open it?” and passed me the envelope he was holding. I only paused to make sure it was indeed my name on the envelope before tearing it open [I think mom winced at it, but there’s only so much patience I have]. In it were two letters – one looked like a grocery list and the other… The other letter was special. And, that’s when I understood why there were owls around my house.