Owloween
III
OCTOBER 25
When I woke up, Sarah was already gone. I was ashamed that I felt relieved to avoid any early morning conversation. Grandpa Joseph was out in the field, so I did my chores and made my way out there to talk to him. When I got there, he was fixing a fencepost.
-What happened when you went into town last night?
-Grandpa Joseph? I asked, and pretty timid if I have to admit it. And if I’d have known his response, I supposed I probably wouldn’t have worried about asking him.
-What’s on your mind?
-Is it all right if I show Noah the dead owl?
-I guess it’s not really a secret anymore.
-Thanks, I said before heading back up to the house to shower and get to school.
When I got there, calculus was canceled, because of Mr. Kechner’s circumstances. About half the students didn’t show up anyway because they figured it would be canceled. So we stood out in the hallway and BS’d for a while about what happened. Everyone was pretty rambunctious because it was Friday. Not to mention what had happened.
-Man, a goddamn owl, said Wes, shaking his large thick head. Can you believe that?
-Yeah, said Olivia full of energy as usual, I guess the talons went right under the collarbone.
She reached over and grabbed me by the collarbone and dug her fingers under there.
-Ah, man, Stop that! I yelled.
-That must be one massive owl, said Bryce.
Wes made swallowing noises and motions with his neck like he was a baby bird. Then Bryce came over and started pretending to drop bits of meat from his mouth into Wes’s mouth.
-You guys better be careful or you might start making out, said Olivia.
Principal O'Malley finally came down and broke up our group. It always felt like you were being herded like cattle when he did that - him playing the cowboy riding the horse trying to keep everyone in order. If the cowboy was a bald guy with a huge red face. He made us go into study hall for the rest of the period, or go somewhere and ‘pray for Mr. Kechner and I don’t care what the public school system thinks.’ I spent the time trying to remember what the owl on my roof looked like compared to the dead one Grandpa Joseph found. I couldn't help thinking of their intelligence - of Chief Odayin engulfed by the force of one of these haunting giants, down to the bone. And I thought of his emergence from the depths of an owl gullet and how a nice man like him should now be in paradise. All of it was too much to comprehend at the time. Even though calculus was canceled and I was releasing my mind’s eye creative juices - I was still happy when the bell rang and it was time for Art. Mainly because I had to tell Noah about the owl on our farm.
-You want to come out to our place after you get done with practice?
-Sure, what for?
-You’ll see when you get there.
-By the way - you won’t believe it.
-Believe what?
-My mom says that we’re going to go over to Wausau to visit my aunt tomorrow. I think she’s spooked out by everything.
-No way – that sucks.
-Yeah, man, but I guess it’s all right – you should have seen her last night, after we got the phone call about what Engulfed by the force down to the bone happened, she jumped at every little noise, her hair was frizzed out – she looked like a mental patient.
Noah’s dad’s jeep came barreling down the lane a little after 5. He was still in his football pants and shirt. His shoulder pads were sitting in the backseat. He hopped out all smiles to see Grandpa Joseph.
-Hello Mr. Edgewood, he said.
-Hello Noah, said my Grandpa.
He always drew out the name Noah when he spoke, and you could tell he was happy to see him. It sounded like it took about 10 more minutes for him to say the name than someone else. All three of us walked down the pasture to where we buried the carcass with shovels on our shoulders. The orange tree was oddly bare now, and revealed knots like eyes. Some fall flowers sprouted at its base overnight. The churned up dirt of the shallow grave looked like mashed up chocolate cake in mint ice cream. We picked up the dirt and threw it in a pile until Noah slid his shovel in and it mashed into something spongy and solid. We pulled the dirt off and pulled wedged the owl out with our shovels. And there it was, dirty and grimy, but a fantastic sight to be sure.
-Holy shit! Said Noah, pulling his sweatshirt sleeves down over his hands to keep himself warm in the cold air. Grandpa Joseph didn’t even flinch. It’s difficult to admonish someone for their language when they’ve just seen a 10 foot long owl.
-How did it get here?
-Not sure, said my Grandpa.
-We think it was taking the cows, I said.
We stood over that owl looking at its prostrate position and imagined the force with which it could kill a human being. We stood there for a long time. Grandpa Joseph picked up some weeds and grass and said a little prayer under his voice. He tossed the grass into the wind and we watched it flutter down to the owl.
-How strong do you think something like that is, said Noah, in awe.
-Strong enough, said Grandpa Joseph.
We all nodded our heads. I couldn’t imagine it coming down for me, like I was a little field mouse. I was kind of like the size of a rat compared to the size of this owl. And I was a mammal. Watch this and you get an idea of what a 15 foot great horned owl might do. At night a normal one could see 100 times better than a human - who knows how well this monster could see. That’s probably what got into the owl’s head when it attacked Mrs. Kechner. It saw a little rat walking upright out of that house and thought it would be a nice meal. I shuddered. And at that point we had found or heard of three owls total. Who knew how many more? We walked back up the pasture silently. When we got back to Noah’s jeep, Grandpa Joseph offered for him to stay and have dinner. But Noah said no. He looked nervously over to the Western Horizon to see how much time he had to get home before the sun went down.
-I have to get back and pack, he said. And I’m not interested in being outside after the sun goes down.
-Can’t blame you, said Grandpa Joseph.
-All right man, I said, shaking his hand. I’ll see you when you get back.
I was sad to see him leave. And thinking about it now, he was lucky he did. But I still would have liked to have him around during what happened. After that Grandpa Joseph took me into the barn and pulled a sheet off of some junk in the corner of the barn. It was an old telescope. He didn't say anything, just left it for me to dust off and carry into the house.
That night, I sat in the crow’s nest thinking about these behemoths and scoured the sky with the old telescope. It was another clear night. But I never saw an owl flying through the air. Luckily an old night sky map was lying there and I was able to get an astonishing view of Saturn's rings. Then around midnight I heard the sound of a trombone coming from far off in the distance. It was playing a somber tune I’d never heard. It was a slow sliding tune. It sounded like a dog crying. It made my heart drop. I scoured the farm with the telescope. But I couldn’t see where it was coming from for the life of me. I looked at my trombone case and debated whether to get it out and play along with the sound in the background. I listened again, this time listening for the exact notes that were being played. It sounded like a song for a funeral. I reached for my case and took out the instrument, putting the bell onto the slide. Just then the house phone rang and I stopped what I was doing. The only time anyone called the house was when they wanted to talk to Grandpa Joseph about official activities related to the town and his unofficial mayoral duties. I heard his voice mumbling through the walls of the house but I couldn’t make out the individual words. The trombone moaned. Then I heard Grandpa Joseph walking up the steps. I opened the door to my room just as he arrived.
-What happened?
-It was Capt. Terrell. That 10 year old Lund kid was having a birthday party. The parents told everyone to stay inside. I guess a large owl landed in the yard and took him up into the sky. Or so one of the other kids said. It was a Halloween costume party, so the kid thought it was part of the whole thing. They didn’t realize it until a couple hours ago. And the police deputy, Chris, was killed afterwards, when he was going from door to door to warn people to stay inside.
-Oh my god.
I was plain shocked to hear about that. The owls where definitely expanding their horizons from simply taking livestock. They didn’t care what they went after.
-Donovan said that he was in the police car drinking coffee and listening to the radio when he heard a gunshot, he looked up and saw Chris dangling in the air – a large owl taking him up out west of town. His gun fell out of the holster onto the ground.
-What is Capt. Terrell going to do?
-She called the National Guard. They are going to evacuate the town tomorrow. Everyone is supposed to stay inside as of now.
Grandpa Joseph rubbed his forehead. As usual, his granite facial expression didn’t betray any of his emotions.
-You going into town? I asked.
-We’ll be going down there tomorrow.
I knew Grandpa Joseph wasn’t going to evacuate. He walked downstairs while I thought about what he said. I called up Sarah.
-Hi, she answered the phone with obvious anguish in her voice.
-Hi, I said. I’m sorry to hear about what happened.
-Thanks.
-I heard the town is going to be evacuated.
-I’m going to my Grandparents house in Green Bay tomorrow.
-Oh man.
-You guys should leave too.
I didn’t respond. As she talked to me I paced out of my room and walked back and forth in the dining room downstairs. I saw an old used envelope lying on the table and realized it had Grandpa Joseph’s writing in pen on the backside of it – I saved it – this is what it said –
Humans were the impetus or we are receiving some sort of retribution. Nature balances the scales.
-All right, Buffalo, my mom is calling for me, Sarah finally said. I have to get ready. I love you, she said, but I knew she didn’t mean it.
-I love you too, I said, not meaning it either. Have fun in Green Bay.
-We had a meeting with the police chief, he said grunting and he struggled with the wood against the soil.
-What did she say about the owls?
-They are instituting a curfew tonight. No one is allowed outside when dusk falls.
-What did that professor say?
-He wasn’t there. Was down in Mexico to bring up a specialist.
-I thought he was the specialist.
-Well, I guess this other guy is a specialized specialist.
I watched Grandpa Joseph shoveling around the fencepost for a little bit. I thought about how useless the fence was when it came to owls.
