Owloween
VI
OCTOBER 28
The next morning I felt fresh and invigorated. I’m not sure why an owl getting inside my head made me feel that way. I wonder if everyone does after an experience like that. I felt like a veil was lifted and I could see clearly what was happening in Lake Bawshkinaway. Grandpa Joseph was cooking some bacon when I came out to the kitchen. A box of Raisin bran and carton of milk were on the table. As I was eating it, I couldn’t help but tear into it. I was starving.
I munched on Raisin Bran and chomped down the bacon. Should I tell Grandpa Joseph? That was the question running through my brain as I ate. I could feel him watching me eating like a boxer after a fight.
-A couple soldiers disappeared last night, said Grandpa Joseph.
-What happened?
-Well, the General positioned them North of town in some trenches. He had them go out early, before sundown and told them not to move a muscle that night. He just wanted to see if they could find out where the owls were coming from. They were under strict orders not to talk or radio back to the base. The General tried to reach them in the morning and didn’t hear anything back. When they drove down there, the soldiers had disappeared. Blood was found in the area.
-Did they call their phones?
-Both of them went to voicemail. They found their phones on the ground where they were supposed to be when the next guards came out on watch.
-Wow.
-The General hadn’t seen anything like it. It was almost as if the owls knew exactly where they were. No one saw owls in town that night.
-They might have known, I said.
-Why’s that? Asked Grandpa Joseph.
I decided to tell him the whole story from the night before. Grandpa Joseph listened intently, his face expressionless. I tried to tell him every detail about being under the spell and what I wrote down. It was weird, I could remember everything the owl said immediately after it happened, but that morning I couldn’t remember any details. I just told Grandpa Joseph that Dr. Veggente was right that the owls could influence people to do something against their will. Individual owls could gather information from people to kill those soldiers there. And that maybe someone was working with the owls. Maybe, I said, someone in town told the owls where the soldiers would be.
Grandpa Joseph nodded grimly.
-Well, it sure seemed like that according to General Greer. How else would they know the exact position of those soldiers? But on the other hand, one of those boys makes a little noise and they are done for if the owls are on the look out.
Grandpa Joseph didn’t even blink at the sensationalist aspects of what happened to me. But as he always says, it’s hard to be surprised when you don’t like surprises. He told me to get dressed because we were going in to town.
Lake Bawshkinaway was busier than usual. We drove up to the O’Neil house and noticed that all the cars were parked there, the military jeep and a couple ATVs. When we went into the house General Greer was inside plotting with Prof. Klemm and Capt. Terrell. A couple of his majors were there with him as well. They had a large map on the table that I remembered on the wall at the police station. Dr. Veggente sat in the recliner, playing some cards with Donovan.
-Mayor, good to see you, said General Greer.
-I see you guys are planning to take some action tonight.
I looked over at Dr. Veggente, and by the grim look on his face, I knew it was happening. They were going to challenge the owls. I’m surprised he didn’t try to stop it. I had an overwhelming emotion of fear for every person in the town at that moment. To challenge the owls seemed a serious mistake. But the power of their military weaponry might be enough to take them out. Although because of my respect for Dr. Veggente, I felt we had to find where they were before we could seriously challenge them. There were 5 in the backyard at Cedars when I came out of my trance. Who knows how many more there were? Could their weapons take owls out of the sky? How would that work? I had so many questions. But I had to see it happen. I turned around and went outside to sit on the porch. I had to think about what would happen and I knew I wasn’t going to be involved in any decisions. Cedar walked down the street at that moment.
-What’s happening? She asked. Her eyes were imploring me.
-They’re going to attack.
I couldn’t say whether it was bad or good. It seemed to me that any protestations would have no effect. The only way we could be helpful was to see what happened when they conducted the offensive, because they it might give us some inkling into where they were and how they were hiding. I stared at my shoes thinking about it. Then my heart intervened. I knew I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try and tell them what I knew, because that might help someone from getting killed. So I impulsively busted back in through the front door with Cedar following me.
-It’s a mistake! I shouted. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. Even Grandpa Joseph had a twinkle in his eye; I believe it was the first time I ever truly surprised him. He looked back at me over his shoulder. Dr. Veggente was the only one who wasn’t shocked. General Greer gave me a grimace.
-What’s a mistake son? he asked calmly.
-The owls will completely destroy you guys. Last night, an owl talked to me, and told me he hoped you would attack. That is what they want. They are waiting for it.
-An owl talked to you? General Greer scoffed, confused and frustrated and a little short on temper.
I looked at Dr. Veggente. He put his cards down and stood up.
-Yes, it seems so, said Dr. Veggente sighing. I saw it happen. Buffalo wrote down everything he heard the owl say to his mind.
Dr. Veggente pulled the paper where I had written everything out of his back pocket.
-Is this serious? General Greer asked Prof. Klemm
-Well, it seems as if owls can perform some sort of trance, as we’ve seen with Donovan here, I haven’t been affected myself so I can’t say for sure, and we are uncertain as to whether this occurs with the large owls or not. Dr. Veggente has many surprising concepts about owls that he has discovered in his research. I tend to use a wait and see attitude with these ideas. Let me see that, Oliver, he said as he swiped what I wrote out of Dr. Veggente's hand.
Prof. Klemm sat down and read what I wrote while we all had to wait. He took forever to put on his reading glasses. And he sighed a couple times while reading.
-Well, he said finally, if this is true I don’t think it changes anything.
-If it’s true!? I yelled, upset a man like Prof. Klemm would question my integrity.
Prof Klemm gave me the most condescending look I’d ever seen in my life. I wanted to walk over and punch him in the face.
-What do you suggest? he said, patronizing me.
-We find where they all are and then destroy them when they are sleeping.
-Ah, yes, Dr. Veggente’s idea. And how do you suggest we find them? We go out there playing trombones, serenading them. Yes, I saw you Oliver. I know what you are doing, but how do we find them? Maybe we can put ourselves in trances? Ha ha.
He walked around the room like a zombie, hamming it up with indecipherable exclamations. What a jerk.
-We’ll be devoured while we do that. Maybe you suggest that we go out there and hang a piece of raw meat around our neck and hope they drag us to their nest? Bottom line - the offensive gives us two advantages – we’ll probably knock a few off and then we can see where they are going and coming from.
Prof Klemm’s motions of his hands in the air were defiant and theatrical. After he was done talking, everyone waited for General Greer to say something. General Greer coughed.
-I don’t know much about your research, but it seems that Lester here has a point. I say we go as planned. Worse thing that happens, we wound a few owls and don’t know where they all are. Best-case scenario we kill them all.
-Well, you’re running the show, said Dr. Veggente. I couldn’t believe it. I ran out of the house with my eyes on fire, in a bit of a temper tantrum, I have to admit. It was plain pathetic.
Cedar came out and sat down next to me again. This time she put her arm around me and looked up at me with those wide beautiful eyes. All my anger washed away from me at that instant. She extended her neck up and kissed me on the cheek. It emanated through my limbs and into my bones like lava rolling down mountainside crevices.
-Don’t worry about it, she said.
I nodded my head. But my stomach was in my throat. I’d never gone from frustration to elation so quickly. It was wonderful experience, like when we took the elevator to the top of the Sears Tower back during our trip to Chicago when I was in junior high. Times 1000. My face must have been beet red.
Grandpa Joseph stepped outside and lit a cigarette.
-Are you all right?
-Yes, I said.
Then Capt. Terrell came out to talk to Grandpa Joseph.
-The General thinks we should evacuate Buffalo and Cedar. He doesn’t want the kids around during this.
Cedar, god bless her, just thumbed her nose at this and stood up, not acknowledging Capt. Terrell.
-I better get back home, said Cedar to me as she walked down the street. It was nice hanging out.
-Later, I said.
Capt. Terrell just watched her walk away without saying anything.
-Buffalo, said Grandpa Joseph, what do you think about leaving town for a few days?
-Absolutely not, I said.
-Well, said Grandpa Joseph taking a drag off his cigarette, you heard him.
Capt Terrell pursed her lips, shook her head and walked inside the house without saying another word.
-Thanks Grandpa Joseph, I said.
-Well, he said, it sounds like you are more invested in this than anyone.
-Can we stay in town for the offensive? I asked him.
-They offered for me to ride in one of the vehicles, I’ll see what I can do.
I don’t know how Grandpa Joseph did it, but I was able to ride in one of the tanks with him. Apparently it was the ‘safest place for me’ according to General Greer, after he talked with Grandpa Joseph.
That evening, immediately after the sunset, the tanks and vehicles, all gassed up, rumbled in formation through town to the north through the rain. The tanks followed each other in a single line. They resembled the back of a snake as they motored north through town. Troops followed and guarded the sides with their weapons.
I texted Cedar to ‘stay in your house tonight. Please.’ I couldn’t handle it if anything happened to her.
Prof. Klemm, Dr. Veggente, and Captain Terrell rode in the ATV at the back with General Greer. Our tank was the vehicle in front of General Greer and we could see what was happening behind us on a computer screen. General Greer had an expression on his face that was like a combination between exasperation and blind intensity. It beaded with sweat.
We stopped at the edge of town, to have the protective environment of the houses and open spaces of the street to see them coming if they attacked.
-What are you doing?! Shouted Prof. Klemm over the roar of the machines – we need to go into the forest. Why are some of the soldiers staying back in the town?
-We are staying right here, General Greer’s voice cracked on the radio transmitter, the guys driving the tank looked at each other uncertainly, I talked to your colleague, Dr. Veggente, and he recommended we keep a few men back.
-How do you expect to kill all the owls?!
-I don’t plan on it. We are mainly aiming for the owl with the red eyes. Eyewitness accounts have claimed this is the lead owl. I’ve been briefed on your colleague Dr. Veggente’s research. It seems if we take out the head of the group, the rest may disperse. I believe the rest will discontinue human killing.
Prof. Klemm slouched back in his chair, he was completely blind-sided by the turn of events. He knew he couldn’t argue with the General as Prof. Klemm had recommended Dr. Veggente’s research. But he was eager to go after the owls. Captain Terrell sat beside him and patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.
We were in anxious anticipation for a long time. Grandpa Joseph even looked a little wary.
A couple hours passed and no owls came. Prof. Klemm continued to make overtures to General Greer that they should drive into the forest. General Greer staunchly refused. Even if he wanted to, he wasn’t going to. At this point he was in a battle of wills with Prof. Klemm. No one could give in to such brutish controlling demands even if they suddenly became sensible. Finally, General Greer called for the front tank to fire off a shot of provocation.
It exploded through the trees. No sign of the owls.
-Well, I guess they ain’t up for it tonight, said General Greer to Prof. Klemm. General Greer smiled in relief.
I was looking out the side slot of our tank, at a soldier standing there relaxed holding his machine gun. It looked like we were going to turn back.
Then suddenly the soldier hovered off the ground, and was carried off into the night. Something pulled him up by the shoulders into the sky. blood poured down his chest and back. Before he could scream, he was in the air with his throat pierced. His life trembled out of his body as the owl glided over the trees and back out into the forest.
-Did you see that!? Shouted General Greer, Did you see that!?
Everyone in the tank leaned forward and looked out the small windows in the front to see if they could see anything. And then it became clear what we were looking at in the trees. Up in the tree canopy, several long shaped bodies were standing on limbs. When our eyes adjusted to the silhouettes, the faces of each owl held the maniacal visage of a paranoid and vengeful man. The horns revealed a homicidal skepticism. They looked like the raised eyebrows of a disbelieving executioner at the pleas of innocence of the doomed. They were bizarre gigantic parakeets on massive swings. Beastly.
Then the hooting started. It happened in long large bellows. The sound echoed throughout the town and throughout tank. It was the spookiest thing I’d ever heard, and probably ever will hear for the rest of my life.
-Attack! Attack! Bring the helicopter! General Greer barked into the radio.
Our tank fired off several rounds but seemingly hit nothing. They didn’t know where to attack. The silent owls came out of the dead night sky in the rain and picked off soldier after soldier. The tanks fired into the air. The explosions whirled in the sky.
The gunfire sounded like dying rockets and lodged in the owls’ chest a few inches deep. The owls seemed unfazed and were able to regroup in midair. They burst erratically though the trees like nimble rockets. The gunfire was useless. Then they swooped and glided in sporadic formation, confusing the soldiers before one large owl shrieked and crushed the head of a tank with little effort by landing with the force of a two ton boulder and soared back into the sky out of the range of the gunfire. It was the owl with the red eyes.
As the helicopter came up the street, the trees flattened under the bursts of air from the propeller as it parted them. The fire spurted from the Gatling gun on the underbelly. But it was no match for the athletic swooping of the owls. It lumbered like a linebacker. It was like watching a turtle try to swat flies. As it reached the fight, three owls crashed into it from three sides, clinging to its side and the helicopter buckled and swayed, banking towards the right and crashed into a house, exploding into a ball of flames.
Homicidal skepticism
-Let’s get the hell out of here! Shouted General Greer through the radio as an owl, with a bullet through its brain from the 50 caliber dropped out of the sky and landed on the hood of his vehicle. The ATV drove off in terror back in reverse to the police station with General Greer shouting ‘Retreat!’ repeatedly in the transmitter.
All the vehicles backed away from the tree line into the town. As we backed away, the owls swooped around by the trees but didn’t press forward into town, swirling like vultures waiting for their future meal to die. When our tank finally backed up to the O’Neil house, Grandpa Joseph and I jumped out and ran inside.
Prof. Klemm was already inside one of the bedrooms cutting into an owl on a sheet of plastic - the one that landed on General Greer’s ATV. He moved expertly about it with large butcher knife while Captain Terrell watched, her red-orange hair contrasted with the brown, caramel and black of the owl’s feathers. The organs were all in place. The dead eyes and the pleated chest were the same color. Prof. Klemm cut out its massive heart. It was almost twice the size of his head. He weighed it and made a note. He was giddy, even with the death around him. What unbelievable luck to come across such a specimen, he must have thought.
Then his face suddenly turned angry, as his mood could change suddenly, and he had no control over it, like a prepubescent child. He slapped off his plastic gloves and slammed his hand on the table.
-Absolutely ridiculous, he said, we needed to go in further; they had the clear-cut view at us and completely abused us out there.
-Take it easy, said General Greer, looking exhausted and watching Prof. Klemm’s seemingly endless activity.
-Well, there’s just no excuse for that kind of action.
-Stop! He said, I lost a lot of men, those men have families, lets focus on our next move and not sit here saying what we should have done!
Prof. Klemm immediately stopped. Capt. Terrell rubbed his back. Dr. Veggente stepped between Prof. Klemm and General Greer.
-I think we can make a concerted effort tomorrow to find their nest, he said.
-As soon as we find it, I’m calling in the jets and dropping a ton of explosives in the area, said General Greer.
-Now we’re talking! Said Prof. Klemm.
I was texting Cedar when everything went down. ‘Total Failure’ I waited eagerly for her return text to know she was safe. I hoped the owls didn’t go for her next. ‘are you all right?’ she sent back, spelling everything out for me. ‘Yes’ I texted, ‘Thanks.’
-Let’s head home, Grandpa Joseph said.
Dr. Veggente walked over to me as he saw us about to leave.
-Here, he said, handing me what I wrote about what the owl told me during the trance. He knew that it was more important to me than him. Plus, everyone had seen it.
-Thanks, I said.
We walked out the front door with them still bickering and Grandpa Joseph shaking his head.
-This is the last time I come into town, was all he said.
We were silent on the drive but we were both looking around in the sky. The rain was still coming down and it was difficult to see. Every pothole that we hit was frightening. There was no sign of the owls. With the way the rain was coming down, there could have been an owl 10 feet away from us and we wouldn’t have known. I’d never been so happy to arrive somewhere in my life when we got home. The whole ride I just had to remember what Grandpa Joseph always said. Expect the best, then if the worst happens, you won’t like it. Sometime after we arrived back home, my phone rang. It was Sarah. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I debated whether or not to pick it up. I think she had called a couple other times and I never picked it up. I decided to pick it up.
-Hello, I said.
-Hi Buffalo, she said, trying to sound sweet.
I shouldn’t be so harsh on her, because she was sweet and she was gorgeous, but it was impossible to carry a conversation with her that didn’t bore both of us, even with the excitement of what happened. But she had never done anything to upset me.
-My mom called me about the offensive, how have things been going?
-It’s pretty crazy here.
-You should get out of town, she said.
-I have to stay around.
-Why?
-Because I want to see what happened. Did your mom tell you I got hypnotized?
-Hypnotized?
-Yeah, an owl hypnotized me.
-Really? She had that disinterested tone of voice that she normally used when I was trying to explain something out of the ordinary. I couldn’t handle it and decided not to tell her.
-Yeah, there’s just a lot of crazy things going on.
-Sounds like it. I hear that Cedar is still in town.
-Oh yeah, I said, I just saw her the other day. How’s everything in Green Bay? I quickly changed the subject.
-Good, I was just thinking of you, she said robotically.
-It was good to hear from you Sarah, I should get going and get some sleep though.
-Buffalo?
-Yeah.
-Please be careful, okay. She sounded very genuine.
-I will, don’t worry, you know me.
And then we hung up. I didn’t talk to her again until everything was over. A lot of times with Sarah, I felt guilty that I didn’t like her more, because she was so good to me, but I couldn’t help how I felt. It was strange to be in such a stilted rehearsed conversation with all the intense things that were going on around me. It reminded me of everything that was going wrong between us. But on the other hand, now that I'm writing this, I don’t think she was as bad as I thought. And she could have meant those things. But I just didn’t feel it, especially with heightened senses from all the excitement. Which I suppose is my fault for dragging on the relationship without being honest, because I assumed she wasn't honest. As Grandpa Joseph always says, the dishonest aren't trusting. Sarah and I did break up soon after everything went down. I’m just trying to be frank with what happened. I honestly really feel for her and I’m there for her always. Hopefully she finds a new guy who is interested in the same things as her and can help her come out of the depression she’s been in since this happened.
I sat in the crow’s nest for a half hour, listened to the rain and scoured the sky. I didn’t see anything though. Right before I went to bed I decided to get on the computer and type up what the owl told me. Typing it out and reading it again felt more bizarre than hearing it in the first place. After I was done, I emailed it to myself and felt a massive weight lift off my chest. I had to have it; I didn’t want to forget it. When Dr. Veggente broke me from that owl-induced spell, I was almost upset. It was as if I was languishing in it. It was enjoyable if I have to be honest.
Before I went to bed, I thought I heard the faint murmur of a trombone and it made me smile. That night I had wild dreams again and was restless. I kept thinking of the owls on the attack. I couldn’t help wondering at their force and coordination. It was phenomenal.
