Flying Free

Flying Free

By : Kristen Reed

Daisy lived on a farm in a tiny town in Upstate, New York. She lived with her father, Stepmother, and six siblings. She had 3 sisters and three brothers. It was the mid 1920’s.

They were surrounded by many other farms. The other farms were mostly run by Menonite families.Those families always had many children. When Daisy would get her chores done most days she and her siblings would run to the edge of their land and sit atop a stone wall that separated the farms.

The Menonite children would work from sunup to sun down. Every once in a while the children in the fields would stop working and wave to Daisy and her siblings. Daisy was the most social of all of the Mathewson children.

On an extra warm summer day she jumped down from the wall. Her older brother Harry yelled to her that he was going to tell their Mother if she ran off. Daisy looked up to her brother and stuck out her tongue at him. She turned back toward the field and began running in the direction of the Menonite children.

Daisy was 11 , her three sisters were younger . Maggie, Mary, and Ivy. Maggie and Mary were 7 year old twins, and Ivy was 8. They climbed down off the wall and began following Daisy into the field.

The boys Harry, Eddie, and Joey were 9,10,and 12. They began yelling to the girls that they were going to get into trouble if they did not come back.

“Oh go tell, who cares!! We just wanna play with the kids !! “ Daisy yelled back to her brothers.

Daisy was running hard. She began feeling hot as she ran through the field. The grass seemed to be taller and taller as she got closer to the children. At one point she stopped and looked behind her. She could no longer hear or see her sisters behind her. She put her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath. She looked up at the blazing sun and fell backwards. She had passed out because of the heat.

Daisy opened her eyes. She was laying in the field. The glare of the sun was blinding. Daisy blinked her eyes a few times and sat up to catch her bearings. Her ears felt like they were buzzing, a weird low pitched ringing. She raised her arms. Shocked, she looked down at her arms. She shook what was in front of her and realized spread out in front of her were feathers, not arms. Daisy tried to stand, looking down at her body which was also covered with feathers.

She began waving her newfound wings. Slowly her body began to rise above the field. She could feel the warm breeze and the pounding of her heart. As she rose higher and higher she looked down. She could see her sibling running through the field. It appeared as though they were searching for something. She then remembers she had run ahead of them toward the Menonite children.

Daisy flying in circles began screeching trying to get her brothers and sisters attention. She watched them reach where she had taken off from in the field. Her dress was laying on the ground. She watched her brother Harry pick up the dress. He began yelling her name. Her sisters were crying and yelling as well. Daisy watched her siblings running back toward their farm house yelling her name.

She began to follow them. She swooped down and landed in a tree just outside the farmhouse. Her sister Ivy made it to the house first yelling for her Mother. Daisy’s stepmother came out onto the porch. She kneeled down in front of Ivy and began asking her what was wrong just as the other children reached the house.

“Daisy is gone. She ran out into the field. We found her dress, but she is gone.” Harry explained while trying to catch his breath.

Daisy watched her stepmother stand up and put her hands above her eyes as if she was looking out into the distance. She then grabbed the dress from Harry and held it out in front of her. She shook the dress and feathers fell out of the bottom of the dress onto the ground.

Stepmother looked up toward Daisy and smiled. Daisy hated her. Ever since Mother had died and stepmother came into the family weird things had started happening. Daisy had always thought stepmother was a witch. Now she knew for sure.

Daisy sat on a branch as it began to get dark. She saw her Father come home from the fields and heard the conversations inside the house. He wanted to go looking for Daisy the next morning. He was sure she had just taken off and possibly gotten lost. She watched him come out and sit on the porch. He set a lantern on a small wooden table next to his rocking chair.

“”Daisy girl, where are you?” Her father hollered out into the dark.

Daisy attempted to yell down to her father from the tree. The only sound that came out was a hoot.

She swooped down from the tree to the porch. Her father gasped and Daisy hooted again.He stood up and walked toward her slowly with his hand outstretched. Daisy stretched out her wing. When they touched Daisy felt a small zap.

They locked eyes. Daisy felt her father’s hand pat her on the top of the head.

“Hi there sweet bird. Can you help me find my girl?” He asked.

Daisy made a small noise and closed her eyes as her father continued to pat her feathers.. Since Mother had died a year before Father worked so hard. Daisy rarely got to see her Father before her head hit the pillow each night. His hands were rough. He smelled of manure. She missed him playing with them . She missed him being home more. She hated that he had remarried a younger woman to take care of them.

“Bring my favorite girl home, will you owl?” Her father said as he walked away from her and into the house.

Daisy sat on the railing of the porch for a little while contemplating what she would do. She knew at that point she had become a barn owl. She was hungry. She knew owls ate mice and small bunnies. She was not in the mood to have to kill her own dinner. She flapped her wings and flew back up to perch up the tree. She pecked at the branch and tasted the bark.

She remembered there was a barrel with feed in the barn for the animals. She swooped over to the barn and went into the hay loft. She landed hard and rolled a bit before stopping near the edge.

Daisy looked down into the barn. And saw the barrel. She flew down into the barrel. She ate a few beaks full of feed. She felt full. She swooped over to a horse trough and scooped up some water into her beak as well.

The horse neighed at her. The cows mooed at her. She smiled. The animals knew it was her. She spent so much time in the barn doing her daily chores. She hooted at the chickens and the turkeys. They ignored her while they continued to sleep.

Daisy flew back up into the hay loft. She made herself a nest and she fell fast asleep.

Daisy had many vivid dreams that night. Dreams of flying with another owl. She was convinced it was her Mother. The other owl had big beautiful eyes and the whitest , fluffiest feathers. They flew together over the Menonite farm fields. They swooped down together to catch baby mice. They flew through the night under the stars.

Daisy awoke in the morning in the hay loft when she heard her brother Harry’s voice calling her name. She was in her underclothes. Her sister Mary threw her dress up to her. Her siblings told her she had fallen asleep the day before during their chores. They said they left her in the barn for the night. She climbed down out of the hayloft. She hoped to have the dreams again. She loved flying free , under the stars, with her Mother. She missed her so much.