Abby's Misadventure

She was in the hayloft swinging on the rope that hung in the barn when she first saw him. Abby had stopped to catch her breath when she saw movement in the corner of her eye. He was staring right at her with those big eyes. She was mesmerized as Abby had never seen an owl up close before and in a whirlwind of white and brown feathers he was gone. Abby didn’t know much about owl’s, but she did know they are only supposed to be out at night. Abby decided she needed to tell her older sister Anne about this right away. Anne was in the house watching their baby sister Avery. Abby ran in the house yelling “Anne you won’t believe what I just saw!” huffing and puffing. Lately when Abby exerted herself she made a high pitched whistling sound, it scared her and she didn’t know what it was.

Anne was in the kitchen making supper and when she saw her sister gasping for breath worry came across her 13 year old face. “Abby, I really think you should see a doctor. I hate that noise you are making,” Anne lectured her sister.

After a few minutes Abby caught her breath and shot back “I am 10 years old and we live 45 km from any doctor, what am I supposed to do, walk?” Anne nodded her head at her sister, Abby was right, she made a mental note to speak to their mom later. Their mom worked two jobs in the city and their father worked out of town, so it was up to Anne to take care of her two sisters.

“I saw an owl in the barn just now, it was beautiful,” Abby explained. “It was in the hayloft watching me swing on the rope.”

A thoughtful expression came across Anne’s face. “We were learning about Native American folklore in history last week.The Native American cultures considered the owl a symbol of death. Most tribes believed that hearing an owl’s hooting during the night was a bad omen as well. The hooting would mean an owl is nearby and that it would come and carry childrens into the night if they cried or ran out of their beds.” Anne told her sister and then changing the subject she said “Abby take Avery and go wash up, supper will be ready soon”

Not sure on how to process the information from her sister, Abby went into the living room and grabbed their toddler sister Avery. Still she thought I hope I see him again.

Later when they were getting ready for bed, Abby noticed that she hadn’t been able to rid herself of that whistling noise. Abby sighed as she knew this was going to upset Anne, the two girls shared a double bed, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She finished brushing her teeth and got into bed. “Roll over and I will rub your back, maybe that will help;” Anne said, trying to help her sister. Abby rolled over and Anne started drawing pictures on her sister's back. Abby loved this feeling.

Ten minutes later Anne started yelling “Stop it, just stop it! I can’t take it anymore Abby’” Surprised and upsetted by this Abby started crying, this made everything worse. She started gasping for air frantically. Anne ran into her mother’s room, “If you don’t take her to hospital right now I am going to call 911,” she demanded.

Surprised by her eldest daughter's panic, their mom rushed into her daughter's room to find Abby struggling for breath in bed. “Abby are you alright? When did this start?” their mom questioned, but Abby was unable to answer as she couldn’t catch her breath.

Shocked, their mom scooped Abby up in her arms and took her to her car. Anne followed with a blanket their grandma had made her and a white stuffed dog Abby had gotten from their father last christmas. “Take care Abby, I will miss you,” Anne cried.

At the hospital Abby was rushed into a bed in the emergency room. The nurse grabbed the doctor, acting quickly they put things on Abby’s chest and over her finger. They gave her something to breathe in and told her to take deep breaths. After a while it was easier to breathe. “Abby was having an asthma attack,” the doctor explained to her mother. “Her oxygen level was dangerously low, if she had not been taken to the hospital her lungs would have collapsed within the hour. She will have to stay in the hospital for a few days until we figure out what caused the attack.”

Stay in the hospital? Abby did not like the sound of that so she clutched her stuffed dog for comfort. Abby and her mom sat there for hours. The nurse came back every once in a while to give Abby medicine in a mask. At least she was feeling a lot better. Later that night they moved Abby to a room with a window and her mom left. She hadn’t slept and she was tired. Abby laid in her hospital bed looking out the window feeling lonely and the same owl was in a tree just outside the window. How had he found her here?

That night when Abby fell asleep she dreamt she was flying with her owl. They flew out of the hospital to her farm then over her house when they started flying up high. Everytime they started flying up the nurse would come in and do some tests or give her more medicine. Each time Abby started falling asleep they would start over flying from the hospital to the farm and up.

In the morning the doctor came into the room and said she would have to do an allergy test. They would have her lay on her stomach then they would scratch her back with over 170 needles in her back. He said it wouldn’t hurt because they would just be scratching, not pushing hard. Abby didn’t believe him so she was really scared. He said that her dad would be coming to hold her hand. This pleased Abby very much as she hadn’t seen her dad in a month, because he had left for work.

“Hey kiddo,’ her Dad embraced Abby when he came into the room. “You gave us quite a scare.” Abby was so happy to see her dad she started crying. 'Now, now don’t work yourself up or the doctor won’t let me visit.” Abby pulled herself together.

The scratch test was awful. First Abby had to take her shirt off in front of the doctor and her dad, it was so embarrassing. The needles didn’t hurt, but they made her back very itchy. Abby’s father stayed and played Scrabble with her while they waited for the results. It was nice to have some alone time with him, but they were not prepared for what the doctor was going to tell them.

They had just finished their game when the doctor came into the room. “It looks like Abby has a severe allergic reaction to horses, did you say your family lives on a farm? Do you have horses on the farm?” The answer to that question is yes. In fact horses were Abby’s father’s life, his job was to train racing horses. He loved horses and that was the only job he had ever had. Not sure on how to process the information Abby and her father sat staring at the doctor. “Actually, I think we are going to have to take that teddy and blanket away from her, it might make her more sick if it is covered in horse dander.”

“No!” Abby yelled and hid under the covers holding her teddy for dear life. Nobody was going to take away her teddy; it was all she had from home. Abby stayed under the covers and cried for a while. She could hear the doctor talking to her dad in the background. Stay away from horses, Abby thought, how is that possible? She loved horses, petting their noses, feeding them sugar cubes and she was just learning how to ride them. Abby cried herself to sleep.

When Abby woke up in the hospital her dad had left taking her stuffed dog and blanket. It was night time and the nurses were giving her her medine. She told Abby that she was going home tomorrow. She was so excited by the news she could barely sit still. That was the longest night of Abby’s life, she couldn’t sleep.

Abby’s mom came to pick her up to go home the next day. The doctor gave them two different inhalers Abby would have to take two times a day and two pills once a day. During the drive home Abby’s mother was lecturing her how they had to clean the whole house from top to bottom and how important it was that she stay away from the horses. Abby kept nodding in agreement, but truthfully she wasn’t sure how she was going to do it.

Anne had made Abby a welcome home banner and cake, she had been so worried about her sister and so relieved when she heard she was coming home. Mom and dad had pressed upon her the importance of Abby staying away from the horses and the barn. Anne was worried how she was going to look after a toddler and watch Abby’s every move?

A few days later everything had settled down. Mom was working and dad had gone back to work. Abby told Anne she was going for a walk, but assured her she would stay out of the barn and away from the horses. She really meant what she had said but then she saw her favorite mare had given birth to the cutest colt she had ever seen. She petted the colt, forgetting the oath she had made to her sister. Abby spent the day playing with the colt, stroking their noses and feeding sugar cubes to the mare. Abby loved horses.

That whistling nose started in her lungs again, but this time Abby knew what she had to do. She took her blue inhaler and went home and showered. After that day the whistling noise would start every couple hours and Abby would just take her inhaler. Nobody was the wiser.

A few days later Abby went to spend the day at Ben’s house. Ben’s pig had just had piglets and Abby was excited to see them. They spent the day playing with the piglets and walking with his dogs around his farm. Ben had an old horse in the pasture. “Hey Ben, what would happen if I jumped on your horse's back? Do you think she would buck me off?”

“You mean old Betty Blue? Heck no she doesn't move fast anymore. My parents talk about taking her to the glue factory whatever that means.” Ben replied.

That was all the invitation Abby needed. She ran over and jumped on Betty’s back. Betty seemed unbothered by this and kept eating; that is until Abby sneezed. Betty took off like a shot Abby held onto her mane as tight as she could. It wasn’t long until old Betty ran out of steam and stopped to munch on more grass. Abby climbed off, the whistling sound was coming from her lungs again. Abby looked at her hands and the tips of her fingers had changed to a blue color. It must have been from holding onto the horse's mane so tight. When she looked around to see Ben she noticed that owl on a tree nearby staring at her.

“Abby are you alright? I have never seen Betty move that fast.” Ben yelled as he ran up to meet her.

“I am fine Ben. Do you see that owl?” Abby pointed to the tree, but the owl was gone. “He must have flown away. “Let’s just sit here a minute and see if he comes back”. They sat for a while, but he didn’t return so they headed back to the house to eat.

After that day Abby had a really hard time hiding the whistling sound from her sister. She was coughing a lot too, especially at night when she tried to lay down. Abby was relieved to hear that Anne had been invited to sleep over at Jody’s house. Getting ready for bed Abby saw the tips of her hands were blue again, the whistling sound was very loud tonight and she couldn’t take a deep breath. I will stay in the house tomorrow and get better. Maybe I will stay away from horses for a couple days as well, she thought. Abby knew she was in trouble, but she couldn’t tell mom or she would have to admit that hadn’t listened to the doctors. Abby weeped as she lay there struggling to breathe.

A while later Abby drifted off and there was her owl. She flew with him around the farm and up high in the sky. They were headed towards the light in the sky.