Owl Always Love You

Dust surrounded us in a cloud as we drove up the dirt road. I glanced over at Cody in the driver's seat and mirrored his eager grin.

"What?" he asked bashfully.

"You're cute," I said.

"Ha. Why?"

"You know."

As we approached the top of the hill overlooking acres of land and scattered hay bales, Cody let out a long, accomplished sigh. He pointed to a little white farmhouse in the distance.

"We're here!" he beamed.

I enjoyed how excited Cody felt about taking me home to meet his family for the first time. He shared many stories with me about growing up on the farm, but now I had the chance to experience life on the farm for myself.

Cody slowly made his way down the street. Instead of pulling into the driveway on the left, Cody veered to the right, drove through the grass, and parked the car directly in front of the old red barn across the street.

"I'll be right back," he said.

I watched Cody jog into the barn, greeting a tall burly man and about a dozen cows.

A few minutes later, Cody and the man approached me.

I stepped out of the car and looked into the eyes of Cody's twin, only about 30 years older. He sported a John Deere hat, a short-sleeve button down plaid shirt, muddy jeans, and black barn boots.

"Nice to meet you, Annie," he smiled.

"Hi, Mr. Franklin. It's so good to finally meet you."

"Oh, call me Ed."

I nodded.

"Let's drop our stuff at the house, get you a pair of boots to wear, and show you the cows," Cody insisted.

"Sounds good," I agreed.

When we entered the house, we observed Cody's mom preparing food meticulously and listening to an audiobook.

She stopped what she was doing and ran over to the doorway to hug us. She jumped up and down ecstatically while clapping her hands.

"Hi Cody! Hi Annie! Welcome, welcome, welcome!"

"Hiiii!" I exclaimed in a sing-songy tone.

"How was the drive? I'm Pam by the way. I've heard so many wonderful things about you."

"It was great," Cody smirked and shot me a look.

He was being a smart ass. We had to pull over twice so I could puke. Those damn winding roads.

"What? What happened?" Pam pried.

"I just got a little carsick," I admitted.

"Oh, I'm sorry. If you need any medicine, we have plenty," stated Pam compassionately.

"Thank you, I'm okay now though. Maybe for the ride back."

We continued through the house as Cody took on the "tour guide" persona.

Our last stop on the tour was the mud room where Cody rummaged through a cluttered closet. He dug out a pair of long black rubber boots from the heaping pile of worn out footwear.

"Here," he chuckled while handing me the boots. "Sorry, my mom has big feet."

"That's ok," I said. "I just hope I don't trip and fall in cow poop."

"A little cow poop never hurt anyone," Cody reassured.

We proceeded to meander back to the barn to see the cows.

The summer heat left me feeling exhausted with a headache. The stench of cow dung filled my nostrils, and I quickly converted to becoming a mouth-breather for the time being. Flies swarmed around me -- I flinched when one approached my ear.

We walked towards Ed, who was bent over hooking one of the milking machines up to a cow.

"Ok, Annie. Time to put you to work." Ed stood up and dusted off his pants.

He handed me some dirty gloves, a pitch fork, and motioned toward a mound of hay.

"I need you to help feed the cows. Use the pitch fork to collect the hay. Then shake out the hay to spread it in front of the cows."

Cody and I worked on that for about forty-five minutes and called it good. My arms were tired, and it seemed like the cows were content. There were a lot more than I expected, probably since most were out in the pasture when we first arrived.

We washed up, ate dinner, and sat around a bonfire in the back yard. It was a nice evening, but I was exhausted.

At 9:30 pm, I excused myself, got ready for bed, entered the guest bedroom, and fell right asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I was in a deep sleep when I felt an abrupt tug on my pajamas. I shot up in the dark room, disoriented. I looked at the digital clock on the night stand. 12:49 AM.

"Cody?" I groaned.

"Let's sneak out. I have somewhere I want to show you."

"Are you crazy?" I snapped.

"Pleeeeeeease," Cody begged. "It will be romantic."

"Ugh! Fine."

I stammered out of bed and tip-toed out of the room behind Cody.

We geared up for outside, both equipped with headlamps. The one he gave me was a bit crusty and smelled like sweat. Ew.

I followed Cody through his back yard woods. We hiked for about thirty minutes on a narrow, partially-overgrown trail and finally arrived at a clearing with a beautiful lake.

Cody unzipped his backpack and pulled out a blanket. He spread it out on top of the grass and laid down on his back, his hands clasped behind his head.

"Come here," he smiled.

My heart began to soften. Ok, melt.

I made my way over to the blanket and cuddled up to Cody, my head on his chest. Gazing up at the glistening stars, I noticed the Big Dipper immediately. We remained silent for several minutes, mesmerized. The stars overtook the black sky. I stared and held my breath in attempt to catch sight of a shooting star. And sure enough, I did. Every few minutes, I noticed a quick glimpse of a distant comet flying through the heavens. I took a deep breath and admired the bright, perfect full moon.

The stillness calmed me. I enjoyed listening to Cody's heart beat and feeling his chest move up and down as he breathed. I looked up at him and he kissed me tenderly. We had kissed before, but not like this. There was something really special about being in the middle of nowhere, just us, with no distractions or cell phone service. He was right - this was romantic.

We spent the next hour talking about anything and everything, including my first impression of "farm life" and Cody's parents. All good - it was just a long day for me.

After a while, there was another moment of silence. I wanted so desperately to tell Cody how I felt about him. We had only been together for three months, but I felt so much...love for him. My heart started to race as I thought about the idea of professing my love to him. I mulled over the idea for a minute and then hesitantly opened my mouth to speak...

"Sorry Ann, you seem so comfortable but I really have to pee," he unknowingly interrupted.

"Oh, no problem." I slid over so he could get up.

Cody walked over to a tree at the edge of the woods to relieve himself. I closed my eyes and dozed off to sleep.

A few moments later, I was startled by the sound of Cody's scream, loud scuffling in the brush, followed by a tan speckled barn owl soaring into a nearby tree. Cody started running toward me and screamed, "Did you just see that?"

As Cody got closer, I noticed several streams of blood running down his face and neck.

"Oh, my gosh! Cody! Are you ok?" my voice shook.

"Yeah. Annie, I just got attacked by that owl!" He hunched over so I could see the top of his head.

I started to feel queasy as I spotted eight distinct puncture wounds and a few deep cuts on the top of Cody's shaved head.

"I...I...need to lay down," I stammered.

"Seriously? I'm the one who's bleeding," Cody laughed. He took off his shirt and compressed it to his head.

After a few minutes, the shirt was saturated. He was bleeding pretty intensely.

After a minute of dizziness, tunnel vision and ringing ears, I finally felt well enough to stand up. "We need to get you stitches and a tetanus shot. A-SAP," I demanded. "Are you okay to walk back?"

"Annie, first of all, are you okay? I'm fine. The nearest hospital is an hour away. I'll be fine," he repeated.

"I'm fine. But no, you're not fine. Let's go, we have to hustle back," I insisted as I power-walked towards the trail.

"Calm down," Cody said, stuffing the blanket back into the backpack as he chased after me.

We trudged through the woods for what seemed like an eternity and finally approached the end of the trail leading to the backyard of the farmhouse.

"Should we wake your parents up?" I asked.

Cody hesitated. "Nah."

"Whatever you say," I said suspiciously. "I'm driving. You're navigating," I said while handing out my hand. Cody reached into his pocket and handed me the keys. We got into the car. 3:02 AM. Yikes. I prayed we got back before sunrise.

We pulled into the Emergency Room parking garage just before 4:00 AM. We both resembled zombies. The bright fluorescent lights of the waiting room exacerbated my throbbing headache.

Thankfully, a nurse called us back to a room at 4:30 AM. The doctor came in shortly after and confirmed Cody needed stitches. He estimated about six of them. He also prescribed some antibiotics and confirmed the nurse should administer Cody a tetanus shot.

The doctor left to prepare for the procedure. Cody looked at me from the bed and sighed. We smiled at each other.

"Your parents are going to kill us," I reminded.

"I know," he said. "But you know what, it doesn't matter. Wanna know why?"

"Why?"

He looked at me tenderly. "Because owl always love you."