The Owl in the Porch

Laying down and confused, Sarah keeps staring at the ceiling. Frightened as the ceiling was separating, she sprung up and started running down the stairs.

“Not again”, Sarah says.

This was the second time in Sarah’s life that she has had this episode. Doctor diagnosed her as a paranoid schizophrenic after her first frightening experience with hallucinations.

As she ran down the stairs, the slime figures were on the couch. Panting, she makes a run towards the door.

It was a dark, cold night. Temperatures were in the 20s. Sarah’s husband, Ben, is usually downstairs making dinner, but this night he was called into work.

Her hair wet from her sweat; she runs across the parking lot of her apartments. Suddenly, her eyes gravitated towards northern part of the parking lot where her worst fears were before her eyes.

“ No, please no. Father, help me”

A giant spider was on top of the dumpster. Sarah had never seen anything so monstrous in her life.

The spider was crawling down the dumpster as Sarah ran faster. She ran across the street towards the sidewalk. Scared, she kept running. Cars passing by honking. Sarah knew to do one thing during these times and that was to play the Catholic melody, Ave Maria.

“ Maria, gratia plena”, Sarah cried to the lyrics.

Suddenly, she looks behind her and sees two rabbits running after her. Turning her head towards her left, she notices a big owl. She remembers this owl. This owl had appeared to her during her last hallucination. It was mesmerizing yet frightening at the same time. Time seemed to have slowed down.

Sarah could no longer hear the cars honking, or the wind hitting the trees. Everything went numb.

“ Baby, are you okay! ” Benjamin screams.

The flashing light of a flashlight woke Sarah up from what seemed to be a dream.

“ What happened” Sarah mumbles under her breath.

“ Ma’am, can you tell me what time it is? ” the police officer asks

“ I am sorry, what happened?” Sarah asks quietly as she squints her eyes from the brightness of the light.

As Sarah gained consciousness, she saw Benjamin running towards her.

“ Baby, I thought something had happened to you. You called me while I was working screaming and crying. I figured you were having an episode. “ Benjamin cries.

Sarah and Benjamin hugged each other and sobbed. The EMTS took Sarah to a local hospital where she was evaluated and discharged a few days later.

“ I missed you. I will always be by your side” Benjamin quietly sobs

“ I am sorry, Benjamin. I was doing fine on my medication. I do not know what happened.”

“Sarah, you have been under a tremendous amount of stress. You should take it easy the next couple of days.”

“Thank you for being so supportive.”

“You’re my wife. I love you. I will never leave you.”

Sarah looked outside the window of the car as they drove away. She couldn’t remember what exactly happened that lead up to her episode. She remembers that the last thing she saw was a big, white owl on the porch of the house across the street. Sarah never really talked about her hallucinations with her husband. She always felt ashamed. She knew she had to talk to someone other than her psychiatrist. But for now, she was going to take it easy for a while.

During her stay at the hospital, the doctor stated she had a psychotic episode, typical in some psychotic disorders. Mental illness was never talked about in her religious family, but now that would change. For the betterment of her health and her relationship.