The Owls Are Guarding Paradise

Scottie remembered the first night he was around when the owl told them it was time. There had been many nights before he was born, of course, but the first one he was alive for was when he was five. As soon as the sun began to set the owl started to croon, which wasn't unusual — but it was the way he did it. Hoot, hooooot, hoot. Hoot, hooooot, hoot. Hoot, hooooot, hoot. Some people who had been there for nights past recognized the tune. Scottie's mother quickly grabbed him by the hand and they all rushed to gather at the mouth of the barn, right under the great owl's perch. His coloring was unusual for a barn owl, or so people said. It was one of those things that had been said and passed down for ages. Who knew if it was actually true.

Little Scottie hovered next to his mother as everyone stared up at the great owl. Finally, he spoke.

"Tonight, after midnight, five of you will leave. It's time for you to embark on the next part of the journey. If I say your name, please start packing and say your goodbyes. Cassidy. Leon. Bethany. George. Ruth. You have been chosen to continue on. May the stars in the sky and the owls in the trees keep you safe on your journey. Go in peace."

The owl then flew off, leaving all eyes on the chosen five. Everyone in their community gathered around them, crying, laughing, wishing them well. The five were filled with a mix of joy and grief as they hugged their friends and prepared to say goodbye. Cassidy and Leon were brothers. Neither of them had ever married and their parents were gone. Bethany had lost her husband to an accident a few years ago. George was her father, who'd lost his wife to disease, and Ruth was her daughter, only a few years older than Scotty. That's usually how the selections went, Scotty had heard. The owl tried never to separate close family.

Once the initial excitement had died down, everyone rushed to do their part to help the five prepare for their journey. They helped them pack, prepared food, and readied any supplies they might need. The community kept a reserve of journey supplies in a small shed behind the barn. It was impossible to know when the owl would announce the next departure. They always had to be prepared.

Their little village centered around the barn, which was in the middle of a large clearing surrounded by dense forest. All of their houses were arranged around it. That was their home base. That was where the owl lived. Under the owl's perch, in lazy, scrawled text, the prophecy was written.

"This barn is just one stop on your glorious journey. You will live here, you will thrive here, until it's time to go. When you're told to leave, don't be scared. You'll be taking your next step towards paradise."

The prophecy was signed "The Owls of the North." No one knew when it was started. Everyone in the village had been on the journey since they were born. Some had been born elsewhere and had arrived at the barn years ago. They thought maybe this would be the last stop, but it wasn't. All anyone knew was that someday the journey would be over. Someday, the owls would lead them to the ultimate paradise.

"Not all of you will live to see it," the owl had told them once. "There are rules I have to follow too. I promise you though, I will try my best."

As midnight approached, everyone gathered again in the center of the barn. Scottie's mother gripped his arm tightly as her eyes darted back and forth. "Someday this will be us, Scottie," she whispered anxiously. "Someday we will leave for paradise."

Cassidy and Leon, Bethany, George, and Ruth, all stood at the mouth of the barn, their bags packed. Some of them had seen this before. They knew what to do. They stared down the north part of the forest. No one currently in the village had ever gone there. That was the exit. The southern part of the forest was where they fished and hunted, within the bounds of the fence, of course. South was where they lived. North was the next chapter.

They'd been given directions on where to go and how to travel. If something happened, an owl would find them. Finally, the owl said quietly, "Go," and off they went into the night. They hurried towards the forest, making sure to keep a quick pace, and soon disappeared into the night.

And that was that. Cassidy, Leon, Bethany, George, and Ruth were off to paradise, and eventually, the rest of the village would join them there.

That was Scottie's first experience with departure night. That one was pretty tame. When he was 11 it happened again, but that time one of the chosen ones didn't want to go. The owl had chosen her and her sisters and her parents, but not the man she was in love with, and the couple begged the owl to reconsider. They begged the owl to let Chrissy stay behind or Joel to go with her, but the owl said no. His decision was final, and then he told them something that had never been said before. If the couple didn't listen, the entire village would risk never reaching paradise. She cried as her family dragged her off that night, and Joel was never the same. It was worth it though, everyone else said in hushed voices as time went on. It was the right thing to do for the good of the village. After all, paradise was everything.

Arrival days were often bittersweet too. A disheveled group of travelers would come rushing out from the west side of the forest, panting, crying. They would ask if this was paradise and the villagers would quietly bring them to the owl. He would welcome them to the next stop on their journey, and they would sigh and nod and quickly settle in. They hadn't reached paradise yet, but they were getting closer, and that was something.

Scottie once tried asking his family and friends what exactly paradise was, but no one knew. Everyone had theories though. No more hard work. No harsh winters. No more disease. Immortality. Nothing but happiness for miles and miles. It all sounded fantastical and out of reach, but everyone believed. Of course they did; they'd never known anything else. All they knew was that the barn was just a stop on their journey — and hopefully the last one. They'd never know for sure until their own departure day came.

The years went on, and life at the barn was pretty uneventful. People died. Babies were born. Life was lived. Sometimes people left for paradise. Sometimes people arrived to stay awhile. The owl kept them all in check. It was the way things were supposed to be. Scottie wondered if his time would ever come. He was getting older, now with a family of his own. His mother had died in the village, never reaching paradise the way she'd hoped to, but Scottie knew he had to trust the owl. If it was meant to be, his time would come. He would watch him sometimes, sitting upon his perch, wondering how he knew so much. The owl mostly kept his post during the day, but he often flew off into the forest at night. No one ever asked him where he went. It wasn't their business. He knew what he was doing.

One afternoon, Scottie was chopping wood in the field when someone came bursting out of the west side of the forest, and immediately he knew something was wrong. She was a young woman, with tattered clothes and crazy hair, and she was alone. No one ever came or left alone. She ran straight up to him, panting and crying as they always do, but this time was different. This woman was in pain. She stared up at him as she tried to calm down, and suddenly her eyes lit up in remembrance.

"Scottie? You're Scottie, right? I remember you. It's all a lie. The owls are lying. There is no paradise. The journey goes on forever. It's all a lie."

Scottie was so confused at first, and then something clicked in his brain and the woman's face came into focus. "Ruth. You're Ruth? You left when I was five ... but why are you back? How are you back?"

Ruth was still panting and out of breath, her eyes darting towards the barn as she crouched behind Scottie's pile of wood and tried to compose herself. "You can't let the owl see me. We need to hide from him. Please, take me somewhere safe. Then I'll tell you everything."

Scottie's whole body felt like jello. His brain had always trusted the owl — but his gut had often told him that maybe there was more. He took a deep breath and looked towards the barn, looked back down at Ruth, and turned off his brain. He grabbed her hand and rushed her to the woodshed at the edge of the forest. He then headed home and told his wife he was grabbing a snack before continuing on with his work. He brought the food to Ruth and after she'd regained some energy, they huddled on the floor of the woodshed together and Ruth finally told her story.

The night Ruth had left the barn, she and the other four chosen ones rushed through the woods as if their lives depended on it. They had torches and axes and everything they might need to have a safe journey, but Ruth remembered still feeling terrified. It felt like they didn't really know where they were going — until Ruth realized they were following a path. A path had been forged through the woods, and Ruth assumed it was the path to paradise. For hours they rushed through the forest, stopping briefly to rest here and there until, finally, they burst out of the forest and were looking down on a deep valley. There was a little village not unlike the one they'd just left nestled in the valley, and Ruth quickly realized they hadn't reached paradise. This was only the next stop.

The valley opened up into a vast lake, and as soon as the villagers spotted them, they led them quietly to the edge of the lake where another owl sat perched in a tree. She welcomed them to the lake and their next stop on their journey to paradise. The same prophecy from the barn was carved into the owl's tree. It all felt so familiar.

Ruth and the others were given houses and quickly settled into their new life. Living on the lake felt more peaceful than living at the barn. They were able to fish and swim and go canoeing, as long as they didn't pass the rock formation at the far north of the lake. That was beyond their home — another path to paradise.

Whenever departure nights came in the lake village, the chosen ones were put into a canoe and sent out past the rocks, beyond the lake, and onto their next journey. Everyone said the lake was the last stop. They believed it with everything they had, just like they had at the barn, but the older Ruth got, the more skeptical she became. Just like Scottie, she had always been a curious one, and she asked everyone in the village lots of questions about how they'd gotten there and where they'd come from. A lot of them remembered the barn. Only a handful had been born at the stop before that, called the farmhouse. Many of them had been born at the lake. Ruth's skepticism grew and grew.

One day, Ruth was out for a midnight swim which she wasn't supposed to do. The owl always told them it wasn't safe to swim at night, and her main job was to keep them safe until they reached paradise. Ruth went anyway though, unafraid of the forest and beyond after surviving her journey from the barn to the lake. She'd just finished up and was crouching behind a bush, getting ready to sneak home, when she saw a strange owl fly across the lake. He glided into a tree not far from where Ruth was hiding, and within a few minutes, the lake owl had joined him.

"Greetings, friend. How is the beach village?"

The strange owl sighed. "Not well, I'm afraid. Three of our most skilled fishermen drowned last week, and the village is struggling to recover. I know it's sooner than we planned, but could you send the next group along in the next few days. A few people with decent fishing skills would be preferred. We've got to make sure we keep balance in the loop."

The lake owl nodded and they continued talking, mentioning dozens of other villages and the reports on how they were doing. With each update, they referred back to the loop. Ruth's head was spinning. She rushed back home and tried to tell her family about what she had heard, but they wouldn't listen. They told her she probably just misunderstood and refused to accept what Ruth was certain was true — that there was no paradise, and each village was just a stop in a huge loop that went on forever.

It got to the point where people in the village started shunning Ruth, so finally, she decided to leave. She snuck away one night in a canoe and headed out beyond the lake, down a long river that eventually opened up into the sea. She found the beach village, stole some supplies, and then kept going. She went from village to village, all the while doing her best to avoid the owls. She knew the lake owl must have figured out that she'd left, so she was as careful as she could be. The journey taught her that she was craftier than she thought. As she followed the path to each village, she also caught glimpses of the world outside the loop. It was beautiful and diverse, a whole kingdom to explore. Maybe that was paradise all along. Maybe they weren't actually on a journey to paradise. Maybe they were being hidden from it.

She found a cave village, a mountain village, and on and on. Finally, she reached the farmhouse village, and she knew she'd been right. The barn village was next, and there was no paradise. It was all a lie. They were trapped in a loop, and she had to tell someone about it.

Scottie sat on the floor of the shed, shoulders shaking, head spinning. Finally, he looked Ruth in the eye and said what no one else had been brave enough to say.

"I believe you."

Ruth started laughing, so exhausted from her journey and from feeling so alone. Laughter was all she could come up with. Scottie laughed with her, a joyous moment shadowed by what lay ahead. Scottie took a few deep breaths and then grabbed Ruth's hand. "We need to confront the barn owl."

Scottie didn't bother to tell his family what was going on. He knew what they would say. Instead, he and Ruth did their best to avoid the other villagers and snuck their way around to the barn. The sun was setting, and as they approached the center of the village where they'd both grown up, they caught a glimpse of the barn owl gliding off into the forest. They looked at each other and without saying a word immediately came up with a plan. They followed the owl through the forest, off the forged path that Ruth had taken as a girl, and into the deep brush. It was the first time Scottie had ever left the village and he'd never felt lighter. Finally, they reached the edge of another clearing and heard voices echoing all around. They found a safe place to hide and peered into the commotion. Their eyes grew as wide as the sky.

Dozens and dozens of owls sat perched all around. They ranged in size and color, all magnificent and strangely foreboding. Scottie had never noticed before how grand and intimidating the barn owl actually was. He'd always trusted him more than anyone. Now that he knew it was all a lie, when he looked at him, all he felt was fear.

The owls were talking amongst themselves, but soon they all began to shush each other and a meeting commenced. The owls talked about the problems in each village, the skills each one needed to keep thriving, and who should be moved around to make that happen. After a while, a large owl with harsh yellow eyes spoke about Ruth. "On a more serious note, that girl from the lake must be found. Any sightings should be passed along immediately. We can't have more villagers breaking out of the loop. We must maintain order. That is the only way these humans will survive. Keeping them alive is our only task. The loop must not be broken."

"What will we do with her once she is found?" another owl asked.

Suddenly, a large gust of wind came out of nowhere and swept Ruth and Scottie into the clearing. They landed in the middle, surrounded by owls, hundreds of beady eyes glaring down at them.

Scottie rose, found the barn owl, and stared him down. If paradise didn't exist, he would make his own. Ruth stood up and grabbed his hand. They were ready to fight for it. Scottie took a deep breath and yelled out into the forest. "The loop ends today!"

The barn owl stared back down at Scottie and looked into his soul, searching, hoping. Then he looked at the leader and shook his head.

"We must maintain order," said the one with the harsh yellow eyes. And then the owls descended.