The Wooden Barn Owl

The Wooden Barn Owl

Emmett lived with his mother in a cottage far off from the village. The cottage was small and covered in vines and the woods surrounding it were covered with color and beauty. Emmett never had friends, since he was five his mother would get ill, once, or twice a month and he would have to take care of her. Now being sixteen he knew all the herbs in the woods that would help his mother.

It wasn’t hard to only be with his mother, he loved his mother, but now that he was older, he wanted to go farther out in the woods and see more things. His mother told him time and time again that he wasn’t allowed, but the urge to go out was getting stronger and stronger every day.

One morning Emmett woke up to the sound of his mother’s groans. He thought it might be another stomachache and he would only have to get water for the herbal mix he made the night before. When he saw how pale she was, he was more concerned.

“Mother? Are you alright?” he asked grabbing her hand.

“I feel ill with the plague,” she said coughing and wheezing.

“Oh, mother. I will help you. I just have to go out and get some fresh herbs,” he said putting his hand on her head. She felt feverish and was shivering at the same time. After a moment of examining his mother, he knew what herbs he had to find. She did not in fact have the plague but was just ill with catarrh.

First, he needed to go to the river do get a pail of water. While he was doing that, he spotted some wild mint, ‘the perfect for tea, Mentha spicata’ he thought as he stuffed some in his pocket. It would go great with his home-grown basil.

Then after returning the water, he went into the woods closest to his home and found red clover. He knew of a sweet tea with red clover that he could make later. He thought for a moment of different herbs and remembered there was a thyme patch farther away, more into the woods. It was probably one to two kilometers away, but he knew his mother didn’t approve of those distances.

He was slightly curious what was out there, so he ventured, knowing his mother wouldn’t know, and found the thyme he was looking for. The thyme was near a few fairy rings. He plucked the thyme and looked at the fairy rings. They were so beautiful and in the presence of three of them, it felt magical. In the books Emmett read, they said that fairy rings were where sprites held meetings.

“I hope I didn’t scare away any sprites,” he said as he walked back to his cottage. His mother had to have Emmett home basically at all times of the day, so he hurried back not to worry her.

When he got back, he made the sweet red clover tea and an herbier tea with the mint, basil, and thyme. The herb tea didn’t taste like what he wanted it to taste like, but it would help his mother’s illness.

He gave her the teas and she drank them with ease, but after an hour she said she was even more ill.

“Son, I think I have the measles,” she said coughing after she was done talking.

“Mother, you don’t have measles. How could you have gotten them?” Emmett asked knowing she hadn’t left the house in many months.

“Son! I know my body and I have it! I have a runny nose, sore throat, my eyes hurt, and a fever, not to mentions this cough.”

“I don’t have anything to help with that other than you just needing to rest,” he said.

“Find me something then, unless you feel like you could live knowing you killed your own mother.”

“Fine, I will look,” Emmett said going back outside.

‘Doesn’t she know there isn’t a ‘cure’ for measles,’ he thought as he walked into the woods.

Emmett walked around for a moment thinking of way to keep his mother at bay. He thought helping her sleep would be good, and if that slight ill sound in her voice was real, he had to at least try to help.

‘More red clover, and lemon grass for sleep help…maybe lavender,’ he thought while pacing around the cottage.

“Red clover for the slight ill sound, and lemon grass and lavender for helping her sleep,” he said now knowing where in the woods he had to go.

After getting red clover and lemon grass he remembered that the lavender was farther into the woods, he wasn’t allowed to go that far. He thought for a while about the consequences of going that far, but his mother couldn’t be mad when she’s asleep.

The woods that were farther from the cottage were filled with beautiful flowers and herbs of all kinds. He found a good spot that had luscious lavender. He picked a good amount of it and started to look around some more.

He started to hear a voice; it was a soft, smooth, angelic voice. He looked for the person who was making the voice and there, in a patch of light showed a beautiful girl with long silky brown hair and the brightest blue eyes. She was holding a small hooting owl, it looked like one of its wings were bleeding.

This girl shocked Emmett. He was almost paralyzed by her smile and voice.

“Little thing, I will help you even though I’m not very skilled with this, I will help you,” she said stroking the barn owl’s head. All the girl got in return was a few sharp hoots.

Emmett was staring at this girl for a while when he remembered that he had to get back to mother. He ran quicky back to the cottage, not looking back. If he were to look back at the girl, he wouldn’t be able to start walking again.

Going back to the cottage and making more tea seemed so boring compared to watching the girl. She had planted a seed in Emmett’s mind, and it had begun to sprout many, strong roots.

After mother drank the tea and ate a dried lavender scone, she fell asleep immediately, and Emmett had the chance to think about how he was going to see the girl again.

‘She looked like she likes owls, so maybe I can carve an owl for her, and I can write out a note of herbs that will help with pain for the owl…but how will she get it?’ he thought.

Getting the gift to the girl was the last part of the plan, the first part was carving the wooden barn owl. Emmett had a hidden talent for wood carving, it was one of his many side hobbies. To make the owl more custom he made a crack on one of the wooden owl’s wings.

He wrote down a list of things that will help with the pain for the owl. Then he went to his garden and picked some garlic and basil.

‘I’ll give her the garlic and basil to help the owl with pain,’ he thought while he put the herbs in a pouch then tying the note to the pouch.

‘That mixed with the wooden owl would be a lovely gift,’ he thought as his eyes started to close and his mind turn to dreams.

When morning came, Emmett could hear his mother calling for him.

“Did you put lemon grass in my tea!?” she asked when he went into her room.

“Yes, didn’t it help with your sleep?” he asked, not understanding why she was upset.

“You should know by now that lemon grass makes me vomit!” mother said putting her hand over her eyes.

“But mother…you haven’t vomited,” Emmett said now looking around in her room. Looking at his mother’s nasty room, and his mother with her blonde hair, oily and matted, he continued, “Mother I think you should take a bath and I will clean your room while you do that, then I can make you mint tea.”

“That sounds enjoyable,” she said trying to get out of her bed.

Emmett helped her into the bathroom then he started to clean his mother’s room. The room was cleaned with precision, then he made a strong mint tea, he added the smallest amount of leftover lavender to calm her mind.

When mother got out of the bath and was dressed, she drank her tea and water with bread dried pork, then she fell asleep while Emmett was brushing her thin now clean blonde hair.

‘Since mother’s asleep I can go back to that spot and put the wooden owl and gift for the girl there,’ he thought while grabbing the pouch and wooden owl.

Walking into the woods this time felt different, it felt like he was going to a place he didn’t know, doing something he never did, feeling excitement that he had never felt before.

He knew if he told his mother about the girl, he would be scolded till kingdom come. He didn’t care, the want for talking to someone different was strong.

When he got to the sun patch surrounded by lavender, he saw that it now had a picnic blanket and chair.

‘That means she is going to come back here,’ Emmett thought looking at this masterpiece. It looked like one of the pictures in his favorite books.

After admiring the view, Emmett placed the wooden owl and the pouch in the middle of the blanket. He then stayed behind one of the bigger maple trees.

He didn’t know when or if this girl was going to come back that day, but he had a good thought that she would. He kept hearing light stepping and voices. He also didn’t want to be in the cottage for a good moment.

After about ten minutes he heard the sweetest voice coming closer to the sunspot.

“I tried to get Farther to like you…but he is stubborn, so you and I will stay in the sunspot for longer every day,” the angelic voice said.

Emmett tried to stay away from the light so that the girl couldn’t see him, but he wanted to look at her beautiful face.

“I think I will name you…” the girl stopped as she saw the wooden owl. She picked it up and examined it.

“Look how pretty, it looks like you…it even has a crack in the wing,” the girl said, then she started to look around to find out who put this wooden owl here. Emmett got nervous and ran away to his cottage. He didn’t want the girl to think he was a creep, he wanted to talk to her, but he was too scared.

“Wait! A woodland sprite! Come back,” the girl said chasing after Emmett.

‘She thinks I’m a woodland sprite…what have I done?’ he thought while running for his life.

When he got into the cottage, he locked the door and blew out all the lights. He was scared that his mother would notice the girl outside of the cottage, but she was sleeping, so at least she wouldn’t find out.

The girl left after a while and Emmett felt like he lost his chance to see her again. He felt that his chance to escape the cottage was gone, his only chance for a real life was gone. His mother woke up and said that she was still ill but, Emmett didn’t feel like making tea or even going outside for a very long time.

His mother pestered and pestered him to get her yarrow leaves, even if she didn’t have a fever. He wanted for her to sleep, he wished valerian root grew in his forest.

When he walked out to get the yarrow leaves, he noticed a note near the door. It read,

“Thank you so much for the owl, and I really appreciate the herbs. You are a woodland sprite, and I have never met a woodland sprite before, so I got excited. Sorry I scared you off.”

Emmett was shocked, she didn’t find him weird. I mean she did think he was a woodland sprite, but that could be told otherwise quite easily. He kept looking at the beautiful note, her handwriting was perfect, and her note was kind.

‘Maybe I should write a note back…but what do I write?’ he thought while grabbing a piece of paper. He wondered if he wrote a note, how would she respond to his slopy handwriting? What if when she read the note, she would find him stupid?

The thought of failure was strong, but the want to talk to this girl was stronger.

He wrote a note back and put a hood on so that he could be sneaky. As he was about to go give the note to girl, he heard his mother yell.

“You have taken so long to get my yarrow leaves! You just want me to die! I know it now,” she yelled.

“Mother I am working on it…I will be back soon,” he said walking out of the cottage. Even with the door closed he could hear his mother’s yell.

Now that he had a time limit to get the note to the girl, he had to run instead of walk to the sunspot. It was terrifying to go give the girl the note, but he was so excited to hear her voice again.

When he got to the spot, he saw that she was playing with the owl. It had a cloth bandage on its wing now. While the girl’s back was turned, he put the note beside her and then hid behind the same tree.

As she turned around and noticed the note, she looked around and saw Emmett. She then read the note aloud.

“Hello, my name is Emmett. I am not a woodland sprite; I just have never spoken to a girl so beautiful and angelic as yourself. I hope we can have a lovely conversation,” she said starting to blush. Emmett also blushed by listening to his note read back to him. He wanted to tell her how he had never spoken to a girl before, but he didn’t want to seem weird. The note looked like it worked based on the girl’s face. The girl than looked into his eyes and said,

“I can’t have a lovely conversation if you are over there hiding. Do you want to sit with me in the sunspot?”

Emmet was flustered but he wanted to talk to her, so he stepped into the sunspot and sat on the picnic blanket with the girl.

“My name is Iris, it’s nice to meet a real woodland sprite” she said smiling.

“I am not what you think I am,” Emmett looked away from Iris’s beautiful face, he felt like he couldn’t hold up to her standard.

“You have blonde hair and the deepest blue eyes, and your voice is so dark. That means you are a woodland sprite, or at least someone who looks like a woodland sprite,” she said smiling.

“How do you know what a woodland sprite looks like?”

“Well…I read a book that had them in it, and you look like what they looked like,” Iris said now petting the owl.

“Do you like…” Emmett was interrupted.

“She is almost better; I want to give her back to her family…but I don’t know where her nest is. I don’t really go in the forest that often,” she said not even remembering how a conversation works.

“Oh…I bet you will be able to find it,” Emmett said trying to sound sincere.

“Do you have any hobbies?” Iris said popping her head back up to face Emmett and smiled.

“I do, I find herbs and make tea. That reminds me I have to find yarrow leaves for my mother,”

“Is she ill or something?” she said while Emmett got up.

“She thinks she is” he said rolling his eyes.

“Oh, it seems like it’s getting dark…I will come to the sunspot again tomorrow. Maybe we can talk again?” Iris said also standing up.

“Sounds lovely,” he said smiling.

They both looked and each other, then they walked there sperate ways.

It didn’t take Emmett very long to find the yarrow leaves and go back to the cottage. Making tea with yarrow leaves though can be a struggle, but after a moment of anger he made the fabulous tea and brought it to his mother.

“Son why did that take you so long?” mother asked while drinking her tea.

“It was very hard to find good looking yarrow leaves for you mother,” Emmett said.

“Well, thank you for finding some, it tastes very good. That reminds me, have you dried any of our basil yet? You know soon it will become bad, and we want to be able to save it,” she asked as her eyes started to close.

“I will tomorrow, when the sun is out more,” he said leaving his mother’s room and going outside. If he placed the basil leaves now, he could spend more time with Iris.

Once he placed many basil leaves in between towels he went out to look for the baby barn owl’s nest. He thought that if he found the nest for Iris that she would be happy to have met him. He never really looked inside of trees for anything before, but it was pretty interesting to see what lived in there.

After many hours of looking he found a group of trees with big dents, with barn owls in them. He had found it, that must be the baby owl’s parents. It was not too far from the cottage, and after looking around saw that it was hard to miss it.

The next morning Emmett got up and snuck out of the cottage to go tell Iris the good news. When he got to the sunspot, he saw that Iris was there looking around with the baby owl on her finger.

“Iris, you won’t believe it. I found the owl’s home!” Emmett said jumping with excitement.

“You did!? When? Where?” Iris asked now smiling wide.

“Last night, near my cottage, lets go bring the owl back to her home,” Emmett said already walking to where he found the barn owls.

“You found it for me?” she said trying to keep up with Emmett.

“Hoot…Hoot…” the baby owl whistled.

“I wanted to do something nice for you,” Emmet blushed.

“Thank you…” Iris said blushing as well.

When they got to the spot with the barn owls the baby owl started to hoot and hoot, which woke up the big barn owls. They looked so mean, but when they saw the baby, they looked so happy. The baby barn owl flew up to her mother and father and snuggled into them.

“They look so sweet,” Iris said.

“Let’s leave so that they can reunite,” Emmett whispered.

After a few moments of walking Iris said,

“Would you like to go back to the sunspot and chat?”

“Of course, that sounds nice,” Emmett said smiling.

As they approached the cottage once more, they both could here Emmett’s mother’s yells.

“Emmett! Where are you?” she kept saying.

“I’m right here,” he said rushing to stand by her room’s window.

“What were you doing?” she said sounding terribly angry.

“I was putting the basil leaves in a sunny spot to dry like you asked me to,” Emmett lied.

“Oh, well I need you to get red clovers and lavender for me” she said now calming down.

“Alright, while I get that I will get a pail of water too,” he said.

“Ok, be safe by the river”

“I always am,” he said walking away from the window. Then he waved his hand at Iris to come near him. She tiptoed her way to him with a concerned and confused face.

“That gives us thirty minutes to talk, let’s go,” he whispered to Iris.

“Hurry then” Iris said while they both started to run to the sunspot.