who saved who?

Riding down the long driveway, passing several trees, leaves blowing in the wind. Colorful flowers and high grass along the white picket fence. Horses running parallel with our truck as we pull into the roundabout looking up, I can't see the top of the house. I see my grandma and grandpa walking down the front porch with lemonade and whiskey in their hand. I'm allowed to have a glass of cold lemonade, but grandpa tells me the whiskey is for a special day. A special day? When the time comes, he says. Mom and dad grab their stuff as we begin to walk in the house. We open the screen door and the smell of grandma's cooking makes my stomach wake up as I throw my shoes off running into the kitchen, chasing the smell of banana muffins and wedding soup. I grab my stool and then grandma and I are standing above the stove. She opens the oven to heaven and I get stirring on the soup. Since it's the first day, the windows are wide open and the food is not the only thing we can smell and we all start laughing.

The girls stay in the kitchen while my dad, grandpa and I start walking out to the back of the house. I follow along as I put the boots on and catch up to them, the house is close to the barn. “Big Red" is written on the front of the red barn with white trim. Hay is stacked in the front with a big red tractor and the trailer is unloading more hay. The door to the right takes you into an office area which leads us inside to the stalls with a tall ceiling and a loft. I always want to climb up to the loft, but grandpa says it's too dangerous for a kid. There is a big door, and I could fall out, but I tell myself someday. We begin feeding and petting all the animals. Grandpa and dad began talking about our great grandpa and how he built the farm once he got back from the war, but he has recently passed. I think that's why we're here. We hear food is ready and it breaks the conversation, and we start back towards the house, passing the smoker with a fat brisket. It fills our lungs with barbecue juicy meat smoke. Grandpa brings the brisket and grandma has the soup. They say no muffins until you finish your plate. It was time for a bath and then bed. We had to get up early for the farm work that needed to be done.

At 6:00 AM, my eyes pop open and you can hear an owl clock going. Woo woo woo? The rules are pj’s until 7AM and as I walk towards the stairs, I begin to smell breakfast. It makes me want to slide down the stair railing into the kitchen. As the family makes breakfast, I sneak into the muffins. Pap laughs and says you can have one. You have to eat up because there's a long day ahead of us. Breakfast of a farmer consists of three eggs, two slices of bacon, a slice of ham, home fries, a glass of milk, carrots and celery. After breakfast, it was time to get outside and cross the tasks off our list. As we finish up, the last thing to do is close up the barn. Grandpa climbed into the loft, and he left the barn upper door open a bit. I asked him why he did this and he said it was for a friend. A friend I asked. He begins to explain there was once this owl who would come in and rest on the highest beam. He hasn't been around since great grandpa passed away. Pap tells me we got done early today for the funeral. I've never been to a funeral, this is my first one. At the age of six, it's hard to remember him. Grandpa says he used to ride me around on the big red tractor and take me along on his farming duties. He was the first one to hold you after your mom and dad, he was happy as pie. I remember there being a lot of cars and people at the funeral home. Many men and women dressed in black, soldier and police uniforms. At his casket, there was an old man dressed nicely, lying peacefully. The American flag beside him with a picture of him smiling at war in black in white with a saying “Smile at death and it will smile back”. The people there and my family weren’t crying, they were just sitting in peace because it was what he wanted. On our way out, I was sad I couldn't hear his stories about war and life. In the morning, we would be leaving our grandparents house to go back to the city where we lived which made me unhappy. I love being at the farm because it's my favorite place.

Fast forward 10 years to the day I got my driver's license. The big surprise was supposed to be my new truck. I was more excited to drive to my grandparents to show them. Racing the horse down the driveway, I can already see them eager to see me in my new truck. There they stood with their two favorite drinks and my favorite meal cooking. I could smell it as I walked into the house. I sat down at the dinner table, and we began talking about how I was doing in school. I responded with a short and quiet answer telling my grandma something was wrong. She asked if something happened. “No”, I told her, “The city does not make me as happy as being out here in the country with you two”. I want to tell my parents, but I don't want to upset them. Grandpa looked at me and said it is best to tell them what is on my mind. “You know best for yourself and it's their job to help you get where you want to be”. Nan stood up and walked towards the telephone to spin the number in. My parents answered and they talked for a bit until she called me over and said I had to tell them something. They asked if everything was okay, and I told them I was not happy in the city and how I wanted to move into the farmhouse. They asked if I was sure and I said yes. They can bring me clothes and anything I want this weekend. Awesome, we jumped and danced with joy. I would be spending the summer at the farmhouse.

For the meantime, my dad's old clothes are still in the room I used to sleep in when I was a kid. As I laid down, I had this great feeling of freedom, but I was tired after my big decision. I went right to bed, to be awoken by the owl clock. I ran down to the breakfast and pap and asked if I'm ready to work. I start to smile and say yes knowing when I was kid, I never had to take on the chores on the farm. He laughs and begins to tell me about how my dad was when he was little. He would be happy until the work started and was always eager to leave the farm; it is what drove him out to the city to make it big selling insurance. I told him I don't want to end up working like my dad. He said he agreed and that's why we must work today. We leave the house, grandma screaming, have a good day. First, we open the barn up, feed and take care of the animals, get more food and supplies, go collect and stack wood, cut the grass and get grandma's favorite swing painted. As we get closer to the end of the day, nan brings me out a glass of lemonade for a boost and a glass of whiskey for pap. With little sunlight left and chores taken care of I asked pap if he would teach me how to prep a horse to be ridden. He was delighted to help and had the perfect horse. It was the same horse my dad raised when he was kid on the farm. The horse didn't have a name, so I got to choose it. With short, smooth, red hair and a black mohawk, I decided I would call him Blaze. After getting the horse prepped, it was too late for a ride. Thinking to myself it was finally my chance to climb into the loft and crack open the door. Though it wasn't a special moment, it was a beautiful view of the whole farm. As I climbed back down, I asked if the owl had been back and he said not since great grandpa passed.

We head into the house for dinner talking about the day and my new horse Blaze. With my excitement to ride the horse, I had a hard time sleeping and in the middle of the night I heard a noise coming from the barn, but I couldn't see anything in the dark. I looked up at the stars under the moonlight, closed the window and climbed back in bed. I was woken up by the owl clock and I could tell the day felt different since I was looking forward to riding my horse. I ate breakfast and got to work. After we finished everything for the day, my chance to ride the horse came and I walked him around the farm. The sun started to fall, and we walked back to the barn to close up. I climbed up to the loft to crack the door to find a white feather on the ground. I brought it down to pap and his eyes opened up big and the owl came back. We walked to the office where he opened a drawer with a bag of white feathers on top of a leather journal with a title “Barn Owl” who saved who. I grabbed both and we walked inside to eat dinner. Grandma saw what I was carrying and started to tell me about how he would document his life here after the war. Back in the day, he fought for these lands and the barn was his favorite, most righteous place. Nan said let's eat dinner first, then take some time tonight to read it. That's what he would have wanted. I got up and opened the first page with the title “Story about a barn owl”.

“It all starts the day I found and bought this property with the only thing on it being a faded red barn. The goal was to build a house beside it, but for the meantime I would stay in the upper loft. On the last night, before the house would be finished, I sat on the edge of the barn door admiring the view as I fell asleep on the hay. When I woke up, I found a white feather lying beside me, one I've never seen before. The next night, instead of sleeping in the barn I stayed up all night waiting for the mysterious feathered friend. At the peak of the moon, a big white owl came flying in and landed on the highest beam. In the candlelight I could see him looking around, being able to spin his head almost the whole way around. As the sun started to rise, he turned and flew out of the barn. As a natural hunter, my first instinct was to hunt the owl down to learn about it. It is no easy task to find an owl”.

As I read on, I began to fall asleep waking up to the owl clock the next morning. Putting my feet to the ground, I realized I dropped the journal while reading and lying beside it was a piece of folded paper. At first, I thought it was a map of some sort, so I took it downstairs to my grandparents. They tell me it was the floor plans for the house that my great grandpa used to build the house. I realize on the plans there is an attic that I never knew about and I never really thought about the tallest spot in the house. Grandma says the ladder broke making it hard to get up there. I went outside to look at the outside of the house and I saw there was a window at the tallest peak on the roof. Under the window, a dozen deer antlers were there from our best hunts. The window to my room was at the same level as the roof, so later that night after eating dinner I went up to my room, opened the window and climbed outside. I walked around to the antler wall and the only way up was to use the antlers as handles to climb up. I got to the top and it was hard to get open, but eventually I got it opened enough to crawl in the attic.

It was a small, dusty space with different things spread out from candles, binoculars, ripped out pages of the journal, shells, and pillows. I lit one of the candles, so I could see better and picked up the pages. The first page reads, “In the distance, there is a pine tree with an eagles' nest at the peak. I followed the owl to the tree. He likes to go inside at the top and spend most of his time there until nighttime”. Why does he like visiting the barn? I asked myself. “These lands have been under tension for quite some time. I often would come up here to clear my mind and observe the owl from a distance. On a random cold day, as I was watching the owl, it fled from the tree and I heard a bang. The owl was shot down from the tree line by soldiers coming out of the tree line towards the farmhouse. I grabbed my rifle and shot the man in the front in the knee. They dropped and had to drag him into the tree line giving me time to grab a horse and ride towards the town. I screamed at the police that they were attacking my land and during this time they knew what was happening. We rode back to the farm to see clouds of dark smoke coming from the house. If we didn't arrive when we did, the barn could have been burnt all the way down. The police shot at the soldiers and arrested the ones who gave up. I thanked them for saving the farm. I was sad I couldn't thank the owl who had to die for me to live. It could have been me in the house fire”.

“Right back where I started, I was back in the barn sleeping in the loft as they built me a new home. Late at night, sitting on the edge of the barn door thinking about the owl, I got the idea to climb up to the cross beam the owl would always land on. There, I found a nest with one egg in it. The owl and I had a lot in common. The barn was home and where our families began. Death became heavy on my mind thinking about the fact I will be the owl someday leaving behind my family to be taken care of by the farm I create. From that day on, I took care of the egg until it hatched into an owl that I raised, eventually setting free. The day I set him free he flew right towards the tree line. The new house was built, and I haven't seen the owl since. It gave me the courage to raise a kid and think about the future for others. The day I held you I knew what my purpose was as your great grandpa”. On the back of the page it says, “Open the owl clock by turning its head clockwise”.

I climbed back into my room, grabbed the owl and opened it up to find two envelopes. The first one was the deed to the house, written in my name, signed by my great pap and the second was a life insurance policy for hundred thousand dollars. I screamed in silence and fell asleep holding the two pieces over my heart. Without the owl clock, I woke up and ran down the stairs to tell my grandparents what I found, and they smiled and said, “He did say you were going to be his favorite”. I called my parents and told them to come over as soon as possible without telling them. When they arrived, I ran outside and gave them a big hug. We walked up to the porch and sat down on the swing, and I showed them everything I found. Then, I found out they knew the whole time and were waiting for the right time. My dad begins to tell me had the choice to take it and chose to move to the city and have me. It comes with a big responsibility, and you have a choice. Without hesitation, I said yes. With the policy, I spent it all on the farm to turn the barn into an owl sanctuary. On the day of the grand opening, as the barn doors opened, you could see a white owl sitting on the cross beam for a second before flying back out the barn door and the rest of the owls were in cages. It was a special moment; I still didn't get my grandpas’ poured glass of whiskey on ice.