Maya's Spirit Animal

Maya’s mind was tormented with thoughts of being cheated and betrayed. Dimitri, her husband, had been acting very strangely in the last few months. He received calls from his boss, Claire, at odd hours almost every day. What was even worse was that he would excuse himself out of the room every time she called and spoke only after he was well out of Maya’s earshot.

Maya had asked Dimitri about it once but he said they were good friends and that he was the only person who was able to understand Claire’s vision for the company. He said she trusted his opinion and since they were at a very crucial decision point for the future of the organization, she called him to validate her thoughts. He sounded convincing but Maya wasn’t sure if she could believe him.

Once when she had gone shopping to the supermarket, she saw Dimitri and Claire drive out of the parking lot in Claire’s car.

She wanted to talk to him again. She wanted to know what was going on, but hesitated because she did not know how to handle the situation. What if he denied, or even worse, what if he admitted to having an affair with Claire? What would she do? She wanted to know the truth but she was also scared of what she might learn.

However, what happened today morning was the last straw that broke her patience. While doing the laundry, Maya had noticed a long blonde hair on Dimitri’s shirt collar. It was a three-foot-long strand of blonde hair. Claire had long blonde hair that cascaded till her waist.

Maya was fuming after she saw the strand of hair. In a fit of rage, she threw the laundry, scattering it across the living room, and rushed out of the house with her car keys in hand.

Angry and clueless about what to do next, Maya got into her recently purchased Volvo Sedan, slammed the door shut, and drove without any destination in mind.

She floored the accelerator as soon as she reached the open road. Lost in thought, with Celine Dion crooning ‘It’s all coming back to me’ on her car’s stereo, she did not realize that her car was switching lanes onto the wrong side of the road. Suddenly she heard a loud sound. It was a blaring horn rapidly growing louder and shriller. A look of horror swept across her wide-eyed face when she looked ahead. Slamming the brakes she swung to the right barely missing an oncoming eighteen-wheeler. She lost control of the car and before she knew it she was hurtling down a dirt road that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. The road led to a barn and her car hurtled into it toppling several stacks of hay before coming to a stop.

Maya, clearly rattled, groped the steering wheel with the right hand and covered her half-open mouth with the left. Her mind was blank. She was still in a state of shock. All she knew was that she had a really close encounter with death. She let out a heavy sigh of relief.

She sat in her car, still clutching the steering wheel. She was angry at her husband, she was angry with her friend Claire, but most of all she was angry with herself. "What the hell am I doing?" she thought.

However, before she could think further, she heard a screeching sound from somewhere in the barn. It was like something was screeching in morse code. She had never heard anything like it before. "What's this sound?" she wondered, half-frightened and half-curious. Soon she heard a gentle flapping of wings and saw a bird descend on the bonnet of her car. The first thing she noticed was the heart-shaped face of the bird. The bird itself was white with a few spots. Its wings were grayish light-brown. It had the face of a wise sage and its deep, black, piercing eyes looked straight into her soul.

Already a bit unnerved by recent events, her first reaction was to wave her hands and shoo away the bird. But her hand-waving had no effect on it. It sat there, unperturbed, on the bonnet of her car as if waiting for her to calm down.

After a few more unsuccessful attempts to shoo away the barn owl, Maya finally gave up in frustration when she realized that the owl just wasn't afraid of her.

She thought of backing out of the barn but her hands were still shaking and she wasn’t in a state to start her car and head back home. So she looked at the owl and muttered "what do you want?". The owl answered with a few screeching sounds that Maya could not understand. Not quite sure why she was trying to communicate with the bird, Maya closed her eyes and decided to relax for a while before deciding what to do next.

The moment she closed her eyes, she realized how tired she was. The adrenaline from the danger combined with her anger had completely drained her energy. She desperately needed to calm down and put herself together. To her surprise, that’s what she felt as she closed her eyes.

She wondered if the barn owl was still around but was too tired to open her eyes to check. It seemed the owl had read her mind because she did not have to wait too long for an answer. The owl was very much there and had started screeching again. But this time it was different. The owl was melodic, or at least as melodic as screeching could be. It was sounding a melodic screech in a continuous pattern. The sound lulled Maya into a state of trance. Very soon, she was in the twilight zone between being awake and sleeping.

Not too long after that, she started seeing visions. She was dreaming but she was also aware that she was dreaming.

In the dream, Maya saw herself as an eight-year-old child in a village in India. She was running along the village street with a box in her hand to her friend's house. As her house came closer, she noticed her friend and her twin brother sitting outside and reading a book. She shouted her friend's name and waved. Her friend responded by waving back. She ran until she reached the house and stopped in front of them as they put down the books they were reading. These twins were the only two children in the village who could read. While the rest of the kids ran around or helped their parents or wove straw baskets, this duo of twins would spend all their time reading. The other kids in the village thought they were strange but no one troubled them. Maya was the only friend they had. They had tried to teach Maya how to read but she wasn't interested. She was more interested in running, climbing the hill, and taking a dip in the well. In some ways, she was similar to them. All three of them had an awe-stricken curiosity of the world around them but Maya explored her world in a way that was different than the twins.

"Wow!" Maya gasped in the car as she saw her dream-self approach her friend. Her friend felt like she was Claire. She looked different but her energy was unmistakable. She was Claire, without a doubt, and her twin brother, she could feel clearly, was Dimitri.

She was about to say something to her friend in the dream but was interrupted by the owl’s harsh screeching. As the owl’s screeching changed from melodious to harsh, so did the dream scene.

Maya was transported to the day of her wedding in that village life. It was a big day for her but she wasn't happy. She had a big fight with her friend on the morning of her wedding and had harshly asked her to leave her. Her friend walked out with tears in her eyes. A few hours later when the actual wedding took place in front of the ceremonial fire and the temple priest chanting mantras, she noticed that her friend did not return but her brother was there. He wished her good luck on behalf of his family and left. He spoke softly and kindly, like a gentleman. She could not feel any resentment in him.

In that life, she and her friend did not speak again. She also lived a rather happy life with her husband but the fondness she had developed for her friend’s brother, on the day of her wedding, stayed with her till her last breath.

The strange dream helped Maya calm down. She opened her eyes and looked at the owl which was still sitting in the same place. The owl looked into her eyes, spread its wings, and flew ahead for a few feet before taking a u-turn towards the car. This time, instead of perching itself on the bonnet it flew by Maya's window and let out a screeching sound as if asking Maya to follow her.

She turned on the ignition and was relieved to hear the car start in the very first attempt. As Maya backed out, she saw the owl sitting on a haystack. Just as her car passed it, the owl flew once again as if motioning her to follow it. Everything that had happened in the last thirty minutes defied logic so Maya decided to suspend logical thinking for some time and followed the owl as it led her out of the barn further down the dirt road.

It was getting late but Maya followed the owl who seemed to know where it was going. After driving for about five minutes down the road, the owl once again perched itself on the branch of a tree. "Now what?" Maya said to herself, a bit irritated. However, as she approached the tree, she was surprised to see a gate and a beautifully carved board engraved with the words ‘Welcome to Zen Center’. Maya was surprised to see a Zen Center in the middle of nowhere.

The owl flapped its wings once again, entered the premises, and led her towards a distant structure that looked like a bunch of elegant cottages. As they approached the cottages, the owl descended on a wooden fence. She realized that she was in the parking lot of the Zen Center, right in front of the meditation hall.

Completely clueless about what she was supposed to do next, she sat there waiting for the owl. But the owl did not budge. It sat patiently on the wooden fence. "What's going on?" Maya wondered to herself, unsure if all this was actually happening or if she was still in the dream. Her confusion ended when she saw two shadows emerging from the meditation hall. A couple emerged out of the hall and stopped under the light, in front of her car, on the other side of the fence.

Maya was startled when she saw their faces. It was Dimitri and Claire. Her heart started beating wildly. What were they doing here? Was the Zen Center their hideout? Is this where they met? Maya clutched the steering wheel for support as she saw Dimitri reaching into his bag and pulling out a small exquisite looking box. Maya saw the ring shining under the parking light and clutched the wheel even tighter. Neither of them had seen her. Maya held her breath as she realized that she was about to catch her husband red-handed. It seemed as if the owl had led her to the truth.

Meanwhile, Claire's eyes grew wide as she looked at the ring. She let out a little gasp, with her hands touching her face, and Maya heard her say "Wow, this is beautiful. I mean it's exquisite. I'm sure Maya will love it!"