Screech

Jane had started to notice. She was a light sleeper. Roy wasn’t, so Jane had to shake him awake every time she heard it. Well, “had to” was a bit of a stretch for Roy. After all, he woke up at 4 am for work 5 days a week, and being roughly shaken out of a deep sleep once at midnight and a second time at 3 am had started to wear on him.

“Roy… Roy!”

Jane had a way of making her whispers sound like screams. Roy slowly opened his eyes and rolled to face Jane.

“Again?”

Jane was already at the window peering from left to right. It was the fifth night in a row that she had been awoken to the sound. There was nothing intrinsically distressing about it, but Jane couldn’t help but get an eerie feeling every time the echoes of its call drifted into her room. As for Roy, he didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. It was just an owl. Though he had to admit, the methodical screech was less than pleasant, and not at all what he thought an owl sounded like. In fact, Roy and Jane had never heard an owl before this week. Both of them were alarmed to discover that the birds call sounded less like a calming “Hoooo”, and more like a broken car alarm.

“Come back to bed honey.”

“There has to be a reason for it.”

“I’m sure she’s just a lonely owl looking for her other half. If I recall correctly, that’s how you lured me in.”

Jane shot Roy an irritated look, but couldn’t help but crack a smile when he started to imitate the owls piercing shriek. She climbed into bed and Roy draped his arm around her waist.

“It worked on me. Give her a couple of days, she’ll be hitched to Mr. Right Owl in no time.”

Jane faced the window with a furrowed brow. She had a weird feeling.

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Allie had started to notice. Well, “started” wasn’t the right word. Her soul nearly left her body after the first screech. After all, it happened a mere 10, maybe 15 feet above her head from the oak tree. Allie had never seen an owl before. Her knee-jerk reaction was to ‘shush’ it, though she felt instantly silly for doing so. She had chuckled quietly to herself. Did she expect the bird to whisper back, “Oh sorry! I’ll try to keep it down!”. On this fifth night however, Allie was no longer amused at the birds abrasive call. In fact, she was angry. Like clockwork, the winged tattle-tale would shriek right at midnight as soon as Allie would leave the house, then a second time at 3 am when she would return. Something about this made her secret feel even more biblical. You see, Allie was not taking nightly, 3 hour long strolls to clear her head. She was only 17, and her parents would never approve of such a thing. However, what Allie was actually doing was something she feared her parents would disapprove of far more than a nightly walk. She couldn’t get caught. The owl was really getting on her nerves.

It was a 16 minute walk. Allie had timed it. She left right at midnight because that’s when Jess knew with certainty that her parents would be asleep. The minutes leading up to midnight were each an eternity. Allie would sit on the edge of her bed in ready position. Dressed in dark clothes, with a pair of thick wool socks pulled over her shoes, so as to soften the sound of her footsteps through the halls of her home. She had been proud of that idea. Every night she got to Jess’s house at exactly 12:17. That gave them 2 hours and 26 minutes to be together. It was never enough time, but it was always heaven. They certainly had time each day to spend with each other during soccer practice, or algebra III… but never like this.

Allie snuck into the backyard and hid behind the giant azalea bush, as instructed. She loved that part. Moments away from seeing Jess, and getting punched in the face by the overwhelming, perfume-like, aroma of the flower. It smelled like being in love. They didn’t use phones to communicate. Jess had been sent to a gay conversion camp just the year before after her mom found pictures of naked women on her iPad. Allie never arrived later than 12:17 and that was how they did it. No phones.

Allie waited for the blinds to be drawn in the third window to the right. This part always made her nervous. Her head would spin with irrational thoughts about Jess’s well-being. The fear of Jess getting caught was too much for her stomach to take. Then she would think about herself getting caught. That scared her most of all. Because Allie did not know what would happen.

The blinds in the window snapped Allie out of her haze. They were drawn. Crouched low to the ground, Allie ran across the lawn and straight to the backdoor. It swung open to reveal Jess looking nervous but equally elated. She hurried Allie inside and gingerly closed the door. They tiptoed their way down the carpeted stairs until they were safely on the couch. Jess pulled back Allie’s hood while Allie brushed Jess’s hair to the side. She loved her hair. It was the color of caramel. They leaned in and kissed each other softly. Neither of them were sure who initiated it. It didn’t matter. They were both in the middle of the same universe. The same first love. They were that for each other. For 2 hours and 26 minutes.

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Jane was already awake. It was 2:53 AM, and she couldn’t sleep in anticipation of the dreadful screech. What was that owl doing? Jane had lived in the same town her whole life without having ever seen an owl. She sat up in bed and went straight to the window. “Let’s just get this over with.”, she thought. Sure enough, there she was perched on the same low branch. She observed the owls details and features. It really was a beautiful creature. Different from most of the birds she was used to seeing. She started to hope it would never leave. What if she never saw one again?

Suddenly, the owl shifted its gaze directly to Jane. This startled her at first, but she quickly became transfixed. What a magnificently unique bird? She found herself smiling. Without breaking Jane’s gaze, the owl began to flap its wings and and before she could blink, it was gone. “No!”, Jane whispered out loud. She strained her neck to try and see which direction the owl headed, but her search was stopped dead in its tracks. Because she was looking at her daughter Allie, facing the same branch the owl had just been on, her head cocked inquisitively to the side.

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Allie had skipped her way home. She hadn’t slept all week. The feeling inside her chest on the walk home was intoxicating, and she laid awake for hours replaying the night over and over and over. She was a block away before remembering the owl. An initial wave of frustration washed over her, but she found herself starting to smile. She didn’t care. She approached the tree with a sarcastic gaze, ready to hurl some meaningless insult at the bird. But she was not there. She searched the other branches but had no luck finding her. She thought she would feel happy. But she couldn’t shake a subtle feeling of sadness.

“Allie?”

Allie whipped around to find her mother standing in the street, draped in a robe, still wearing slippers. Several moments of silence passed. They didn’t ask questions. Jane stared at her daughter. Allie stared at her mother. They lived there for what felt like hours. It was only 14 seconds.

“I’m gay.”

Both women stood frozen in time. Allie started to cry. They both missed the owl.