Owls

I heard the owls tonight. I don't know exactly how long owls stay together or even how long they typically live but these two owls have been here for at least five years. I was beginning to worry tonight, when I heard the one with the deeper voice but no one answered. "He" was in the trees somewhere near the back of the property.

"Who cooks? Who cooks for you?"

Finally, the other owl answered - I could barely hear "her" at first. Slowly, her call got louder and louder until it sounded as if she was around the church, just down the road. I was hoping to get another glimpse of one of them - the last time was a cold, frosty night about four years ago when one of them silently flew right over my head. It wasn't to be though. He decided to fly to her. Still, I lingered a while, just listening to them call to each other as they hunted in the hollow behind the house.

"Who cooks? Who cooks for you?"

Owls have a strange mythology to them here. Some of the older people still fear them because the old folklore says that owls are messengers of death. My own grandmother told the tale about her brother who was awakened by the hooting of an owl the night before he died in a tractor accident. The story goes that it was in a tree outside his bedroom window and it was so loud that it woke him up. He tried to scare it off so he could go back to sleep but I don't remember if he succeeded. He died when I was in my early teens.

"Who cooks? Who cooks for you?"