Owl's Story

One day an owl came to me and told me to write a story about him. He was clutching on to a stalk of aloe vera, and I was curious if this owl had come from the desert or something. So, I asked,

"Did you come from a desert?"

"If I did, would you write a story about me?"

"Even if you didn't, I can write a story about you. Do you have a specific story in mind? If you tell it to me, I can write about it."

"Hoot. Hoot. I didn't come from a desert. I like to eat aloe vera. As a punishment to me, one day, my children disappeared and all that was left in the nest were stems of aloe vera, in their place."

"Why would you be punished for liking to eat aloe vera?"

"Because this aloe vera belonged to Queen Cleopatra. You see, I stole it from her garden, so she stole my children from me."

I blinked hard at the strange owl and began to frown. I didn't know how to carry on the conversation from here. I couldn't imagine how to write a story about what was exchanged. So I continued to frown as I tried hard to imagine. Meanwhile, I also realised that I didn't recollect seeing any owls in the day before. This must be a special owl. At that, the owl hooted two times and flew onto my bed and began eating the aloe vera. After staring at him for a while, I decided to turn on my computer to make notes for the ensuing interview.

"So, owl," I asked, in a way I thought journalists asked their questions, "what is your name and please tell me about yourself." I sounded more like someone at a job interview.

"That is not important," the owl replied, "I want you to write a story about me."

"Is it the story of Cleopatra and the aloe vera?" I raised the left half of my face as I watched the juice from what he was eating sipped into the sheets of my bed.

"No. Write a story about me. Write it such that I am an eagle in the story."

"Why would you want to be an eagle when you're an owl?"

"Why would you want to be a man when you're born a woman?"

Then I realised that I do sometimes want to be a man. I did not know why the owl knew that, perhaps he was just drawing a random analogy, but I reminded myself that I shouldn't be surprised with what a talking day-time owl could say anymore. I asked,

"Alright, so anything else you'd like to be included in the story?"

"If it's possible, I would like it to be a love story. Other than that, nothing. I just want to be an Eagle in a love story."

"Alright, then how will you repay me for a story?"

"I don't know. Hoot. Do you like aloe vera? Or name your price?"

"A favour. You will repay me with a favour."

"Hoot. Alright. The degree and level of the favour must be commensurate with the depth of the story you hoot write."

I told myself to aim to earn at least a favour for clean sheets.

*

Once upon a time, there was an eagle named Owl. Many people did not understand why the eagle's mother named the eagle Owl, but these things happen, even for eagles. And when these things happen, they have to be accepted, even for eagles.

Owl was a sea eagle, and liked above all, to eat cuttlefish and squids that usually live in the deep sea. Being unable to dive that deeply, he decided to court a sea turtle, so that she would go into the deep water and catch squids and come to the surface and regurgitate it out for him to eat.

Unexpectedly, Owl succeeded to make a sea turtle fall for him. He named her "Squidcake" as a term of endearment; and because she did not have any other names to be called by as it was unfashionable for sea turtles to have names, being under the sea where they have a "silence please" policy like in the libraries.

Owl and Squidcake spent many many mornings and afternoons meeting on a deserted little rocky island. Owl would bring seagull meat for Squidcake to pretend that he loved her, and then gorged heartily on the squid remains of that she regurgitated. Sometimes, she would bring him whole squids, if she managed to keep them in her beak as she swam to meet him. They would exchange tales about Owl's soaring in the high heavens and exotic sightings on land and Squidcake's deep sea diving and curious friends at the coral reefs.

All was well and full of happiness and delight until one day, Squidcake was late and Owl felt worried, because Squidcake was never before late, and Owl was never before worried. Owl wondered if Squidcake had met with any accidents when she was catching squids, because she weren't really good at catching squids anyway. Squidcake herself liked to eat jellyfish, and ate cuttlefish only to regurgitate for Owl. Oh, should anything happen to her, Owl would never be able to forgive himself. He would rather give up eating all the squids and cuttlefish in the world just to see Squidcake again. This made him realise that he had really fallen in love with Squidcake.

"Why are you crying, my dear?" Squidcake asked when she finally arrived, "Are you upset because I am late? I'm sorry, I had to do run some errands. I'm sorry, I'm just a little late. Please don't be upset with me anymore. I promise to bring you a big cuttlefish next time, okay?"

"No, please don't. I don't want that anymore. Squidcake, I'm not upset with you at all."

"Then why are you crying, my dear? What is wrong?" Squidcake asked.

But Owl could not answer her.