A Friend’s Grace

She just wants to be alone for now. Everything that happened today is all a blur. Losing a loved one is difficult, so it's hard to cope. Sarah leaves the house to quiet her mind from the constant murmurs of the dinner party. She closes the door as a soft winter breeze brushes back a wisp of hair across her face.

Her cheeks begin to turn red as she walks across the field toward the family barn. The only sounds she hears now are the soft crunches of her feet into the fresh blanket of the first snow. Warm tears streamed down her cold cheeks. Sarah swipes them away and looks up to the sky. Her face softly illuminated by the purple, pink and gold hues of the clouds as the sunset. With barely a whisper she says, "Why?" And then stops as if waiting for a response. Nothing. Of course.

Memories of her and Misty flood her mind as Sarah enters the barn. She can almost see the two of them jump from a platform into a huge pile of hay her father just made. The sound of their laughter rings in her ears as her father fussed at them over the mess they made. He hands them each a rake and says, "Get to work!" and stands arms crossed, watching them clean. The rakes are much too big for them to handle, so her father starts giggling, takes the rakes away and says, "That'll do girls. Now go wash up for dinner."

The memory fades back to the reality of the empty barn. Her friend is gone.

Sarah looks up to the platform and notices a nest and a fuzzy off white and goldish ball of fluff wiggling around. Curious, she climbs up the ladder to find the cutest, softest barn owl chick. She watches it as it stumbles toward her. She leans her face slightly closer as the little chick trips and falls, its fuzzy head meeting Sarah's forehead. It lets out the tiniest peep and Sarah closes her eyes. For a split second, her sadness fades. It's as if Misty is with her. This is Misty's spirit animal.

Memories start to come again.

Misty always had a love for animals, but she REALLY loved owls. Particularly Barn owls. She could go on and on about various owl facts.

Sarah rolls her eyes and sighs as Misty starts rambling off owl info.

"Did you know that barn owls usually hunt at night and even in total darkness, they can find the smallest prey with their super-sensitive hearing?" Misty says.

"You already told me that one!" Sarah says, a little aggressively.

Misty turns a little red and puts her head down slightly.

"Oh, I didn't realize that." said Misty.

Noticing what happened, Sarah turns to Misty and said, "Tell me something else cool about them."

Misty's eyes light up and with a big smile she says, "Did you know that they don't hoot?!"

Sarah side-eyes Misty in disbelief. "I thought all owls hoot." Said Sarah.

"Not barn owls. They screech!" Misty says.

Then both girls proceed to run around the room pretending to be barn owls, screeching and "clawing" at their stuffed animals like they're hunting.

Suddenly the screeching sound begins to change. It gets a little louder and more realistic.

Once again the memory fades and Sarah is back to reality. Back in the barn now, Sarah realizes now why the screech sounded so real. Mama owl was on their way back home.

Sarah and the baby owl look at each other and both start to retreat from each other. While the little fuzzins snuggles into the nest, Sarah climbs back down the ladder of the platform as quietly as she can to make way for mama. As she turns around and looks up, mama owl silently and gracefully swoops down landing on the platform railing.

Nervousness rushes over Sarah as they both lock eyes. Another fun fact pops into her head. Owls are protective of their young. As the owl tilts her head, she lets out a screech that causes Sarah to bolt for the barn door. But as she reaches it, Sarah turns around to look at mama owl once more. A warmness comes over her as she watches mama check on her baby. Witnessing such intimate love and protection calms her nerves. That's what Misty would do.

"I'm gonna miss you Misty." Sarah says as she leaves the barn and closes the door.