"Isabelle and the Lonely Owl"

Isabelle was feeling sad and lonely. She missed her momma.

Her mother was in the Army and was far away across the ocean in a place called Afghanistan; on a “tour-of-duty” her dad always called it.

Isabelle felt like no one else understood how lonely she was, how empty and all-alone she felt.

She knew her father missed momma too, he simply must! But he always smiled when she wanted to talk about missing her and acted like everything was just fine.

Sometimes it made her angry with him because it seemed like maybe he didn’t want her to feel what she actually felt and he didn’t share his feelings with her. Then, at other times, she felt certain that she was wrong and it wasn’t right for her to feel like this at all. Everybody did say she needed to be brave; as brave as her momma was, some people said.

Her Father did try hard to do the things that should make her feel less lonely and sad. He read Isabelle the same Fairy Tales and bedtime stories and made her the same special wild-blueberry breakfast pancakes as her mother had…but it really wasn’t at all the same.

Isabelle and her father lived on a farm in the country. Isabelle had her very own little Arabian mare named Vivi. She loved Vivi, but Vivi never seemed at all sad or lonely. Of course, she had all the other horses: Big C, RD, and Zuri, to keep her company. Isabelle thought they were like Vivi’s family when she wasn’t around to ride or groom her, so why should Vivi feel lonesome?

Isabelle also had her sweet little terrier dog, Freddy. But Freddy was ALWAYS happy and excited to be around any of his humans, or the other three farm dogs, so he didn’t really understand how she felt either.

Even the barn cats, like the tiger-striped tom, Mousetache, had other barn cats for company, the pigeons in the barn had their pigeon families to fly around with, and the deer who wandered into the alfalfa fields near the woods always had other deer around them.

Every night, right before bedtime, Isabelle and her father would take the four dogs for a walk down the quiet red-gravel road out in front of their house.

One cool fall evening Isabelle heard an eerie, wavering sound off in the distance. It was the loneliest sound she had ever heard. It made her want to cry because it sounded exactly like she felt inside, “Papa, what is that?” she asked.

“That is a poor old lonely owl, calling out for a mate, another owl to be his family,” he told her.

Every single night after that, when they walked down the empty road with the dogs, they would hear the mournful, searching cry of the owl off in their woods.

Soon, it was almost Christmas; there was cold snow crunching under their booted feet and the full-moon was so bright they didn’t need flashlights as they walked. She waited for the owl to hoot in the distance, but tonight, there was only hushed quiet.

Suddenly, a dark shadow came gliding down the road toward them. When Isabelle looked up, a magnificent gray-white shape with widespread gilt-edged wings soared silently over their heads. Close behind him glided a second, slightly smaller, gleaming white owl. He had found a mate.

“How beautiful,” her father said. “He’s not lonely anymore, and soon, we won’t be lonely either. You know, my dearest little girl, I miss your momma as much as you do. And sometimes, I feel as sad and lonely as that owl was. But, now he has a mate and, until mamma comes home, we have each other, don’t we?”

And he held her hand, and matched her stride, and they talked about mamma all the way home in the silver moonlight.

The End