The Kidnappers

The Kidnappers

by Cleve Taylor

Tyto and Alpa were trying to sleep. They were night owls, and last night was especially tiring because of the wind and the blowing rain that had swept in from the northwest and made flying and hearing more difficult. They had barely caught enough food to carry them for the day.

And now someone was making a god-awful racket disturbing their needed sleep, opening barn doors, driving a motor vehicle into their barn and spewing noxious emissions into the air. And then there was the yelling. A long-haired skinny pock faced young man was yelling at a weight challenged, hooded with a pillow case, sobbing and begging female teen whose hands were zip tied behind her back. He threatened to kill her if she didn't shut up and do as he said. This triggered even louder sobs.

Another youth, with shaved head, jeans and a dirty denim jacket, held a phone and yelled to his companion to make her shut up so he could call her parents. "Make sure you use the burner phone," his accomplice said as he punched the girl in the stomach and said, "Shut up, Dammit, or you will never see your parents again."

Tyto and Alpa looked at each other and silently agreed that this was unacceptable. They agreed to wait for nightfall to try to help the girl. For the rest of the day, they nodded and napped until the night cloaked the barn in darkness. From their roost which was a nest of shredded owl pellets in the rafters of the barn, the two barn owls watched the two kidnappers consume most of a case of beer and heard them talk about how they were going to spend the money they were going to get for the girl. Finally, both kidnappers' bodies succumbed to the demands for sleep, and lubricated by alcohol, sleep came.

It is time, the owls agreed. Tyto glided to a sheltered area behind a tractor. "Hoo, Hoo, Hoo," he hooted over and over.

"What the hell is that?" the shaved head one asked, sitting up suddenly.

"It is just an owl," his companion responded, now roused from his sleep.

A large whitish something fluttered past his face in the dark with a prolonged "HOOOOOO". He swatted, but found only empty air. Behind him, another "HOOOOOO", the sound of very large wings flapping, another "HOOOOOO" from the other side of the barn, in front of them, behind them, over them, with much swooshing of wings, the hoos came. Then the hoos became augmented by the wails of the girl tied up in the back seat of the car and the hoos turned into piercing screeches.

During the confusion Alpa snatched up their phone with the ease of catching a mouse, and Tyto raked the scalps of the kidnappers with his talons. The kidnappers, flailing against attackers they could not see or fathom, ran from the barn seeking safety. Outside, with more room to maneuver, Tyto and Alpa added speed and intensity to their sorties leaving the kidnappers bloodied from talon scratches and trembling in fear. They were found the next morning hiding in a culvert.

The girl worked herself loose from her bonds, and used the phone that Alpa placed in her eyesight to call her parents who alerted the police who located her by locating the phone.

The owner of the barn, upon hearing of the ill use trespassers had made of the barn, and hearing of the condition of the kidnappers laughed and said, "It sounds like they met Tyto and Alpa, my guard owls. If there is a reward, send it to the Audubon Society in their names."

Sheryl, the kidnapped girl, grew to be a beautiful lady who continues today to collect owl figurines and sculpture.

The kidnappers each received ten-year prison sentences but only served three years because of overcrowded prisons and a determination that they were no longer a threat to society.

Tyto and Alpa raised multiple broods of owlets and helped control the mouse population on their farm.