Le Chi

I always had trouble sleeping so people called me a night owl. Simple right? We humans can be the most complex and simple beings that the gods could not fathom why they haven't yet destroyed us. Just give it some time they will. Okay so now back to the story.

Let me tell you about the time I was saved by a barn owl. It was a fresh new year, a night like any other night but the difference is I moved out of my parents house and now a free man. No body telling me what to do or say. I do however miss the noise and times with the old folks. They gave me one important life lesson before I left that I would never forget.

I turned on the telly to fill apartment with some life and to drown out my upstairs neighbors who are awake at an ungodly hour. Always screaming and thumping. I met them the other day, well behaved kids and proper parents I thought until night came when they become little demons. Its like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In the day they are perfect angels and at night they terrorize upstairs.

One day I thought to myself, I need a pet so I got myself an owl but not just any owl. This owl had a scar on its right eye. The previous owners, I was told, were 2 farmers making moonshine. The owl was just a toy for them to beat a torture as they went about their business which I will elaborate due to this story being PG 13. Regardless I thought he looked like a total bond villain so I called him Le Chiffe or "Le Chi" for short. Regardless, Le Chi had nice soft brown feathers mixed with white that made up his silhouette that I loved to pet from time to time. At first Le Chi was reserved and very frightful of me so I would lay some uncooked chicken onto a small dish and handed to him as I walked away. In time he started to warm up to me....sort of.

My favorite thing about having Le Chi is when the evil little demons upstairs would make a ruckus at 3AM my owl would hoot and would scare them. Now I see those little demons in the morning with bags under there eyes as I walk to the nearest pet shop to buy food for Le Chi. Those little demons weren't as cheery as before and I wondered why until their mother came and told me about this sounds the kids would hear every night that scared them to their core. Their father works the nights and their mother would put on ear muffs to drown out the kids hopping around during the nights.

Days turned to months and months turned into a full year. The start of a new year and my one and only friend Johnson came over for new years. Johnson is a short Vietnamese man, kind like Le Chi when we first met. Shy and unsociable. Like Le Chi I slowly got close with Johnson over these succulent chickens that were fried to perfection by a local shop nearby. I try to introduce Johnson to Le Chi but Le Chi didn't seem to like Johnson as much I wanted him to. He would turn his neck 360 which creeped out Johnson. Regardless we had a good ole time drinking, playing video games and talking about the girlfriends we had in the past and how Janice, my X, would freak out if she saw this Owl. Johnson left that morning and the house feels empty once again.

I found out later that the upstairs neighbors moved due to the other tenets complaint about their ruckus those little demons caused. It got quiet for the first morning of the new year. A quiet loneliness that I understood very well but a sound from across the hall reminded me that this time its different I wasn't alone I had Le Chi my best friend second only to Johnson.

Oh I almost forgot my parents told me "whenever you am alone go look for a friend because they are a hoot." Corny I know but they are my parents after all a hoot as well.