Well, for what it is worth, here is my First Friday entry for this month. I struggled with it this time as I had wanted to write something less dark than the other two entries. I also wrote way more than 500 words and had a heck of a time paring it down. So….
Damn Owls!
Damn!
David grimaced as he brushed the twigs, moss and dirt from his eyes. He lifted his head so he could see his legs. Even in the dark he could tell they were both broken, legs weren’t supposed to lie at that angle. He let his head drop back to the ground and considered his options.
At supper that evening he had looked out the window on a beautiful moonlit night and thought about how long it had been since he’d walked through the woods at night, seeking owl song. He had asked Heather if she’d like to go, fully knowing that she wouldn’t. It wasn’t like she didn’t like birds, or walking with him, it was just that she had a million other things to do and birds, and well for her they were just birds. “Go” she told him, “We’ll have a bath when you get back”.
There were a couple of spots where he liked to look for Screech Owls, but he drove by them. The week before he’d seen another copse that he wanted to explore, and he was excited as he pulled the car into the woods and stepped out, smelling the crisp clean loamy air. He quickly marked the car on his GPS before sliding it, and his cell phone into his jacket. As he pulled his binocular strap over his head he heard the trill of an owl and he moved off towards it.
As he followed the sound, the moon disappeared behind the clouds; it was incredible just how dark it got. The owl called again, closer, and he stepped through a bush into nothing. The ground had just dropped away into a ravine, down which he found himself tumbling. He reached out trying to slow his fall but the slope was too steep and he bounced to the bottom. That was where he found himself.
Reaching for his cell phone he discovered it was gone. Somewhere during the fall it had come out of his pocket, and was lying off in the dark, along with all of his hope. He laid his head back down, the moon peaked out and the meadow lit up.
If he hadn’t been in so much pain, he would have jumped when the owl called that close. He again lifted his head and quickly found it, yards away on a bare limb. He didn’t know whether to curse it or smile. Just then he heard a scratching to his left and almost immediately the owl dropped off the branch and glided on silent wings towards the unseen mouse. He followed all the way down as it dropped into the grass. He didn’t know if it was successful for as he twisted to follow it pain again shot through his legs and he cried out. Instantly the owl sprung up and flew behind him. When he followed it as it swung past he saw the phone, almost within reach. An hour later, he could hear the sirens
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It’s tough to get a whole story into so few words–and you’ve pulled it off again!! Not nearly as dark as the others–but this is a story I can relate to, a scenario that runs through my head sometimes…except I don’t have a cell phone.