Chapter 3: The Trip Home

The Trip Home

Chapter 3

Sarah was up early the next morning going through her daily routine of searching for
acorns, some to eat for breakfast and a few to put away for a rainy day. CarlOwl was still
asleep at first light. This was unusual because he was an early riser. Today, CarlOwl was snoring loud enough to wake the animals of the forest; still exhausted from the long, hard flight just hours before. He quickly snapped to attention at the sound of Sarah’s scratching and clawing on an acorn and the tree bark. She was trying to shove the last nut she collected into a hole of the large oak tree.
“Good morning, Sarah.”
“Hey Sleepyhead! I thought I was going to have to go find your home by myself. Do you usually sleep this late?”
“No, said CarlOwl, wiping his large round eyes "but it sure feels good to have more rest.” Sarah knew owls woke up early to hunt for their breakfast. Sadly, the menu for their breakfast sometimes consisted of squirrels, mice, snakes, and other small animals. CarlOwl was different. She felt safe with him and she took pride at being a good judge of character.

“Are you hungry, CarlOwl?”
“Now that you mention it, yes I am!” replied CarlOwl.
"Well, I just happen to know where a crawfish hole is, that is, if you like those things.” Sarah said.
“Hmm, I can’t say that I have ever tried crawfish but if you will point me in the right direction I will not be able to say that for long,” CarlOwl smirked.

While CarlOwl went out for breakfast Sarah finished her morning chores. Moments later CarlOwl returned much happier with a full belly. “Ok, my work is done. Now we can find your old home, CarlOwl. Which direction should we go?” asked Sarah.
“Backwards.” CarlOwl said. Sarah thought for a moment,
“Hmm, ok. You were facing south when I found you. Let’s go south.” Follow me!” said Sarah, her voice falling off as she started running off the tree limb and leaping for another. CarlOwl followed. The journey home began.

CarlOwl kept a sharp eye on Sarah, watching her sprint through the trees. Sarah began to run down a large pine tree near an old church house.As she reached the bottom of the tree, she stopped long enough to check for danger then dashed across the dirt and gravel driveway. She stopped close to the church house where mice were were busy moving their furniture from the building. They used a hole in the old church house floor as a doorway in and out of the building. They appeared to be ignoring her, except for one young mouse called Peter, Sarah had heard one of the mice call to him and she used his name to get his attention.
“Peter” can I talk with you for a minute?” Peter stopped what he was doing to talk to her but as he opened his mouth to say hi, his voice cried out, "HI-DE!", instead. Peter saw a large bird, an owl, diving down straight towards them. With sheer terror he managed to grab Sarah’s small arm and turned to run under the building. Sarah didn’t budge which caught Peter off guard and it caused Peter to fall down. Looking up, Peter saw the claws come closer to him and closed his eyes.

CarlOwl landed and said with a thud near Peter and Sarah. “Hi, said CarlOwl” . Peter opened his eyes and jumped up in front of Sarah. “I’ll protect you, Peter said while shaking in his black boots. Sarah looked at Peter then at CarlOwl. “Wait a minute, wait a minute.” This is my friend,” pointing to CarlOwl.
“You have an owl for a friend? questioned Peter.” No one is gonna believe this. Hey everyone, come see!” Soon they were hundreds of mice surrounding the odd pair, whispering back and forth to each other. “My name is Sarah and this is CarlOwl.” Sarah said. “My name is Peter and this is my family and friends.” “How did you get an owl for a friend?”
“It’s a long story I’ll have to tell you another time.” Sarah said. “We are looking for his home, old home, ex-home, the place where he came from.”
“How do you lose your home,” asked one of the other mice.
“Good question and maybe we can answer that another time. We need to keep moving.” We are backtracking his flight from yesterday and this was a place I hoped he would remember passing by.” How would you like to have an owl for a friend, Peter?” asked Sarah.
“Sure.” said Peter, “What’s the catch?”
“We may need some help getting back to CarlOwl’s home. Can we count on you to provide help?”
“Hmm, well…let me get back with you on that” replied Peter. Sarah kept the pressure on him; “Can we at least count on you to help us if we run into trouble?”
“Yes, I can help you and I will try to recruit others to help also, but I cannot guarantee them. We are busy moving our homes to another church across town. This old place is to be torn down soon” said Peter. “How will we be able to contact you once we leave here?”
"You just let out the squirrel bark and CarlOwl his owl hoot together. When we here the unique sound, I’ll come as fast".
“Great! We can't ask for more than that.” said Sarah.