THE OWL

  

I was “dating” a beautiful owl that I saw in a store and I looked at her, looked at her, it was a mutual love because I was reciprocated, then at one point, a Jewish lady came up to me and asked:

- Why do you look at her so much? It's ugly, big-eyed... it turns its head, very ugly, you have a bad taste and besides, she is bad luck!

- To my mind, she gives me luck. I spend hours and hours contemplating the turning of its head, the opening of its wings and the great mother that it is for its little ones, considering that a mother when she’s so in love with her children, it’s given the nickname 'owl mother'".

None of this convinced her and she continued:

- It is venomous, bird of bad omen, it brings bad luck to our lives.

- What did the owl do to you to be so angry with it?

- For you to dislike someone, do you need a reason? You don't like it and that's it! Me, for instance, I hate my daughters-in-law! Are you really going to take this ominous animal that brings bad luck? Maybe with my story, you change your mind and leave this owl where it is, on the store’s shelf, well there it goes: once when I lived in São Paulo, on my birthday someone had such bad taste like yours and gave me an owl, like this one from the store, it ruined my birthday. Wonder me gaining the animal I hate the most!

- There are worse animals, the men who harm those who have done nothing to them.

- You know what I did when that wicked woman left my house? I opened the window and just threw it with all my strength through it!!

- Is it serious that you lived on the eleventh floor?

- Of course, I’m not senile yet, at least I don’t keep dating an owl.

So me, pensive, with no intention of being rude and disrespectful because of her age, I checked:

- Are you sure? Did you throw it from the eleventh floor, really?

She, all excited, said to me:

- Oh, of course! I even heard the noise of it after falling and breaking, shattering itself, so I went in and closed the window.

- Listen, tell me something: do you still think that the owl brings bad luck? When you threw it, did it hit anyone?

She, then, already surprised, tells me:

- Well, of course not! I heard her breaking itself in little pieces!

- So you still think she brings bad luck? Because I think she brings you luck because no one died, she didn't fall over any innocent one passing underneath. Which street did you live in São Paulo?

- On Augusta Street, she told me quietly and concluded:

- That owl gave you luck! If it kills someone on the street, or you'd be in jail or in some madhouse, but not talking to me right now.

She peeled her eyes, stared at me, thinking, silent, and simply faded away faster than the wind.

Until the present days, when I meet her in Copacabana, she crosses the street or, in the supermarket, when there is no way out, I greet her and ask her if she still throws owls through the window, after all, we are on Copacabana Avenue, but to my surprise, she says, "No, I live on Santa Clara Street, there is s marquise there and if I throw it, it falls over there". What can I say about it?

 

Written by Katia Paes on 01/29/2021.