The Owl

There was a small owl sitting on my car at the farm when I got up at 3 AM to make my night drive to the beach. I walked up to the patio screen and said “jabba jabba” to it. The owl kept sitting on the roof of my car, looking at me and rotating its cute head left and right, as owls do. After a few minutes, I went back inside to finish packing my stuff for the trip. When I came outside again, the owl was gone.

Twenty minutes later, when I reached the beginning of the Turnpike in Florida City, a white passenger car about 60 feet ahead of me suddenly swerved onto the median strip and lost control, with all its wheels up in the air—I thought it was going to flip over completely. But somehow the driver managed to bring it back onto the road. We both slowed down, then the car sped up again as if nothing had happened.

It was as if the owl wanted to warn me.

***

Illustration by ChatGPT