First Came the Owl Read Online Free PDF Page A

White!”
    The old Nita slouched way down in her seat, wishing she’d never said she would do anything so scary.

Six
    A T THE STILLWATERS ’, they found Petrova in the kitchen, bent over her homework. “Want some popcorn?” she said, in a friendly enough way so that Nita didn’t feel too nervous to talk to her. The warm smell filled the kitchen and Nita slid onto the bench across from Anne’s fourteen-year-old sister.
    â€œI saw a snowy owl,” said Nita.
    Petrova gave her full attention. “You’re sure?”
    â€œA huge white one. Well, it had some brown flecks, and it sat on a sand dune and watched me. Not afraid at all. It was about this big.” Nita measured at least two feet above the table. “With yellow eyes! They stared right at me.”
    â€œA snowy,” said Petrova. “That’s so great! That’s the kind I’ve been banding, but I’ve never seen one here in the Landing.”
    â€œI thought owls only came out at night,” said Anne.
    â€œNot snowies. They hunt in the day,” answered Petrova.
    â€œWhat do they hunt?” asked Nita, reaching for some popcorn. She remembered the way the owl’s head swiveled when it heard the truck. She was sure they were good hunters.
    â€œOh, little birds. Or animals. They could even eat a Canada goose.”
    â€œI wish they would,” said Anne. “Those geese make such a mess on the soccer field. Did you know there’s an owl in our play? Right there in Snow White? ”
    Nita thought about what Petrova had said. It was unusual for a snowy owl to come here to the Landing. “So why did the owl come just when we were going to have our play?” she asked.
    â€œLike a fairy tale coming to life,” said Anne.
    â€œThe owl didn’t come because of your dumb play,” said Petrova sarcastically. “You’re having a play. The owl is on the beach. It’s called a coincidence.” Nita could hear the word “idiot” floating at the end of the last sentence.
    â€œIt’s not a dumb play,” Anne said angrily. “It’s an old famous story that a lot of people have liked, even Russians like you!” She turned and stomped up a couple of stairs. “Come on, Nita. Don’t talk to her. She tries to spoil everything.”
    Petrova shrugged her shoulders and looked back at her homework. Nita crept up the stairs after Anne, but Petrova had made her feel better by not believing the owl was any kind of spirit, good or bad. When they reached the safety of Anne’s room, Nita said, “You and Petrova sure are different.”
    Anne’s mood changed. She laughed. “Mom says I’m like Dad’s mother, who’s my Granny, who sends me fairy-tale books. Mom says Petrova is like our other Grandma, who was a scientist in Russia! We call her Babushka —that’s Russian for grandmother.”
    â€œWhen I was little,” said Nita shyly, “I called my Mom … Ma-jah. ” The word felt strange on her tongue. “That’s how you say Mom in Thai.” It was the first time in a long, long time Nita had said even one word in Thai. And that word, just one word, filled her mind with warm air, sunlight through palm trees, and a little lizard sitting on a stone. It was a different world than outside Anne’s bedroom window in Maushope’s Landing.
    For a minute, Nita was very small. She sat by the stone and looked at the lizard. “What is it, Ma-jah?” she asked.
    â€œA lizard,” said Ma-jah, and she laughed at the sight of Nita’s amazement. “Jing-jok,” she said in Thai. Her laugh fell on Nita like the sun through the trees, making little dancing spots of light in her world.
    Back on her chair-bed in Anne’s room, Nita felt amazed all over again that a word could call up a world. One word had carried her back to the mango farm in Thailand that belonged to her