by Jesse Reiss
Chapter 7
Being nearly the largest urban park in the world, Paula and Angelina enjoyed having it so near to them so they could easily escape the city chaos and noise. They knew the Griffith Park inside and out. It was like a second home. They had hiked the trails, driven the roads, visited the Observatory and other museums several times and volunteered on the weekends for park cleanups and improvements.
Paula pulled her Lexus off to the side, where a short walk brought them to the oak tree. They had switched into hiking boots that they had thrown into the back seat that morning.
Paula was reminded of the day, six months ago when Angelina and she had hiked up the trail together with Jeremy’s ashes secured in the urn in Angelina’s backpack. The spring day had been beautiful, with a few sparse clouds in the sky and a gentle breeze coming in from the ocean. There, under the shaded canopy of the oak, they had said a few tearful goodbyes and spread the ashes around the site.
When it was done they had sat together, mother and daughter wiping away each other’s tears and contemplating how they would miss Jeremy. During a moment of silence, a single acorn had fallen from the tree, startling them. Angelina had heard it bounce off a bough above and looked up to see it fall the rest of the way and land right in the open urn with a clatter. Angelina pulled the acorn out and looked at it. It broke them out of their grief and they laughed, considering it serendipitous that the one acorn that would fall while they were there would land right in the urn for dad’s ashes.
It must be a message from the Heavens, Angelina had said. Paula didn’t know whether to accept it was Heaven or some spiritual message or just a coincidence, but seeing her daughter light up and become enthusiastic about this small event made her heart warm. She considered herself agnostic, not committed to any organized religion but more aligned to the spiritual side of the Native American blood she had in her. Strange, some had mentioned, that she would be sending her daughter to an all-Catholic school, but Paula knew it was one of the best schools around with a record that showed all their students graduated and went onto higher education — something she wanted for her daughter.
The single acorn, with its cuplike base, was the length of her thumbnail and with no flaws on it. Angelina saw it as a token of her father and kept it with her for the next few days. When she saw how much it meant to Angelina, Paula took it to her jewelry shop and had it gilded and coated in glass with a necklace securely attached to the stem. She presented it to Angelina as a gift on what would have been her father’s forty-second birthday. Angelina hadn’t taken it off her neck since and likely never would.
That was six months ago. Paula hadn’t visited the site since and didn’t know how she would feel when she did. Events in the past few days had thrust her back into it and here she was, climbing precariously along the mountain trail towards the tree. They wore their hiking boots, but she in her casual work clothes and jewelry and Angelina in her white school uniform shirt and pleated skirt were an odd sight to be climbing along a mountain trail. She hoped they wouldn’t run into anyone for fear of the stares, like someone was going to report them to the fashion police.
The tree looked as she last saw it with the dusty ground and chaparral around the edges, the large boughs extending far out from the base and the canopy that engulfed anyone inside, like they were in a natural dome or igloo.
Angelina ducked under the canopy and stared up at the trunk and boughs she had climbed a few days before after a mischievous owl.
“That’s the bough I climbed to and went along,” she said pointing and with a little nervous tension in her voice.
Paula detected the strain in her daughter’s voice, but thought this was good for her. Getting her to run through the incident in real life might make some sense of this Lewis Carroll story and mysterious gold coin. “And that’s where you first saw the coin?”
Angelina rolled her eyes dismissively and shrugged. “I don’t know Mom. Like I said, it might have all been a dream. I woke up right there near the trunk and with my bag under my head and later you said you found the coin in it.”
“Okay. You want to climb up the tree again?”
Angelina thought to protest, but decided against it. It would be fun to climb the tree and if anything happened to her, her mother would be right there to protect her. “Sure. I won’t go too high though.”
Angelina walked over to the trunk and wrapped her arms around the lowest bough and lifted herself up. “If my shirt gets dirty, you’re doing laundry for me,” she said with a smile.
“It a deal,” Paula answered.
Angelina stepped up onto the low hanging bough that she had previously left her backpack on and looked up at where she was headed. She began to climb.
Making no sound at all, a familiar-looking large owl alighted from its home halfway up the great oak and landed twenty feet above Angelina, right on the bough that had been the portal into the other world. It turned to face Angelina, its large eyes staring straight at her.
Angelina slowly sat down on her heels and froze in her spot, staring back at it. “Mom!” she hissed. “Do you see the owl?”
Paula shifted her position on the ground and looked up. “Whoa!!” she called back quietly with fear in her voice. “Honey, don’t provoke it. It’s staring right at you.”
Angelina balanced herself where she had climbed to in the tree and looked back at the bird intently. Strangely, she didn’t feel fear. “Mom, I don’t think she’s aggressive.”
“I don’t care,” Paula whispered back, “just don’t do anything to provoke it. It’s probably protecting its nest.”
Half a minute went past with no motion or speaking. They stared at each other. The bird was definitely the one Angelina had seen with the strange man in the tree and which had been watching them from on top of the house.
She remembered the man saying the bird was friendly and even asking if she wanted to pet it. She got curious. She slowly cocked her head to the side, continuing to stare at it. The bird did the same. She cocked it to the other side and the bird imitated her again. She opened her mouth in a smile and the bird slowly opened its beak and its feathery tufts raised upwards.
“Mom, it’s mocking me!” she whispered.
Paula couldn’t see what the bird was doing from her position on the ground. She only saw the huge talons and a sharp beak that she knew could tear through flesh like a razor blade opening a box.
“Hello Virginia,” Angelina said affectionately to the bird.
That got the bird’s attention. Its tufts went straight up and it fluffed out its feathers, squatting down closer to the bough. It made a slight cooing sound and began to bob its head up and down slightly.
“Angelina!” her mother said with irritation.
Angelina smiled. “It understands me,” she whispered back to her mother.
“Sweetie, come down now,” Paula said nervously. “It’s time we headed home.”
“I want to get a little closer,” Angelina said, slowly raising to a standing position and reaching her hand for a higher branch. The bird seemed to anticipate her actions and began to slowly turn its head from side to side.
It’s telling me “no”, Angelina realized.
“Sweetie! No! You are not going closer to that bird. Come down right now!” her mother reiterated with urgency.
Angelina couldn’t tear her eyes away from the animal. The bird looked down at her mother and back to Angelina and nodded its head up and down. It’s telling me to listen to my mother! Angelina realized. A big smile came across her face. “Okay Mom, I’m coming down now,” she said and swung around to get a better grip to lower herself down.
When she had gone down to the next bough and looked up at the owl again, it was gone.
They made their way back up to the car, Angelina excited about the owl and continuing to look back to try to see it again and Paula relieved nothing dangerous happened and unsure if their trip to the tree resolved anything. She knew they had accomplished one thing, which
was that Angelina seemed at ease and herself again. She wondered how children and young adults can recover so rapidly from bad experiences in life. It made her wish she could be young again.
She would have been less at ease had she known that throughout their trip to the tree and back, they had been being closely watched.