Birgitta the Nun

Part 33 - The Trade

Charlie went back to her axe but fell to pondering. Barbara was right, she wouldn't be needing all of this fire wood. The nights were cold, but the days were still warm—and she would surely be chopping all summer.

"Don't you go pondering on me old woman," the owl cried. "You wizards are so simple, so easily trapped by your own thoughts—woo-woo. Let Barbara be a mouse—yes, that's what she is. I have mice like her for breakfast." The bird ruffled its wings. Some small feathers fell on Charlie's hat.

Charlie chuckled at her friend and picked up the axe to continue her chopping. The bird settled in its usual nearby tree.

Incidentally, another truck approached.

A young lady, very much like a student, parked her truck in Charlie's yard. She didn't descend from her vehicle as much as crawled out of it, reluctant. After a fair bit of hesitation, she sneaked over the front-yard and went knocking on the door. But Charlie wasn't there to answer.

The wizard observed the stranger from afar. She looked meaningless enough and the wizard thought about ignoring the intrusion. But in the end she left her chores.

The porch didn't creak as she sneaked up on the visitor. Then, with her impressive axe still in her hand, she tapped the shoulder of the knocking student. The young lady didn't flinch.

"Here," she said in a slow voice, and handed Charlie a rake. "It's yours. I borrowed it last year—sorry I didn't return it earlier, like last autumn, when you might have been needing it."

Charlie took the rake and studied it. She didn't recognize it, but she had lots of tools and it was probably hers. The owl came flying and landed on Charlie's shoulder. It did some showing off in front of the stranger, and didn't fold its large wings immediately. It was a mighty bird and of course it caught the student's attention.

The girl stretched out her hand and petted the impressive owl. Charlie wasn't sure one could pet it, but she held her tongue.

"Can I borrow your axe?" the student said, glancing at the sharp object in Charlie's hand. "I haven't got an axe yet—it's a nice one you've got there." Then she hesitated, "But you're using it, of course. Even now—sorry. I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry."

Charlie handed her the axe. The young lady fell silent. She weighed the axe in her hands and blushed. But then again she seemed awfully dazzled by the fine tool. She started backing away, off the porch, towards her vehicle.

"I will return your axe soon, very soon—" she called, before climbing back into her vehicle. Her truck did a nervous turn on the wizard's yard and off she went.

Charlie sighed and was glad to be rid of the intruder. The owl was unusually quiet. The wizard wondered if it were perhaps offended, having been petted and all? She knew her friend was a very noble bird—and though pretending to be carefree, it often ended up with a bit of a wounded pride.

But that wasn't the case this time. The owl was simply stupefied. It could find no excuse for this kind of behavior. Charlie had given away her axe - her only axe - to that sorry thing. What a waste.

Axe-less and thoughtless, Charlie decided to have a rest. Together with her confounded owl she went indoors. They settled on the sofa and sank into contemplation - both of them.

The owl was thinking about Charlie. She shouldn't be hanging around other people—it always made her depressed. Even her visit to the monastery some time ago seemed to have made her low—and nuns were no ordinary people. No, an owl was all Charlie needed. A witty and loyal owl. Oh, what stories it would tell its wizard friend - really clever and funny stories. The owl remembered one time when Charlie almost fell off her chair laughing at one of the its anecdotes—tears flowing down her twitching face and her stomach in cramps. No human could make her do that. No human could make Charlie laugh like that.

The wizard had fallen asleep. She snored, sprawled on the sofa, and the bird was left alone with its thoughts. The atmosphere inside the small but comfortable house stood still. All was calm, and not even the persistent ticking of a heavy longcase could bother them. Outside - in the busy world of normal people - the day crept by in a hurry. But inside, the wizard and the owl were left in peace and oblivion. For a while at least—

A truck approached. The noise from the wheels crunching on her front yard, accompanied by the ill-matched roar from the jerky engine, made Charlie come out of her coma. She flew from the sofa, no idea for how long she had been lying there. Was the truck Barbara's truck? Was it the end of the day already?

And sure enough it was Barbara, coming back from the market. Charlie wiped her sleepy eyes and went to meet her guest. She felt reluctant to resist anything. The business of the day was breaking down her self-will. She gave Barbara what she wanted: her finely chopped wood for some really nice pieces of meat. It was a good deal after all.

After dinner, after cooking some of Barbara's lovely meat, Charlie felt tired and cold. The sun had abandoned the early summer sky. Shadows and dusk crept up the lawn and up the walls of the house. The sofa turned freezing. And so did the whole of the recently warm and cosy little residence.

Charlie thought about her fine heap of firewood. She could really use some, had she not given it all away. Now she only needed a new axe—and some way to move her house away from this cursed road and its heavy traffic.

Once, the owl had suggested that they should move out of the house and live together in the forest - in the largest nest the owl would ever build. But Charlie had only laughed, not taking the bird seriously. This of course hurt its feelings. The owl loved making its friend laugh, but preferably at the right moment, which wasn't this time.

However, in the end the wizard gave in and let the owl have it its way. Sure, Charlie's neighbors, like Barbara and Gunther, lived far away. But still she preferred the idea of having no neighbors at all. And so, with the help of her feathery friend, constructing a nest for the two of them in the forest, the wizard left her house and her small piece of civilization.