Special appearance of an owl in my unpublished novella

Photo: Google

Your honour, the guardian of the Law of Kingdom Bhutan    

I never thought that one of the beautiful moments in my life will end up in bitter tragedy. We are simply a lover, and in my knowledge loving someone deep from heart is not a crime. But today, I am aware that love is not always a bed of roses. 

It was Deki who called me first. It was she who arranged all the dates that we had in our entire relationship. It was she who touched me first too. I am simply an ordinary man with ordinary thoughts. Complete innocent. I regret for being so impulsive.

I am sad that Deki’d been deceitful to me throughout our relation. She never told me that she was a student. Worst of all, she even stretched the truth about her age. She said that she’d completed her B.Ed from Paro College of Education. Who on this earth would complete Degree before attending the age of eighteen?  

I am totally innocent about the crime that I have committed. I would like to ask for forgiveness from all – the almighty God above who’d been blessing our relationship throughout, the law of the kingdom, and all the disturbed souls in this universe.

“Forgiveness?” the judge ejaculated. “You’re a teacher, not an innocent child. Now, you cannot push your blame to this little girl. Explanation is totally unnecessary in this case. There is no room for negotiation. I need only one word. ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. In the name of the almighty God, tell me. Have you done it?”

The respond, indeed, was already obvious to everyone in the court room. The judge only wanted Karma to officially confess to the crime. He wanted a single word ‘yes’ to come out from Karma’s own three-inched-mouth. This was indispensable for the jury to prepare a verdict.

A thought of his mother suddenly flashed through his mind – mother shedding oceans of tears upon hearing the verdict. Tears of sorrow. Shame. Embracement. Regret. But Karma was in a complicated situation as if like a peacock of plains of India in a snare.

“Yes,” said Karma. His voice sank to whisper as he officially confess to the crime that he’d committed but unwittingly. It was a word that will change everything in his life. Happiness into sadness. Love into hatred. Laughter into tears. Life in bed of roses into life like an animal in a cage. Sweets washed him from head to toe. He didn’t even remembered how he reached the police station. 

The night was total silent in the police custody. The only sound he could hear was a hoot of an owl from the roof of the next building. It called to his mind one unpleasant stories of an owl from his late grandfather. “Owl is considered as the bird of evils. Its hoot is a presage, warning that something unpleasant will happen. Even worst is to hear the owl muttering like a group of aged people together. It is a real presage, cautioning that someone from that family will be taken away by the lord of death.”

“It was one overcast night.” Grandpa continued. “Your mother was spinning a yarn and I was talking with your father over the warm hearth. You were sleeping on my lap. Suddenly, we heard an owl muttering on our rooftop. We were all frightened by the cry of this evil creature. All of us were silent. As silent as the grave. We understood that something inescapable hard luck will occur in our house, but none of use talked about it. We were all worried. We silently slept.  Exactly after three nights, your father was killed in a terrible car wreck. The misfortune warned by the owl is inescapable. Really inescapable!”...