Hunter's Choice Read Online Free Page B

try to take off!
This bird’s behavior got stranger and stranger the more time that went by. I
was beginning to grow afraid that he was too used to humans, that he wouldn’t
make it out in the wild. The bird bobbed his head and blinked at me. I looked
into his deep, soulful brown eyes, so deep a brown as to be black and smiled.
    He was a sweet bird to me. Wary around anyone else though. I
put him in a similarly sized enclosure so I could clean the one he’d come out
of.
    “You set in here Jessamine?” Charlie asked. I nodded and he
smiled.
    “I’m gonna get out there then. Call me for lunch.” He ducked
outside and went over to the Aviary that had been damaged by a falling tree
limb in the last big wind storm we’d had. I hummed to myself and cleaned the
cages and enclosures, stealing looks at the Barred owl as I moved around the
barn. He watched me placidly, following me with slight turns of his head as I
worked.
    He was just, so strange…

Chapter 4
     
    Jessamine
    Three hours later I stepped out the side door leading inside
the kitchen, the one below my bedroom’s deck and rang the old fashioned
triangle hung there to call Charlie in for lunch. He came sauntering up a few
minutes later with Piper still on his shoulder. I smiled and waved.
    “What’s for lunch?” he asked. I put my hands up bracketing
empty air between them and brought fingers down over thumbs.
    “Sandwiches huh?” he smiled at me and kissed the top of my
head, walking past me into the house. Piper cheeped on his shoulder. I smiled
ruefully and followed them in. Aunt Margie would have a fit if she knew birds,
of any size, were in the house. Piper couldn’t do much harm though, being the
size of a Sparrow and unable to fly.
    We sat at the kitchen counter. The kitchen in this house was
amazing, that too was Margie’s doing. My Aunt loved to cook, and bake and can,
and do anything else you could do with food in a kitchen. So my Uncle Dave made
her kitchen a thing of both beauty and greatness.
    Charlie picked up his sandwich just as the phone rang. He
paused, looked at me with a wicked gleam in his eye and sank his teeth into the
thick slices of rustic bread. I gave him a look that clearly read: Really?
You’re going to throw me under the bus like that?
    The old fart just smiled benignly at me and enjoyed his
sandwich. I went over to the phone and the answering machine picked up on the
third ring. My Uncle Dave’s voice floated out from the recording…
    “Hi! You’ve reached Moonchild’s Owl Haven. The owner,
Jessamine Connors is non-verbal so if you hear a high tone it means yes, a low
tone it means no. If your situation is a little more complicated than yes or no
answers, email might be the best way to go. If the machine gets you, well then
leave a message!” I picked up the phone before the machine got it and pressed
the number one, which gave a high tone.
    “Jessamine Connors?” the woman’s voice came across the line.
I pressed the number one again.
    “Er… um… Hi, I’m Janine Watkins, my dog found a Snowy Owl on
Dungeness Spit, I think it’s hurt. Can you come look?” she asked. I pressed one
and may have held it too long I let go and bounced on the balls of my feet
excitedly. A Snowy Owl! I’d never gotten to care for one before.
    “Do you know where Dungeness Spit is?” she asked. Again I
pressed one. Uncle Dave, Aunt Margie, Charlie and I went picnicking there all
the time.
    “How long until you get here?” she asked. I pressed zero for
a low tone.
    “Oh sorry! Ten to fifteen minutes?” Zero, low tone.
    “Thirty to forty five minutes?” Zero, low tone.
    “Fifteen to thirty minutes?” she asked. One, high tone.
    “Great! Great. I’ll see you then!” One, high tone, and I
hung up. I jumped up and down over and over excitedly.
    “Calm your tits!” Charlie yelled.
    I grinned and whipped out my note pad. Scribbled down ‘ Snowy,
Dungeness Spit, NOW!’ and slapped it on the counter by his plate before