OWL EYES

PROLOGUE

Otto is a boy who was brought up by his uncle Jefferson. He became orphaned and lost his parents when he was just seven years old.

He had a lot of difficulty in all subjects in his school, and because of this, he was threatened with repeating one more school year. His uncle was quite a lone man and enjoyed spending most of his time reading scientific books.

One day, he researched owls.

He discovered that they were the symbol of wisdom.

Owls, he found out, were as wise as any genius on Earth. After making this discovery, Jefferson decided to do a risky experiment involving an owl and his own nephew, Otto.

My parents' wake was one of the moments that I could never forget. I was just a little boy of seven when I received the tragic news about the car accident. It killed my parents. Thus it made me an orphan so early and I became a very lonely boy.

My parents’ death didn’t leave me any choice in life. I was taken by my Uncle Jefferson to live with him in his humble home in a small town. At this time, my uncle was only 30 years old and he hadn't started a family as yet, and even to this day he has not married or had any children.

His house was messy; clothes were scattered around the rooms in his house. On the living room couch there were hundreds of books, most of them were scientific.

"Welcome to your new home, boy!" He said, strongly rubbing the top of my head with his hand.

I looked up at his face very seriously while I was holding a toy car that I had received as a gift from my father when I had turned seven years of age.

"Will I live here forever?" I asked him seriously.

He raised his eyebrows and smiled almost blandly at me, then explained to me, " Not forever. One day you will grow up and have a much better home than mine."

I looked at the four dark, dusty corners of his house. His residence was in urgent need of a broom, a cleaning cloth and someone who had a willingness to face a rigorous housecleaning routine in that house.

My poor uncle. He was not a pig, but it seemed that he was living in a pigsty.

I started attending a new school. It was not situated so close, but then also not very far, maybe fifteen minutes from my new residence.

I always went to school, walking on foot and came back home, also walking on foot every day. Until the day my uncle fixed up an old bike and gave it to me as a gift on my tenth birthday, I walked. From that day on I rode my bike.

He was proud of himself for gifting me with that bike. Uncle Jefferson had painted it in black. It was a different bike because he had customized it with cheap pieces. Everything had come from different bikes and was put together on mine.

I would make use of my bike until I completed high school.

"Wow! Thanks Uncle Jeferson!" I thanked him and grabbed my bike's handlebars the day he gave it to me. "Now I will get to school faster."

My uncle practically lived locked up in a closed room which he had set up as his office. There were several research books, a microscope and a monocle.

Sometimes it seemed he was wacky, with his tousled hair and also his glasses which always sat slanted on his face.

He never talked about having a wife and children. I believe that his scientific research was more important to him than a real family in his life.

"How are you doing in school?" He asked me as soon as I sat at the table at dinner one time. There were few items on dining table.

"The school master said I'm bad in every subject," I confessed to him.  

I sadly looked down at the dining table and plaid tablecloth which seemed to sometimes move before my eyes.

Scrambled eggs and pasta were our routine meals.

My uncle pulled a chair and sat down beside me. His fingers stroked my head. "Do not be sad. Are you having difficulty in learning the subjects?"

I nodded my head, telling him 'yes'. I crossed my arms on the table and leaned my chin on the back of my hands. My eyes were sad and gloomy. I wanted to be a smart kid like many others in my school.

"I swear I try to learn everything, but I cannot."

A tear slowly fell down my face and my uncle hugged me tightly.

The window curtain shook after the gentle wind moved through it.

"Do not cry, Otto! I swear that I will solve this problem," my uncle informed me with his heart bleeding. He did not like to see me sad or depressed because of my limitations in learning at school.

From that day, my uncle started to search through some books and he found out about the mythology of owls. He found that they were considered to be a 'symbol of wisdom.'

He spent several sleepless nights, as he had been reading and rereading books about the owls, while I slept in my bedroom.

Then one night my uncle looked at the image of an owl in a book.  He removed his glasses from his face and said to himself in an audible voice, "I have an idea!"

He started to hunt owls at nighttime in a forest next to our house. It took about a few weeks to finally get one of them.

As soon as he managed to capture that live bird, he brought it in a black bag and placed it inside an iron cage.

The next day, I saw that perfect animal with its yellow eyes.

"What is this, Uncle Jefferson?" I asked him.  I felt a little scared with it all.

He smiled at me and said, "This is an owl. I captured it last night."

I looked back at the owl and she looked at me. Then the owl flew inside the cage and I got a tremendous shock which made my heart leap with more intensity.

"I am afraid of her, Uncle Jefferson."

I ran to the wall beside me.

"Do not be afraid, Otto. One day you will be just like her!"

I looked up at my uncle's face. "How so? Someday I'll be like her?"

"You'll have the wisdom of an owl and you'll never be prejudiced in any subjects at your school.You'll be the smartest schoolboy and admired in your school so much."

"But how will I get to be as smart as the owls?" I insisted.

"I will find a way to make this possible, Otto. And I will do this to help you."

His hand lightly touched my shoulder.

"Believe it!"

"All done! Sit here, Otto!"

Uncle Jefferson ordered me to a chair while he was standing in his office. I sat on a chair beside his desk.

The cage was on the table and the owl was in it. She was flying from one side to the other. She looked restless in her obligatory prison.

On the table I could see a syringe and gloves.

I confess that when my eyes saw the syringe, my stomach suffered a nervous flutter. Then I started getting pale.

"Why is this syringe here?" I asked him.

My uncle looked kindly at me and smiled quietly at me, answering my question. .

"Do not be afraid, boy! This is just a syringe."

"Yeah, but why is it here?"

My eyes became larger, the fear had changed the expression on my face.

Uncle Jefferson held my hand strongly.

"Otto, do you trust me?"

His eyes sought an answer from me as he attentively stared at my face.

"I think that ... ... yes."

My face was still pale.

"So do not ask me questions and let me finish my work."

He turned his back to me and walked to the iron cage. Then he caught the owl between his enormous fingers. Uncle Jefferson caressed the animal for a few moments, showing her was not  going to hurt her.

Shortly thereafter he held the syringe in his right hand.

The owl let out a slight shriek as soon as the syringe needle penetrated her skin. I watched as part of her dark blood came into the syringe.

Uncle Jefferson put the owl back into her cage. He looked at me and smiled calmly. But the syringe was still in his right hand. Soon after, he picked up a transparent bottle and the syringe absorbed all the blue liquid contained in it.

The owl's dark blood had been mixed with the blue liquid. This blue liquid was a formula that my uncle had developed in the course of his nocturnal searches.

He walked toward the chair that I was still sitting. His right hand gently reached my right shoulder.

"Now it's your turn," he said to me and held out his hand.

"Give me your arm!"

My eyes became bigger after hearing his words. I stared at him with no courage to do what he was suggesting to me.

"My arm?"

I questioned him without thinking of anything else.

"Yes, your arm." His voice was low and decisive.

"What will you do with my arm?"

I tried to embrace my own body while I was in my old clothes. I had no person to ask for help except myself. I needed to feel safe at that moment.

Uncle Jefferson got a tired expression and then he sighed, staring at his office ceiling.

He stared back at me, uttering something.

"Otto, if you really trust me, you will place your arm in my left hand now."

His voice became hard. He was losing patience with me.

I looked at the owl in her cage. She watched me just as I had observed her some minutes before. Maybe she was feeling sorry for me. The cause for my discomfort was that I would be the next one to be experimented on with the syringe and the contents in it.

Slowly, I placed my right arm in my Uncle Jefferson's left hand. He squeezed my forearm and my vein bulged.

A small moan left my lips as soon as the syringe’s needle pierced my skin. Uncle Jefferson pushed all the owl's blood contained in the syringe into my blood vessel.

He removed the needle from my arm as soon as all the owl's blood had found its way into my body.

"Ready!"

He smiled softly at me and kissed the top of my head, exclaiming, "You're an obedient and brave boy!"

"What will happen to me after this?"

"I do not know yet." He stared at me. "This is only an experiment. You're feeling something different in your body?"

"No, I'm just a little sleepy. "

"Then go to your bed, I'll be watching you." He smiled at me. “If you need me, I'll be close by."

A few hours later, I opened my eyes and saw my room's ceiling gyrating above me. Everything was dark and I felt quite agitated.

I tried to squeeze my bed's mattress with my fingers, but they were numb. I could barely feel my body. It seemed I was levitating.

"UNCLE JEFFERSON!" I shouted out desperately.

He came running from the living room and passed through my room's door with urgency. He looked euphoric. His bare feet left marks on the floor. His newspaper fell from his fingers and it sprawled on the floor.

"What happened, boy? Aren't you feeling well?"

His hand touched my right arm and my temperature was normal.

"I am feeling great!" I said looking at my room's ceiling.

Uncle Jefferson's eyes widened as he looked at my face and saw my eyes rolling. They had changed color. They were yellow with huge, black eyeballs.

My eyes became identical to the eyes of the owl.

" Oh My God! It worked!" Exclaimed Uncle Jefferson quite thrilled. He removed his glasses from his face and smiled with relief at me.

"It worked my boy!"

Ten years later ...

At the school entrance, I walked in a carefree manner to my destination. I was going toward the main gate of the educational institution.

I was in my black pants and my black sneakers. My eyes were under my sunglasses, which never left my face. I carried a stack of books under my left arm. That was a punishment that a large majority of students had to pay while attending school; supporting the weight of their textbooks every day of the week.

The day was hot, but my dark clothes made my body feel even more heat. My black hair matched my clothes and my pale skin look especially white.

Looking ahead, I saw several schoolgirls walking in front of me. They were also going towards the front gate of our school. None of them seemed to be in a hurry to find their classrooms.

Suddenly a group of girls looked back over their shoulders when they heard another young girl screaming desperately. She had black, curly hair and rosy skin.

"Oh my God! I forgot my math book in the school bus!"

She turned her body back and ran hastily.

Right at that moment her delicate body collided with mine. She slowly looked up and was met with my serious face staring down at her. The girl looked into my sunglasses.

Her books fell on the floor. I bent my body, trying to get to the floor before her and tried to help her pick up her books. But she unexpectedly raised her body and the top of her head hit the tip of my nose. My sunglasses jumped off my face and fell to the ground.

She jumped again when she realized she had collided with me once more. This time she had hurt my nose and also removed my sunglasses from my face.

"So-rry!" She exclaimed and touched her fingers on her lips. She looked to me like she was dying of shame.

"My glasses! Where are they?"

I kept looking at the ground all the time trying to avoid allowing her to look into my eyes. I gently rubbed my nose's tip. The site was sensitive after the wallop.

I figured that my nose would bleed at that time. And that would not be a funny thing.

She noticed that I was having some difficulty trying to find my own glasses on the floor. This girl with curly hair bent and finally got my blessed,dark glasses.

"Here they are," she affirmed, getting up and standing before me. I stood looking down at the ground as the girl tried to look into my eyes.

"Thank you!"

After I thanked her I immediately put my glasses over my eyes and walked on, keeping a distance from that catastrophic, tacky girl.

Her boots, short barrel style in brown, were horrible and they didn't match her plaid pleated skirt. Over and above her white blouse she wore a black vest.  The bun on top of her head made her look no more than ten years old. I figured that no school guy would want her as a girlfriend or even as a classmate.

Beside tacky, she had an exact talent for wounding people.

She collected her books from the floor and ran toward the school bus, which was parked across the street in front of our school.

Math class

Students were still looking for places to sit. The teacher was impatient at his students, as he wanted to start his school day.

I sat in the last chair in the classroom corner and a boy with his red hair and brown eyes sat in front of me.

Finally, the kitschy girl was the last student to enter the classroom. She had her stack of books sandwiched between her thin arms and her breasts, even pushed out by the books, were not so ample.

She elongated her neck as a giraffe would and looked for a place to sit. Then she saw an empty seat in the fourth row.

Before sitting in her hard seat, she laid her books on her desk and looked back over her shoulder, observing the students around her. Her dark eyes stared at my face with my sunglasses on.

She had noticed that I was the guy she had presented with a blow on the nose. Her brow furrowed at me and then she looked back ahead, finally sitting in her blessed seat.

The math teacher introduced himself to his students in their last year of high school.

His name was Tadeu.

He was a man in his forties with a moustache and thin beard. His skin was clear and he wore a navy blue shirt with white stripes. For his age, he had a fit body, ie, his belly was not huge like many men in his agegroup.

Professor Tadeu looked into the face of every student in the classroom, trying to become familiar with each of them. But this brown colored eyes stopped in my direction.

His hands were into the pockets of his brown linen pants. After a modest few seconds he finally exclaimed in a determined manner, "You, with your sunglasses!"

I kept staring at him seriously and all the students looked back in my direction.

"Do not think that you will attend my classes imagining you are sitting at the edge of the pool!"

Laughs emerged from the four corners of the classroom and they began to gradually increase. The teacher seriously looked at each of them.  

"I do not want my class to become the target of laughter!"

Students looked forward and became serious again, containing their desire to laugh some more. I stood looking at my teacher standing in front of blackboard. He looked back at me, looking even more serious. Imagining that his rigid posture could intimidate me at once he said, "Young man, I command you to take off your sunglasses now!"

I looked to one side and turned to look at the math teacher again, saying to him with a soft but audible voice, "Mr.  Tadeu, I cannot attend your classes without my glasses."

"Why?" He removed his hands from his pockets and crossed his arms over his chest. "Explain this to me, young fellow."

"I’ve been wearing these glasses since I was ten. Actually, I have a lot of difficulty in seeing during the daytime. This is a genetic problem, 50% of my family suffer from this deficiency too."

The other students were totally silent in the classroom. Mr. Tadeu seemed to soften his stance toward me.

"Okay.  I will continue our lesson and at the end of our class, I want you to meet me in my office.”

All the students turned to look at me again. I looked to one side and agreed with my math teacher, just nodding my head slightly at him.

I stopped walking in front of a wooden door. On it there was a white plate with the words: 

TEACHER TADEU

"ENTER!"

A male voice came from behind the office door, after hearing someone tapping it.

I opened the passage carefully before me and walked through it still holding my books. Then I closed the office door behind me.

I looked ahead and saw Professor Tadeu, sitting in his black leather chair in front of his wooden table. On it was a calendar, a telephone, red and blue pens and also files of some students of the school.

I believe one of those files was mine.

"Sit down, boy!" He ordered me, motioning to a black chair in front of his desk. I sat down slowly and kept silent. I rested my books on my knees and looked toward Mr.  Tadeu.

He rested his elbows on his desk and touched his hands to his lips, making a pyramid shape in length between his elbows and his slim lips. His breath alleviated a little of his stress and then he started speaking in a prudent voice.

"Otto CORIN, I am sorry for your vision deficiency, but I cannot allow it, a student to attend my lessons with sunglasses."

"Teacher Tadeu, I cannot remove my glasses from my eyes. I need them like you need your textbooks to make your math classes happen.”

He glanced  to the side and shook his head at what seemed to be nothing. My words hadn't yet had a more serious effect on his objection.

Tadeu looked at my face and I realized that my sunglasses bothered him even outside of his math classes.

"Looking at you with these glasses, I see a spoiled boy trying to have fun with my benevolence."

"Believe me, Professor Tadeu. I cannot take off my glasses. I can’t see anything without them and I also..."

I paused.

He looked at me with determination, hoping I would keep talking to him.

That's what I did.

"I don't want people to see my... eyes ... "

His forehead suddenly acquired two horizontal lines.

What the hell was I saying?

"What is abnormal about your eyes?"

He insisted, showing he was more malleable.

I lowered my head and looked down at the clear floor of his office. My black tennis shoes slid across the surface with less impact.

I continued trying to explain to him.

"They are horrible ..."

"Show me!" Professor Tadeu ordered.

"I can’t... ..." My voice sounded fragile.

"Show me, boy! Or you will be suspended from my classes until I actually see your eyes."

I looked up at his face, put my right hand over my glasses and slowly removed them from my eyes.

At that moment, teacher Tadeu got a look of horror as he was looking at my eyeballs.

My eyes were gray and swollen, with dark circles around them. It was as if I hadn't slept for centuries.

"I do not want people to see this."

I informed him of my wishes, putting my sunglasses over my eyes again.

I was in my room, lying on my single bed, listening to the melody of Lacuna Coil band.

Rock and Roll was my favorite style of music.

My head was resting on my left arm. My other hand was knocking on my stomach as I tried to follow the rhythm of Lacuna Coil Band's music with my own fingers.

Uncle Jefferson gently knocked on my bedroom door and then he entered my room. I looked over and saw him sitting in a chair near my window.

"How was school today?"

"I always hear this question from you every time I start my school year."

He smiled at me, agreeing with my statement. "I worry about you. I think of you as a son. You know that."

His fingers touched, shaping a spider web.

I looked down at my stomach. At that time I was shirtless. My pale skin needed to get some sun with urgency.

"If I say it was good, it comforts you?"

"Yes, it comforts me." He looked at me lying in bed. "But I know that everything did not go well."

I looked to one side and saw him sitting in the dark chair. "How do you know that?"

"I do not need to guess it, Otto." He looked up. "Every year you get in trouble at school because of that your abnormal ways."

I sat up in bed and looked down at my legs.

"Yes, it's true."

I looked up and stared into my uncle's face.

"Today I had a damned day." I looked around and saw the dark walls. "I had barely arrived at the school when a tacky girl simply collided with me."

" And that wasn't good?" My uncle had scoffed. "The girl is cute?"

“I believe that the vocabulary 'tacky' answers your question.”

"You never have luck with the girls! " He muttered.  “You just cannot resemble your uncle here and live alone for the rest of your life."

He joked again.

"Uncle, can I keep talking?" I asked seriously as I was staring at him.

Uncle Jefferson shut up, so I kept telling him about my student life that morning.

"So the tacky girl hit her head on my nose and my glasses fell from my face. This was a tremendous disaster! She is a constant danger!"

"Hmm, I see you hate the tacky girl."

"Yeah, I always avoid being around people who show constant danger to me."

"Did something else happen beyond your disastrous encounter with the tacky girl?"

"My math teacher called me into his office, informing me that I couldn't attend his math classes any longer if I wore my dark glasses during his lessons."

My uncle furrowed his brow at me. "What did you say to him?"

"I told him the same story I’ve told since I was ten, that is, I cannot be without my sunglasses because I suffer from a genetic disease."

"And did he believe you?" Uncle Jefferson asked me.

"Yes, but after I removed my glasses from my eyes."

Uncle Jefferson immediately got up from the chair.

"You didn’t say anything about the experiment ...,did you?

I interrupted him. "Of course not."

I walked down the hallway of my school. Several students passed me. I was in my black clothes, my sunglasses were on my face and I also carried my textbooks, as always.

I stopped in front of my locker in the school, turned the key and opened it. Then I grabbed my dark swimming clothes.

I realized that someone stood next to me. It was my classmate who always sat at his desk in front of mine.

His voice became impatient as he gave two punches on his locker.

"Damn! This damn locker won’t open!"

I looked to one side and saw him turning his key from side to side. Then another punch shook the surface of his locker next to mine.

"Shit!"

I looked over and saw his nervous fingers on his locker key.

"Turn twice to your right and one to your left."

The boy with red hair and brown eyes looked at me surprised. "Are you talking to me?"

I looked around and spoke to him seriously.

"Is anyone else here having trouble with opening a locker besides you?"

He smiled at me. "All right, I'll try to do what you told me."

The boy turned his key twice to his right and then he turned it once to his left. His eyes became bright when he opened his locker door and saw his swimming clothes. 

"Guy, you are a genius!"

He squeezed my right shoulder. I made grimaces. I did not find anything satisfying about being embraced by a man.

"How did you do that? Tell me! This is a trick?"

He questioned me, freeing my right shoulder after that.

A suffocating voice inside me said, "Thank God!"

I said to him ironically, "That was just a guess."

I stared walking away, holding my swimming clothes. He came walking quickly behind me. He was also holding his rubber clothes.

"You should play the lottery. Who knows, you may become a millionaire. And you will no longer need to attend this damn school."

I shook my head at everything he said, disagreeing with his idiocy.

"I have no gifts with the game of chance."

I kept walking on and he followed me.

"My name is Hugo Chavana. And yours?"

"Otto Corin."

"Hello, Otto Corin! I believe we can be great friends of luck!" He joked in humor.

I continued on seriously and in silence.

"I usually do not have friends," I said to him then.

He shrugged his shoulders and stopped walking behind me. I kept walking and told him without looking back at him,

"Hugo Chavana ... I think you forgot to close your locker.”  

The fire-red haired boy scratched his head and looked back toward the male dressing room. He saw his locker and it was indeed open. 

"Wow ! What a weird guy!"

Swimming lesson

All the students from my class were around the pool while the teacher was talking to us in a haughty voice. He was explaining how to dive properly and keep the breath correct for a long time under water.

The teacher required all students to enter the pool, one at a time. Everyone had to dive in and hold his or her head under water for as long as each student could. 

The first one to do so was a boy with brown hair. He had managed to remain two minutes underwater. Shortly thereafter, he ordered another student to do the same, and another and so on.

My turn came. I entered the pool with my black rubber clothes. The water was cold, but agreeable.

I dove with my sunglasses still on my face. The blue water of the pool covered my whole body.

Minutes later, I raised my head over the level of the pool water and the teacher standing around the pool shouted at us all, "10 Minutes! Congratulations, boy! Up till now no one has managed to stay more than two minutes under the water."

I stepped out of the pool and my class mates looked at me with astonishment. They were stunned with my ability. The red-haired boy smiled and winked at me.

"This is my friend, Otto!" He exclaimed proudly.

"Now it's your turn!" The teacher said looking at the tacky girl.

She shrugged her shoulders and looked down at the pool water but she looked quite frightened.

" Me? Te .. a ...cher?"

"Yes, you lass."

She looked back at the pool water and walked slowly toward it. It was clear that the blue water scared her. She was not comfortable with so much water all in one place.

I stood looking at her back as she took some slow steps toward the pool. Then she stopped at the edge of the pool and stared at the blue water. It was obvious she was trying to get the courage to jump into it.

Saying quietly to herself,  "Have courage, girl! You can do it!"

She closed her eyes and jumped into the pool with her arms glued to her stomach. Her body disappeared into the pool water.

One minute passed by ... two minutes ... three minutes ... ...

The teacher was looking at his stopwatch in his hand.

"She is doing well!" He murmured.

It was four minutes later and the tacky girl still had not pointed her head out of the water of the pool.

Something was wrong, I imagined.

I looked down at the blue water of the pool and did not see any movement from the girl. Then I shouted desperately at everyone, "She is drowning!"

I did not think of anything else and jumped into the water and swam to the pool bottom. My sunglasses were fixed to my face. Then I saw something that looked like coral at the bottom of the swimming pool. It was the color of the tacky girl's swimming clothes.

My arms encircled her body and I pulled her back up to the water level. She was completely unconscious as she had swallowed a lot of water.

I got out of the pool, carrying her in my arms. All the other students approached us. The gym teacher looked desperate and ran his hand through his hair in growing nervousness. That had never happened during his swimming lessons - an accident involving a drowning with one of his students in the school.

I laid the girl's body down on the pool’s edge. She was completely unconscious. Her wet, heavy hair was glued to the ground. Her arms were open and limp on the ground.

At that moment I knelt beside her body. The teacher knelt on the other side and began trying to revive her, strongly pressing her chest with his hands.

After a few attempts, she coughed up water plenty of times and slowly opened her dark eyes. Then she could see the daylight, that is, she was back to life. Her eyes rolled to one side and she saw my sunglasses. Then she saw the face of our teacher and also all the students standing around her.

Our teacher held her quite thrilled and relieved. He loudly exclaimed, "Thank God you're alive, girl!"

I sighed, relieved too. I knew I had saved the life of this girl only with my intuition.