Alphabet Allie's Arc

Chapter 13 of 13

Allie walked on until the fence ended and the path opened into a wide, grassy yard. In the middle sat a long, low house shaped like a stretched oval. A brown owl perched on the roof beam with something green in its beak. Oil dripped from the corner of its mouth and made a slow shine on its chin feathers. Allie stopped and stared. "An owl," she whispered. "Eating an olive. On an oblong house." Three O words at once. She wanted to remember every part. She pulled a small notebook from her pocket and knelt on the grass. She wrote owl. She wrote olive. She wrote oblong. Then she paused. There had to be more. The oil itself started with O. So did the roof's oval shape. She needed help. She needed someone who noticed things the way she did, who would not rush her or say she was making a fuss over nothing. An old woman stepped out of the long house with a watering can. She had white hair pinned up and round glasses and a purple cardigan. She looked at Allie kneeling in the grass and smiled without surprise. "You've found my owl," she said. "His name starts with O, of course. Would you like to help me list what else does?" Allie stood up so fast her notebook nearly dropped. "Yes," she said. "Please." The woman said her own name was Ophelia, and that also started with O, and she laughed at Allie's face when Allie realized it. They walked slowly around the oblong house. Ophelia pointed at an open window, an orange pot, an onion in the garden bed. Allie wrote each one down. The owl watched from the roof and swallowed the last of his olive. When the page was full, Ophelia read the list aloud, and Allie heard every O ring out like a bell. "You saw more than most people ever bother to," Ophelia said. "Come back when the page runs out again." Allie tucked the notebook away and walked back to the path. Someone had listened, and better than that, someone had helped her look. She counted in her head. The mouse. The nurse. Now the woman with the watering can. Three grown-ups in a row. She kept walking, faster now, ready for whatever letter came next.