At daybreak, I learned that the bizarre orange owl that had evoked my overnight conversion, the one that twisted to stare as I slowly began to embrace my sanity as something possible, wasn’t real at all.

A reflection, John said, just the yellow bird feeder conspiring with the security light.

A challenge from my dear friend Rachel at https://challaandhaggis.wordpress.com/2016/10/21/the-silence/ to write a 50-word story.