Wizzy, the owl seemed to be deep in thought as the long cool night wore on. She tried to hunt for her dinner but had lost her appetite. Her hoot was off-key. Not that anyone listened to her anyway. Wizzy fluffed and straightened her feathers but felt itchy and uneasy. With care, she picked and pecked at herself until she couldn’t pick or peck anymore. What ever she did she didn’t feel right so she decided to fly a little into the deeper part of the woods looking for something but she didn’t really know what she was searching for.
Circling around the more unfamiliar trees and dark corners of the wood she noticed a little button on a slab of black granite stone . The button was made of dark glass and winked a little in the stark gleam of the moonlight. She was hesitant to peck at it as she had learned from bitter experience to leave such things alone. Such things would appear harmless but when swallowed would cause serious problems that took a long time to go away. Despite her good sense she was curious enough to look at it again and give it a nudge. The button flashed! It bounced! It even sang! Wizzy was timid at first but soon enjoyed giving the strange button a gentle peck or two. The button continued to fascinate Wizzy with its tricks through the nights that followed. It shook with anger! It blinked with bright lights! It made amusing and gentle sounds.
Soon she forgot about her old habits of pecking, scratching and worrying. Wizzy wanted to learn more about other interesting buttons that might be secretly hidden in the forest so she started to turn over old dead leaves and rough pieces of bark and looking carefully at the very creepy things that lay hidden there. Searching everywhere but finding only rot, slime and dirt, Wizzy realized there probably weren’t many more glass buttons to be found. All she could find was stuff that smelled bad, looked scary and felt cold. Oddly enough she did start to carefully examine these disgusting and frightening things rather than pretend that such things weren’t there.
Soon Wizzy realized she was feeling just a little less anxious. Wisely stretching her wings before flight each night she found a little more fun in the hunt again. Her throat relaxed and a jazzy wail came out lifting her spirits. Other night creatures like herself started to notice and listen to her again. Wizzy wondered about her dark glass button and where it had come from. With time, she realized it didn’t really matter.
From that point on she just learned to push buttons whenever she got the chance.
An Embarrassment of Freedom 