one night, when the autumn leaves were falling and whispering through the whole of the forest, the tawny owl gave his shrill cry through the tree tops. then he waited.
but bambi had already seen him in the distance through the now sparse foliage and now he kept still.
the owl flew closer and gave his shrill cry even louder. then he waited. but this time too, bambi said nothing.
the owl could not hold back any longer. “aren’t you startled, then?” he asked discontentedly.
“oh, yes,” bambi answered gently. “a little bit.”
“well ...,” the owl grumbled, “only a little bit? you always used to be terribly shocked. it was always such a pleasure to see how shocked you were. what’s happened then, what’s happened that means your only a little bit shocked ...?”
he was annoyed and repeated, “just a little bit ...”
the owl had grown old, and that had made him even more vain and even more sensitive than he had been.
bambi wanted to answer; i was never startled before, either, but i just said i was because i knew you liked it. but he decided he would rather keep this information to himself. he felt sorry for the good old owl, as he sat there being cross. he did his best to calm him down. “maybe it’s because i was just thinking about you,” he said.
“what?” the owl became cheerful again. “what? you were thinking about me?”
“yes,” answered bambi hesitantly, “just when began to screech. otherwise, of course, i would have been just as startled as ever.”
“really?” the owl purred.
bambi could not resist. what harm could there be in it? let the little old boy have some pleasure.
“really,” he confirmed and went on .”.. it pleases me ... it goes through all my limbs when i suddenly hear you like that.”
the owl puffed up his feathers, turned himself into a soft, brown and light grey, fluffy ball, and he was very pleased. “that’s very nice of you to have been thinking about me ... very nice indeed ...” he cooed gently. “it’s such a long time since we saw each other.”
“a very long time,” said bambi.
“maybe it’s that you don’t go along the same old paths any more?” enquired the owl.
“no ...,” bambi spoke slowly, “i don’t go along the same old paths any more.”
“i’ve been seeing a lot more of the world too lately,” remarked the owl, puffing his chest out. he did not tell bambi that he had been driven out of the old territory he had inherited from his ancestors by a young and reckless lad. “you can’t always stay on the same spot,” he added. then he waited for bambi’s reply.
but bambi had gone. by now he had learned the art of disappearing in silence almost as well as the elder.
the owl was dismayed. “shameless ...” he grumbled. he shook himself, buried his beak into his plumage and philosophized to himself; “you should never think you could make friends with these posh types. they might seem ever so likeable ... but one day they’ll shamelessly ... and then you sit there looking stupid, just like i am now ...”
suddenly he fell vertically down to the ground like a stone. he had seen a mouse, which then, caught in his talons, had the time to squeal just once. he tore the mouse into pieces because he was so angry. he pulled the head off this mouthful quicker than he normally would. and then he flew away. “what does bambi matter to me?” he thought. “what does any of those posh people matter to me? nothing. they don’t matter at all!” he started to screech. so shrill, so long, that a pair of wood pigeons he passed by were woken up and, with much loud flapping of wings, they fell out of where they had been sleeping.
the storm blew through the woods for many days, tearing the last of the leaves from the twigs and branches. the trees now stood there naked.
in the grey of morning twilight bambi was making his way home in order to sleep together with the elder in their chamber.
a thin voice called to him, two times, three times in quick succession. he stayed where he was. then the squirrel swooped down from the tree like lightning and sat on the ground in front of him.
“it really is you, then!” he piped with respectful astonishment. “i recognized you straight away when you passed by me, i didn’t really want to believe it ...”
“how come you’re here ...?” bambi asked.
the cheerful, little face in front of him took on a worried expression. “the oak tree is gone ...” the squirrel began to complain, “my lovely old oak tree ... do you remember? it’s terrible ... he’s cut it down.”
bambi lowered his head in sadness. it really did hurt his soul to hear about the wonderful ancient tree.
“it all happened so quickly,” the squirrel told him. “all of us who lived on the old tree, we all ran away and we could only watch as he bit through it with an enormous blinking tooth. the tree screamed out loud from his wound. he just kept on screaming, and the tooth screamed too ... it was horrible to hear it. then that poor, lovely tree fell over. out onto the meadow ... it made all of us cry.”
bambi was silent.
“yes ...” said the squirrel with a sigh, “he can do anything ... he’s omnipotent ...” he looked at bambi with eyes wide open and pricked up his ears, but bambi was silent.
“we’ve all got nowhere to live now ...” the squirrel continued, “i don’t even have any idea of where the others have got to ... i came over here ... but it’ll take me ages to find another tree like that.”
“the old oak tree ...,” muttered bambi to himself, “i’ve known it since i was a child.”
“no ... but it’s good to see that it’s really you!” the squirrel became quite contented. “we all thought you must have died a long time ago. but there were some who said you were still alive ... some said that someone or other had seen you ... but we couldn’t find out anything definite, so we just supposed it was an empty rumour ...” the squirrel looked at him searchingly. “well, that was ... that was because you didn’t come back.”
he sat there waiting for an answer, you could see that he was very keen to know what had happened.
bambi was silent. but he, too, felt a slight, anxious curiosity. he wanted to ask. about faline, about aunt ena, about ronno and karus, about everyone he had known as a child. but he was silent.
the squirrel continued to sit in front of bambi and examined him. “look at that crown!” he exclaimed in admiration. “what a crown! apart from the old prince, no-one has a crown like that, no-one anywhere in the forest!”
earlier, bambi would have felt very pleased and flattered by an observation like this. now he just said wearily, “yes ... i suppose so ...”
the squirrel nodded his head vigorously. “it really is!” he said in astonishment. “really. you’re beginning to go grey.”
bambi walked away.
the squirrel saw that the discussion was at an end and swung up into the branches. “bye then,” he called down. “look after yourself! i enjoyed seeing you again. if i see any of your old friends i’ll tell them you’re still alive ... they’ll all be glad to hear it.”
bambi heard this and once again felt those slight stirrings in his heart. but it said nothing. you have to stay alone, the elder had taught him when bambi was still a child. and the elder had shown him many things, told him many secrets, and continued doing so up to the present day. but of all the things he had been taught, this was the most important: you have to stay alone. if you’re going to preserve your life, if you want to understand existence, if you want to become wise, you have to stay alone!
“but,” asked bambi one time, “but what about the two of us, we’re always together nowadays ...?”
“we soon won’t be,” the elder had retorted.
that had only been a few weeks earlier.
now, it again occurred to bambi, and it occurred to him very suddenly, that the very first thing the elder had said to him had been that he had to stay alone. that had been when bambi was still a child and was calling for his mother. then the elder had come up to him and asked, “are you not able to be alone?”
bambi walked on.
