Question

Joan Harrison was walking along the street. She was shy and always felt lonely and upset.

Joan worked as a secretary in an office in the city centre. It was lunch time and she went out to get

some air. She was looking absently at the shop-windows when she saw a brown wooden owl in one

of them. Suddenly Joan stopped. Joan was totally indifferent to birds and she had never understood

people who collected useless statues. But for some reason she could not take her eyes off the owl.

The wooden owl drew Joan to itself.

Joan decided to buy the owl. She earned a little, just to pay for her room and food. She

couldn’t afford new clothes. Even a ticket to the cinema was a heavy expense for her. But this time

Joan was sure that she had to buy the wooden owl.

Joan opened the door of the shop. She asked the shop assistant about the price of the wooden

owl. It was fifty pounds. Joan understood that it was sheer madness to buy such an expensive

wooden bird. But she did it without any hesitation.

Joan left ten pounds in advance and promised to bring the rest of the money in the evening.

After work she ran home, took all her savings and rushed back to the shop in excitement. Joan

brought the wooden owl home and put it onto the table. Joan smiled and touched the owl’s head.

Suddenly, she felt happy and self-confident.

The next morning she left her house in a very good mood. Now, having the owl at home,

Joan made it a habit to say good-bye and touch the owl’s head before leaving. Amazingly, after this

simple gesture she was cheerful and energetic the whole day. One morning, when patting the owl on

the head, Joan remembered her wish to join the evening pottery class at college. She had often

thought about it but always changed her mind at the last moment. Now she decided to fulfill her

wish.

At the pottery class Joan achieved considerable results. Her teacher said she had a unique

style. Nobody knew that she worked hard at home. Under the owl’s observation Joan experimented

with forms and colours. Once she took part in the students’ show at the college, and the Art

Museum asked her to sell her works for two thousand pounds. The sum covered all her debts and

she could afford to buy a new dress and shoes and even more.

The next step was the annual National Art Festival, at which a secretary, Joan Harrison,

presented her personal exhibition. Her fame and income were growing. Joan left her office and

became a potter. A year later she and the art director of the museum were happily married. They

moved to a large country house and now Joan had her own pottery.

Joan took the lucky owl with her. It took its honorary place in the large living room. In her

last years she often remembered the shop where she had bought the owl, her evening classes and her

first steps in pottery. Joan was so proud of the owl that each piece of her pottery had a picture of the

owl on it. Lots of famous artists and important people visited Joan and her husband but Joan never

gave her owl to anybody until her dying day.​