The Wise Old Owl

Justin seemed a little nervous as the guys settled themselves onto the loft floor in front of the blazing fake fireplace. Brian noticed, but decided it would be best to let the kid initiate any conversation – which he did – and pretty quickly too.

“Hey, Bri, Justin began. “You know that girl at the Institute who gives all the good advice – about relationships and stuff?”

“You mean Cassandra, I guess,” Brian replied. “Did you get some new advice from her that I may not like? Like maybe we weren’t meant for each other after all? Is that why you seem a little edgy tonight?”

“No, I didn’t get any advice that you won’t like – it wasn’t exactly advice, Bri,” Justin assured him, “And yeah, I’m talking about the girl you call Cassandra - but that’s not her real name cause I won’t tell you her real name. Well, maybe I never told you this either but she only gives advice personally to a very few of us, so most people at the Institute don’t know how good she is - or rather they don’t know that she’s actually the one who’s so good at giving advice or like….”

“Baby,” Brian interrupted him. “You know who you’re talking to. It’s me – Brian Kinney – I love you – you don’t have to be so nervous. I don’t know why you’re so nervous but you are – and you don’t need to be. You ought to know that.”

“Yeah, I know, Brian,” Justin admitted. “But I’m like going to ask you for advice – and I want your advice too – but I think you’re going to think the whole thing is funny and not be serious….”

“Sunshine,” Brian told him. “Anything that’s serious to you will be serious to me – but I don’t think I want to promise you that I won’t maybe laugh just a little because a lot of things that are serious to you have some humorous elements. OK?”

“Yeah – I guess so,” Justin equivocated. “Well, Ellen – damn – I said her real name – Cassandra – she’s gonna be out-of-town on an internship for six months….”

“And you don’t think you can survive without her advice?” Brian completed the sentence for him. “Or you don’t think you can ‘handle’ me without her help and advice or….?”

“Cut it out, Brian,” Justin pleaded. “See – you said you’d be serious and you aren’t being serious at all.”

“OK, Baby, I’m sorry,” Brian back-tracked. “Go ahead and tell me what the problem is. Whatever it is - if I can help, I’ll do my best.”

“Well,” Justin bit the bullet. “You know we have this school newspaper at the Institute that comes out three times a week? Well, Ellen – Cassandra that is – she writes an advice column and it’s real popular. Nobody knows who writes it and it’s called the Wise Old Owl – and only a very few of us know who the wise old owl is. She gives all kinds of good advice and she’s helped a lot of people over there – and she’s gonna be gone for six months….”

”Well they’ll still have you, Sweetheart,” Brian interrupted with a grin on his face. “You know how to solve everybody’s problems. You’d be every bit as good as any wise old owl.”

“That’s exactly it, Brian,” Justin told him. “That’s what she thinks too. She wants me to write the Wise Old Owl column while she’s gone.”

“Wise Old Justin?” Brian laughed despite an effort not to. “My little Justin is about to become wise old Justin – advisor to the whole Institute. The good advice which I always get will now be available to everybody at the Institute….”

“See what I mean, Kinney,” Justin grumbled. “I knew you’d think it was funny. I’m not going to do it. I should have just told Ellen ‘no’ and never told you anything at all about it. I’m sorry I didn’t….”

“Wait a minute, Kiddo,” Brian told him. “Give me a chance to adjust to my surprise and maybe I can help….”

”I doubt it,” Justin replied.

The conversation died out at this point and the guys sat huddled together for quite a while. And the pause seemed to help Justin’s attitude despite his expressed doubt. At any rate, Brian tried his very hardest to help - and probably succeeded.

“Do you even have time to take on the wise owl duties with everything else you have to do?” Brian asked the kid when they came up for air. “You’re awfully busy already.”

“Yeah, I think I do, Bri,” Justin said. “It doesn’t take all that much time to give good advice if you understand the problem. You don’t need to worry about my losing any time with you. I’m too smart to even consider doing it if that was going to happen….”

“I’m glad to hear that, Baby,” Brian replied. “But I was really thinking of you – not me. You’re so busy on your art projects and stuff. I just don’t know how much time it would take to be a wise old owl, since I never had any experience with anybody taking my advice. I don’t ever expect I’ll be a wise old owl.”

“That’s not true at all, Kinney,” Justin objected. “I take your advice a lot and so do other people too. I just don’t let you know ‘cause I don’t want you to get big-headed – and I guess the other people don’t let you know because they think you’d be embarrassed maybe. Your image and all.”

“So you don’t want me to get big-headed, eh?” Brian laughed. “Well, have you ever seen an owl’s head? Pretty big I think. But thanks anyhow for pretending that you ever take my advice – even if maybe I don’t believe it.”

“Hey Brian,” Justin reminded him. “I’m kind of asking for your advice now, I think – and I expect I’ll take it too. And for sure I won’t become the wise old owl if you say not to – but that would be more like obeying an order than taking advice – and you know how I always obey orders.”

“In your own personal and inimitable style you do, I guess.” Brian was still laughing. “But nobody but you knows it…. And I’m certainly not about to order you not to do it if you decide you want to. But you always take Cassandra’s advice too, Baby. If she asked you to take over The Wise Old Owl column, she must be like - advising you to do it.”

“You know what, Bri,” Justin told him, cuddling just a little closer. “I really don’t want you to get a big head, but I’m taking Ellen’s – Cassandra’s – advice right now. She told me to talk to you about it and get your opinion before I decided anything. She said you know me better than anybody and so you could give me better advice than anybody – that you’d know if I could do it or not.”

”And just how would she know that?” Brian wanted to know. “How does she know so much about us? I’ve only seen her like maybe twice and haven’t exchanged more than a dozen words with her in my whole life. So how would she know that?”


“Maybe because I talk to her a lot about you, Bri,” Justin postulated. “Like about what a really great guy you are….”

”And the wise old owl falls for that, Sweetheart?” Brian faked surprise. “How did she get to be such a wise old owl being as gullible as that?”

“She’s not gullible at all, Brian,” Justin insisted. “She is really a wise old owl. That’s why it’s scary to try to replace her for six months….”

“Baby, you could do it – if you wanted to. Yeah, you could. You’re really a special person,” Brian assured him. “I’m not saying you should though – all I’m saying is that you could. Yeah, you could do it if you wanted to. You’re a pretty wise old owl – in your own way of course….”

The conversation died away at this point. Brian thought that Justin was more relaxed than he had been earlier and neither of them was in any particular hurry to continue the discussion.

“Well,” Brian finally broke the silence. “Are you gonna do it?”

“I don’t know yet, Bri,” Justin told him. “Gimme a day or two. But you’ve been a really big help – just thinking that I could do it if I wanted to. You know something else, that’s exactly what Ellen said you’d tell me. She knows about us. She is the Wise Old Owl, you know.”

Brian thought he felt a tear in his eye as he squeezed the kid and ran his fingers through Justin’s hair. He was thinking that Cassandra was, in fact, a really wise old owl – that Justin was also a wise old owl – and that just maybe – maybe Brian Kinney was a wise old owl too.

 

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