Setting

Published in 2012, the short story “Owl” by Jackie Key does not include explicit references to the time and physical setting. We know the events take place somewhere in England, close to the Mersey River (l. 156) and we can assume they are contemporary to the time of publishing.

The story also includes two timelines; the present timeline when the characters are middle-aged, and a past timeline when they were children, forty years previously.

Physical setting

In the flashback timeline, the events take place on a holiday farm and at school. The farm setting is depicted from the narrator’s perspective:

It was only after that strange holiday on the farm, with the fields and fields of rolled bales of hay and the red tractor and the big jugs of milk fresh from the black-and-white cows and the rows of green, muddy Wellington boots outside the porch, and the potatoes that we were allowed to dig up ourselves… (ll. 13-16)

This description helps the narrator suggest the delight that she and Tawny experienced being in the picturesque setting, despite the unfortunate discovery they made there (their parents’ affairs).

The school setting is not described in detail becaus...