"Owl," he said to the barn owl sitting beside him, "I need your help."
Owl turned his head and blinked.
"You know the beach that circles Haven's Cove?" the goblin went on.
Owl nodded.
"Well, there's a bully that's hanging around that beach, a big old bully seagull that's been stealing from the children."
"But seagulls are scavengers by nature," Owl said. "They'll eat anything they can steal."
"Oh, I know," said the goblin, "but this seagull has started stealing toys as well as food, taking them out over the water and dropping them too far out for the children or even the grown-ups to get. It's just plain mean."
"Hmmm...." said Owl. "What do you have in mind?"
"Well," said the goblin, "I want to catch him and bring him here for a day." He pointed at the knothole that served as the front door into his house.
"And how can I help?"
"If I can catch him, can you carry him here?"
"I think so."
Just as the sun was rising, the green goblin put a half-eaten bologna sandwich, a bright red plastic pail, some green netting, and a roll of heavy string into a paper bag, then climbed onto the owl's back. They flew the short distance to Haven's Cove.
It was too early for any families to be there, but the seagulls were awake and noisy, soaring so high that the early sun lit up the underside of their wings, then diving down to catch a fish or to root around in the sand looking for left-overs from the day before. The goblin slid off Owl's back onto the beach. He set out the sandwich and the pail. Pretty soon, gulls began to swoop down for a closer look at his treasures, but he waved his arms and shouted, "No, they're mine! Go away!"
Then an enormous seagull with a pure white belly and black feathers on his back flew in low and fast and grabbed up the red pail before the goblin could stop him. The gull flew a long way out over the water, then dropped the pail. It looked like a tiny red dot floating out there on the ocean. The gull screeched with delight.
"That's our guy," said the goblin to the owl. He took out the netting, holding it tightly in his right hand, and stood up. When the big seagull swooped down for the bologna sandwich, the goblin flung the netting over him and pulled it tight. The gull was trapped! The goblin used string to wrap around and around the seagull so its wings couldn't open.
Then the goblin climbed back on Owl's back, Owl snagged the wrapped-up seagull in his giant talons, and they flew back to the goblin's tree.
"Good luck!" Owl called as he headed home to his barn for a good day's sleep. "I'll be back after dark to hear how it goes."
"Screech, squawk, help!" screamed the angry gull.
"Oh, dear, I probably should have tied your beak shut, too," said the goblin. "Except then you couldn't eat."
"Eat?" squawked the seagull. "Food! Give me food! Screech! Screech! Squawk!"
"Oh, stop your noise!" demanded the goblin. "I'll feed you when you're ready."
"Ready now! Hungry! Feed me! Now!"
The goblin looked at the wrapped-up seagull standing in his living room. "Come here," he said.
The seagull hopped over to the goblin, who went out the door onto the branch. The seagull hopped after him. The goblin showed the seagull a piece of oatmeal bread, then he leaned over and dropped it onto the ground below. The seagull struggled to free his wings so he could fly down to get the bread, but his wings were trapped. He danced up and down on the branch on his long pink legs, but he couldn't figure out how to get to the bread.
The goblin went back inside the tree and put a pot of water on the stove. When the water was hot, he made two bowls of instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal. Then he leaned his head out the door and asked, "Are you still hungry? There's food inside."
The seagull hopped back through the door and into the goblin's kitchen. "What's that?" he squawked, smelling the warm oatmeal.
"It's the best food in the whole world," said the goblin.
The goblin lifted the seagull onto the table. The seagull stuck his beak into the oatmeal and lifted his head to swallow. He stuck his beak back into the oatmeal over and over till it was all gone. "More!" he demanded.
"Fix it yourself," said the goblin, who was just finishing his own bowl of oatmeal. "There's water in the pot and another packet of oatmeal right there next to you."
The seagull looked from the stove to the table. He reached out and tried to use his beak to turn the stove on, but he couldn't do it. He picked up the packet of oatmeal in his beak and shook it, but it didn't open. He tried dropping it on the floor, the way he dropped clams to break open their shells, but not only did the packet not open, he couldn't fly down to the floor to get it. "I can't," he said to the goblin. "You get me more."
The green goblin came and stood in front of the seagull. "Not yet. I want you to think about something first. You think it's fun to steal food and toys from children. Now the food I understand; it's not nice, but it's nature. But the toys! You take toys and drop them so far out to sea that no one can get them back. And you don't even play with them. That's just plain mean. So for now, I'm going to leave you here so you can look at the oatmeal packet for awhile and imagine what it's like for those of us that can't fly to see something that we want -- something that you stole -- and not be able to reach it."
The goblin went out the door and climbed down the tree, leaving the seagull stranded on the table. He found an old tennis ball in the grass and kicked it ahead of him as he meandered along. He heard the music of the ice cream cart and veered off to find it. The ice cream man was blind, so if no grown-ups were around, the goblin liked to spend time visiting with him because the blind man never suspected he was talking to a goblin. Today, though, there was a long line of children with their parents waiting to get ice cream, so the goblin just quietly rolled the tennis ball to the blind man's guide dog, then turned back toward home just as clouds began to gather.
The seagull was still standing on the table where the goblin had left him. "Screech! Let me go! How do you stand not being able to fly?" he squawked. " I remember the bread on the ground. I can see the oatmeal packet on the floor. But I can't get to any of it. I hate this!"
"You can still walk," said the goblin.
"But that's not enough. I'm a bird! You're mean, goblin, to wrap me up like this! I'm starving to death, and my legs are tired from standing, and the whole sky is calling to me."
The goblin sighed. "Do you have any idea yet why I had Owl bring you here?"
"Because you're mean."
"No, because you are. I'm going to free your wings now so you can fly again, but what I really wish is that you might think twice before you steal things you don't even need. I wish you would remember what it's like not to be able to fly."
He got a pair of scissors and carefully cut the heavy string that bound the seagull's wings. The seagull spread his wings, knocking pots and pans off near-by shelves, then he bolted for the door and took off into a soft rain, wheeling and screeching with joy. The goblin watched as the seagull flew toward a rainbow that arched up into the clouds.
The green goblin hunched his shoulders and sighed again. "I don't think that did much good," he thought as he turned back into his kitchen and began to pick up the scattered pots and pans.
The sun was down and the moon just peering over the horizon when Owl tapped at the door with his beak. When the goblin opened his door, Owl set down a red pail. "I found this hanging on a branch of your tree," he said. "Is it yours?"
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