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Hound of Christmas - a short story

Snow blew through the cabin's front door as Skylar's grandfather carried in another log for the massive stone fireplace. Skylar crossed her arms against the chill, watching as Gramps dumped the log on the blaze and then breathed on his hands as he rubbed them together.“Wind's picked up out there,” he said, poking the logs on the fire. “If it doesn’t let up, we’ll be snowed in by tomorrow.”Mattie didn't answer, barely glancing up at her father-in-law as he pulled off his coat and sat in his old Afghan-draped cane chair. After rocking the baby's cradle beside her, she continued stringing popcorn on a length of twine.Grandpa smiled and ruffled Skylar's hair. “What do you want for Christmas, Sky?”“Nothing,” she answered.“Well, I'll bet Santa brings you something nice.”His words brought unexpected tears to Skylar’s eyes. “I'm too old to believe in Santa Claus anymore.”“Too old? Nonsense, you're only seven. Of course, there's a Santa Claus.”Skylar sat at the foot of her grandfather’s rocker, touched his knee and said, “It’s okay with me, Gramps, even if there is no Santa.”“Baby, Santa's no more than an angel, and I guarantee there are angels right here on this earth among us. Sometimes we just don't see them. Still, if you don’t stop believing, they always show up when you need them most.”***Skylar scaled the ladder to her bed in the log cabin's loft. Kneeling on the floor, she said a prayer.“Lord, people out there that need your help more than me, but Gramps says it's always okay to ask, so here goes. Dad’s been so moody and angry since losing his job, would you please cheer him up so he and Mom will stop fighting?”***The first one out of bed Christmas Eve morning, Skylar put a log on the coals in the fireplace and then peeked out the front door. A carpet of white blanketed the ground outside, and most of the rustic front porch. It was several miles from the nearest paved road, and only the gentle rustle of a cold morning breeze through pine boughs made any noise at all.Shivering, she took a walk around the house to the barn, throwing a few snowballs at the shrubbery. Returning to the porch, she started back inside when she heard a cough. Glancing around, she saw a long tail sticking out from beneath the tarp covering the pile of wood on the porch. When she approached, the tail slowly began to wag. Skylar grabbed the edge of the tarp and pulled it up. Staring back at her was the biggest dog she’d ever seen. His striking tan chest highlighted a coat of solid black, and he had big floppy ears and tan spots over both eyes.“You okay?” she asked, cautiously touching the large animal's furry coat.The big dog continued wagging his tail and licked her hand. It was then she noticed how skinny he was, his ribs protruding through matted hair. More than just skinny, she could see from the blood caked on his rear haunch. After hugging the dog, she peeked through the door, wondering if her father was there. He wasn’t. Gramps was in the kitchen, along with her mother, nursing her baby brother as she sat in her own rocking chair.“What you got there, Sky?” Gramps asked.Mattie looked up and saw the large animal. “What are you doing? You can't bring that dog in here.”“He was freezing, and he’s hurt. Please?”“Dan will kill us all if he finds that creature in the house.”“Mattie, the dog’s injured,” the old man said.Mattie handed the baby to her father-in-law. “I'll put an extra blanket on Dan. Maybe he’ll stay in bed a while longer before he gets up.” When Mattie disappeared into the room in back, Gramps examined the cut on the dog's hind leg. “Something got this big boy pretty good. He must have been in a heck of a tangle. Sky, get me a damp rag.”Skylar returned from the sink with the rag, and a biscuit from last night's dinner she’d dipped in bacon grease. The big dog gobbled it down in one bite as Gramps cleaned his wound and applied a coating of iodine to it.“Where’d he come from?” she asked.“Who knows? From the looks of those ribs, he's been on his own a while.”Gramps and Skylar both turned when they heard the gruff words of Sky’s dad. “He was Jess Blanton’s dog. Guess he ran off when the old man died.”“Then can we keep him?”“Why hell no. We barely got enough around here to feed ourselves, much less that overgrown hound. Go ahead and get him out of here.”“He’s hurt. Can't he stay in for just a little while longer?”Before Dan could answer, Mattie said, “It’ll soon be Christmas. Why can't you lay off her, at least for today?”Dan started to speak. Seeing an argument starting to ensue, Gramps said, “The big boy looks just like the dog you had in high school.”Dan glanced at the dog and then back at his wife. “I said to get it out of here, and I don’t mean next week.”Skylar was sitting on the floor by the fireplace, her arms around the big animal’s neck. When Dan approached, the dog uttered a low growl. Dan cocked his foot, as if about to kick him in the ribs. Seeing what was about to occur, Skylar draped herself across the dog and held on. Mattie jumped up from her chair and grabbed her husband’s raised arm.“Don’t do it! I swear, this time I’ll get Gramp’s shotgun and shoot you myself.”Dan just stood there, his arm extended in a frozen arc, staring angry bullet holes into Mattie’s eyes. Gramps, moving quickly for an old man, joined Mattie and grabbed Dan’s other arm.“Son,” he said, “We don't have much, but we got each other. You swing that fist, and you better be ready to spend Christmas alone.”After a long pause, Dan relaxed his arm, pulled free of Mattie and Gramps and strode to the far wall. Leaning against it, he lowered his head and emitted a pained sigh.“Now my family’s turning against me,” he said. “What do you expect me to do? We’re almost out of money, and we hardly even have a slice of bologna to eat for Christmas dinner, much less any presents. Now my daughter wants to adopt another hungry mouth.”All the anger gone out of her Mattie rushed to her husband, again grabbing his arm. This time to pacify him. “It’s all right, Dan. We’ll make do. We always have.”“Yeah, well how are we going to do that?”“Growing up, you were the best hunter in the county. Take my old shotgun and shoot some game,” Gramps said.“I thought about it, but you only got two shells left. Not terribly generous odds, I'd say. What if I miss?”“Well, Son, that seems to be the point. You don’t even try anymore. It’s been a month since you looked for a job. And what if you do miss? We won’t be a whit worse off than we are now.”Dan’s wavy brown hair had grown unruly from too much time between cuttings. He no longer even bothered combing it. Mattie hadn’t said anything, not wanting to provoke him into yet another angry tirade. As if suddenly realizing his unkempt appearance, he raked his hand through his mop of hair and then returned to his bedroom, shutting the door behind him without replying to his father’s admonition.Mattie and Gramps glanced at each other, and then stared at the closed door as Skylar knelt beside the big hound, her arms around his neck as she wept softly. Finally, Gramps joined her, fingering the worn metal tag attached to the faded red collar around his neck.“His name's Casey,” he said, rubbing the massive head that looked too large for its withered body.“Gramps,” Skylar said. Her dark eyes were red and welling with tears she was trying, without much success, to hold back. “Please don’t make me throw him out in the snow.”Gramps put his hand on Sky’s shoulder and shook his head. “Baby, sometimes we just don’t have control over what we want to do.”“It’s just not fair,” Skylar said, no longer able to hold back tears that began rolling down her cheeks.Mattie tried not to notice, turning away and grabbing a broom to sweep some invisible speck of dust under the kitchen table. Soon, the bedroom door opened. It was Dan his hair slicked down with water and combed, his two-day growth of beard freshly shaven. He was dressed in boots and an old hunting jacket, his Dad’s lever-action, single-shot twenty-gauge under his arm. The room grew quiet when he cleared his throat.“I been doing some thinking, and there’s something I want to say. I know there’s no excuse for the way I been acting.” Skylar and Gramps exchanged knowing glances when he said, “Sky, your mom would have never said anything about it, but I hit her with my fist the other night. It wasn’t right, and I’m not proud of doing it. I love your mom. She’s the best person I’ve ever known in my life, and I promise before all of you, right here and now that it won’t happen ever again, for any reason.”Mattie continued staring at the bare floor beneath the straw bristles of the broom, her green eyes welling with tears. Gramps started to say something, but Dan held up his hand and shook his head.He walked to where Skylar remained on her knees beside the big dog. Squatting down, he squeezed her shoulder with one hand and rubbed the dog’s belly with the other.“Sky, I know I haven’t always been the best dad in the world, especially here lately, but I promise I’ll work at doing better. After Christmas, I’m going to town and not coming back without a job. I want you to make a Christmas wish. Don’t tell me now, just think on it a while. Whatever it is, I promise I’ll find a way to fill it for you.”By now, Skylar and Mattie were both hugging Dan as the big dog’s tail pounded slowly against the floor. Gramps joined the group hug. Dan finally unraveled himself from their arms and retrieved the shotgun leaning against the wall.“I’m going hunting. With a little luck, we’ll have something more than biscuits and pork and beans for Christmas dinner tomorrow.”When Dan opened the door, Casey rolled painfully to his feet and followed him outside to the porch.“Skylar, keep him here, by the fire.”“Take him with you,” Gramps said. “He looks like a hunting dog. Maybe he’ll help you find some game.”“I can do this on my own.”“I don’t doubt that one bit. Don’t matter because we can all use a helping hand now and then,” Gramps saidDan started to say something. Thinking better of it, he shook his head as the black and tan hound followed him through the snow. Holding open the passenger door of his old pickup, Dan waited for the dog to hop in. When he realized that the animal’s hurt leg was preventing him from doing so, he grabbed him around the chest and hoisted him into the front seat.They were soon out of sight of the homestead’s clearing, reaching the deeply forested area surrounding the snowy mountainside. When he opened the pickup door, the hound jumped out with some difficulty. Before trudging a hundred yards, Casey took the lead, his nose to the snow, his gimpy leg less noticeable than before. He quickly picked up the scent of a rabbit as he shuffled along beneath tall trees with branches drooping from heavy snow. Dan began seeing tracks, just as the big dog stopped and went into a perfect point. Before them in the snow was a rabbit large enough to provide the family at least a semblance of a Christmas feast. Dan raised the gun, aimed, and squeezed the trigger. The firing pin clicked but failed to ignite the shell inside the gun’s chamber. The rabbit also heard the click, scurrying away into a patch of thick underbrush.“No!” Dan said. “A dud.”Ejecting the shell with a flip of the polished lever, he watched it sink into the snow, thoughts of returning home with empty hands crossing his mind. Then he thought about his stoic little daughter’s unusual show of tears, the fortitude of Mattie, and look of his father’s deep blue eyes—the same look he’d seen the first time when he failed to make his school’s varsity basketball squad.He still had another shell. It was probably also a dud. He'd never know until he pointed the gun at something and pulled the trigger. The black and tan hound hadn’t finished with the hunt his tail wagging and having the time of his life. He rubbed his nose against Dan’s knee, giving him a look as if to say, we’ll get the next one. The dog’s enthusiasm was infectious, and Dan hurried after him, through the snow.Within minutes, the hound caught the scent of something nearby. Because of the way he pawed the snow and moved his tail, Dan knew that it wasn’t another rabbit. The animal they saw next was unafraid of both of them. It was a hog—a monster-sized boar with tusks that curled out of its mouth like dual scimitars. The hog jostled the snow with its hoof and charged. Dan raised the gun, aimed, and pulled the trigger, hearing only a hollow click—his second shell also a dud. Taking an instinctual backwards step, he tripped on a log and fell into the snow. Before he could get up, the boar was on him, ripping at his arms that he’d extended in defense of his face.Casey launched himself into the fray, sinking his teeth into the boar’s throat and then holding on as the giant beast began tossing and rolling, trying to loosen the hound’s jaws from his jugular. Caught beneath the struggle, Dan tried to push the two animals off him before one of the sharp hooves crushed his chest or put out an eye. He managed to yank himself loose from the melee, knowing the heavy boar would soon beat the dog to death unless he acted quickly. Grabbing the gun by the barrel, he smashed the stock across the beast’s wiry back, continuing to flail away until little was left of the weapon except for broken wood and a bent piece of metal.It didn’t matter. The boar had had enough. Standing with difficulty, he tried to back away from the fight, Casey’s teeth, now red with blood, still planted in its throat.“Casey,” Dan called, jumping to his feet and going after the boar again with the remains of his shotgun. “Let him go, boy, let him go,” he yelled between whacks.The big hound released his grip. The bloody boar wheeled around, starting away toward the shelter of nearby trees. He never made it, a bullet from a high-powered rifle felling him where he stood.Startled by the rifle shot, Dan turned to see two men, both carrying expensive rifles and dressed in the finest hunting garb Cabela’s had to offer, enter the clearing. Before ever saying a word to him, they walked over to view the wild pig’s carcass up close.Dan dropped to his knees and crawled to where Casey lay on his back in a pool of blood. The hound was a mess, slowly coughing and wheezing as he tried to catch his breath. Dan rubbed his big head.“Don't you die on me.”He didn’t notice the approach of the two men. “Are you okay?” one asked.Dan’s coat was in shreds, his arms and face burned from cuts inflicted by the boar’s tusks and hooves. He was also covered in blood, his own, the hog’s, and Casey’s. “I’ll make it,” he said.“More than I can say for that dog of yours,” was the emotionless reply of the younger hunter.Before Dan could answer, the older hunter spoke instead. Something in the tone of his voice caused adrenaline—freshly drained from Dan’s body in the skirmish with the wild hog—to shoot through him again.“We’ll give you twenty dollars to help us drag the pig back to our truck.”“I don’t think so. It’s not your pig,” Dan said.“We shot it, and saved your life,” the younger hunter replied.“That dog saved my life. You two are on my property. You have no permission to hunt here. The hog is mine.”“Your property, you say?”“This whole mountainside. Every acre on it. It was my parent’s before me and my grandparent’s before them.”“We trailed that boar for more than an hour,” the younger hunter said. “He’s ours.”“The Sheriff won’t see it that way. He keeps a close eye on strangers in these parts.”“Look,” the older hunter said. “We didn’t know it was your property. We’ll be happy to pay you for the hog.”“How much?” Dan asked.“Fifty,” the man answered.“A hundred,” Dan countered, “And another twenty for me to help you drag it to your pickup.”“Done,” the older hunter said, retrieving five twenties from a thick roll of bills in his coat pocket.The younger man had already gone for their nearby pickup. He returned shortly, and Dan helped them hoist the heavy beast onto its flat bed. He didn’t wait to watch them rumble away, returning quickly to the bloody spot where Casey lay. Removing his coat, he wrapped it over the hound. Lifting him with some effort, he carried him the long mile back to the front seat of his own truck.It was only a few miles to the little tourist town of Marley’s Peak, named after his own grandfather. Christmas lights were aglow on both sides of the street; tourists still window-shopping and taking pictures with their digital cameras. Dan didn’t notice. He only stopped when he reached the old two-storied Victorian home of Doc Mason, the local vet. Cradling the dog with both hands, he kicked on the door with his boot until he heard someone moving around inside. Soon, a gray-haired old man opened the door, not smiling when he saw Dan and the dog.“That’s Jess Blanton’s dog.”Dan nodded. “Jess is gone. Casey’s my dog now. He saved my life. Now I need you to help save his.”“Put him on the table,” he directed after leading Dan to his operating room. “My, my,” he said when he uncovered Casey. Shaking his head, he said, “He’s lost a lot of blood. Don’t know if he’s going to make it.”“Doc, what can I do?”“Get me some hot water and start praying,” the old man said. “I'll do what I can, but it don't look good.***Skylar awoke Christmas morning at her usual early hour. She wasn’t the only one awake in the house. The first thing she saw was a large holiday tree decorated with strings of popcorn and crowned with a golden angel. How wonderful, she thought. Then the odor of a sumptuous meal, cooking on the kitchen stove, reminded her it was Christmas. When she heard the whimper of a large hound by the fireplace, she began to cry.“Casey,” she said, rushing to where he lay. “What happened to you?”Casey’s tail thumped slowly against the hardwood floor as he licked the little girl’s hand.“He’s banged up pretty good, but he’s going to be okay,” Gramps said from his rocking chair. “Your Dad’s pretty banged up too. He hasn’t told me yet what happened. Guess we’ll have to wait to find out.”Three hastily wrapped presents sat beneath the tree, apples, pears and shelled nuts in bowls on the kitchen table. Mattie stood at the stove, cooking bacon and eggs in her old cast-iron skillet. For a moment, Skylar thought that she had died and gone to heaven.An hour had passed before the bedroom door opened, and Dan appeared. He strolled stiffly to the stove where he gave his wife a hug and a lingering kiss. After savoring a sip from the cup of coffee Mattie handed him, he walked over to Skylar and the dog, knelt down beside them and kissed her on the forehead. It was then she saw the fresh cuts on his face and hands.“Dad, what happened?”Dan quickly recounted the tale. “That dog doesn’t have a lick of quit in him,” he said, rubbing the hound’s head. “Gramps is always talking about angels. Yesterday, he was my angel. He's part of the family now. If someone's gonna go hungry in this house, it'll be me before it's him.”Gramps joined them by the fire, resting his hand on his son’s shoulder. “A man came by the house this morning. Wanted to know if we’d consider giving him a hunting lease on the property. Said they would pay top dollar. I told him that he had to come back later and talk to you about it.”Dan grinned. “We’ll work on that later. Now Sky, what can I do to fulfill your Christmas wish?”The black and tan’s tail thumped slowly against the hardwood floor as Skylar hugged his big neck, and then her dad’s. Smiling, she said, “You already did.”

END


Born a mile or so from Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma, and continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. If you liked Chicken Fries, please check out his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages.

BLINK OF AN EYE - Chapter 1

Late for dinner and a movie with his steady girlfriend Lynn, Buck McDivit raced down I-35. Almost sundown, snowflakes from a late spring snowstorm dusted his windshield. As sunset began turning the sky red, an old pickup appeared over the rise in the northbound lane.Almost out of control, the driver flashed his headlights when he saw Buck’s truck. In less than a moment, he realized why the old pickup was in such a hurry. A black truck doing ninety or more crested the rise behind it. The speeding vehicle slammed into the pickup's rear bumper, swerving it.“What the hell?” Buck said.Tapping his brakes, he slowed just enough to cross the grassy median in a sliding skid. When he hit the pavement, he floored the gas pedal in an attempt to catch the two speeding vehicles. The big V8 in his Navigator responded with a revving engine and squeal of burning rubber.The speedometer reached a hundred as he crested a rolling hill and caught up with the two vehicles in front of him. The truck kept banging the old pickup, finally spinning it and sending it into the ditch. It flipped in the air doing a slow-motion tumble before hitting a sandstone outcrop. Buck dialed 911.“Got a bad one about six miles south of Guthrie on I-35. Need an ambulance, and quick.”The black truck slowed just enough to give Buck time to read its license tag. The personalized plate said BladeRunner. With other things more pressing on his mind, he watched as it disappeared over a rolling hill.Slamming the brakes, he slid to within thirty feet as the truck caught fire and started to burn. Without bothering to shut the door, he raced to the burning vehicle.The truck lay on its side; the hood popped and dark smoke billowing from the engine. Jumping on the running board, Buck grabbed the door handle and yanked.An old man lay crumpled behind the wheel, his eyes closed. He felt light as a feather as Buck wrestled him from the cab. Dragging him, he tried to get as far away from the burning truck as he could. They almost made it.When the truck exploded, the concussion knocked him off his feet. Slamming into the pavement, he skidded on knees and elbows, his face scraping asphalt. Hot air warmed his neck as it blasted over his head. The old man opened his eyes when he patted his face.“I knew it was you when I saw your truck,” he said in a whispered voice.“Do I know you?”The old man’s eyes closed and he grew silent without answering the question.Scant minutes had passed before sirens began screaming. An emergency vehicle from the Guthrie fire department skidded to a halt behind them. Two EMT’s that Buck recognized raced to help.Clint was short, had a pug nose and a fireplug body. His partner Bones McGee was twice as tall and half as wide.“Ain’t got much pulse,” Clint said, slipping an oxygen mask over his face. “You okay?”“Don’t worry about me,” he said. “How’d you get here so quick?”“Just down the road when the call came in. Lucky for you.”The two EMT’s loaded the old man into the back of the ambulance and then returned to check on Buck.“You look like hell,” Bones said. “Where you taking him?” Buck asked.“Guthrie Hospital,” Clint said. “Come with us. You got burned hands and blood all over you.”“Meet you there,” Buck said. “Can’t leave my truck on the side of the road.”“Okay, tough guy. Just don’t pass out on the way.”Traffic had begun stacking up on I-35, police vehicles and rubberneckers slowing traffic. At least until a semi racing toward Wichita crested the rise. By the time he saw the congestion, it was too late. The big truck careened full throttle into Buck’s Navigator.Both vehicles ended up in the ditch as firefighters rushed to check on the driver. Buck would have helped but the collision had knocked him smooth out. Ammonia beneath his nose opened his eyes.“Your truck’s toast and ain’t going no place but the junkyard,” Clint said.”Buck was in no position to argue. After assisting him to the ambulance, they raced away in a blast of sirens and screech of burning rubber. He recovered enough to touch the shoulder of the old man on the gurney as Bones adjusted the IV in his veins.“How’s he doing?” Buck asked.“Don’t look so good,” Bones said. “You got a hell of a knot on your head. Hang on, and I’ll clean the blood off your arms and face.”“Just take care of the chief,” Buck said. “I’ll be fine till we get to the hospital.”The old man’s bone structure and hooked nose pegged him as a Native American. He opened his eyes and smiled when he saw Buck.“I knew I’d find you,” he said.“You know me?” Buck asked.“Esme sent me. She said to give you this.”He fumbled with something in the pocket of his faded shirt. Buck took the object, turning it in his hand.“What is it?” he asked.The old man didn’t answer, his eyes closing again.“We’re losing him,” Bones said, pumping his chest.The faint blink of a dark Indian eye showed them he was still alive.“Hang in there, Chief,” Buck said.A wisp of a smile appeared on the wizened face of the old Indian as he grasped Buck’s hand and squeezed. When his hand relaxed, Buck knew, he was dead. Bones checked his pulse, and then covered his face with the sheet.“You knew him?” he asked.“Never saw him before,” Buck said.“Who is Esme, and what did he give you?”“A beautiful woman I once knew. Don’t have a clue what this thing is,” he said.“Looks like some Indian relic to me,” Bones said. “What happened back there?”“Driver of a black truck ran him off the road. I got his tag.”“Let me have it, and I’ll call it in,” Bones said.“BladeRunner. Oklahoma vanity tag.”Buck glanced at his skinned elbows and blisters on his palms. After wiping the blood from his face with his blue bandanna, he wrapped it around his right hand. Bones didn’t let him finish, moving around the cot to check him out.“Where does it hurt?” he asked.“All over,” Buck said.“Least you’re alive,” Bones said, glancing at the body of the old man covered with the sheet.“More than I can say for the chief.”




Born a mile or so from Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma, and continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. If you liked Chicken Fries, please check out his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages.

CHICKEN FRIES - a short story

Years ago, I worked up a geologic prospect in Grant County, Oklahoma and sold it to a company that bought it under the condition that I would personally sit the well. This means I would stay near the location while the well was drilling and personally study the drilling samples as they came to the surface. This occurred before Anne and I were married, but not before we were living together. Deciding to make an adventure of it, we rented a thirty-three foot recreational vehicle. Country and western singer Wanda Jackson’s former RV, according to the man we rented it from. Heading north to Grant County, we took along our good friend Ray.The well was in the middle of a wheat field, without a tree in sight. The drilling rig, we soon learned, didn’t have enough power to generate enough electricity for the RV, so we had to run the generator full time. It was hot that summer, one hundred to one hundred and five degrees every day. Although the weather was steamy, the wheat field dusty and the drilling rig noisy, we had a daily respite, three actually. There was a little eatery in Pond Creek called the Curb Café. The County sheriff owned the place and the specialty of the house was chicken-fried steak. Soon, Anne, Ray and I were eating chicken-fried steak and eggs for breakfast, the chicken-fried steak luncheon special, and the dinner that included a fully-loaded, baked potato. Sheriff Archie’s chicken-fries weren’t his only claim to fame. He was also the state expert on witchcraft, crop circles and cattle mutilations, of which there were many during that particular summer.The month was July, the temperature hot. There were no trees at the drilling location for shade. The height of the eighty’s drilling boom, every man on the drilling rig was a weevil (translation: a person having no earthly idea what they are doing). Anne, Ray, and I weren’t worried because we had our chicken fries to look forward to three times a day. Returning to the rig after breakfast on the second day of drilling, a state trooper, directing traffic and pulling selected cars to the side of the road, halted us.“Where you folks headed?”“We’re drilling a well about a mile from here. What’s the deal, Officer?”“Someone cut up a cow out there last night,” he said, pointing to the fenced pasture. “Sliced its udder smack-dab off and not a drop of blood anywhere.”Anne glanced at me, and I looked at Ray. “What’s going on?”“A coven,” he said. “Last night was a full moon.”Ray grinned as he glanced first at Anne and then at me.“You are kidding, aren’t you?”The question earned him a dirty look. “Mighty big RV you got there. Mind if I take a look inside?”“Help yourself,” I said, my easy acquiescence earning another dirty look, this one from Anne.The trooper did not wait for a second invitation, hurrying up the short flight of stairs to the RV’s opened door. He glanced inside the tiny bathroom and the bedroom in back before satisfying himself that Anne, Ray, and I were not part of the coven that had mutilated the cow the previous night. We were soon on the road again to the drilling rig.“Why did you let him look inside the RV? He didn’t have a search warrant,” Anne asked.“We have nothing to hide,” I answered. “I thought that he might give us more information about what happened last night.”Ray shook his head. “Fat chance of that! He probably couldn’t get his mouth open because of that frown on his face.”A dust devil blowing across the location as we turned off the highway ended our talk of covens and cattle mutilations. The location, a bare four acres, bulldozed from an Oklahoma wheat field, lay miles from the nearest town or farmhouse. The roar of a giant diesel engine accosted our hearing when we stopped and opened the RV’s door.Ray and Anne relaxed as I walked across the location to the drilling rig known as a double because it drilled with stands of pipe consisting of two thirty-foot sections. The mast poked seventy or eighty feet into clear Oklahoma sky. The doghouse and drill floor were twelve feet above the ground, and reached by climbing a steep flight of metal stairs. The sample man had tied my drilling samples to the handrail at the base of the stairs. I decided to check the drill floor anyway before returning to the RV with the samples.I sprinted up the steep twenty-four steps leading to the doghouse. Three roughnecks acknowledged my appearance by melting away without a word. Ralph, the driller, stared across the wheat field, rubbed his oily hand through his equally oily three day-old beard, and spat tobacco juice on the ground below. I glanced at the Geolograph, the mechanical device on the rig floor telling how deep we had drilled. Ralph continued to ignore me.This wasn’t my first rodeo. I hadn’t been on a drilling rig in more than a year, but I knew the hierarchy and flow of a drilling hole as well as I knew my own name. Ralph looked older than his thirty-odd years, the shirt he wore as black as his oily hair. Still, he had drilling intelligence, maybe more than me. He knew more about the subsurface of Grant County, Oklahoma than any person I knew. He could immediately pick “pay dirt” and he didn’t tolerate fools. Neither did I.“Was that last drilling break in the Layton?”“Yep,” he said.“You heard about the cow cutting, up the road?”“Yep,” he said again.“And?” I asked, trying to draw him out.Ralph spit a wad of tobacco over the railing and started away, toward the rig’s diesel engines.“Weren’t no alien spacecraft,” he said, his words quickly overcome by the mechanical drone of the giant diesel outside the door.“Then what was it?”Ralph turned and looked at me. He wasn’t smiling. “Don’t pay to ask too many questions around here about such as that.”He gave me no chance to ask any more questions, hurrying down the steep stairs as fast as his gimpy leg would let him. I glanced again at the Geolograph and then followed him. I found Anne and Ray watching a portable television while eating potato chips and drinking Coke, Anne’s omnipresent drink of choice.They both gave me looks of apprehension when I said, “Maybe we better lock the door tonight.”Many strange and eerie events had already occurred in Oklahoma that summer. When one occurred, the news stations always interviewed Sheriff Arch, the owner of our chicken fry café in Pond Creek. That evening, we had a lively discussion as we drove to Pond Creek for our nightly feast.“Let’s confront Sheriff Arch,” Anne said. “He’ll tell us what he thinks is going on around here.”“Maybe he knows what’s happening because he’s a Satanist himself. Maybe we should keep our questions to ourselves.”“Bull,” Ray said. “I agree with Anne. Let’s ask him. You think he’ll put a hex spell on us, or something?”Anne snickered when I said, “Maybe.”“Well it’s two to one,” she said. “Tonight we talk with Sheriff Arch.”True to its name, the Curb Café sat just north of a big bend in the highway as it passed through Pond Creek. The café was large and almost always crowded. When Sheriff Arch was around, he held court at a big booth in the corner near the kitchen.Every farmer, rancher and shop owner entering the restaurant paid him homage, shaking his hand before taking a seat for dinner. An imposing figure, he ruled the County by his mere presence. Maybe, but intimidated is how I felt, as apparently so did Ray. Not so Anne. Walking straight to his booth, she extended her hand and introduced herself. She was also an imposing figure and had the savvy and intelligence to play to his ego. It was easy to see, he was immediately impressed.“I’m Anne, Sheriff, and these are my friends Eric and Ray. May we pick your brain a bit?”“About what, little lady?”“Satanists and cattle mutilations. You are the expert and everyone in Oklahoma knows that.”“Slide in here, little lady,” he said.Anne slid into the booth beside Sheriff Arch. Looking skeptical, Ray followed her and so did I.“The usual,” Ray said to Chloe, our regular waitress.She smiled and walked away toward the kitchen, knowing without asking that we all wanted chicken fried steak dinners.“I see you like our specialty,” Sheriff Arch said. “We like to think it’s the best in the state.”“Best I’ve ever had,” I said.“What do you think, little lady?” Sheriff Arch asked Anne.“Are you kidding? I have gained three pounds in the last week.”“A pound of that came from your bread pudding,” I said. “It’s Anne’s favorite desert.”“Good, good. Now what can I do for you?” he said.“There was a cattle mutilation just west of here last night. State police stopped and questioned us. The tool pusher on the rig we are on said it wasn’t aliens responsible.”Sheriff Arch chuckled. “More likely the Blackwell Coven. They been fairly active lately.”Ray said, “The Blackwell Coven? You mean there is more than one?”“Depends on who you ask,” he answered.Anne gave me a glance I knew meant "how does he know how many covens there are unless he is a member?" She must have been afraid to ask. Both Ray and I were.Instead, she said, “Can you tell us exactly what a cattle mutilation entails?”Sheriff Arch rubbed his grizzled chin and nodded. “It’s always the same. The farmer finds the cow dead and drained of blood, its sexual organs surgically removed. Its eyes and tongue also gone. No blood on the ground. Not a drop.”“Is the tool pusher on our rig correct when he said the mutilations aren’t related to aliens?” I asked.“You don’t really believe in little green men from Mars, do you?” he asked, staring me straight in the eye.“No, but . . .”“Then give me a little more credit,” he said, his tone suddenly stern, as if he were a teacher admonishing a slow student. “These mutilations are done by Satanists, plain and simple.”“But how do you know that?” Anne asked.“I know because the mutilations always happen during satanic holidays or eves to holidays.”“Such as?” Anne goaded.“Yesterday was the first day of July, when Satanists and pagans celebrate the Demon Revels. It’s a celebration of female sexuality and the udder of a cow is often taken for the ceremony. That’s what happened last night.”“You mean Satanists have celebrations, like Christians?”Our chicken fried dinners arrived before Sheriff Arch could answer Anne’s question. After the waitress left our table, he said, “All the Christian holidays are based on pagan activities that preceded them by centuries.”“Even Easter?” Ray asked.“Son, do you know what estrus means?”Ray stuttered a bit and said, “Well, not really.”“It’s when an animal goes into heat. Eastre was the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of fertility, a goddess associated with eggs and rabbits. Their holiday for Eastre took place around the Vernal Equinox of spring. Does any of this sound familiar?”“So these Satanists are really pagans, acting out ancient beliefs?” Anne asked.“That’s right,” Sheriff Arch said.“Then why are they so secretive? We do have freedom of religion in this country,” she said.“Because the congregation at the local Methodist Church doesn’t kill cattle that aren’t theirs, then cut them up for use in some pagan ceremony.”“Is that all they do that’s illegal?” I asked.Sheriff Arch motioned Chloe to bring us a refill on our coffee. After she had filled our cups and left the table with a smile, he said, “There’s rumor that they do quite a bit more than cattle mutilations.”“Such as?” Ray asked.“Sacrifice, of the human variety.”After hearing Sheriff Arch’s words, Ray and I simply sat there, staring at him with our eyes wide and mouths open. Anne wasn’t so content and asked, “Do you know any Satanists?”“Yes I do, little lady, and so may you. Ralph Thompson, the daylight driller on the rig that’s drilling your well is an elder in the Blackwell Coven.”A near-full moon lighted the highway on our return trip to the drilling rig that night, the talk of pagans, cattle mutilations and possible human sacrifices resounding in our heads. The last two weeks of June had seen record rainfall and cool temperatures. That all had changed with the first week of July. The RV’s air-conditioner worked overtime as we pulled onto the location. It was after nine, the sky already dark as I parked the large vehicle and turned off the engine.Sated by chicken fries and mashed potatoes, Ray and Anne prepared for some light reading, followed quickly by bedtime. I wasn’t so lucky. Leaving them to their idleness, I headed for the rig floor to retrieve my drilling samples. What I found was a moon-bright location and not a single roughneck in sight. Far across the wheat field, a coyote bayed at the moon.The late seventies drilling boom featured three things—fast money, prominent drugs and rampant inexperience. The most experienced roughneck on the night tower had less than a year of oil field work under his belt. The rest, well . . .My samples weren’t waiting for me at the usual place and I climbed the stairs to the drill floor in search of the driller. Instead, at the top of the flight I found an empty doghouse and a fresh joint of pipe turning slowly. There was no one in sight. Above the pungent odor of burning diesel fuel, I smelled something wafting up from below: the unmistakable scent of pot. I started down the stairs toward the smell. Following my nose to the mud bin, I found two of the roughnecks. They were young, early twenties, and from the look in their disjointed eyes, both stoned.“Did you fellows forget to catch my samples?”The two young men answered me with nervous giggles. Realizing I wouldn’t get much more information from them, I walked around the drilling rig in search of the driller. A large rotary rig, powered by twin diesel engines is very noisy. Most oil patch workers have significant hearing loss after years on the job. A drilling rig is also a very dangerous place to work and roughnecks with missing fingers is a common sight. Fingers aren’t the only things lost on a drilling rig. Those that aren’t careful often lose larger limbs, and even their lives. High pressure gas spewing uncontrollably from a broken wellhead had blown a man’s head off that very year. I hadn’t witnessed the accident, but I knew the man’s father.As I rounded the drilling rig, a heavy steel cheater bar tumbled off the rig floor, missing my head by inches and bouncing as it hit the ground. With my heart racing from a rush of adrenaline, I glanced up to get a glimpse of what or who was responsible. Seeing no one there, I raced up the steep steps to find the dog house and rig floor deserted. When I retraced my steps down the steep ramp, I found my missing samples had miraculously appeared in their normal place, tied to the bottom rail. Feeling I would get no satisfaction as to how the accident had occurred, I started back toward the RV. Waiting for me at the vehicle’s door was a large pentagram, painted in the sand with oil. On the front step was a headless chicken, its muscles still twitching.I rushed into the RV, my heart racing. “You’re not going to believe this,” I shouted to get Anne’s and Ray’s attention. “Quick, come see.”“There’s a good movie on,” Ray said.“And I’m reading the last ten pages of my book,” Anne added.“I don’t care. You have to see this.”“See what?” she asked.“Hurry,” I implored.Finally convinced, they followed me out the RV’s side door and I immediately realized something was amiss. There was no dead chicken and the pentagram painted in the sand had miraculously disappeared. Anne and Ray were both behind me and I could feel their staring eyes on the back of my neck. They weren’t the only ones. Every roughneck on the crew, and the driller, had suddenly appeared. Standing on the drill floor, they were all watching Anne, Ray and me, waiting to see what we were going to do.I didn’t give them the satisfaction. Brushing past Ray and Anne without explaining why, I quickly returned to the RV. After exchanging their own perplexed glances, they followed me through the door.Anne always had a sharp tongue and Ray laughed when she asked, “Hitting the hooch a little early tonight?”I made sure the door was closed and the shades down before I answered. And then I blurted, “Someone tried to kill me. They painted a pentagram in front of the door and left a headless chicken for me to find.”“Okay, Wildman,” Ray said. “You have our attention. What’s the punch line?”“There is no punch line. I think every roughneck working this rig is a Satanist. I also think we are in danger.”“You two are in danger. I’m going back to OKC tomorrow, after breakfast,” he said.“So, you’re just going to desert us?”“You knew I was leaving tomorrow. I’m not deserting anyone.”“Have you flipped out?” Anne asked, shaking her head. “You must be making up this entire story.”“No way,” I said. “It happened just the way I told you.”***I had trouble sleeping that night, half expecting a bomb, or something worse, to fly through the window of the RV. Anne and Ray had no such trouble, both positive I was either pulling their legs, or else partaking of some of the roughneck’s pot. As I lay there, wide awake, I wished I had a little pot to help me sleep. I apparently didn’t need the help and someone banging on the RV’s door roused me from a deep trance. When I glanced at my watch, I saw it was three in the morning.“What is it?” I asked the excited driller, a kid no older than twenty-two.“We’re taking a kick. What should I do?”Pulling on my pants, I rushed out the door and headed for the rig floor. “Stop drilling. Pull up a stand or two and circulate bottoms up. Get a measurement on the mud and add some weight if you have to. Bring me samples every fifteen minutes until I tell you to stop.”“I’m sort of green,” the young driller admitted. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”There was a gas detector on the rig floor and it was registering somewhere far off the chart. Reaching the dog house before the young driller, I quickly engaged the clutch.“You got a gas bubble coming up. Hurry and do what I say before this rig lights up like a Roman candle.”I could feel the roughneck’s stares as they followed my orders, pulling up and circulating. I watched the hydrocarbon detector as it went off the chart, enough unexpected gas to burn the rig to the ground if we hadn’t interceded. By four in the morning we had things under control and I had called for a drill-stem test to determine just how much gas we really had. With the results more than twelve hours away, I slept as Ray drove us to Pond Creek for our morning chicken fry.“We’re here, Superman,” Anne said, shaking my shoulder to rouse me.With the groggy head of a person that hadn’t slept much in thirty-six hours, I followed them into the café. We had a surprise when we entered the door.Ray’s wife Kathy had driven up from Oklahoma City and awaited us in a large booth. “I’ve had all the fun I can take,” Ray said. “Kathy’s here to take me home.”Forgetting Ray’s pronouncement, we were soon in the throes of, what else but, chicken-fried steak and eggs. Between bites, the three of us conveyed our story to Kathy and she was enthralled.“Let’s stay,” Kathy said. “I’ve never seen a Satanist before.”She was serious and Ray soon acquiesced. They followed us back to the drilling rig, Anne and Kathy spending much of the day catching up on gossip. Ray slept while I observed the pulling of the drill-stem test.After the large kick on the gas detector, I was expecting gas to surface, good pressures and every indication of a potentially fine well. I was totally disappointed when the last stand of drill pipe was extracted from the borehole. As the driller started back into the hole with the drill bit, I headed for the RV for an hour or so of much needed sleep.Irv was a petroleum engineer and one of the owners of the oil company drilling the well. He woke us early the next morning with a knock on the RV’s door. Anne started a pot of coffee and we all soon had jolts of caffeine coursing through our systems. I needed it. After draining the coffee pot, we headed to Pond Creek for breakfast, Irv’s eyes gleaming when our server brought our usual: chicken-fried steak and eggs with cream gravy.Between bites, Irv said, “The rig is shutting down and circulating for the Fourth of July. You may as well take a break because they won’t start drilling again until six A.M. on the Fifth.”“We’re leaving it to you,” Ray said. “Kathy and I are going back to OKC.”After picking up the tab, Irv headed for the front door. “Ron and I have another well drilling in Alfalfa County. Got to check it out. See you two in a couple of days.”Anne and I soon found ourselves alone in the large booth. “It’s too far to go home and come back in just thirty-six hours,” she said.“And too damn hot to stay on location. What say we drive to Ponca City? We could go to the sports car races. Surely there is an RV park around someplace.”Anne agreed and it felt good to drive in a direction away from the drilling rig and know that we didn’t have to get back in ninety minutes or so. Ponca City isn’t far from Pond Creek and we made the drive in about an hour. I was still worn out from lack of sleep so I took a nap in the passenger seat while Anne drove. We were just pulling into town when I awoke, feeling rested and still full from breakfast.Ponca City is too far off the beaten path for most tourists, a pity as the city and region are steeped in history. Ponca was the home of oil baron E.W. Marland, a man who arrived in town penniless, soon drilled his way to an enormous wealth. In 1922 he controlled a tenth of the world’s oil supply, yet died penniless. His second wife Lydie was his adopted daughter before he had the adoption annulled. Even before the adoption, she was his niece by the marriage with his first wife, Virginia. Their mansion, built at the cost of more than five million dollars, even in the twenties, remains one of the major attractions of Ponca City. At the risk of sounding like a travelogue, check out Ponca if you ever get the chance.Anne and I weren’t interested in history that particular day. We had come to Ponca City to get away from the hot and noisy drilling rig, and to partake in the holiday festivities happening there during the Fourth of July. Since the sixties, the Sports Car Club of America had staged races at a one point five mile track, constructed from city roads, just east of town. The track abutted Lake Ponca. During the Fourth of July, the normal 20,000 or so population of Ponca City would double. Anne and I felt very lucky we didn’t have to search for a room to have a place to spend the night.All the camping facilities around Lake Ponca were taken by racers and spectators so we continued east to Kaw Lake where we found an RV park. We checked in and there we stayed, resting and recuperating, until nearly six when we headed back toward Ponca City in search of a place to eat dinner.We were apprehensive about finding an equal to our favorite café in Pond Creek. When we reached downtown Ponca City, cordoned off for only pedestrian traffic, we waded into the ongoing street party and quickly realized we had nothing to worry about.Sports car racing had concluded for the day and it seemed like most of the spectators and racers alike had descended on downtown Ponca City. A rock band was playing on a raised stage, electrifying the summer night with drum rolls and guitar riffs. Street vendors lined both sides of the street selling everything from hot dogs to Indian tacos. Anne and I each got a Budweiser in a plastic cup and a hot dog. Finding a vacant spot on a park bench, we ate, drank and watched the passing crowd. We soon had a pleasant surprise, seeing a couple that we knew from Oklahoma City.It was Andy and Cathy. Yes, I know, but we knew lots of Cathy’s at the time. This Cathy was Anne’s ex-roommate, the person that had introduced us. Andy was a friend that we had introduced to Cathy. Well, you get the drill. Anyway, Andy raced motorcycles and sports cars but this weekend they were in town only as spectators. The crowd was now shoulder-to-shoulder and we decided to find a pub, drink a few more beers and catch up on what we had done since last seeing each other.Cathy and Anne were as close as sisters and neither of us took offense when she asked, “Have you two gained weight?”“Too many chicken fries,” I said.Anne explained about our new favorite café in Pond Creek. “If we don’t hurry and finish this well, we’ll both be ten pounds heavier by the time we get back to Oklahoma City.”Andy laughed when Cathy said, “More like twenty pounds, if you ask me.”“How is the well going?” Andy asked, changing the subject.“Running high and looking good,” I answered. I explained about the drill-stem test. “The results were less than promising but we had one heck of a show of gas. Maybe the zone was plugged with drilling mud, or something.”Cathy elbowed Anne. “I don’t want to put a crimp in the conversation, but that man sitting across the room has been staring at us ever since we sat down. Does anyone know him?”It was Ralph, the day tower driller and, according to Sheriff Arch, the spiritual leader of the Blackwell coven. He suddenly saw us looking, got up from the table and headed for the door. After motioning Anne, Cathy and Andy to wait for me, I followed after him.“Ralph, wait. I need to talk with you.”I could tell he heard me but he kept walking without turning around. It didn’t matter because I was younger, and even with an extra ten pounds or so of weight, I was still faster. Pursuing him through the crowd, I soon caught him and grabbed his shoulder."Why are you running from me?”He halted, wheeled around. Crossing his arms, he stared into my eyes. “What is it you want, mister?”“You know me. I’m Eric, the geologist on the rig.”“I know who you are.”“Then maybe you can answer a few questions. Do you mind?”The street party in downtown Ponca City had reached a crowded and noisy crescendo. Ralph glanced around when a slightly tipsy couple banged into him as they passed on the sidewalk.“Not here,” he said.After our ensuing conversation, I left Ralph on the street and returned to the pub to rejoin Anne, Cathy and Andy. They had finished a pitcher of beer or two while I was gone and had started on yet another. They were all happy, to say the least.“Where have you been?” Anne asked.“Sorry. I caught up with Ralph but didn’t get any answers to my questions.”“You two better watch yourselves. Anne told us about the cow mutilation and the supposed accident on the rig. I think you should leave well enough alone,” Cathy said, wagging her finger at me.She wasn’t always right, but she was never at a loss for an opinion. I took her advice with a grain of salt. Andy had his trademark smirk on his face and motioned our server for another pitcher of beer.Budweiser, Miller and Coors beer is all three point two percent alcohol in Oklahoma. The breweries had an argument with the State legislature in the seventies over who has the right to distribute their products. The major breweries only want their licensed distributors (read insider deal) to do the distribution. The State of Oklahoma thinks anyone should have the right. To this day, Bud, Miller and Coors sell only three point two percent, and no strong beer, in Oklahoma, and then only in grocery stores, not liquor stores. Even weak beer will eventually catch up with you, as any person stopped for a DUI will tell you. It had already caught up with Andy and Cathy and I was glad they were staying in a nearby hotel within walking distance. Anne and I weren’t so lucky. We still had to return to the RV Park on Kaw Lake and hook up our sewage and electricity. Realizing the problem, I asked the server to bring me an iced tea.“Ralph didn’t tell you anything?” Anne soon asked.“No, but I told him where we are staying. He’s coming by later to talk with us.”“Are you nuts?” Cathy asked. “You two could be tonight’s human sacrifice.”“She’s right, Wildman.” Andy said. “If I were you I’d stay right here in town tonight.”“Right on,” Cathy said. “And if you’re too bull-headed to listen, at least leave Anne here. Surely you don’t intend to risk her life as well.”“I don’t intend to risk anyone’s life,” I answered defensively. “I’m sure Ralph is perfectly safe.”“Yeah, right!” Cathy said. “One minute you tell us he tried to kill you, the next minute he’s your best bud.”“Lighten up on him,” Andy said. “Obviously he has a death wish.”Andy had a smirk on his face and was obviously goading Cathy on. His ploy was working. She was more than slightly tipsy when she grabbed Anne’s arm and said, “My roomie is staying with us tonight. You can go get yourself skinned alive if you want, but leave Anne out of your misguided decision.”Cathy was a pretty blonde with big brown eyes but when she had too much to drink, her razor tongue became even sharper. That night she was exceeding even her limit.“Fine,” I said. “I told Ralph I would meet him and that’s what I intend to do. Anne can stay here with you two and I will pick her up tomorrow.”“Screw that, Tarzan,” Anne said. “You’re not always the brightest bulb in the lamp, but where you go, I go.”We had barely left the Ponca City pub after saying goodnight to Andy and Cathy, and I could tell Anne was not in a very good mood.“What’s the matter, Little Honey?” I finally asked.“We’re about to be killed and you ask me what’s the matter?”“What are you talking about?” “You know what I’m talking about. How could you invite a Satanist over to our RV for a late night visit? Are you a total ding-a-ling?”“Ralph doesn’t seem dangerous to me,” I said.“Yeah, that’s probably what that poor cow said.”Like Cathy, Anne had a quick wit and sharp tongue and I couldn’t help but laugh. She wasn’t laughing, turning away from me in the passenger seat with both her arms and legs tightly crossed. If body language could speak, hers was saying, nay shouting, that I was a complete idiot. Anne was also a great judge of character and I began doubting my own decision to invite Ralph to visit us at the RV Park.Kaw Lake Park was poorly lighted and I had some trouble re-hooking the sewage and electricity. It was already quite late when I completed the task, went inside and relaxed on the sofa, drawing a deep breath of exhaustion. Anne joined me, her smile indicating even if we were about to die because of my stupid decision to invite Ralph to the RV, she didn’t hold a grudge. A good thing, because less than ten minutes passed before we heard the throaty exhausts of a Harley pull to a stop outside the RV. We waited, listening as someone scraped their boots on the ramp leading up the door. Then footsteps . . .Anne made a face as I opened the RV’s door. “Come in,” I said.Ralph wasn’t alone. A woman named Goldie accompanied him, and Ralph introduced her only by first name, and as his soul mate.Goldie had long blonde hair decorated with pink, azure and purple beads, and had big expressive blue eyes. She wore a leather-fringed jacket beaded with the same colors, along with American Indian totem signs. She seemed like a sixties flower child that had put on twenty pounds in the seventies to become the quintessential earth mother. Ralph also wore a matching leather-fringed coat. For the second time since meeting him, I saw him without a hat or helmet. His dark hair was also long, draping almost to his shoulders, and I could see he was much younger than I’d previously thought. Pointing to the built-in seating around the stationary table, I invited the Sonny and Cher look-alikes to join us.“Would anyone like a beer?” I asked.Ralph and Goldie both nodded so I brought a round of Coors from the RV’s little refrigerator before sliding in beside Anne. The lighting was dim. When Goldie began rolling a joint on the table top, the atmosphere became suddenly surreal. The hallucinatory odor of burning pot permeated the RV as Goldie lit the joint, took a deep drag and then handed it to Ralph. After taking his own pull from the joint, he passed it to Anne. She took a hesitant puff and quickly passed it back to Ralph. Ralph shook his head and nodded in my direction. I’m a non-smoker and no fan of the effects of marijuana, but I could already see the big picture. If Ralph and Goldie were going to impart their knowledge of Satanism and cattle mutilations to us, they first wanted us to join them in a simple illegal act.Anne’s eyes grew large as I took the pencil-thin joint, drew a deep lungful of the smoke and held it for a long moment before blowing aromatic smoke rings toward the RV’s ceiling.“Like it?” Goldie asked. “Home-grown from our own private patch.”She was grinning, as was Ralph and Anne. I soon realized that so was I. When I arose to get us more beer from the refrigerator I almost fell on my face.“Creeper weed,” Ralph said. “It takes a while to catch up with you, but when it does . . .”Anne lit a candle, put it in the center of the table and turned out the lights. Along with the pungent odor of marijuana, rising smoke and flickering candle light, all we needed was a little heavy-metal music. We made do with the chorus of crickets and tree frogs outside the RV. Finally, Ralph spoke.“Word is going around that you’re meddling in things that aren’t your business.”“Is that why someone tried to kill me the other day?”“No one tried to kill you. That was an accident.”It unnerved me that Ralph knew what I was talking about, even if it were an accident. “The pentagram and dead chicken weren’t accidents,” I said.“The boys was just trying to warn you to mind your own business.”“Or?”“Or nothing. They didn’t mean nothing by it,” Ralph said.“We wouldn’t turn you in, even if you are Satanists,” Anne said.Goldie laughed and rolled her eyes. “We’re not Satanists,” she said.“Sheriff Arch called you Satanists. If he’s wrong about that, then what are you?” I asked.“We worship the moon, the stars and the cycles of the earth and planets,” Goldie said. “Some people call us pagans.”“Pagans?” asked Anne.Warming to the conversation, Goldie spoke up and said, “It’s the oldest religion in Oklahoma, and maybe the world.”It was my turn to ask, “How could you possibly know that?”“Because of the excavations at the Spiro Mound sites in southeastern Oklahoma. The site was the hub of religion and government for prehistoric Indians for thousands of miles. The religion is connected to the Druids and Stonehenge and is likely the world’s oldest religion.”Ralph droned in. “Like the people at Stonehenge and Spiro, we still celebrate the cycles of the earth and stars.”“You worship cycles?” Anne asked.“We worship the universal pulse that controls everything,” Goldie said. “We call ourselves the Southern Death Cult, after one of Spiro’s branches. Some of the followers are part of the Buzzard Cult.”“How many followers are there?” asked Anne.“Thousands likely,” Ralph answered. “No one exactly knows but there are branches all over the world.”“And what about cattle mutilations?” I asked.“We naturally get blamed for lots of things we don’t do. Sometimes coyotes kill cows in these parts.”“What about the removal of udders and sexual parts with almost razor-like precision? How could a coyote, or any other wild animal, do that?” I asked.“Bacteria,” Ralph answered. “It’s a proven fact if you leave a carcass outside in these parts, bacteria will remove those parts in a matter of hours.”Anne caused my heart to skip a beat when she asked, “Yeah, if you aren’t Satanists, then how do you explain your use of human sacrifice?”The looks on both Ralph and Goldie’s faces told me that Anne had offended them. Like experienced diplomats, they both took deep breaths before speaking. Before answering, Goldie rolled another joint.After making a production of lighting it, she took a deep drag before passing it to Ralph. Ralph took his own deep drag and I could see by the expression in his dark eyes that Anne’s comment had not made him happy. This time, when he passed the joint to Anne, she also took a long toke, as did I when she handed it to me.As a Vietnam vet, I am far from a virgin when it comes to drugs. I like beer, but that doesn’t mean that I have never sampled the weed. This weed was different. By my second puff I was stoned. I stifled a giggle when I observed the hurt expressions on Ralph and Goldie’s faces.“The Southern Death Cult doesn’t practice human sacrifice,” Ralph finally said. He giggled himself when he added, “Maybe a chicken or two, but nothing more.”At this point, Anne began laughing uncontrollably and Goldie, Ralph and I soon joined her. I staggered up to the refrigerator and got us more Coors.When I returned with the beer, I asked, “If you don’t practice human sacrifices then why have a name as ominous as the Southern Death Cult?”“We couldn’t have made that one up if we’d tried. Southern Death Cult is the original name the Indians used. No one really knows why.”“So why all the secrecy if you’re not really Satanists?” Anne asked.“Oklahoma is the hub of the Bible Belt. The only Southern most of our neighbors understand is Baptist. What we came to tell you is you got a problem with the well.”“What kind of problem?”“The spot you are drilling on is hallowed, an old Indian burial ground.”“Are you sure? I never found anything in the literature. How do you know?”“It’s been passed down and there’s a curse against anyone ever making use of that spot of land. You’re drilling almost the exact location.”I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and neither could Anne. “What should we do? We’ve spent too much money to quit now.”“This ain’t about money; it’s about sacred land. You got to make amends.”“Or what?”At this point, Goldie’s facial expression went from a pretty smile to an angry frown. Standing from the table, she said, “Seems like we’ve done all we can, Ralph. Let’s get the hell outa here.”“Now wait a minute,” Anne said. “My father was a Baptist minister. You can’t just come in here and tell us you’re members of a cult called Southern Death and that you are descended from Indians who believe in cycles of the universe and expect to convert us in one fell swoop! Tell us what it is you want us to do. At least respect us enough to give us a chance.”Anne’s tirade caught them both by surprise, as well as me. Goldie and Ralph exchanged glances and Goldie resumed her place at the table. I went to the refrigerator and got us more beer. Then I said, “Now, please tell us what to do.”Ralph drank some beer and leaned forward in his seat. “All right,” he said. “If you’re really serious, this is what you need to know.”***By the following night, Anne and I were back on the rig. As a scientist, I was skeptical of Ralph and Goldie’s beliefs, to say the least! As a person that had drilled many very risky wells, I knew better than to think I knew it all. Like Bob Dylan said, “The only thing I know for certain is that I don’t know anything for certain.”“You have to make a sacrifice to appease the spirits,” Ralph had told us. “Otherwise the well will be dry.”The sacrifice, according to Ralph, had to be something from the heart, something important to us.That night, late, I walked out to the borehole. I had brought something from Sheriff Arch’s Café. It was a chicken-fried steak dinner, complete with baked potato and double helping of cream gravy. I said a few words and then returned to the RV. My meager sacrifice, probably fueled by my lack of belief, was all I could convince myself to muster. When we logged the well, it looked great. Money in the bank, I thought! We sat production casing and began testing the wonderful-looking zones. I could tell you the well came on for a thousand barrels of oil per day. It didn’t. We tested every great looking zone in the hole. Finally, after scratching our heads, we plugged the well as a dry hole.Drilling for oil is hard. Finding oil is harder. After many years of watching wells drilled into the earth, I have learned one thing, however, that particular thing escapes me at the moment. The well in Grant County should have been a monster discovery. Instead, it was an unexplainable dry hole. Well, maybe not completely unexplainable.
Anne and I returned to Oklahoma City, after a last chicken fry dinner, and moved on with our lives and to other oil deals but I’ve often wondered about the Southern Death Cult well in Grant County. Should we have taken Ralph and Goldie more seriously? Maybe, but if the land we were drilling was really hallowed, I doubt any sacrifice would have sufficed. Later that summer, we visited them at their farm near Blackwell. Hey, but that’s another story waiting to be told
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Born a mile or so from Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma, and continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. If you liked Chicken Fries, please check out his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages.

SOLDIERS - a paranormal short story

Jim and I crossed the state line at noon, black Kansas thunderclouds chasing up behind and miles of highway still ahead.  Swirls of ocher powder daubed the once pale sky and tumbleweeds rolled along the highway like steel balls in a giant pinball machine.  A heavy wind whipped the car and scared pheasant and jackrabbits lolling in the ditch.
Awakening from a fitful dream, I rolled up the windows of Jim’s old beater and pulled a bandanna over my face.  Earlier that morning we’d left Omaha, stopping only once to relieve ourselves by the side of the road.  Jim’s mood, like the weather, was foul and he hadn’t spoken in two hours.  Refraining from disturbing his trance, I folded my arms, braced myself against the seat and closed my eyes, trying to lock out the storm.  Jim’s mood and the piston drone knocking beneath the hood.
Three miles across the border, the storm caught us, turning dust into rivulets of mud on the car’s hood.  Rain blistered the windshield leaving only flashes of visibility between labored swaths of slow moving wiper blades.  Then a billboard, barely visible through the downpour, alerted us to a truck stop up ahead.  When we reached it, we found a weather-beaten filling station beside a roadside juke joint.
Jim said, “I’m tired of fighting this storm,” and eased into the gravel parking lot, but the storm hadn’t tired of jousting us.  As we ran for the front door, it bombarded us with falling missiles, thunder shuddering the walls as we entered.  We removed our wet ponchos and shook ourselves like two retrievers coming out of a pond, then gazed around the room until our eyes adjusted.
Five dismal patrons gazed back at us.  Strobe shadows, cast by neon beer signs, cloaked four dingy walls and through the pallor, a middle-aged bartender behind the counter, mindlessly polishing a glass with a white rag.
In back, a beefy man played pool alone.  The faded rose tattoo on his hairy arm matched the exact hue of his sleeveless T-shirt.  Before turning away to continue his lonely game, he gave us a a quick once-over.  A man and woman, immersed in their own whispered conversation, glanced up when we arrived.  An old man in a wheel chair watched us approach the bar, his rheumy eyes never blinking.
Jim slapped his palm against the counter, stared at the bartender and said, “Two draws, and a tequila shooter.”
“You boys old enough to drink?” the bartender asked.
Jim glared without answering but I said, “We’re both twenty-one.”
Red hair and ruddy Irish complexion melded with Jim’s high Indian cheekbones, and even when he smiled he seemed angry.  He wasn’t smiling.  With a frown on his own craggy face, the bartender glared back at him until he finally noticed our short hair and clean shaves.
“Soldiers?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Artillery?”
“Infantry,” Jim said.
Muscles twitched in the bartender’s neck and he smoothed the greasy black hair of his head and then his mustache, with his fingers.
“Guess if you’re old enough to fight, you’re old enough to drink.”
He laughed and it quickly drew into a dry hacking cough.
“Damn right,” I said.
Watching us from the corner of his eye, the sullen bartender drew the beer.  As he did, Jim stared bullet holes in his back, even as I nudged him the ribs with my elbow.  The bartender returned with two beers and a tequila shooter and Jim immediately killed the shot/ When he slammed the glass against the bar, sharp sound echoed like the crack of a small caliber rifle through the room.
After finishing his beer in one long pull, he nodded at the two empty glasses and said, “Again.”
Again, errant muscles twitched in the bartender’s neck as he drew another beer from the tap and reached behind him for the tequila.  Jim finished his second shot and glanced around the room like a stray cat in a strange barn.
“Easy,” I said, eyeing his empty glass.  “Got ourselves a long way to go yet, buddy.”
With a smirk, he said, “In a hurry, sport?”
Intent on the couple in the back of the room, he didn’t see me shake my head.  Looking like a middle-aged farmer, the man was dressed in overalls and baseball cap.  The woman’s sallow, weather-beaten face pegged her as his wife.  We watched the farmer slam his hand against the table, hard enough to rattle both of their beer mugs, and glare as if he were about to strike her.
“If you had a lick of sense, woman, you’d know what a fool question that is.”
Apparently, she didn’t and her unspoken reply filled the room with silent reverberations.  As we watched the scene unfold, Jim’s shoulders tensed and he stepped away from the bar.  Grabbing his elbow, I held on.
“Not this time.”
Halting, Jim tried to stare me down, but I stood my ground, shaking my head.  Then, immersed in our trance, we both jumped when the bartender slapped his hand against the counter.  When we wheeled around, we found him leaning over the bar with an amused look on his whiskered face.
“Didn’t mean to scare you boys. ‘Nother beer?”
“Sure,” I said.
He asked our names when he returned.
“I’m Paul and this is Jim.”
“Proud to meet you.  Name’s Ezekiel, but people round here just call me Zeke.”
I shook his hand; Jim didn’t bother.  Instead, he asked, “What’s the story on the old man in the wheelchair?”
“Rivers is his name.  We call him Old Man Rivers,” he said, chuckling at his little joke.
With a lidless stare, the old man in the wheelchair glared at us through the crumpled mass of oblique wrinkles obliterating his withered face.  Large angry gaps pitted his features, weathered and spongy as fallen white cake, and a half-smoked cigarette rested between gray lips.  Like tangles of red snakes on cold stones, broken capillaries veined his nose and eyes.  With gnarled hands clawing the wheelchair and bony arms like the plastic limbs of a child’s discarded doll, he looked like warmed-over death.
“I’m buying,” Jim said.  “Give him whatever he wants.”
After pouring a shot of bourbon, Zeke tilted back the old man’s head and dribbled liquor into his mouth, causing his blotchy tongue to wriggle like an earthworm growing desperate on a sharp hook.
Jim smiled and said, “Give him another.”
As I was watching Zeke whiskey-nurse the old man, someone tapped my shoulder.  Six inches from my nose, a pool shooter blithely invaded my space, smiling insanely and blinking one discolored eye that looked to me like a spoiled eye yolk.  I backed against the bar.  When he spoke, his stale breath smelled like battery acid gone sour.  Stumbling slowly over his words, he said, “I’m Doyle.  Was a soldier once myself.  Ol’ Man River’s my Daddy.”
I said, “That right?”
Doyle grinned and pumped his head like a long-handled water pump.  “Nah, not really, but I like to call him that.”
Noticing Jim’s amused smile, I backed even further away from the counter, but Doyle pivoted and followed me like a machine gun on a swivel turret.  Then lightning struck, shaking rafters and sucking air from the room like a giant accordion.  Doyle grimaced like a frightened child and drifted back to the red glow emanating from the swaying fixture above the pool table.  Raising an index finger, I signaled Zeke to bring more beer.
When Zeke brought our drinks, he grinned and said, “Doyle’s a little nuts.  Myra takes care of him.
“Myra?”
“Lives with the Stewarts,” he said, pointing at the couple in the back.  “Looks after Doyle and takes care of Old Man Rivers.  Brings them in every morning.  Comes and gets them every night.”
Zeke’s mention of Myra prefaced her appearance through the back door - a pretty girl with pale skin and colorless blonde hair.  Thin and wispy fabric clung in blue waves to every subtle feature of her diminutive frame.  And, like a low cloud wafting slowly in a gentle breeze, she approached the counter and squeezed in between Jim and me.  Zeke placed a glass of white wine in front of her.
“You must be Myra,” Jim said, suddenly becoming verbose.
“Yes.”
“Rain’s a little heavy outside.  We came in to drink beer and wait it out,” he said.
In a lilting, whimsical voice she replied, “Come in and I will give you shelter from the storm.”
As Jim listened to her recite the line from the old Dylan tune, his neck inexplicably flushed crimson.  As if reading my thoughts, Myra turned and studied me with pale, unnerving eyes.
“The storm is dark and frightening.”
“Yes,” I said, suddenly at a loss for words.
“Have you met Zeke, Doyle and Old Man Rivers?”
“Yes,” I said again.
Dismissing me with a coy nod, she daintily picked up her glass of wine and went to the old man, stroking his neck with cashmere fingers.  As Jim’s had done, River’s ruddy skin flushed crimson.  Static electricity, brushed up by her fingers, raised thin hairs on his head as a booming clap of thunder rocked the roof and wind whistled through the loosely fitted windows.  Again, rain blistered the outside walls and darkness began to drape the windows with muted gloom.
“Myra,” the farmer called.  “Come answer Mary for me.  Tell her what a fool question she’s asking.”
Moving fluidly away from the bar, Myra glided to their table and listened as the woman cupped her hands and whispered something into her ear.  After answering, Myra turned away, leaving the woman to rest her head on the table and weep.
When Myra returned, Jim asked, “What’d she want?”
“Her daughter Emily’s gone.  Car accident separated them.  Mary asked if I knew when Emily would join them again.
“Did they take her to a hospital out of town or something?”
“She’s where she has always been,” Myra answered.
“Then -“
Before I could finish the question lingering in my brain, Myra placed a finger on my lips and shook her head.  “You don’t need to understand,” she said.  “The storm’s not over yet.”
Excited by Myra’s perfume, Jim gently touched her cheek.  She didn’t move away.
“I wouldn’t mind getting to know you a little better,” he said.
“Forever?” she asked.
Letting his hand drop, he caressed the length of her willowy arm and said, “For as long as you want.”
“Don’t talk to her like that!” an angry voice said.
Behind Jim was Doyle, his teeth clenched in an irritated scowl.  He quickly wrapped a hairy arm around Jim’s neck and yanked it forcibly back, Jim slammed an angry fist at Doyle’s jaw, then tossed the surprised attacker over the counter and dived over after him.
A weighted club appeared in Zeke’s hand.  With a practiced swing he tapped Jim lightly on the neck, just below the base of his skull.  Jim sank, unconscious, to the floor.
“Ain’t hurt too bad,” Zeke said, glancing up at me.  “Be just fine when he wakes up.”
After helping drag Jim’s inert body to a chair, I rejoined Myra at the bar.  She was staring at the ceiling as she sipped her wine.  She seemed disinterested in the whole affair.
Glancing at my empty beer, I said, “Better have another.”
“Sure you can handle your liquor?”
“Jim didn’t start it,” I said, frowning at Doyle.
Doyle was still on the floor, grinning like an idiot as he rotated his swollen jaw with his hand.
“Maybe not,” Zeke said as he drew another beer.
Myra said, “Where have you been, Paul?”
“Afghanistan.  We just got back and finished our leave.”
“Saw lots of action, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“Kill many of the enemy?”
Her question, asked with a curious smile, took me by surprise.  “Maybe a few,” I answered.
“And Jim?”
“I’m sure he killed his share,” I said.  “What’s the name of this town, anyway?”
“Don’t you know?”
“Seems a bit familiar, but no I don’t.”
Zeke chuckled and said, “You’re in Inferno.  Inferno, Oklahoma.  Hotter’n hell in the summer.”
“Could you love a girl like me?” asked Myra, interrupting Zeke’s vivid description.
“Guess maybe I could,” I said.
“You love someone else?”
“Life,” I said.  “With the war and all it’s about the only thing I’ve really though about along those lines.”
“Life is a fickle virgin,” she said, her pale blue eyes suddenly glowing like cold pearls.
“And you?” I asked.  “What do you love?”
Myra licked her lips and looked at Jim.  He was conscious, but still moaning as he massaged his neck.  Without answering my question, she turned to leave, but stopped and turned as if having a second thought.  After she touched my hand, I rubbed the icy remnant her touch imparted as I watched her walk through the door, held it open and as she gazed at me.
“Wait, I called.  “Where are you going?”
“Come with me and I will show you.”
“Can’t,” I said.  “Have to get back to the post.”
“Please,” she said, extending her willowy arm.  “I promise, you won’t be sorry.”
I started to follow but remembered Jim, still lying on the floor.  Another clap of thunder struck, closer this time, shattering the trance and causing me to blink.  When I opened my eyes Myra was gone.  Quickly, I downed my beer and tossed some money on the bar.
“Still mighty nasty out there,” Zeke said.  “Better have another drink.”
“Another time.  Not today.”
Bracing Jim beneath my shoulder, I started for the front door.  Curiosity stopped me beside the couple’s table.  I stared at the weather-beaten woman until she glance up at me.
“Sorry about your daughter.  How old was she when she died?”
A single tear trickled down the woman’s face, and she said, “Emily’s not dead.”
“But what about the car accident?”
The woman’s lingering eyes held me locked in place.  “Emily wasn’t in the accident.  Just Ralph and me.”
Breaking her cold stare, I pulled Jim out the front door.  From there, he staggered alone to the car, revived somewhat by the rain.  He took the keys from his shirt pocket, tossed them to me and slumped into the seat.  I gunned the engine and hurried away before the wipers could clear away the ruthless onslaught of the rain.
A mile down the deserted highway, I glanced into the rear-view mirror and searched in vain for the squall.  No use.  It was gone, along with the two buildings, replaced only by silence that seemed to cloak damp earth around us like a shroud.
Far away, behind reality and disappearing foothills, lightning and thunder flared and crashed like distant firefights.  Further still, filtered light mingled with road dust blown up by our racing tires, streaking the waning horizon.  Then, swirling ocher powder obliterated the dying sky, reflecting pale allusions of ancient storms.
###


Born a mile or so from Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma, and continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. If you liked Soldiers, please check out his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages.

Alcoholic Hazes in New Orleans

Many great writers including William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams and John Kennedy Toole lived in New Orleans. One thing that made each of them great was their ability to create amid the cacophony and ado of the Big Easy.I remember reading a humorous essay by a journalist that had lived there for several years. He’d moved to the city looking for inspiration, fully expecting to pen the next great American novel. Something quite different happened instead.The semi-tropical city steams in the summer with hundred-degree temperatures and humidity through the roof. Like many cities in southern climes, life’s pace is slow, skidding almost to a halt during summer months. Lunches tend to drag on until two, and workdays often end by three or four, usually with a trip to some dark watering hole.The journalist finally moved away from New Orleans without completing a single chapter of his proposed novel. He lamented that he’d never sufficiently sobered up, but that he did meet many interesting people and had enjoyed himself immensely. I had a similar experience during a post-Katrina trip to New Orleans.There are so many things to see and do, and so many wonderful places to eat and drink, it is difficult finding time to write. Still, artists, writers and poets continue to fill the City. On my way to the Sheraton where I was staying, I stopped at a little bar on Decatur Street called Kerry Irish Tavern, and ordered a pint of Guinness. The bartender was a friendly young woman with a Scottish accent, her big dog snoring as he napped behind the hardwood bar.Late afternoon, the dim tavern was almost empty except for a young man talking to the pretty bartender. His name was also Eric and we struck up a conversation. An aspiring writer, he had a manuscript in progress. Gill, a graphic artist, and his friend Tim, a poet with a distinct stutter, soon joined us. Our new group quickly became locked in conversation.I stayed for another round, and then another, discussing Eric’s book and viewing some of Gill’s art. Realizing that I liked poetry, Tim recited several of his poems to us, never once tripping over his words because of his speech disorder.The three men finally left, on their way to another bar. “We’ll be back at midnight for the band. Will you join us?”“Maybe,” I said.After paying my tab, I returned to the hotel to sober up, and never made it back to the Kerry Irish Bar.I’ve thought about Eric, Gill and Tim many times. Did they finally finish their masterpieces? I’m betting no, and that you’ll find them in some French Quarter bar, locked in alcoholic hazes, and still contemplating the art they love to talk about but are never destined to complete.

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Born a mile or so from Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma, and continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. If you liked Alcoholic Hazes in New Orleans, please check out his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages.

New Orleans Cemetery Tour. Phantom 3 (4k)

Teenage Fantasies and Small Town Ghosts - a short story

While attending college in Monroe, my friend Larry and I decided to hitchhike to the small Webster Parish town of Cotton Valley, Louisiana. Larry’s grandparents lived in the former oil and gas boom town and had invited us down for the weekend.The trip there was non-eventful, the trip home a story in itself. I’ll save that account for another time and tell you instead about our encounter with a ghost in the Cotton Valley cemetery.Larry had a twin sister named Leeann that was also visiting her grandparents for the weekend. Her girlfriend Cindy had a car and don’t ask me why we hitchhiked to Cotton Valley instead of riding with them but it had something to do with sibling rivalry.Larry’s grandparents, I’ll call them the Bloomers, had a large wood-framed house with many rooms that they had once rented to itinerant oil field workers. By the sixties Cotton Valley had a population less than two thousand. Still an oil town it was no longer a boom town. All of the Bloomer’s extra rooms were empty and Larry and I had our pick of the lot.Like her brother Larry, Leeann was tall and dark. That’s where their appearances diverged. Leeann had the looks of a young starlet along with a Jayne Mansfield body. Tiny Cindy was as pretty as Leeann but was blonde, svelte and had a deep and lusty voice that belied her size.In my teens, the girls could have both been homely as sin and I would still have had visions of a potential weekend liaison. Leeann and Larry, as I mentioned, had unresolved family differences and my daydreams squelched shortly after the girls arrived. I got my first clue when she and Cindy took rooms as far away as they could get from us on the other side of the large house.Friday night and most of Saturday passed without seeing much of Cindy and Leeann as they were off in the car and we were on foot. Cotton Valley had neither a movie house nor any other form of recreation at the time and Larry and I soon grew bored. I managed to stem my own boredom somewhat by keeping a running journal written in ink on a sheet of paper that I kept in my shirt pocketThe seclusion Larry and I felt had apparently also worked on Leeann and Cindy because shortly after a sit-down dinner with the grandparents they asked us to go for a spin with them in the car. We quickly agreed.We drove away from the grandparent’s house after dinner, Larry and I in the back seat of Cindy’s Fairlane. As I glanced over the bench at the half-hidden riches beneath Leeann’s plunging blouse and Cindy’s short skirt hiked high on her tanned thighs my daydreams quickly reemerged. They needn’t have.We soon stopped at a house on the far edge of town and picked up Jim. Cindy and Jim, it seemed, had met the prior semester at Northeast Louisiana. After flunking out, he had moved back to Cotton Valley to work in the oil patch.Cindy’s beau was a tall handsome fellow with a Cancun lifeguard’s tan. When Leeann climbed into the backseat with Larry and me and told me to push over to the middle of the bench seat, all my sexual fantasies flew out the car’s open window and I could tell by her frown that I should keep my hands to myself. I thought so when she crossed her legs and pointed them away from me toward the door and knew for sure when she wrapped her arms tightly around her ample bosom It was just beginning to grow dark as we drove away from Jim’s house—a good thing as I had trouble keeping my gaze away from Leeann’s ample body. Miniskirts were the vogue at the time and the short garment barely qualified her as fully clothed. Feeling Larry’s cold stare over my shoulder I somehow wrested my gaze from her gorgeous legs and luscious breasts—except for an occasional stolen glance.There isn’t much to do in Cotton Valley and we were soon headed out of town on a stretch of lonely blacktop. By now it was pitch dark, except for the stars and light of a full yellow moon. Jim and Cindy apparently had a bit of a tiff earlier in the day. We didn’t know it at the time but their relationship was near an end. Luckily for the rest of us, they remained cordial the remainder of the evening and Jim covered up their quarrel skillfully by becoming our local tour guide.“Slow down and I’ll show you the hanging tree.” Cindy touched the brakes and pulled over as Jim pointed at a large oak tree on the side of the blacktop. A single large branch stretched across the road. Jim told us the tragic story of the rape of a white girl by a local black boy and the resultant retribution performed by an element of the town’s white population. ‘They buried his body in the cemetery up the road and he supposedly still haunts it, especially on a full moon like tonight.”“Have you ever seen the ghost?” Leeann asked.There was swagger in Jim’s voice when he said, “Lots of times. Once it waved a knife at a friend and me.”“Did it scare you?” Larry asked.“No way,” Jim saidAs we sat on the side of the road, listening to Jim’s story, a gentle summer breeze wafted the large tree’s leaves and branches causing shadows to dance across warm blacktop. None of us commented as Cindy applied the gas and started away toward the cemetery.As I recall the short ride to the suspected rapist’s place of internment, I realize that Jim probably had visions of mending fences with Cindy, and perhaps a romantic connection induced by her anxiety at possibly seeing a ghost. When we reached the cemetery, I’m sure the visualization we soon saw caused his thoughts of romance to disappear out the open window, along with his phony boldness.The little cemetery lay just off the blacktop and had a small dirt parking lot. Cindy pulled into the lot and turned off the car’s lights. The night was moon bright and it took only a few moments for our eyes to adjust to the relative darkness. A fence of wrought iron surrounded the cemetery stretching before us like a silent metropolis of the lifeless.“Hear it?” Jim asked. “The dead boy’s soul is calling out to us.”I couldn’t hear anything except semis passing on a distant highway along with a chorus of crickets and tree frogs. Still, Jim’s words evoked a certain anxiety. Cindy also felt it as she slid toward the center of the car and closer to Jim. Leeann uncrossed her legs and grabbed my hand in a firm clasp. I couldn’t see Larry’s eyes but I knew he must be frowning. We had all just noticed something that none of us could explain.Leeann clutched my hand even tighter when Cindy said, “Oh my God! What is that?”Before us, an eerie blue light rose straight up from the center of the little cemetery, stretching like the creepy luminescent beam of an ethereal spotlight pointing high into the sky. A slight breeze caused the beam to vacillate like the luminous arms of a ghostly hula dancer.We all sat in silence, waiting for the image to disappear so our minds could promptly deny what we all had seen. It didn’t happen that way.Talk of the ghost had elicited Jim’s desired effect on Cindy. By now she was practically sitting in his lap, her arms clutched desperately around his neck. Jim didn’t seem to notice as his eyes in the reflected moonlight were big as proverbial saucers, his own arms gripping Cindy as tightly as she held him.They weren’t the only ones caught up in the spooky moment. Leeann clamped my right hand with both of her own. She couldn’t have drawn any closer without occupying the space where I sat. What Larry was thinking about the situation briefly crossed my mind.“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Leeann finally said.Larry was having none of it. “No way, we need to find out what’s causing that light. I don’t believe for one minute it’s a ghost.”When no one responded to his statement, Larry opened the back door and started for the cemetery gate. I was more interested in Leeann’s pressing warmth and tender softness than the ghost was but it quickly returned to my attention when the door slammed behind him. Concerned for her brother, Leeann released her grip and pushed me toward the door.“You’re his friend. You go with him.”When I glanced at Big Jim, his wide-open stare quickly told me he would be of no help. Leeann’s frown and folded arms had returned so I opened the back door and followed my friend into the night.“Larry, where are you?” I called.“In front of you,” he said in a whisper. “The light is coming from over that rise.”The little country cemetery was well kept, grass trimmed around the tombs. Some of the headstones were large and ornate but most were old and crumbling, many no more than wooden crosses and rectangles of worn concrete. We had no flashlight but didn’t need one as there were few trees to block star light and bright glow of the full moon. A graveled path led up the hill toward the gleaming blue light.Larry and I were in ROTC and both already experienced in night maneuvers. The ghostly light that continued to beam from the center of the cemetery apparently didn’t frighten my large companion and I was feeling more elated anticipation than fear. As we crested the slight rise we both saw the origin of the eerie light.Larry halted in his tracks and held up his hand for me to stop. Moonlight was shining directly on a large piece of blue foil once used to wrap a flower pot. The light was reflecting off the foil and onto the polished marble surface of a headstone. The resultant glow shone like the beam of a spotlight, straight up into the sky.The light wasn’t all we saw. In the darkness, just beyond the spot where the little hill began to drop in elevation, an almost indistinguishable shadowy figure came into view. It remained a moment in one spot before continuing slowly toward us, its amorphous shape wafting in the gentle summer breeze. Larry took a step forward to investigate but a shout from behind caused us to turn and look.“Larry, where are you?” It was Leeann. Worried about her brother, she had followed us. We watched as she picked her way up the little hill. Just as she reached us she froze in place, put her hand to her mouth and said, “Oh my God!”A vivid flash of summer lightning accompanied Leeann’s exclamation followed quickly by a clap of thunder that seemed as if it were right on top of us. Leeann didn’t appear to notice. She was staring at a spot behind us, still grasping her open mouth with her left hand as she pointed straight ahead with her right. Need I add how wide her eyes had grown?Another flash of lightning lit the sky as Larry and I turned to see at what she was pointing. A sudden summer rainstorm had moved quickly overhead, already covering the stars and moon with dark puffy clouds. As lightning dissipated, only gloom remained, but not until Larry and I saw a shadowy nimbus floating up the hill toward us.Before either of us could react, Leeann grabbed me from behind and screamed, trying, it seemed to squeeze the breath out of me. As she did clouds began unloading with large heavy drops of warm precipitation that lasted for no more than a minute. Dark clouds passed with the rain, again revealing clear sky complete with stars and full moonlight. Whatever we thought we had witnessed had disappeared along with the momentary storm.“Did you see it?” Leeann asked, her long arms still wrapped tightly around my chest.“I saw something but don’t know what it was,” I answered.Leeann gave me an incredulous look when Larry said, “It was just a low-lying cloud.”“My ass!” Leeann said. “It was shaped like a man and it was coming up the hill after us. You saw it didn’t you Eric?”“I saw something but I didn’t get a good look. We turned away just as you called to us.”“Trust me, it was nothing but a cloud,” Larry said as he led us back to the Fairlane.Leeann had already begun to disbelieve her eyes as she followed her brother down the hill. I didn’t know what to believe but I was already missing the warmth of her breasts against my back. We had to bang on the car door for Jim and Cindy to open it.“Did you see it?” Cindy asked.“Yes, just before the rain started.” Leeann said.“What rain?” Jim asked. “It’s been clear as a bell ever since you left the car.”“Well it sure as hell rained on us, didn’t it Larry?”“For a minute or so,” he said.Cindy and Jim stared at him, and then at me. “You don’t look wet. Are you guys pulling our legs?”My shirt and pants were almost dry and I could do little more than shrug my shoulders. By the time we dropped Jim off at his house, talk of the ghost had ended.Cindy and Leeann were already gone next morning before Larry and I ate breakfast. Larry didn’t want to talk about the ghost except to say it was “bullshit” and I never spoke to either Leeann or Cindy again.The mind plays tricks and sometimes what you think you see is nothing more than an invention of your imagination. Still, as Larry and I waited on the edge of I-20, trying to thumb a ride, I reached in my shirt pocket and pulled out the remains of my scribbled journal. My shirt. We were out of clean clothes and I was wearing the same shirt and blue jeans as the previous night was damp from sweat, crumpled paper equally moist. Something prompted me to unfold the soggy journal and look at it and I got quite a shock when I did.
Either rain or sweat had caused the blue ink to bleed on the paper and render my scribbling indecipherable—except for one word. In large blurry letters, it spelled out WRAITH.
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Born a mile or so from Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma, and continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. If you liked Teenage Fantasies and Small Town Ghosts, please check out his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages.

DANCING AT THE SCORPIO

While rummaging through my closet, I found a tee shirt that evoked a treasure of old memories. The tee sported a poorly drawn picture of a scorpion and bore the name of the establishment from where I purchased it: Scorpio. Under the name were the words: dancers, pool and cold beer, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.The original Scorpio was an old two-storied building located at Villa and N.W. 23rd, across the street from the Shepherd Mall. The bottom floor had a bar, several pool tables and a dance floor—a wooden structure raised about three feet off the floor. Music played while the mostly male customers shot pool, drank beer and watched the dancers perform on the raised structure.The female dancers all wore the equivalent of a bikini with no exposed nipples, buttocks or pubic hair. That was downstairs, the action upstairs quite different—at least I had heard. Not everyone was allowed to go there. Nudity in Oklahoma City, at the time, was banned and rule breakers treated harshly by the authorities.Most of the young men frequenting the bar were baby-boomers. Many, myself included, had survived the dirty war in Southeast Asia, partaken of the many illegal drugs so readily available there, and had visited the nightlife of Saigon and the brothels of Bangkok. Oil exploration was turning the City into a boom town, the young men of Oklahoma, and those pouring into the State because of the boom town prosperity, an adventurous bunch and ready for a change from the ways their fathers did things. The Scorpio was there to provide that change.I remember the first time the stairway guard allowed me and my friend Mick to go upstairs. I tingled with excitement and to say that electricity filled the darkened room would be stating a stale cliche that didn’t come close to expressing the pure sexual exhilaration constricting my chest and shortening my breath. A Bob Seger ballad wailed through the darkness as a pretty blonde girl gyrated, totally naked on the stage, both exposed and swathed by the reds, blues and greens of a dancing strobe.Upstairs was a clone to the downstairs with one essential difference—the dancers performed totally nude. Each young woman danced to the music of three songs. They performed their first song, like the downstairs dancers, in bikini-like costume. They would remove their top toward the beginning of the second song, and their bottoms during the beginning of the third song to the captivated attention of every young man in the place.About this time, the Supreme Court ruled that nude dancing is not pornographic. After having their hands rapped by several adverse court decisions, the City removed its ban on nudity. Nude dancing soon became common in clubs around Oklahoma City, the Scorpio moving to a new location on north May.Totally nude dancing continued in Oklahoma City until the Supreme Court ruled that cities could regulate activities that the majority of the people did not approve of. I don’t think a vote to regulate nudity ever occurred but the local police began operating as if it had. Oil prices had begun to collapse, ending the oil boom and Oklahoma City’s boom town mentality. Baby boomers were older and most, by this time had their own children. No one much protested the end of an era.The Scorpio no longer exists, but the building that housed it remains. Ironically, it's now the home of a Vietnamese pool hall and domino parlor. I smiled as I pulled on the old tee shirt, a little too small for me now, but still in good shape. Yes, an era has ended but I still have my memory of the first time I climbed the stairs at the old Scorpio, not knowing what to expect, but spellbound with youthful anticipation.
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Born a mile or so from Black Bayou in the little Louisiana town of Vivian, Eric Wilder grew up listening to his grandmother’s tales of politics, corruption and ghosts that haunt the night. He now lives in Oklahoma and continues to pen mysteries and short stories with a southern accent. If you liked Dancing at the Scorpio, please check out his Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and iBook author pages.