To hold the power of life in your hands, to be
judge and executioner with nothing but a thought.
What would you do? Memory is powerful, it can
take you through the span of time and space without
ever having to leave the spot you’re in. For me, I’ve
been known to have a mind like a steel trap, I can
recall things happening as if they were mere hours
ago. The color of my father’s eyes, they were brown
like the smoothest of chocolate. They smiled at me
as he looked at me in the mirror. “Michael we’re
almost there now, just a little bit further.” He’d tell
me things like that to reassure me that we weren’t
lost. The smell of my mother’s perfume, a light lilac
smell mixed with berries, as it blew through the
vehicle. The breeze in my mother’s light red hair, it
seemed almost as if it were alive. She’d reach back
with her hand and rub my knee, just a light loving pat
to let me know she was thinking about me. The
smell of old leather, they coated the seats and they
had baked in the sun over the years but they still
had that vague musty smell to them. It was simpler
in those times, we would have to worry about how
hot the weather was going to be that day, if it was
going to rain. Things that by today’s standards
would seem trivial, but don’t get me wrong, these
are things that a farmer needs to know and they
support our country now more so than ever. That
fateful day will always remain in my memory
regardless of my ability to recall.
For me, I was traveling with my family on one of
our vacations through the nation. We were traveling
where the mountains gave way to hills and great
waves of grass, my father called it the “Midwest” but
what it was middle of or west of he never clarified.
We were driving along this road, as the road started
to bend a metal fence appeared. I imagine it was
there to stop someone from going over the side, as it
was quite a ways down and into the river. The land
was cut in two as this silvery snake ate its way
through the valley. As we rounded this bend
something caught my eye. At first I thought a bug
had been caught in my eyelashes but as I tried to
clear it out I found out what it was that caught my
attention. At first I couldn’t believe my eyes, I was
always accused of daydreaming, but after I rubbed
my eyes a few times I saw it. A majestic silhouette
in the orange hazy sky. It was reaching toward the
heavens, a serpentine body with feathers expanding
on each side. The feathers were arranged in such a
pattern that it appeared like a cobra. My father had
shown me a picture book of snakes not but a year
before and ever since then, they had always
fascinated me. As I continued toward its chest, I
noticed how it crested outward. It was a proud and
noble creature and held itself so. It moved as if it
were swimming in the air, large pinions rippling from
the tip of its tail to the head. As I saw the head, it
fully set in that this was a creature that had not come
from this world.
I first noticed the powerfully strong and long beak
that it had. As I moved up I noticed the mighty
plume that it sprouted, it spread like a tangle of
weeds but it seemed a mighty crown for a mighty
beast. When a human is confronted by something
they don’t understand, there is an immediate
response, something that we cannot rationalize.
Such a thing is fear, it wells up inside of us from the
very center of our being. It tells us when to run
away, for this is something you cannot understand
and you will more than likely be devoured trying to
do so.
As I sat there feeling that very fear well up inside
of me, a roar sounded through the valley and over
the crest of the hill. A shock wave followed it to such
an extent that our vehicle was rocked to the side.
“What the hell was that?!!!” My father yelled as he
frantically righted the vehicle. A frenzied
conversation began to take place between my
mother and father, while I sat in the back transfixed
by the beast on the horizon. The roar was filled with
such an anger and pain that it brought tears to my
eyes. After a few seconds my mother looked back
at me, “Michael are you alright? ...Michael?” I could
feel her eyes on me, but I was too transfixed on the
creature to look away. As she followed my eyes she
noticed the creature, she became enticed by it but
not to the degree that I had. “George...what...what
is that?” “What is what?” “That?” she responded as
she raised her hand and pointed out the window.
My father looked to where she was pointing, and I
began to feel the vehicle slow down. “I...I don’t
know, Bonnie.” At this point another roar shook the
car, however we were going too slow for it to have
any real effect. Anguish, hatred, fear, all of these I
could feel and hear in that roar. “Dad, we have to go
see what that is. It sounds like it’s hurt, please dad!”
My father looked back at me in the mirror, “Son
whatever that is we don’t want to be anywhere near
it.” At this point the vehicle had stopped, another
roar shook the ground and the car. I decided I had
heard enough, I unbuckled the restraints and
opened the door. “Michael get back here!” I heard
my father yell after me as I crawled over the barrier
and ran down the hill.
I felt deep down inside that fear that you feel, but
it was replaced by the compassion I felt for this
animal. I felt the air blow through my hair as I ran
down the hill. I heard the pounding in my chest as
my heart beat like a drum. I felt oddly free as the
grass brushed my hands and arms. As I neared, the
beast fell to the ground with a thunderous boom.
The land shook and I fell to the ground, I felt the
sting on the palms of my hands and I caught my fall.
I struggled to my feet and felt my pants cling to my
knees. “Michael!” I barely heard my father’s shouts
behind me as I started running again.
As I neared the creature, I heard it gurgle as if it
was in its death throes. I slowed down, its breathing
was heavy and labored, it moved as I approached
the head. Up close, this creature was truly terrifying.
Even on its side, I came barely up to the middle of
its chest. There were multiple sores on its body, and
almost all of them were leaking a black oily fluid. As
I stopped, it looked at me with a large, black
pupiless eye. I think it understood I was trying to
comfort it in its final moments, as the final roar it
unleashed was subdued and no longer tortured. As
I stood there with my hands over my ears, I could
feel tears running down my face but I did not know
why at the time. The creature began to dissolve in
front of my eyes. The feathers molted, flesh began
rotting at a faster than normal rate, and an aroma of
sickness wafted in the air. I felt my father’s hands
rest of my shoulders, “Michael you shouldn’t have
run off like that, you didn’t know what this...this thing
could have done to you.” As more and more of the
creature dissolved, black fluid began appearing on
the ground and pooling where the body once was.
After a short while, all that was left was most of a
skeleton that wore scraps of flesh as clothing, and
half of its body lying in the river. My father and I
stood and watched in awe as whatever this was left
barely any trace on the world. My mother had joined
us by this point, “George, what was that thing?” she
asked with a slight tinge of fear in her voice. “I wish I
knew,” my father replied. He was always calm,
before it happened. When I looked at him I saw the
concern etched onto his face though I didn’t know it
at the time. “Whatever it was, it’s no longer hurting
that much is for certain.” As I walked around looking
at this massive frame left in the grass, I tripped and
fell again. A loud sucking sound accompanied my
fall this time. “Michael?” my parents called out in
unison. “I’m fine, I just fell is all.” I replied. As I
picked myself up I noticed that I fell into mud, a
black mud that clung to me even after I tried to brush
it off. I walked over to the river hoping that the
waters would get rid of whatever this muck was. As
I neared the shoreline I noticed a black ribbon
working its way into the heart of the river. I looked
upstream from where I was and noticed a black pool
had gathered by the rib cage and skull resting in the
water.
As I felt the coolness of the water rush over my
hands and the black tarlike goop wash away, I
began to feel hot. I started sweating again, but this
time it was all over. “Dad...I don’t...feel so good.” I
weakly stated as I stood up and walked away from
the river. I had heard a low rumble as I walked away
but attributed it to the fact that it felt as if every inch
of my skin was on fire. “Dad...” it came out as a
whisper as I fell to my knees, and eventually onto
my back. “Michael?! Michael!” I heard the panic in
my father’s voice this time as he rushed over and
cradled my head in his hands. “Bonnie, he’s burning
up!” He yelled at my mother, “Get some water from
the river quick, we need to cool him down!” She ran
to the shoreline and ripped off part of her dress.
She paused right as she was beginning to dip the
cloth in the water, she looked over at the skeleton
and screamed. In an instant the skeleton thrashed
and writhed, explosions of grass and dirt surrounded
us as all of a sudden the beast had somehow come
back to life. As it raised itself onto its tail, it let forth
a wail the likes of which I hope to never hear again.
It chilled me to the bone, left me trembling, and I
began to cry. It looked down at me, with a horrible
yellow gleam in what was left of its eye socket. It
stared at me with disgust, shook its deranged head
and shot into the sky. As it left, my world went dark
to the screams of my father, “Bonnie! Michael!
...Bonnie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”