TITLE: Bigfoot's Justice
WORD COUNT: 4,680 words
Chapter One
In 1960, shortly after Nigeria gained independence from the British, one good thing the British did that year was grant Kofi admission to study geology at the University of Portland.
When Kofi began his studies, he soon discovered that education was not for him. He needed money to send home to his poor mother, and his university friend Franklin understood his plight. Franklin suggested they travel together to Baker County, Oregon, in the Buckeye district, where a new gold mine had been discovered. Gold, the word gold, Kofi could hardly contain himself. This was an opportunity handed to him on a platter, and he was not going to miss it.
“So, when shall we be going?” Kofi asked his friend.
“Well, when school vacates,” Franklin answered.
November 1960.
Months passed quickly, like a buffalo fleeing a predator. The day finally arrived. With a smile on his face, Kofi and Franklin joined the others on a triple-row-seat wagon to begin their journey to Buckeye district.
“Don’t worry, Kofi. I assure you this job is going to make you rich. Mama won’t have to cry anymore when she calls,” Franklin said in his American accent.
“Haha, stop it, Franklin. So, you’ve been listening to Mama and me on those calls?” Kofi responded. The two burst into laughter.
“Welcome to Siuslaw National Forest, where we’ll all be spending the night,” the wagon driver announced as he jumped down from the horse he was riding, holding a bottle of whiskey as he walked.
“Pitch the tents, boys! We rest here tonight!”
As usual, Kofi slept beside his friend.
“Here, use this,” Franklin offered, handing Kofi his jacket. “That nylon shirt of yours won’t help in the cold tonight,” he added.
“Thank you,” Kofi said, almost in tears as he took the jacket. Franklin was not his blood brother, but he was more of a brother to him, an angel sent into his life. He was white, but he didn’t behave like the other white students Kofi had met at the university. Franklin was different; he was genuine.
“What about you? What will you wear? Won’t you feel cold?” Kofi asked, noticing Franklin was only in a short-sleeved white polo shirt.
“Don’t worry, Kof. I’ll stay by the fire, it’ll keep me warm, and I’ll keep it burning.” He playfully tossed a tiny stone at Kofi, shouting, “Gold!” Then he added, “Now get some rest so you’ll have strength for tomorrow.”
Kofi was a deep sleeper. Every night, he dreamed about his mother. In those dreams, he always saw a man with her, a man he presumed to be his father because he looked so much like him. Kofi had been born into a fatherless home. He had never seen his father; his mother had simply told him that his dad left for Ghana when he was born and never returned. Kofi had tried several times to ask for more details, but she always refused.
The ground rumbled as a creature moved through the darkness. The fire had long gone out. The creature approached the sleeping group unnoticed. Like a human gazing at a small puppy, it stared at them.
“Who the hell are you?” the wagon driver said as he opened his eyes and saw a hairy creature with broad arms standing before him.
“Haaa!” he screamed in pain as the creature seized him by the neck, silencing him instantly. That final cry was what woke everyone else.
“Mr. Cowfield! Mr. Cowfield!” the boys called, recognizing the voice.
“Noooo!”
“Pleassssssss!”
“Hellllppp!”
“The gun, where is the damn gunnn?”
Those were the last words of the boys as they met their fate at the hands of the beast.
Noticing his fellow travelers being killed one by one at terrifying speed, Kofi quietly crawled away and hid behind a tree. He had done so the moment he first heard Cowfield’s “haaaa.”
The massacre ended, but the beast remained, unsatisfied by the pool of blood. It scanned the environment for any sign of movement.
While peeking from behind the tree, the small stone Franklin had thrown at him the night before slipped from Kofi’s pocket and hit the ground covered in dry leaves. Alert as a cat dodging a snake’s strike, the beast heard the sound and began walking toward Kofi’s direction.
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,” Kofi stammered in his heart, reciting what he presumed to be his last prayer as the beast approached.
At least that was the most reasonable thing he could do. He couldn’t stand up to run, and even if he could, fear had paralyzed him completely.
Smashing through the upper branches of the trees, the hairy beast now had a clear view of Kofi. It brought its face closer to him. Kofi could not open his eyes to face the horror as it raised its hand, ready to smash the praying man. Then it stopped.
It heard the sound of something running in the bushes. Turning back, the hairy beast sprinted at high speed toward whoever had made the noise, leaving Kofi to collapse into the darkness, onto the dried leaves of the forest floor. His eyes had seen unimaginable things that night.
Chapter Two
Kofi woke in the morning and walked among the bodies of his fellow travelers. Tears rolled down his face as he saw the mauled corpses, some torn apart, scattered in pieces across the clearing.
“Franklin! Franklin!!” Kofi yelled. He noticed his friend was not among the dead from last night’s massacre.
“Where could he be?” Kofi muttered to himself as he searched the wagon. Franklin’s belongings were still there, untouched.
Morning came and went, then afternoon, then evening. Kofi sat on one of the fallen trees the beast had smashed down. He thought about many things, about spending another night here, about setting the wagon on fire to serve as a deterrent against the creature. But he changed his mind. He could not stay. Whatever had attacked them last night might return for a second meal.
Kofi moved around the wagon and the dead, picking up useful items: pocket coins, paper IDs, even a dark pistol and some essentials. He gathered them into a bag he found in the wagon before setting off.
His plan was simple: use the money he had taken from the dead to travel back to the town near his university. All he wanted was to leave this damned forest. But first, he had to search for Franklin.
“I know you’re out there, Franklin. I’m coming for you,” he said confidently, slinging the gun by its strap over his shoulder as he walked deeper into the forest.
Meanwhile, at Samaritan Village, near St. Corvallis.
“To you, Evelyn, having been found guilty of practicing witchcraft, you shall be banished from this land to Siuslaw National Forest, where your kind dwell,” the fat mayor read in a loud voice.
“She must be hanged!”
“No, hang her!”
“Hang the witch! She’s responsible for the missing children!”
“She ate them! Eight children missing, and then her!”
The angry crowd yelled, spitting at Evelyn’s tanned skin as the guards forced their way through.
“I swear I’m innocent!” Evelyn pleaded, but her words fell on deaf ears.
After a forty-five-minute walk, Evelyn found herself at the edge of the forest.
“And don’t return to our village, witch,” one of the guards said. They tied her hands with rope, secured the other end to a tree, then left her there, mocking and cursing her, muttering among themselves about how they would divide her father’s land.
Hours passed, and night slowly crept in. Everything grew almost completely dark; the moon had not yet shown its full face.
The rope danced with every desperate pull Evelyn made. She tried everything to free herself, but the knots held fast. Tears rolled down her face as she cried, kicking the tree in frustration. She wished she really were a witch, at least then she could command the tree to release her. How cruel her fate: an orphan girl punished by the greed of men. How cruel, a girl who had once been a princess, now reduced to this senseless nightmare.
Her troubles had begun just four years earlier, in 1958, when she received a letter while at university. Her letters were always accompanied by goodies sent from her parents, but this time there were no treats only the letter itself.
“Another love letter from a king to his princess,” one of her friends teased as they gathered around her. They all burst into laughter.
Evelyn quickly broke the seal and took a deep breath before reading. What she saw sent shock through her. Instead of the usual two-hundred-word letter filled with over forty sentences, there were only nineteen words on one and a half lines -two short sentences.
“Dear Miss Evelyn, we are sad to announce to you that your parents died in an accident this afternoon.”
When she read those words, the world tilted. A few seconds later, she fainted, and her friends caught her before she hit the ground.
Evelyn’s aunt and uncle were kind. They continued caring for her and managed her father’s farmland, which they registered in her name once she became an adult.
Then another blow struck. Her beloved aunt and uncle were poisoned. Evelyn wept bitterly as she threw handfuls of sand onto their coffins.
She tried to return to school for her final project, but she could not. After staying home for several months to handle her father’s farm, she received a letter from the university stating that her permitted leave had ended and she must return.
That was when the human monster decided to take advantage of her.
“And how did you know about all this information?” she asked, staring into his cold green eyes.
“I’m the mayor. I know everything about this town,” he replied, signaling the waiter to refill the wineglass he had already emptied seven times.
“Marry me, Evelyn,” he said, pressing his fat lips to her hand. She slowly withdrew it.
“I’m sorry, I can’t. Marriage isn’t my priority right now. I have to focus on my education and my father’s struggling business.”
“Marrying me comes with benefits.”
“Thank you, but I don’t need your benefits. I can handle things on my own.”
“When you go back to school, who will watch over those bony-headed farmers? Who will protect your father’s cattle from the rustlers who steal them and blame the bandits?” he said, gazing into her sky-blue eyes.
“I said I can’t. I’m considering nothing from you. If you’ll excuse me, sir, I need to go.” Evelyn stood, returning the box of chocolates the mayor had brought for her.
“And you shall regret it, Evelyn. Just like your parents, just like your aunt! you shall regret it,” he yelled angrily, slamming the table with his fist and flinging the box of chocolates across the room.
Two weeks after that encounter, Evelyn was framed. She was accused of witchcraft, with planted evidence found in her house.
****
It was the rustle of dry leaves that snapped Evelyn out of her thoughts.
“Who’s there?” she called in a weak, frightened voice as someone approached.
Her heart pounded faster. The more she asked, the closer the footsteps came.
Soon the footsteps brought her a flicker of hope.
Just as she started to sit down on the ground, a large hand clamped over her mouth. She screamed and screamed, but no sound escaped, the hand had sealed itself tightly against her lips.
Chapter Three
On the far side of Siuslaw National Forest, Franklin wandered like a wild horse. He was lost, though he refused to admit it. He had returned to their sleeping camp the previous night only to find bodies, his friend’s body was not among them. He had no idea whether Kofi had been killed or had escaped.
He vowed to himself that he would search for Kofi’s body, at least. After all, he was the one who had convinced his friend to make this risky journey. What would he tell Kofi’s mother if he confirmed her son was dead? He refused to believe it.
That same night, he had been chased by a huge monster. The hole he had slipped into while running was what saved him. If not for that, the hairy beast he had glimpsed would surely have killed him.
“It’s Bigfoot. I swear it’s Bigfoot,” he muttered to himself, the loneliness of the forest already playing tricks on his mind. He had heard about Bigfoot from the popular news reports in the Humboldt Times. stories written by Andrew Genzoli, the journalist he idolized.
Franklin was studying mass communication at the same university as Kofi. He planned to become a journalist and was already practicing: he carried his pocket camera everywhere, conducting mini interviews wherever he went.
He pulled out the camera and began reviewing the recordings, most of them were him interviewing his friend Kofi. He had tried to interview several high-profile people, but he could never afford the fees their agents demanded, so he always settled for Kofi. Kofi did it for free. In most of the interviews, Kofi spoke passionately about Nigerian independence, a hot topic at the time.
“Maybe if I can send one of these media outlets pictorial evidence of the beast that lurks in the dark, I could be rewarded handsomely and become famous like Andrew,” he said to himself as he slipped the camera back into his pocket.
Then Franklin spotted smoke rising in the distance. “Humans at last,” he sighed with relief, standing up and dusting himself off.
He began walking quickly, almost running toward the smoke. He did not want to spend another night alone. With other people nearby, they would stand a better chance against that beast.
“While the Bigfoot is mauling, I’ll be snapping,” he said to himself, glancing down as his foot struck something.
Fresh animal bones lay scattered on the ground, along with children’s clothes stained with what looked like blood. One piece bore an emblem from a town with the words “Samaritan Village” written above it. Before moving on, Franklin took several photographs.
Soon he reached the fire. He could hardly believe what he saw: Kofi sat beside a woman as beautiful as an angel, both of them near a roasting antelope.
Franklin stood frozen until Kofi spotted him.
“Franklin!” Kofi screamed. They ran toward each other and embraced in a long, tight hug until the woman cleared her throat, and they finally pulled apart.
“I thought you were dead,” Kofi said, struggling to hold back tears.
“You too, friend.”
“Meet Evelyn,” Kofi said, gesturing toward her. “And Evelyn, this is Franklin, my friend, more like a brother.”
“Nice to meet you,” Evelyn said, extending her hand. Instead of shaking it, Franklin kissed it gently.
While sharing and eating the venison, they recounted everything that had happened over the past few days.
“I’m so sorry about what happened to you,” Franklin said in a somber tone after Evelyn finished her story. “You said eight children? That’s exactly the number of bloodstained children’s clothes I saw on the other side of the forest.”
“Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it,” Evelyn whispered, her eyes widening in disbelief as she watched the footage Franklin showed her on the small camera screen.
“Beautiful lady, you must have been framed,” Franklin said, patting her shoulder as she began to cry bitterly.
“So, what’s the way forward?” Kofi asked.
“I suggest we go back to that site, pick up the children’s clothes and the emblem as evidence to clear your name,” Franklin proposed.
“It’s too risky. That means going back into the inner part of the forest. What if that Big…, what did you call it again?” Kofi replied.
“Bigfoot.”
“Exactly,” Kofi said.
“Do you want her life to sink even deeper into danger? Those children’s clothes and the emblem are her only evidence. People may not believe the video recording alone,” Franklin argued, trying to convince them, though not entirely out of concern for Evelyn, but because it was his chance to see and photograph Bigfoot himself.
After thinking it over for a few minutes, Kofi agreed to go with Franklin.
Together, the three of them, each holding a flaming torch, stepped into the dark, evil night.
Chapter Four
Humming “A Summer Place” by Percy Faith, the trio walked deeper into the forest, fear absent from their hearts, until they reached a cluster of trees whose tops had been smashed off.
“This can’t be the work of a bear. This must be Bigfoot,” Franklin said, filming the scene with his camera.
“Stick with us,” Evelyn called when she noticed Franklin stepping a little too far ahead.
“Guys, look,” Franklin said, his voice trembling. Before him lay a massive antelope, its midsection torn away and missing.
“This is still Bigfoot’s work,” he added, snapping more photographs.
“I think we should keep moving,” Kofi whispered.
When they reached the site, they gathered all the evidence: the bloodstained children’s clothes and the emblem from Samaritan Village.
“He will pay for ruining my family,” Evelyn said, her voice breaking as tears welled up. Kofi pulled her into a gentle hug.
“It’s okay, dear. Justice will be served, and everything will be fine,” he reassured her.
They burned the remaining wood they had gathered, using it to keep warm through the night.
The next morning, Franklin took more photographs of the scene. Then the three began their journey back toward Evelyn’s village, but Franklin started heading in the opposite direction.
“Where are you going?” Kofi asked.
“Back to the wagon. Don’t tell me you’re going to abandon those guys’ corpses to rot,” Franklin replied. “They may not have been your friends, but they were mine.”
Evelyn and Kofi exchanged a few quiet words before turning to join Franklin.
With a smile on his face as they walked, Franklin felt happy. For him, venturing deeper into the forest meant getting closer to Bigfoot and to the stardom he craved.
***
Without torches, guided only by the natural light of the full moon, the three walked deeper into the forest, chatting as they went. Franklin provided endless commentary about Bigfoot, which was starting to bore the others.
“Do you know that missionary Elkannah recorded stories about wild men, which I presume to be Bigfoot, among the Native Americans in 1840?”
“And seven years later, in 1847, another similar report by Paul Kane.”
“Do you know the first documented Bigfoot footprint was recorded by British explorer David Thompson?”
“Another British,” Kofi muttered in exhaustion.
“Shhh,” Evelyn said.
“Don’t shush me,” Franklin teased, playfully placing a finger on Evelyn’s lips.
“Not you. Do you guys hear that?”
“Franklin, please just shut up and listen,” Kofi said as Franklin opened his mouth to speak again.
The unmistakable sound of trees being slammed and felled reached their ears, crystal clear.
They all turned back and stared, eyes widening in shock as evergreen trees bent violently in their direction.
“Run! It’s Bigfoot!” Kofi shouted as the hairy beast leaped out from behind one of the trees.
It was a deadly chase. Bigfoot quickly overtook Kofi, knocking him down with a powerful swipe of its broad shoulder.
Evelyn and Franklin had luck on their side that night. The wagon was only a few meters away. They poured every ounce of strength into sprinting toward it.
“Come on, come on!” Franklin screamed toward Evelyn. He reached the wagon first and climbed inside.
With her last burst of energy, Evelyn threw herself forward. Her hand connected with Franklin’s, and he pulled her in, then slammed the door shut. Bigfoot had expected to seize her, but all he caught was a torn piece of her gown.
The creature slammed and rammed against the wagon, but the ancient steel held firm. It could neither bend nor destroy it. Franklin pulled out his camera and began filming, an action that infuriated Evelyn.
“Your friend just got knocked out, and here you are taking video?” she said angrily. “What kind of friend are you? You don’t even know if he’s dead!”
“This will save me. This will save Kofi’s mom, and maybe you too,” he replied. He paused the recording, shoved the camera in Evelyn’s face for emphasis, then resumed filming.
****
The night wore on, and Bigfoot refused to leave. Then, all of a sudden, the beast collapsed to the ground. Something had struck it from behind.
Kofi emerged from the darkness, shouting their names.
“Here we are, Kofi!” they answered in unison.
“Oh my God, you killed it,” Franklin said as he stepped onto the hairy eight-foot creature.
“Not really, just the effects of some tranquilizer,” Kofi replied, pulling Evelyn into a tight hug.
“Now let’s go,” Kofi said.
“Wait a minute.” Franklin brought out his camera again and continued recording.
“Have you gone mad, Franklin?” Kofi asked in surprise as Franklin tried to turn the beast for a better shot.
“Just a minute, Kofi,” Franklin said. But he screamed as the creature suddenly grabbed one of his legs, squeezing it tightly.
In a swift motion, Kofi emptied the remaining tranquilizer darts into the beast. It finally released Franklin.
“Are you okay?” Evelyn asked, examining his leg. “I think it’s broken.”
“Leave me here. I’m the cause of all this,” Franklin said, tears welling up as Kofi tried to help him stand.
“Never. You may be white and I may be Black, but you are my brother and my friend. One should not abandon a friend in times of trouble,” Kofi said. With Evelyn’s help, he supported Franklin to his feet.
The three walked away from the motionless Bigfoot, leaving behind the rotting corpses they had come to bury.
Chapter Five
The town bell rang out as people gathered in the village square. Evelyn stood at the podium, facing the crowd of villagers.
The fat mayor pushed through the throng, sweating and visibly exhausted. Someone had summoned him urgently.
“Abomination! What is she still doing here?” he bellowed as two guards lifted him up onto the podium.
“She survived the forest, and she deserves a fair hearing,” Franklin said, standing among the crowd.
“Who gave you the audacity to speak? What is your family name?” the mayor shot back, rebuffing Franklin.
“Hang her, and you too if you keep defending the witch,” he added.
“But she truly deserves a fair hearing since the forest was kind to her,” someone in the crowd called out.
“No, the only thing she deserves is a quick death,” the mayor retorted.
“Let’s hear her plea!”
“Let’s hear her side!”
“Let her talk!”
One by one, voices rose from the crowd until everyone was shouting, and the square turned into a chaotic mini-market of overlapping demands.
“Alright, alright, let’s hear her,” the mayor finally conceded when he realized the people were no longer listening to him. He ordered the guards to ring the bell again, and silence fell.
“My fellow good Samaritans,” Evelyn began, “I believe I have been framed for a crime I did not commit. I am innocent, and I have evidence to prove it.”
“Then show them the evidence,” the mayor said mockingly, sneering at her. “When you are dead, your father’s lands will be mine,” he muttered under his breath.
Evelyn held up the camera. “Someone, who wishes to remain anonymous, has provided video clips pertaining to this matter.” She pressed the power button, but the camera refused to turn on. In frustration. The mayor stepped forward from behind her and snatched the device.
“She is so delusional, I told you all,” he declared triumphantly.
“Now go home!”
“Wait, there is another piece of evidence,” Evelyn said quickly.
Kofi stepped forward, holding the bloodstained children’s clothes and the emblem in his hands.
“These clothes were found stained with animal blood, and this emblem was also discovered in the forest,” she explained.
“That’s Cathryn’s shirt!”
“That’s my Samuel’s pants!”
“That’s Felicia’s top!”
One by one, the parents of the eight missing children spoke as they recognized their children’s clothing.
When the crowd saw the emblem, they immediately knew who it belonged to, no one but the mayor. Realizing he had been caught, he bolted into a small room at the back of the podium and locked the door. The two guards offered no resistance as the angry mob surged forward, breaking down the door and forcing their way inside.
“Everything is complicated, you people won’t understand!” he cried loudly as the crowd finally dragged him away.
Evelyn retrieved the camera from him before he was taken.
“Thank you,” Franklin said as he accepted it from her.
“It’s you two I should thank,” she replied, giving Franklin a gentle hug—careful not to disturb his walking stick, then turning to Kofi and pulling him into a deeper embrace, followed by a passionate French kiss.
***
At Evelyn’s home, Kofi sat talking with his friend.
“I wish to watch that video again,” Franklin said. Leaving Evelyn and Kofi, he went into one of the rooms to check if the camera had fully charged.
“Haaaaaasaa! Nooooo!” he let out a wild scream, flinging the camera onto the bed.
“What happened?” Kofi asked, rushing in with Evelyn close behind.
“It’s the camera, everything is gone. All the videos are wiped,” he said, tears streaming down his face. “That son of a monster must have deleted everything in the brief time he held it.”
Their conversation was interrupted by noise from outside.
“It’s the villagers, they’re taking the mayor to the forest,” Evelyn said.
“Yes… now is my second chance,” Franklin replied after a long silence of more than nine minutes.
***
In the forest, the mayor was tied to the very same tree where Evelyn had once been bound.
Kofi and Franklin were the last to leave. Kofi helped Franklin prop the camera up in a tree, angled to capture anything that approached the mayor.
“Please, I have money, lands, anything! I will give you whatever you want!” the mayor begged, but his pleas fell on deaf ears as the two walked away.
“Even Mirrors?” he shouted after them in a loud voice, then burst into mocking laughter.
“Don’t mind him, Kof,” Franklin said quietly, sensing the remark might have stung his friend.
Night fell. The mayor remained tied to the tree. When the fire Kofi had built around him died out, he heard the rustle of leaves.
“Who’s there?” he called in a frightened voice.
Out of nowhere, Bigfoot charged forward and ended him with one powerful strike.
As blood dripped to the ground, the camera captured the moment of the creature leaving the scene. Then an unexpected glitch occurred: the camera began taking automatic photographs, the flash popping and the shutter clicking loudly. Hearing the sound, Bigfoot stopped walking, turned around, and walked back toward the tree.
***
“I promise to come back,” Kofi said, pressing his lips to Evelyn’s as she fought back tears. They had spent the night together. She had begged him not to pursue the gold-mining job and urged him to return to Samaritan Village instead, where he could take over as head of her father’s business.
Riding the powerful stallions Evelyn had gifted them, they returned to the forest the next morning.
“I guess the beast didn’t want to be seen by the world,” Franklin said, holding the shattered remains of the camera.
“It’s not worth it, friend,” Kofi said, tapping Franklin on the shoulder as he crouched in disappointment. “Where on this map shows us the way back to the university.”
“Eastward we shall go,” Franklin said, pointing to a spot on the map.
The two mounted their horses again and continued their journey.
***
Under another full moon, Bigfoot roamed the forest. He spotted one of the empty tranquilizer darts on the ground. Sniffing it, he caught a familiar scent that stirred painful memories. With a thunderous roar, he hurled the dart away, then leaped from tree to tree, moving eastward through the forest.