Our Town’s Tales
by Dheer H. Bhavsar
“Oh, come to me child, let me tell you a story of gore and flesh,
mystery and discovery, right at our front door,” said Widow Scarlett, the
oldest resident of Priest’s River, Idaho, right near the bend of the Pend
Oreille River. “Many a year ago, I was one like you, running down the older
gravel streets. Without a care in the world, free as can be, knees scraped
and bruised. What a time to be alive!” Widow Scarlett had been the great
granddaughter of the town founder, and the one person who'd never spread
nor fuel a heresy. Although Widow Scarlett claims to have known the
secrets that lurk beneath bigfoot.
“Now ya’ll study me, aye?” “Aye” the group of townschildren around
her giggled. “When the horses tore up the roads, and our men tore up
Normandy, there was a peculiar face roun’ town. Somedays he be known as
Rhett Moore, others ‘Moore Craze’ and still others ‘The lost bear.’”
“Now, Rhett was a dear, as pretty as a peach, happy as a pig in mud.
And when Uncle Sam called for his use in Europe, o’er a hundred went, and
few returned. One being him, ‘imself.” With emotion flooding her face and
tears welling up in her eyes, “Kids, war does things to a man, my older
brother and dad, especially Rhett. Off the 9 o’clock train, he didn’t speak a
word, but walked to his home in solitary. Each step he took bore the weight
of all those killed in the war, I can speak a time on this…” she begins to cry,
“Pappy lost a foot…and…Emmitt…he…he…got ran over by a tank…buried
overseas.” Forest, a quiet yet attentive boy, hands the widow a Kleenex, she
wipes her tears filled with decades of pain.
“When he returned, the man was quiet and more reserved than any
other. He would spend the whole twenty-four hours of each day in his own
home, hidden away from the world, but when he emerged, he had the
longest beard in Idaho. When his mustache reached his neck, and hair to
his elbows, everyone realized something was off” said Widow Scarlett in her
deepest voice. “Then one night” she continued, “during the most
treacherous and severe storms of the century, he took a waterproof-survival
torch and ran through the streets, but he never returned"
“Next, next Sunday at Church, most of the congregation had
discussed this, and the police had cleared the church to tidy and clear his
home, because he hadn't come back yet. The next week after that, the city of
Medicine Hat in Canada reported citizens missing…” She pauses for
dramatic effect and then shouted “BONES, BONES, HUMAN BONES
FOUND IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF TOWN, THEY WERE MOST LIKELY
MAULED TO DEAAAAAAAATH!!!!”
All the kids ran crying, except Forest. She continued “The coroner and
detective said ‘fur’–the same as Rhett's hair–was found at the scene in the
woods.” She leans in “and between you and me–I believe Rhett is the
creature known as Bigfoot, who mauled those Canadians.”
“Really?” said Forest, “Yessir” said the widow, and between you and
me I think it was the war that changed him, ‘cause in his military diary, he
said he had to eat raw meat and that it was the best he ever had…and that
he was looking for that meat ever since…but he found it and has been
enjoying it for years”
“So cool!” said Forest, “I want to be just like Uncle Rhett!”
“Wait, what?”