The encounter we experienced that day will never leave my memory. It has been over twenty years since the scare, and I can still see a vivid picture in my mind. The air felt hot and humid in late August of 1998. The air smelled fresh and clean, and trees rustled their leaves in the slight warm breeze. I remember feeling the hot sun on my skin as beads of sweat slid down my cheek. I was ten years old at the time, and my little sister, Tawny, had just turned seven. We lived in a provincial town in northern Minnesota with a dense forest surrounding our home. Our property felt serene, filled with many animals, both small and large alike, including a cryptid creature.
On the day of the encounter, I called my friend Danny and asked him to come over to play. He asked if his younger brother, Jacob, could come with him, and I agreed. Danny said he and Jacob would be over shortly, and I went to my bedroom to get my baseball mitt and ball to play catch. I ran for the back door to head out to the yard but stopped when my mom called for me.
“John, where are you going?” Mom asked hurriedly as she picked up some papers from the table and shoveled them into her torn shoulder bag.
“Danny and Jacob are coming over, and we are going to play catch,” I said in a huffy tone, wanting to get outside before the day grew even hotter.
“I must go into town and pay some of these bills; I need you to watch your sister. Take her outside with you to play.”
“Mom,” I sighed heavily, “do I have to? Can’t you just take her with you?”
“No, John, I can’t, I have many errands to run, and I don’t have time to take her with me. Your dad is working a double shift at the paper mill, and we really need everyone to help out around here.” Mom said back to me as if there was no use in even asking.
Tawny sat at the table eating her small bowl of Fruit-E-O’s, swinging her legs back and forth mimicking a pair of scissors, while mom and I debated. “Johnny, I want to stay with you. I like it when you play with me. Maybe we can play with my ponies?” Tawny asked hopefully.
Ignoring Tawny and staring at my mom, I asked, “Can’t she just stay in the car? People leave their dogs in their cars all the time. Just remember to crack a window.” I said, laughing.
“John!” She paused and then sighed. “Can you please just do this for me, bud? I won’t be gone any longer than I have to.”
“Fine,” I said quietly under my breath. “Get your pony, and let’s go, marble brains.” I nagged Tawny to get going as fast as she could.
“Hey!, Mom, Johnny called me a name!” Tawny tattled to mom in a childish voice.
“John, apologize to your sister, and you two, please behave; I need to get things done for all of us. Now, I must go. I love you both.” She walked over to Tawny first and brushed her long bangs back over her head, giving her a kiss, then headed towards me.
“Mom, no. I’m too old for kisses.” I crossed my fingers in an X as if I were warding off a vampire.
“You’re never too old to be my little boy, but I guess I will settle for a hug.” She ran at me like a bull, picking me up and spinning me around while laughing. My mom stood tall, about five foot ten, and as strong as one of my favorite WCW wrestlers, Disco Inferno. I stiffened up as she grabbed me, shutting my eyes tightly and wincing, trying to pull my face away. She gave me a sloppy kiss, and we all laughed. Tawny ran over to us, jumping in the middle.
“I love you guys. Be good. I will be back as soon as I can. John, the emergency numbers are on the fridge.” She smiled and walked out the door, not realizing she was leaving four children in the presence of a monstrous beast.
I pulled my Minnesota Twins baseball cap on as Danny and Jacob pedaled their bikes up the dirt driveway. I heard the rumbling sound of the playing cards as they flipped against the spokes and thought about putting some cards on my bike too. It sounded like a motorcycle. A motorcycle in training, anyway.
“Hey, you want to play catch?” I asked, tossing the ball up in the air and catching it.
“I didn’t bring my glove, but what about Annie I Over?” Danny responded as he jumped off his bike and flipped the kickstand down with his dirt-covered high-top.
“It sounds like a little girl’s game,” I said in a disgusted and disappointed tone.
“Oh, that sounds fun! How do you play?” Tawny chimed in excitedly as she held her pony by the mane.
“You need at least two players; someone throws a ball over the roof of a small building and yells, ‘Annie, I Over. Then the other person tries to catch it. If they do, they run around and tag the individual that threw the ball. Easy, right?”
“What if you don’t catch the ball?” I asked.
“Then you run and get it, booger butt!” Danny said, lightly punching me in the arm.
“Okay, we have the shed out back; we could use that, I guess. Let’s give it a whirl.” I started to go around the house to the backyard as Tawny followed, begging to play.
Jacob rubbed his hand on his nose, pushed up his glasses, and crossed his arms. “No, girls can’t play!” he whined.
“Johnny, can I play, please, can I?” Tawny begged.
I sighed and told her she could. This new game sounded like it would be more fun with more players. Tawny smiled and started to skip to the backyard as the rest of us walked. I had an eerie feeling, a chill up my spine even in the intense heat, as we walked around the house towards the old barn wood shed with the rusty metal roof. A feeling that someone or something was watching us. I shuttered and shook my head to clear my thoughts, making my way to the shed.
Danny and Jacob played on one side of the shed, and Tawny and I stood on the other. Danny threw the ball first, and Tawny and I watched it soar high and fast. It flew well past catching distance and into the thick, dense woods. We went to look for the ball, and I thought to myself sarcastically yeah, really fun game. After several minutes of searching with no luck, I called Danny and Jacob over to help us look.
That’s when we all started to get a whiff of the most disgusting odor that any of us had ever smelt. A putrid and pungent stench, the smell of decay. At that moment, birds refrained from their usual song, and the trees stopped rustling their leaves. We all looked at each other, having a sense that something was different, something was wrong, even dangerous. My skin broke into goosebumps, and the hair on my arms stood up. I gulped a mouthful of balmy air, swallowed hard, and kept looking for our ball.
We heard a hollow knocking sound coming from deeper in the woods. It almost sounded like a woodpecker, but this sound came from a much larger creature. Later I would find out that knocking on trees is how they communicated. Tawny let out a small, startled scream. The knocking was close, but we couldn’t see anything. I decided to go take a closer look to satisfy my curiosity. I wanted to be brave, even though cold sweat coated my skin. Danny walked next to me, and Tawny and Jacob followed passively behind us. We pushed some low branches away from our faces, careful where we stepped to avoid tripping over fallen trees, roots, or moss-covered boulders.
Danny saw it first and stood still in a frightened panic. I almost ran into him, starting to say, “Hey, watch—” but stopped when I saw his skin turn a pale white. I looked at his gaze and followed it with my eyes, trying to see what had startled him. I looked towards a small clearing and saw a massive brown hairy beast. We watched this enormous creature with our jaws dropped, and our eyes popped open wide. My thoughts were racing around in my brain like stock cars speeding around the track, and several thoughts zipped by as I tried to decide what this beast was. A bear? No, bears are not usually bipedal. A deer? No, deer have four legs and would have run as we started making noise. A moose? Oh gosh, I hope it’s not a moose! Dad said they are mean! But there are no antlers. A hairy homeless man wandering around in the woods? I gasped as I stood staring at it. The beast stood over seven feet tall, covered in long, shaggy, matted hair, and seemed to have no neck. The creature’s face was dark and ape-like, with the blackest eyes I had ever seen. Eyes that seemed to burn right into my soul. I will never forget that day. Tawny, Jacob, and Danny will never forget that fearful and memorable day. The day of our unexpected encounter, the day we all came face to face with Bigfoot.
Cryptic Corner 