The Creature

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XIV

Several days passed and when I went out to look for Kong he was not to be found. No evidences indicated his presence at any time since the new year had begun. It was disheartening. Sally had asked me to leave the house for a time for both of us to consider our relationship and whether or not we wanted a legal separation or a divorce. Now I was free to search for Kong but he was not around. I was now living at the Diggins.

Each evening I returned to the cabin, built a fire, made scotch and water, and settled down for deep reflection on my state of affairs. I still did not have running water and I carried water in three five gallon plastic jugs from the spring. This was not all done at once and usually only one jug a day was needed unless I took a bath in the round zinc tub, then two jugs of water were needed. One gets to know the use of water when he has to carry it. Turning on a tap does not give an individual an appreciation of the value or nature of water. Five gallons of water weighs forty pounds and lugging two jugs up the hill was not an easy task.

My toilet habits were geared such that I used the toilet at the college during the day thus I never used the outhouse that I had built. The usual night and morning urination could effectively be commenced over the porch railing. This has always been a psychological lift to me, that is, to be able to urinate over the porch railing, to be alone in the wilderness and free from the confinements of society.

It was a delayed urgency that prompted me to go to the outhouse that rainy midnight. I put on my heavy shoes, donned my jacket over my pajamas, and with umbrellas and flashlight in hand, headed for the outhouse. The rain was mixed with snow and the wetness of it sunk into me. On the path in front of the outhouse I found Kong lying in the rain. He was dead.

I stood stunned and forgot all about my urgency to use the outhouse. I must have stood there for several minutes before I tried to test his state. He was dead all right, rigor mortis had set in. I couldn't move his arm. What to do. My first thought was that I now had evidence of his species, to measure, to show to the public. The horror of the public asking me questions and invading my private life was too much for me. I returned to the cabin and got dressed. My decision was to bury Kong with the idea that I could dig him up if I ever decided to do so and needed to do so.

I probably should have buried him on the property where He fell but at that time I was not thinking as logically as I am now. I should have released him to the public but to this day I will not discuss him with anyone personally and even if you the reader should discover who I am I will refuse to discuss these events with you. Just assume that this is fiction and not worth legitimate time.

I tried to back the car up as close as possible to Kong but it started to sink in the wet ground. Although it usually snows in the middle of January it was unusually rainy that year. I decided to let the car stay on the hard stony driveway and try to drag Kong to it. It was impossible, he was too heavy. I finally got the long rope from the sleeping loft of the cabin and tied it around his left ankle but could not drag him. The rope was too short to reach the car. Finally I hit upon the idea of getting the 100 foot electric extension cord and using that as a rope tied it to the car bumper and the end of the rope which was tied to Kong. Once I got him moving he dragged easily over the mud surface of the outhouse path. I stopped dragging once I got his body out to the driveway. However, he was too heavy for me to get into the station wagon.

I had covered the station wagon floor with my army poncho that I had secreted from that service twenty years earlier. I knew there would be some use for it someday. Eventually I got Kong into the back of the wagon with the aid of an old door that I used for an emergency picnic table when the regular table was full. By making an incline I was able to pull him into the wagon with the aid of the rope turned around the front door frame. It took almost a half hour for this process. I apologized to him as he humped into the back seat and the tools that I had stashed there.

I made a hurried count of the tools and threw a shovel on top of him and covered it all with the same blanket which I had covered him with on the first day of his illness, at least it was the first day I noticed his illness. We were off.M

I had once considered buying property in a place near Wymps Gap in Chestnut Ridge, the western most ridge of the Allegheny Mountains. It was an area just north of the West Virginia border. Wymps Gap was remote and at two in the morning I was unlikely to be disturbed. I would bury Kong in this area.

The ride out was lonesome with me talking to the dead Kong and explaining that this was the best way. He did not want to be dissected and put through meat grinders and by the time we reached the ridge I was probably crazy for I was convinced that I had convinced him that this was the best way.

There was snow in the mountains where in the lowland there was rain. Wymps Gap is on a hard road between a little town called White House on the Pennsylvania side of the border and a resort Lake in West Virginia called "Lake Of The Woods." Although there were people living at Lake of the Woods on a permanent basis they did not use the Pennsylvania road but went out through West Virginia to a town called Clifton Mills. I had spent some time in Clifton Mills and a mountaineer town it was. I guess I would rather fight Kong than the inhabitants of Clifton Mills.

I drove over the ridge, through the gap and cut the motor, drifting down the snowy road to where I could stop and do the burial. Finally I found a nice pull off spot about two hundred yards from the Mason Dixon line which was identified by a swatch cut through the big trees.

I tried to drag Kong into the woods but he was too heavy. There was only one thing to do. I took out the axe and started cutting him into movable pieces. First his head came off with one deft stroke. There was a clap of thunder and it started to rain. My feet were in snow and my head was in rain. His arms came off with difficulty. his legs needed several hacks and by this time I was crying uncontrollably. Some blood formed on the wet snow. I took out my bottle of scotch and swilled much of it down. Then I started carrying the pieces into the woods. I have no idea how far I went but it was a good ways. I made one trip for the arms, one each for the legs. and one for the head. I had to drag the torso behind me with the rope. It kept getting tangled on greenbrier and small saplings.

The rain pelted me, the lightning flashed and I could see West Virginia over on the other hillside as I dug the grave. The pieces of Kong lay in disarray about me. Finally the hole was about three feet deep and full of water. I dug a slit trench in the hillside to drain most of the water away. Snow was still in abundance on the ground.

I went to the car for the poncho with the idea that I would wrap the body pieces in it before I buried them. When I left the car with the poncho I found a car wheel. The West Virginia-Pennsylvania border is strewn with car parts. Every hillbilly in the state must have parts of cars in his yard. This extension of the hillbilly yard was no different. I took the wheel with the idea that if I ever wanted to find the gravesite again all I had to do was bury the wheel with Kong and use a metal detector to find it.

I did not bury the poncho but instead threw in the parts of Kong and the wheel on top of them. His head splashing and bobbing up in the little water was ghastly and it haunts me to this day.

The covering job was a nightmare and I was glad when it was completed. After the job I repeated "I am the resurrection and the life sayeth the Lord and he who believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and he whoever liveth and believeth in me shall have everlasting life." I don't know why I said, it, I'm not a religious person but this laying to rest of one of God's creatures evoked this testimony of sorts from me. I returned to the car with my shovel, my rope, and my poncho. When I got there I finished the rest of the scotch, got in the car, threw the bottle out the window, turned the car around and skidded up the hill to the gap and down the other side.

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