The Creature

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IX

It was the middle of the first week of November and Kong had not appeared for a few days. The Diggins seemed lifeless without him as I walked the new road around the property. It was early afternoon and I carried my machete with which I cut brambles or limbs which protruded onto the road.

As I cut away a few brambles 1 looked down and saw two spent shotgun shells. Suddenly it dawned on me, hunting season had begun in Pennsylvania. My thoughts were of Kong. I had to get him out of this populated area. Even though no one bothered me in the middle of my woods, at least they didn't bother me while I was there, there were signs of hunting and trespassing. My cabin was burglarized but these elusive beings did not frequent the area when I was about. The side of the cabin was peppered with buckshot the first year it was built and since that time there were hunters but never while I was there. My cabin was in the midst of a large hunting population and in November the roads and hillsides of this area were dotted with red, brown and orange clad men followed by yelping dogs. Pennsylvania sold more hunting licenses than any other state last year, and it is truly a hunter's paradise, teeming with all sorts of game. What could I do to protect Kong.

I mulled over the situation and wondered if the hunters would obey my NO HUNTING signs but already there were spent shells. The urge to kill something must be innate in humans. I remember my encounter with the thirteen year old boy who stopped by my pond one day. After our initial approaches and getting acquainted palaver he indulged me with stories of his killing prowess. Even though it is illegal for a boy his age to possess a firearm in our state he claimed that his mother had just bought him a seventy five dollar gun for his thirteenth birthday. With this weapon he succeeded in knocking off hundreds of crows, some groundhogs, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits. and possums. With each species blasted he was able to relate somewhat interesting stories of their demise. I asked the kid why he did it and all he could say was that "it was fun." At the time I hoped that this was just a juvenile bragging but the kid had a real knowledge of the hunting experience and I credited him with at least half his kills. He would probably grow up to be a professor of zoology like Barney.

My brother-in-law hunts out groundhogs each summer and leaves them lie where he shoots them. It's hard on the groundhog but the carcasses do return to nature that which it took from nature, just as yours and mine will. As the boy and I continued talking, a hawk flew over and the boy made a motion as if he were raising an imaginary rifle to blast it. "Bang" he shouted. I tried to get to him by saying that if he killed the hawk it would be a split second of satisfaction to him and the hawk would be gone forever from the earth. It would be a living thing destroyed never to return. He countered by saying that he knew a place in eastern Pennsylvania where millions of hawks pass through each year and someday he was going to go there with his dad.

The boy came around about a week or two after our first encounter and asked if he could spear some frogs and when I refused he went away. I did find some frog remnants around the pond a few weeks after that which I attributed to him but had no proof of his involvement. He must be a pretty big kid by now and I hope his itchy trigger finger has been satisfied and he has taken up other pursuits.

My plan was to lure Kong into my car and transport him to a less populated area if that was at all possible. I had two nearby areas to pick from. There was the various wilderness areas of West Virginia and the northern forest areas of central Pennsylvania. Either one of these would suffice to hide him from the hunting population.

First I had to see Kong again, a thought flashed through my mind that he may even be shot now but it would have mad the papers if this were so. He was still around and it would not take patience to see him with so many people out in the wild this time of year.

I returned home and told Sally that I was lecturing to a conservation group that evening and I would not be home for supper and would probably return home around midnight. She reminded me that she still did not trust me and asked for more information. I made it up as I went along. I told her that there would be a dinner for the group at the Holiday Inn in the county seat of Washington, Pennsylvania and I was the main speaker. I did identify the group since it was a complicated title but would tell her all about it when I returned home. She appeared to accept this.

As late afternoon approached I waited for Kong with much nervousness. I was extremely relieved when he did appear. The sun was sinking rapidly emitting a red glow which framed the approaching Kong on the horizon, visible through the naked tree trunks. I greeted Kong by touching him and handing him an apple which he quickly devoured.

To complete my lure I put apples up front in the wagon and told Kong to get them. He had never been in the car before and leaned over to get to them from the rear without actually getting in. I picked up his feet, he was heavy, and pushed him into the rear. He resisted little and helped by stooping down further and following my pushing lead moved his body to the front where the apples were. Once I had him inside I closed the tailgate and went around to the driver's seat.

Kong panicked when I slammed the door and started the electric rear window winding upward. He began screaming and clawing wildly at the upholstery, tearing huge chunks of it away. I put my hand back to stop him but he caught my hand with his wrist as he swung wildly, the pain shot all the way to my shoulder but my hand and arm was not broken, just bruised. I yelled at Kong to STAY but he continued whacking away at the rear of the wagon. I was hoping that he didn't get his body set where he could get leverage. Finally when I turned the car to back around he was thrown flat to the front. I said LIE as loudly as I could. The word exploded from my lips. Kong momentarily stunned, rolled over on his back with his head toward the front seat. I put my hand on the top of his head and started the car. He whimpered but I kept my right hand on him and clumsily drove the car with my left hand, the wrist of which was aching. I believe it was the initial trust that I built up with Kong which made him quiet and accept the ride.

After about a half hour the stars came out and Kong settled. I could take my hand from him but I kept up a quiet low patter of conversation. Kong watched the stars fly by as I headed the car north toward the New York border. There was wild country up there that I had known many years ago. There were several nice places to choose from. There was Cook's State Forest which had large virgin hemlocks and oaks. There was the Allegheny National Forest which had smaller trees but very few tourists and settlements. This was the place upon which I had decided to release Kong. Here lived deer and bear and a host of lesser animals. The only known lobo timber wolves were in cages near a town called Kane. This was the icebox of Pennsylvania, deep remote woodlands. Surely Kong would be safe there.

The trip up was uneventful except for my apprehension. Kong traveled well and I was able to keep my hand from him in the dark areas but when I had to drive through a small town he would whimper and I would handle him as we went under streetlights.

I finally arrived at my destination, a secondary road halfway between the towns of Pigeon and Lynch in the heart of the Allegheny National Forest. The area was slightly southwest of Bradford one of the larger oil towns of this remote northland. I stopped the car, rolled down the rear window while Kong whimpered. Opening the tailgate I called to Kong to GO. He stepped out of the wagon and approached me as I backed off. I made the gestures and shouted GO but he just stood there.

As one would abandon a dog I jumped into the car, tailgate still down, started the motor, peeled out, spinning tires and drove away. I got a glimpse of Kong through the rear view mirror and was glad that it was too dark to see his expression.

When I returned home about an hour after midnight Sally was waiting for me. "You're still running around with that girl aren't you. Well I called her parents and told them all about you two." It appeared that somewhere, some poor girl was now catching hell from her parents.

This was the gist of the conversations for the next ten or fifteen minutes. I denied my guilt and told her she could check my story. She was way ahead of me for she had driven to Washington and to the Holiday Inn where the owner had never heard of such a banquet. What's more she was now considering divorce. I wondered if Kong was worth the price I had to pay for my association with him.

College classes resumed and the next day I routinely met my groups but my lack of enthusiasm was obvious. In the early morning I called the local newspaper and gave them a news story about my alleged lecture with appropriate quotes from the speech. The man who took the story seemed glad to get it and agreed to have it printed in the afternoon edition. I felt at the time that I was saved.

At supper the paper arrived and I let Sally read it first. Anticipation rose within me as I watched her read every page out of the corner of my eye. She seemed to take exceptionally long and I wondered if the article I had called in had made the edition. Sally made no comment about my article and when she put the paper down I grabbed it eagerly.

The article was there all right but everything was mixed up. My name was so misspelled that it was not even remotely familiar and the facts of the speech was so fouled that it was impossible to figure out the nature of the article let alone the gist of the speech. Some of the facts were near enough and I pointed this out to Sally. She fumbled around with the paper for a while and then deftly creased it and tore out the article and took it upstairs, I assume to her files.

There was nothing to do but to go to the cabin. The atmosphere at home was intense and few words were spoken. I began to understand such phrases as "the silence hung heavy." I drove mechanically to the Diggins. The lack of sleep was catching up on me.

When I got to the Diggins who should be waiting beside the porch but Kong. How did he get back so quickly? He had covered over two hundred miles in less than a day. His body reeked of foul sweat but he appeared happy as I gave him several apples. He flashed much teeth, I don't think he was smiling but there he was flashing teeth which I hoped was a sign of good cheer and that he was not planning to bite me. I must admit that I was very happy to see him and the disturbances at home made me look upon Kong as an old friend.

Let me review what had transpired. Kong had traveled about two hundred miles, that's as the crow flies, in less than twenty hours for a minimum speed of about ten miles per hour. He had found his way back from a remote area of Pennsylvania. Perhaps this was his interest in the stars and perhaps he traveled by them or he was familiar with the area and had traveled around here many times.

After reflection on the situation I decided that Kong could be elusive if he wished and that my fears of his being shot were unfounded. For the rest of November I heard shotguns and rifles firing within my woods and on neighboring property. When the hunting season ended and December appeared Kong was still alive and still coming to the Diggins for his ration of apples. Apples were now getting rarer in the markets and I went to an apple cider mill and made a deal for several bushels which were being saved for a future pressing.

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