What would you do?
If you doubted your senses?
If you saw something that couldn’t be real?
Something that only exists in myth
And cheesy beer commercials
What would you do?
Would you tell anyone?
You know you wouldn’t be believed
They would look at you with concern
That you had taken leave of your senses
Say you’re driving
On the road from Christina Lake to Castlegar
About 5 or 6 km past the bridge
You come around a corner and you see them
Deer. Three of them
They’re already in motion moving from the
left to the right side of the road
One of the stupid beasts stops and stares
Caught in the headlights
You slam on the brakes, hoping it’s in time
You skid on the gravel and ice and come to a stop
You’re sitting in your car at an angle
Pointed at a snow bank on the left hand side
The darkness encroaches on you save the illumination from the headlights
A peaceful snow is falling
The deer are long gone
A dark shape falls to the snow bank
Amidst falling rocks and snow
A limb flailing
It lands on the edge of the illumination
A bear?
A feeling of pity enters you
It fell from an outcropping of rock
About 15 meters up. Poor thing
As you look at the furry shape
It moves. It’s still alive
What would you do?
It rolls itself over onto its stomach
And pulls itself into a crouch
It raises its head to look at you and your breath stops
This is not a bear
A nocturnal animal can see in the dark because
their retinas are reflective
That’s why when you shine headlights on an animal in the dark
Their eyes shine back at you
These eyes are shining back at you
As if to study the huge metal beast before it
Its fur is long and shaggy
Covered in clumps of snow
The face is unlike anything you’ve seen
The eyes lock you in their gaze
The image is burned on your mind forever
After a few hour long seconds
It rises and runs across the road
Your eyes widen as you realize what it is
Biped
It runs the same way you do
About three meters tall
It runs with a slight limp
But still it is quick and a moment later
It jumps over the snow bank on the right side of the road
Gone forever
Fear takes its icy grip on your heart
Your foot pushes on the accelerator in haste
The car stalls. The silence is deafening
Quickly you start the car and accelerate away
Leaving the empty road behind you
What would you do?
Your mind races trying to process what you saw
It couldn’t be real
Maybe it was just a shadow
Something a tired mind with an overactive imagination could conjure
But you can’t accept that
Maybe a dream
You fell asleep at the wheel for a moment
That must be it
But again, you can’t convince yourself of it
These thoughts whirl through your mind as you
approach your destination
A decision must be made soon
Who do you tell?
Most would just laugh and dismiss you
And look at you funny from then on
But there are some people that would believe you,
right?
Maybe a parent
Maybe a spouse
Maybe a friend
But you can’t bring yourself to tell any of them
A few days later you’re driving along that
road again
Going home
You pass slowly by the spot
But a fresh blanket of snow has removed any possible evidence
You curse yourself for not being brave enough to go back the night it happened
What would you do?
Maybe in the end you tell no one
Decide to keep it to yourself
You get on with your life as if nothing happened
It is an interesting memory that you will take to your grave
But it gnaws endlessly at you
It is too big a secret to keep
You try a few times to tell your story
But the words can’t come out
The frustration is overwhelming
What would you do?
How would you keep your sanity?
Who would you tell?
Maybe in the end you find a way
To tell your story without admitting anything at all
What would you do?