The Startling

It was late in the afternoon on August 20th, 1955 and I was down in the woods, camped out beside the creek, just lazily lying on a blanket, under a shady tree, listening to the buzz of the invisible insects.

Without warning, I heard a loud “Crack” sound echoing down the little valley where the creek ran and my heart started racing. I thought to myself, “My God! That’s can’t be somebody shooting a gun down here!”

I bolted into action and started sprinting toward where I thought the sound had come from. I ran until I was breathless and then I stopped for a minute and ran some more.

After a few minutes of running, I came to the edge of the little forest near the place where the abandoned concrete foundations of an old traction car (Street Car) and there was nobody to be found.

But, after searching the area carefully for a while, I did find a large old tree laying on the ground with it’s roots totally exposed … just like it had just fallen over and hit the ground.

Could this be the noise I had heard earlier?

I will never know if that tree was the cause of the noise or not, but it is what I settled for before casually sauntering back to the comfort of my little encampment.