Worthy Witness

Gina sent me this post today from Nystrom’s Pond.  She was taking an early morning run around the rim of the lake where there is a thin trail, enough for one or two very thin walkers or runners.  She sent it with these words, “STAY AWAY!  I’M SAFE, TUCKED INTO A LITTLE CAVE WITH RABBITS AND FAWNS, SKUNKS AND SNAKES.  THE GIANT OF WHITE’S WOODS HAS BEEN AWAKENED AND I BARELY ESCAPED HIS FOOTSTEPS…I AM SAFE.  THE ANIMALS AND I WILL WAIT FOR THE SILENCE AND THEN I’LL BE HOME.”

“This is incredible,” I thought.  Ronnie was away for the weekend, and there was no one else who knew about the giant except for the woman.  We three had been camping at Nystrom when the wizened lady visited.  We were telling stories and roasting marshmallows when the four-foot eight, hump-backed elder appeared; her long white hair framed her face, an apparition, in the firelight until she spoke.  She said she was tired and asked, “May I sit down and join you?”  We said “yes,” and gave her a stick with a marshmallow.

The story began:  “I was a young girl when my family and I camped on this mountain.  There was no lake then, only a waterfall.   One early morning I decided to wake early, before anyone else, and pick blueberries in an opening I had seen on an earlier walk.  I was hungry for pancakes and wanted Momma to put the blueberries in the batter.  I had my own  tent, so no one woke as I dressed.  Grabbing the little tin pail, I followed the sun in the sky; just rising, I knew it was east, and that was the direction of the patch of berries.

I had been picking for only a few minutes, and the blueberries were so large that my pail was nearly filled.  It’s then that I felt the earth move.  Little animals came running out of their holes and nests and scurried by me.  I saw a cave in the clearing, and dove into it with the skunks, the snakes, the fawn and rabbits.  We were all quiet and huddled together when the earth shook again, a footstep closer.  Of course, I didn’t know it was a giant.”

“What happened?” we three asked the question together.  “For a long time we heard the thud of trees falling, another footstep and suddenly the sound of roaring, tumbling water.  The little animals sat very still, and I was trembling when a white rabbit hopped into my lap.  He let me pet him, and the fawn came over to lay beside us.  The skunks and snakes and other rabbits were in the back of the cave where bats were lying upside down.”

“What was going on outside?” we three asked. “When the sound of water subsided, and we could not feel rumblings any more, the snakes were the first to leave, followed by the skunks and rabbits.  The little fawn looked at me with his deep brown eyes as if to say good-bye, and the white rabbit jumped down and thumped his little back paw, gazing for just a moment and he was gone.  I thought it was a dream.  That I had fallen asleep in that little cave and had a dream until I crawled out.

“What, what, what was outside the cave? we asked.  “The sun was high in the sky, and I thought it was noon.  I picked up my little tin pail and ran to the campsite.  My tent and the big tent were gone;  a pond stood instead.  A beautiful, gleaming, roundly seeming lake.  Footprints in the sand, larger than life, showed 20 toes at least, confirming my suspicion; it was a giant I heard.”

“What about your parents, were they okay?” Gina asked.  “Yes, they, too, had sought refuge in a cave on a high ridge above the campsite, just beyond the waterfall.  They shared it with a mountain lion who had not yet wakened.”

At that moment, the wizened, white-haired lady disappeared, and we thought it was just our imagination until today when Gina sent her note.

Inspired by S. Ersinghaus #43