My name is Edward and what I am about to write, I have only once spoke of to my mother the following morning. I was told that it was my imagination, that I watch too many scary movies and when I insisted it was real I was told not to speak of it anymore nor to anyone. I spent much of my childhood in a small town “Terrace Bay” (then population 2,000) in Northwestern Ontario, Canada.
I remember that during the late summer and throughout the fall season a curfew was put in place to ensure all children were indoors once it started to get dark. We, as children, were never told exactly why the curfew came into effect. My father, a strict European man, told my brother, sister and I that the curfew was needed to protect us against the Boogeyman; who would search the night for children that were disobedient and not in their beds after 9:00pm.
One evening after 9:00pm, I got up for a glass of milk and as I closed the fridge I heard what sounded like the trash cans tipping over outside. I immediately opened the back door and to my very near right was a large mother bear and her two cubs feasting on the scraps from diner. My mother, hearing the door open came quickly to close it and told me “now you know why there is a curfew”, so now I knew the reason for the curfew or did I? Many other curfew nights followed with little or no disturbances, until one early August night.
I shared my bedroom with my older brother, whose bed was near the bedroom window of my parent’s bungalow. As usual he had been reading and had fallen asleep. I called out to him to turn off the table lamp between the window and his bed, but he was in a deep sleep. I got up out of bed and went to turn off the light. Upon approaching the night table I saw the silhouette of a tall, somewhat hunched back, long hairy armed prowler with an ape like profile moving toward the gate of our backyard. As it was passing by my window, my hand trembled as I reached to open the clear-white curtain just a little so I could see the figure whole face. I moved the curtain it stopped and turned to face the window. Terrified, I quickly turned off the light, stumbled onto the edge of my brother’s bed, only to fall to the floor. I ran to my bed, jumped in it and threw the covers over my head; I couldn’t believe what I had seen. Since we never heard of a Sasquatch/Bigfoot before, I thought maybe there was some truth to the Boogeyman after all.
The next morning I heard my mother outside with my father; she was upset that her garden had been completely trampled on and that part of the back wood/wire fence separating the bush and our yard had been ploughed over as if a bulldozer had gone right through it. At first I heard “large moose” in the conversation only to finish with my father saying “it must have been a very large bear, just look at the tracks in the garden and on the lawn leading to the street.”
Since we lived close to a steep hill; we called it; “The Drop” that led down to our part of Lake Superior, it is most likely whatever it was, made its escape down The Drop and into the woods around the lake.
My father left with the neighbouring men toward the woods at the bottom of The Drop, I told my mother what I had seen the night before. The expression on her face did not match the stern advice she gave. No, her expression was similar to mine and I could swear she too had seen this figure at a time in her past. I never spoke to her again about what I had seen, yet in my mind and heart I know it was no animal or human outside my window that late summer night, when I was 7 years old.
Edward Scott, Canada
January 15, 2012
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