Hoosier Poet

Keeping Watch

“Momma said it was an omen,” Jessy said softly.

“Weren’t no omen, Jessy, just some angry old owl,” Tom replied. “Or maybe a bobcat.”

They sat hunkered down by the fireplace, waiting for their mother to return from their grandfather’s cabin just up the way.

Jessy set about combing and recombing her doll’s hair, and while she was distracted, Tom walked over to the window. He peered out from behind the shabby curtain, hoping to see his momma walking up the footpath, or maybe even Papa coming back.

The only thing he saw was the pale moonlight silhouetting the trees as their boughs swayed gently in the wind, and their leaves shimmering silver with a ripple of each gust like a giant fish circling their cabin in the night.

He almost missed it. It was blending in with the branches of the swaying tree limbs, but it wasn’t moving, and that’s what drew his eye. They looked like a deer’s antlers, but the were too long, too thick, and sat too high.

In fact, they sat atop a head that was nearly double the size of the biggest buck he had ever seen, and it stood a few feet higher than a proper deer should.

He squinted at it, trying to figure out how the tree was making that shape, but the more he stared, the more it seemed to come into focus. It had a human-like shoulder, and an arm…not a leg, but an arm from that shoulder was bent to what looked like a large and very clawed hand that was holding onto the tree.

“Is it out there?”

Tom jumped back and almost tripped over his sister behind him.

“What…You… You can’t sneak up on me like that, Jessy!”

She stared up at him with wide eyes.

“Is the banshee out there?” She whispered.

Jessy tried to ease back the curtain to take her own look

“Ain’t no banshee out there,” Tom shot back pulling the curtain down and trying to nudge her back to the fire. “Weren’t out there when momma said she heard one neither.”

He tried to sound certain, but that…thing…outside made him wonder.

“Then why did momma say to keep a watch out?”

Tom shrugged. “We barred the door. She wants us to watch out for Pa coming back, or if she comes back before Pa so that they aren’t stuck out there all night.”

“Then why hasn’t momma returned?”

“Maybe ol’ buck slipped his tether again, and her and grandad are trying to get him back before she can ride back down. You know what a wanderer he can be up the hill. With all grandad’s horses, he thinks he’s in heaven.”

“Well,” Jessy said slowly. “How come Pa hasn’t come back from hunting?”

“Probably just got a late start back,” Tom said. “It happened last time I went with him. Remember, we didn’t get back till almost midnight!”

Jessy had returned to sit beside the fire. She was quiet, holding her dolly close as she stared into the fire. He thought that he had reassured her until he saw the tell-tale glimmer of a tear sliding down her cheek.

“Listen, Jessy,” he tried. “Pa says Momma still believes in the stuff she grew up with back in the old country. She heard an angry old owl and wanted to go find Grandad to search for Pa since he’s late.”

Jessy nodded, and curled up next to him on the floor, her dolly now serving as her pillow. Tom quietly got up and looked out the window again.

Nothing but darkness with small breaks of moonlight.

He double checked the wooden bar on the door. It was tight and proper.

He walked back to the fire, threw some wood on to keep it burning, and returned to his place on the floor. He kept his face towards the window and the door to keep vigil for his parents, or morning, whichever happened to come first.

***

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