4 minute read

stuck-in-mud

The rain continued to pound down on the windshield, alternating between water droplets and tiny balls of hail. She could see only a few feet in front of the pickup truck, even with the high beam lights on. This is ridiculous, she thought. It seemed like such a good idea at the time to do package deliveries before dawn and get the greater payout of delivering outside of business hours. She had done three other deliveries already and was on her last one.

But this wasn’t like any other delivery.

After precariously driving up a long, deep forest, dirt road at 4am, she walked up past a set of large wooden gates to a porch with a low hanging roof covered in moss. There were a pair of chairs next to the front door, one with what looked like a scarecrow sitting on it. It was very generic, except for an ugly red tie around the neck.

As she approached the front door and set the package down, a voice yelled out, “What are you doing on my property?” and cackled in a loud, shrill voice.
“I..i..i..” she stammered, looking wildly around for the source of the voice, her heart pounding in her ears. There was no movement. She looked down at the scarecrow and shakily waved a hand in front of it.
“Get off my porch!”, it boomed. It was a recording coming from the scarecrow. Anger taking over the panic that threatened to overwhelm her, she kicked the chair as she muttered a few choice words for the residents of the house and hurried back to her truck. The scarecrow hung limp over the side of the chair.

Back in her truck, she realized the problems just started. It was dark and pouring. The road that led to the house was narrow, with one side dropping off into a ditch. Any attempt to turn the car around got her dangerously close to falling off the side. She tried to turn anyways, hoping the area near the gate was wide enough, but barely moved a few feet before having to give up. Finally, not seeing any other way, she slowly backed out, down the road. She tried hugging one side of the road in order to not fall into the ditch, but that led the wheels of the truck straight into mud. Every attempt to drive out caused them to slide further in, slipping until it looked like it was turning into a mudslide. Not having any way out, she tried to call for roadside assistance, but couldn’t find the account information she needed. Fighting down tears, she called her husband, then her brother, then her father-in-law. Why does no one pick up their phone!?
By now the rain had increased into a torrent. She took out a bag of chocolate bars and began mindlessly stuffing them in her mouth while grasping desperately for ideas of how to get out. She was so lost in her panic, she almost didn’t notice that her husband was calling her back, even as she stared at the phone screen.

“What happened? Where are you?”
She sobbed bits and pieces of the story and her helplessness.
“I’ll call AAA and see what I can do. Hang in there. It’s just a bit of mud and rain.”

She sat there, listening to the drumming of the rain, thinking of all the other chores she needed to do. The radio played faintly in the background, giving warnings of inclement weather and unimportant sports updates and thumping sounds.

No..that wasn’t from the radio..

She squinted at the darkness outside the car, but there was nothing there. It felt like hours but the clock showed only a few minutes passing. The rain and hail created a rhythmic drumming until…

Thump..thump..thump..

There it was again. Louder this time. “What the hell is that?” Her mind was racing. She started dialing her husband again when something slammed into the side of the truck. Her body whipped sideways and the phone flew out of her hand and on the floor of the passenger side. Dazed and gasping, she looked over towards the window to see a face pressed against it. She heard screaming, not completely registering that it was coming from her. The car started rocking sideways again as the thing outside tried to pull open the door. She opened her seatbelt and slid across, lunging for the phone as it rang; her husband was calling. She picked up, barely able to speak, all the words becoming slurred together into a scream until..silence. All that could be heard against the patter of the rain was her husband saying hello on the other end of the line.

“Yeah, we got the call around 5am from the folks in that house up the road. They were trying to leave for work and found this truck blocking the road”, said the deputy sheriff.
“Did they see anything? What did you find?”
“They said they didn’t see anyone out here, but it looks like there was a struggle. Scratch marks on the seat, looks like some blood. Other than that, there were just candy wrappers and a phone. Do you think it was some sort of animal? A bear maybe?”
“Nah, look at the size of those scratch marks. No bear has claws that big. And it looks like the door was ripped straight off and thrown to the other side of the road.”
“What are we going to report?”
“A bear. We don’t have any other explanations and no point in creating panic.”

The sheriff and deputy walked off as the tow truck started pulling away.

“What’s that under the door?”, the sheriff asked, pointing to the ripped door still laying in the mud. The deputy walked over and pulled it out.

“Looks like a red tie.”