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Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy nine, I went to a family reunion

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with my aunt and uncle in Middle Tennessee. On the

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way there, we talked a little about a strange thing

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that happened to us while we were out hunting frogs

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one night. We heard chatter and huffing, and then it

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paced us out of the woods whatever it was. With

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that on our minds, we joined the rest of the

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men sitting around the front yard at my great uncle's

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house where the reunion was taking place. My uncle turned

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to my great uncle and he said, tell us about

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what you saw that night you were out raccoon hunting.

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Right away, my great uncle got a look on us

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face that I'd never seen before. It was a mix

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of bewilderment and fear, and he turned away like he

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didn't hear what my uncle asked him. And then his

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son said, go ahead, Dad, tell him what we saw.

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You tell them. My great uncle said under his breath,

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all right, I'll tell the story, his son said, and

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he began. At that time, my dad was sixty seven

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years old. He'd spent his whole life out in the woods,

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hunting mostly quail and raccoons. That night they were headed

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out to the land behind their house, and the property

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had recently been sold and the new owner had bulldozed

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the old fence line and put in a new wire fence.

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They had three dogs, two walkers, and a red bone.

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The fence was on an incline that the dogs couldn't

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get over, so they had to put them over. The

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son handed the twenty two rifle to his dad and

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he crossed the fence, and then my great uncle handed

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the rifle over and he crossed. Two Up the hill,

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twenty five yards from the old fence was a brush pile.

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They walked in that direction and then let the dogs

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off the leaves, and they began sniffing around the pile.

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They had only just begun to smell the awful stench

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coming from it when something stood up up in the

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middle of that pole and let out a scream so

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loud that it knocked them over. It was reddish brown.

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It stood eight or nine feet tall, and it was

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four feet wide, and the dogs ran right back past them,

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and this time they didn't have any trouble clearing that fence.

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My uncle and his son stood there face to face

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with it for two or three seconds until it quit screaming,

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and then it jumped up on top of the wood

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pole and it leaped off and it ran up the hill.

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They turned and ran in the opposite direction back down

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the hill. They didn't have much trouble getting over the

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fence either. It was three hundred yards from that fence

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back to the house, and neither one stopped running until

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they got there, and my uncle said he felt like

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his heart was going to explode from the effort. When

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they got back to the house, my uncle asked his

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son where the rifle was. Well, he didn't know. He

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thought maybe he'd dropped it. The next morning, they took

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a shotgun and a thirty all six and went back

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out to where they crossed the fence, and they found

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the twenty two and they got the hell out of there.

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Shortly after that, my uncle sold his hounds and he

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never went hunting again. Now, I talked to his son

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several times after that reunion. I'd always ask him if

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they'd ever seen that thing since that night. He said no,

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they'd never seen anything, but they did hear that exact

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same scream on two different occasions after my great uncle

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passed away in nineteen eighty eight, except to go back

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to get the rifle the next morning. He never stepped

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foot on that property again, and after his death, his

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wife sold their place, and his son said he never

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went back there again either. My great uncle never liked

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to talk about it. He didn't like for people to

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know about it. He was always afraid that they would

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think he was crazy or that he was a liar.

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If we hadn't had our encounter while out hunting frogs,

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and my uncle hadn't shared the story with his cousin

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uncle's son, who then told them about their incident, he

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might have got his wish and taken the story to

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his grave. Here's my story, which happened when I was

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sixteen years old. Our neighborhood backed onto a large forest

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which led right up to the I'm not even going

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to try to pronounce this zekea zeka swamp z e kiah,

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which we used to explore up to the point back

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along the woodlands. I had three brothers, all of whom

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lived in the woods, and being the only girl, I

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tagged along like a tomboy as best I could. My

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oldest brother and three of his friends decided to put

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their carpentry skills into practice and spent several weeks building

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a treehouse deep in the forest, two miles back from

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our neighborhood. All the materials were hauled in by hand

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or loaded on motorcycles. I was impressed with a instruction project,

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but I was disappointed that it was so high off

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the ground. I was afraid of heights. They hammered horizontal

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steps going up the tree, and the floor hatch door

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was a bit awkward to access, which made entering and

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exiting the treehouse a challenge. This was no treehouse for sissies.

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It was built solid and even had a small locking

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sliding window to block out critters from getting in. Back

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in those days, this was the nineteen eighties, all the

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young people seemed to roam wild with little or no supervision.

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I have no idea how we kept this treehouse a

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secret from our parents for so long, but it was

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where we all went to smoke cigarettes and drink Boone's

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farm or beer. Don't forget the Mad Dog twenty twenty,

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MD twenty Mogan David twenty twenty. We called it mad Dog.

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Lot of people my age will remember that. Anyway. One

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of my friends hear was Debbie. She got the idea

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that it might be fun to spend the night in

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the treehouse. Besides being afraid of heights, I wasn't overly

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king on pitch black woods either, but hey, you're only

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a teen once, so I agreed it might be fun.

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We lied to our parents and we told them we

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were spending the night at the other person's house, and

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we packed what we needed for the night to stay

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in the treehouse, including sleeping bags, candles, magazines, and food.

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We hiked into the woods and settled into the treehouse

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before dark. We were grubbing on junk food and talking

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about school and things that girls talk about at sixteen,

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and we didn't tell anyone we were going to sleep

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in the treehouse for fear that someone would try to

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spoil the fun for us. We settled in for the night.

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It was quiet in the woods, unusually quiet up until

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something struck the side of the treehouse. We both stopped

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talking and we noticed the smell. All it was like

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rotting trash. Oh, you guys, I just have the best

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imaginations for a riting trash. Isn't that funny? But I

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think when I come up on smells, I always just

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naturally laughed. Anyway, She writes, I looked at Debbie and

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I wondered what she ate earlier that day, and then

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she pinched her nose, and I knew the smell was

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coming from outside. And then bang, something hit the treehouse again,

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but it was much bigger. We were both very frightened,

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and we heard grunting sounds and scraping at the bottom

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of the treehouse. We locked the hatch, which was made

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of wood and was almost invisible to the eye from outside,

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as the boys had made it look like a part

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of the flooring from underneath. But the thing wasted no

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time in finding it, and it tried to slide it open,

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or so it seemed to us. I said directly on

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top of the hatch, and Debbie was in a panic.

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I was too scared to be in a panic, and

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I sat frozen like a statue, and I prayed with

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all my heart for this thing to go away. I

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kept thinking that we were going to die. This thing

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was way too determined to figure out how to get inside.

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The trees that supported the treehouse were very substantial, and

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you could never imagine someone could actually shake them, and

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I could barely get my arms around them, but the

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treehouse shook slightly, and then we heard funny sounds. I

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don't remember exactly what they were, but they sounded like gibberish.

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Maybe there was more than one, we couldn't tell. We

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heard the loud footsteps and undergrowth of the leaves and

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sticks snapping, and I decided to blow out the candle.

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And then I walked over to one of the small windows,

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which had a sliding covers, and I tried to peek out,

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but it was so dark that I couldn't see. And

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I shut the window back and I locked it, and

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then it or they started scraping the bottom of the

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treehouse again, and this went on for a long time.

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After a while, we were both exhausted from fear. Things

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started landing on the roof of the treehouse too. Debbie

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had big blue eyes and she kept staring at me

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with them wide open. We spoke with our eyes, occasionally

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closing them tight. We were afraid to speak, and I

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wanted them to think that we were asleep. I didn't

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know what to do or think. I just wanted to

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be in my own bed back home. After several hours

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of banging, things hitting the treehouse and shaking and scraping,

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things started to quiet down just before sunrise, and then

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we heard a loud, roaring growl sound, but unlike anything

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else we had heard before, and it felt like it

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could easily have pulled the treehouse down and gotten inside

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after hearing that, and I knew it was really big,

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whatever this thing was. And then it went totally quiet

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and everything stop. We waited for a couple of hours

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after they left, never speaking a word, until finally I

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said that we should take a look outside. By this

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time it was seven a m. And I whispered that

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we should leave very quietly and leave all of our

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stuff there and run like hell. Once we got down

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to the ground, she nodded and was softly crying, and

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I slid the hatch open and popped my head through

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to look as best as I could, and I didn't

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see anything, and we went for it and we ran

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like hell. And as soon as we got home, we

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woke the boys and told them all about our experience.

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They called their friends and went back to retrieve our

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stuff for us and have a look around. Two of

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the boys took rifles. My older brothers said that we

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were pretty stupid for going back there for the night,

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and we agreed. He was not going to get any

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argument from us. They said it was probably a bear

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or the goat man, and they teased us for months

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following this event, but I knew they believed us. Needless

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to say, Debbie and I never went back there again

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at night. I moved up north after high school, and

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I lost touch with Debbie. I found her on Facebook

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a few years later, and we chatted online a bit,

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and then one night I messaged her and asked her

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if she remembered that night in the treehouse, and I

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asked her if she would share what she remembered so

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I could fill in some of the blanks. She never replied.

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I messaged her three times and I tried to rephrase

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my question being careful and considerate, but I got nothing

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from her. She never replied back at all. Because I'm

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in my seventies now, long past caring about what others

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think of me, I'm not sure I ever did. I've

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lived much of my life in South Carolina, but in

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my forties we bought a place in New Mexico on

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the checkerboard, a mix of federal state and counties in

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Navajo Zuni and private land. Any major issue out there

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brought a real assortment of law enforcement officers. We were

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planning to build a cabin and live there for the

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two years that it would ultimately take to complete the

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renovations on our business location in Charleston. Many of my

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neighbors there lived by the tenant that we are all

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here because we are not all there. It is a

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land of rebels, misfits, and highly independent people. One Navajo

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man told me that everyone who lived out there on

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our patch of private land were tax dodgers, small time crooks, crazies,

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marijuana growers, and fugitives, and then he advised me that

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we should move. He was a nice man, and after

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that he checked on me from time to time and

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became a real friend. Once we settled in, I would

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often stay home when my husband went to grants or

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gallop for building supplies, so it was not unusual for

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me to be out exploring on my four wheeler alone.

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I rode all over our fifty acres and out onto

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the state and federal land. I was in the woods

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a lot by myself, learning the area and getting acquainted

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with the flora and the fauna. We do have both

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black bears and mountain lions, but I have only seen

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mountain lions from time to time. I haven't thought about

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these incidents since two thousand and three, but your stories

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brought them back to me. It all seems just as

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surreal now as it did back then. It was on

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one of those occasions undes, when I was home alone,

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that it all began. I was clearing brush from around

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our camping trailer building a fire pit one day with

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my cattle dog. I was quite focused on what I

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was doing when I was suddenly overcome by a sense

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that I was being watched. I looked around me, but

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I saw nothing. We are on a high plateau and

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our land is pretty flat, with sparse trees and almost

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no bushes. Because at that time cattle grazed on the

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subdivided ranch our place was part of, it was reasonable

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that I would have been able to see anything out

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of place nearby, and I continued working for a few

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minutes until an odor came over me. It was a

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smell of a poorly tinded garbage dump, with overtones of

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dead things and a touch of heaven only knows what else.

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I paused at what I was doing and looked at

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my dog to see if she was reacting to anything

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she could not have done a better point had she

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been trained to do it. Now, this was a dog

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who regularly chased cows away from our place and had

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no fear of large animals. She was, after all, a

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blue healer. Her reactions put my senses on high alert,

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and I looked around me. First, I looked at our

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camper trailer and decided that anything that wanted to get

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into it would have no trouble. I then turned to

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my old Dodge truck, and I decided that it was

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a better choice. When I opened the door, my dog

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practically ran over me to get in the truck. That

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was not terribly alarming. She loved to drive in the truck,

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but she didn't stop there. She got onto the floorboard

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and curled up into a tight little ball well. I

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was inspired to join her as quickly as possible, and

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I locked the doors behind me. I was living in

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the hope that the truck would be more secure than

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the camper. Also, at that moment, I vowed to carry

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a truck key with me from now on, as it

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was I was going nowhere. We sat there for ten

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minutes before I rolled down the window enough to tell

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that the smell was gone, and I got out and

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blithely went back to work. My dog chose to stay

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in the truck, so I left the door open for her,

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and by the time my husband got home, I had

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pretty much forgotten about it, and I felt pretty silly

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for hiding in the truck just because I smelled something stinky.

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After that, my life went back to normal. I still

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rode my four wheeler and I hiked all over the

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place by myself. I was just happy to be outdoors

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and free to roam. My dog had evidently forgotten about

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it as well. She was always the first one on

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the four wheeler when I would go for a ride,

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and always on my heels when I went for a hike.

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Five years later, I was heading to a potline at

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a friend's place. I was about two miles from my

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turn when I came to a curve known for the

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seasonal build up of mud or snow. If we made

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it through the curve without getting stuck, we'd always give

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a short prayer of thanks for doing so. As I

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came out of the curve, I saw a large dark

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form that my brain tried to twist into the form

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of a cow flailing miserably I was unable to accept

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that realization, and my mind went to a black bear.

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That week, a black bear had broken into a woman's

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kitchen and killed her. So black bears was already on

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my mind, except bears don't run on three legs, and

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this thing did. It loped along beside me between one

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hundred and two hundred feet to my left. I couldn't

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go any faster than about ten miles per hour on

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that road, so it had no trouble pacing me. It

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stayed with me until the last thousand feet or so

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of gravel. It didn't feel threatening, and it didn't seem

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to tire. It just loped along beside me. I told

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the woman that the pot luck about it, and one

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of them, who had lived out there for decades, called

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me several days later and asked me to come over.

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She had a medicine man at her place and she

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wanted us to talk. He listened to my story, and

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he told me that it was one of the elder

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brothers and that I need not be afraid of it.

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My friend paid him the customary gift of tobacco, and

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he went on his way. We'll be going back to

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New Mexico in a month or so, and this memory

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will not keep me out of the woods. Sadly, my

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dog has been gone for years. My walks will be solitary,

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and there will be more seat room in the four

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wheeler without her. And now I'm going to have to

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go have a good cry over my long lost cattle

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dog her. That's not the end of the story. But

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she's the name of her cattle dog, and I don't

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want her to hear this and not think that I

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at least attempted to pronounce the name of the cattle dog.

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But the name of her dog is I think pittile

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a pitie. I'm trying to find it here, p I

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T A l e a h. Anybody know what that says.

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I don't know, and I didn't want to mispronounce it.

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But now that I've gotten to this point in the

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story and she has very fond memories of her dog, ma'am,

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I'm I'm just I don't want you to feel insulted.

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I didn't pronounce your dog's name, or say your dog's name,

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but I just don't think I'm pronouncing it right, So

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I'm sorry. But the dog's name is Pittile a pital

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pittlee okay on with the story. If you're still with me,

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I have also seen a UFO. In nineteen eighty nine,

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Charleston was ravaged by Hurricane Hugo. The path of the

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storm left a wound that would take years to heal.

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I was a part of a group of people that

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were seekers. The seeking led us to a healing tradition

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that has its roots in antiquity, and in parentheses, she says,

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it's called reiche r e I k I riky reiki

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I don't know. We came together one night to receive

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an invitation into the healing form. We met at a

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hairdresser's shop to take the class. In the middle of

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the evening, I can't remember the hour. We took a

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break and we were told to go sit and think

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about what we had been told and to make sure

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that we wanted to continue. There wasn't a lot of

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space for us to spread out inside the shop, and

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it was a beautiful, starry night, so my friend and

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I went to sit in her car. We'd been sitting

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there talking a little and thinking a lot, and when

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she said what is that? She was leaning over her

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steering wheel, looking up while leaned forward as well, and

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I saw nothing. And then I remembered that it was

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a beautiful story night, I should at least be able

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to see the stars. In fact, they were all around us,

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just not directly over us. We got out of the

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car and watched as a massive triangular shaped object passed overhead.

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And then we got back in the car and we

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sat there stunned. Later that evening we checked in on

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each other just to make sure we saw what we

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thought we saw. The following day, there was an article

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in the news and courier about a UFO that had

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been seen on a path from Charleston to Columbia. And

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beyond the whole experience of seeing something by virtue of

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not seeing the stars, something that must have been an

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acre in size, still leaves me speechless. My friend and

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I talk about this incident once in a while, just

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to check in and validate our sanity. Well, those are

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my story reason. Thanks for listening, MHM.