WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.759 For decades, people have disappeared in the woods without a trace. 2 00:00:06.519 --> 00:00:10.279 Some blame wild animals, others whisper of creatures the world 3 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:14.160 refuses to believe in. But those who have survived they 4 00:00:14.199 --> 00:00:18.679 know the truth. Welcome to Backwoods Bigfoot Stories, where we 5 00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:22.879 share real encounters with the things lurking in the darkness bigfoot, 6 00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:28.239 dog man UFOs, and creatures that defy explanation. Some make 7 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:32.280 it out, others aren't so lucky. Are you ready, because 8 00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:34.640 once you hear these stories, you'll never walk in the 9 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:38.920 woods alone again. So grab your flashlight, stay close, and 10 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:41.840 remember some things in the woods don't want to be found. 11 00:00:42.520 --> 00:00:46.240 Hit that follow or subscribe button, turn on auto downloads, 12 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.399 and let's head off into the woods if you dare. 13 00:01:02.679 --> 00:01:06.359 This is story seven of ten. We're past the midpoint now, 14 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:08.840 and if you've been following Garrett's accounts from the beginning, 15 00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:11.680 you know that each encounter has built on the last 16 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:14.799 in a way that's moved from curiosity to fear to 17 00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:20.239 something harder to name, acceptance maybe, or resignation, or the 18 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:23.519 uneasy truce that forms when two parties occupy the same 19 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:27.560 territory and neither one is willing to leave. Here's where 20 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:31.280 we are. Over nearly four years on his remote mountain 21 00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:35.319 property in western North Carolina, Garrett has documented wood knocking, 22 00:01:35.640 --> 00:01:39.760 bipedal tracks, a visual encounter at his meadow's edge, the 23 00:01:39.799 --> 00:01:43.920 systematic harvesting of his garden, his brother's voice replicated in 24 00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:47.959 a ravine, snow tracks revealing nightly visits to his cabin, 25 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:51.439 three creatures on a talus slope below a bluff, and 26 00:01:51.480 --> 00:01:54.040 the night his two dogs chase something into the forest 27 00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:56.519 and had to be retrieved from a sight of deliberately 28 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:01.640 constructed stick structures, while unseen creatures close to circle around them. 29 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:05.480 Through all of this, one thing has remained consistent. The 30 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:09.719 creatures have never heard him. They've scared him, they followed him. 31 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:13.199 They've circled him and his dogs. They've stood at his 32 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:16.360 windows and leaned against his walls and called his name 33 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:19.719 in a voice that wasn't theirs. But in four years 34 00:02:19.719 --> 00:02:23.599 of contact, across dozens of incidents, they have not once 35 00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:28.240 made an aggressive move. No bluff charges, no thrown rocks, 36 00:02:28.759 --> 00:02:33.080 no direct confrontation. Garrett has wondered about that, so have I, 37 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.960 And in story seven, someone finally offers an explanation, not 38 00:02:38.039 --> 00:02:40.919 a complete one, but the closest thing to an answer 39 00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:43.680 that Garrett has received in a decade on that mountain. 40 00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:48.319 Here's Garrett. The spring of twenty eighteen came in slow. 41 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:51.919 March was cold and wet, the kind of lingering winter 42 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:54.479 that makes you doubt April is ever going to show up. 43 00:02:55.240 --> 00:02:58.000 The trees were late to bud, the creek ran high 44 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:01.240 and muddy from weeks of rain. The meadow stayed brown 45 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:03.599 well into the middle of the month, and I'd catch 46 00:03:03.639 --> 00:03:06.960 myself standing at the kitchen window watching for the first green, 47 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:09.120 the way you'd watch for a ship on the horizon, 48 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:13.639 something to signal that the world was turning again. The 49 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:16.159 winter had been a long one, and not just because 50 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:19.360 of the weather. The dog incident in October had left 51 00:03:19.360 --> 00:03:22.280 a mark on me that the cold months hadn't erased. 52 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:25.960 I'd spent November through February in a state I'd describe 53 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:29.719 as functional withdrawal. I went to work, I came home, 54 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:32.039 I fed the dogs and sat on the porch and 55 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:34.960 went to bed. But the spark that had been driving 56 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:38.000 me to document, to observe, to engage with what was 57 00:03:38.039 --> 00:03:41.719 happening on the mountain had dimmed to almost nothing. The 58 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:44.360 notebook sat in the kitchen drawer, unopened for weeks at 59 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:47.479 a time. I didn't hike to the bluff, I didn't 60 00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:50.039 walk the property line. I didn't even sit on the 61 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:53.280 porch after dark anymore, which had been my nightly ritual 62 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:56.719 for nearly four years. The encounter with the dogs had 63 00:03:56.759 --> 00:04:00.599 crossed a line I hadn't known existed. Every previous incident 64 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:05.039 had involved me, my garden, my cabin, my name, in 65 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:09.159 my brother's voice. Those were my risks to take. But 66 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:12.039 the dogs hadn't chosen to be on that mountain. I'd 67 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:16.240 brought them here, I'd promised them wordlessly and absolutely that 68 00:04:16.279 --> 00:04:19.959 I would keep them safe, And on October fourteenth, I'd 69 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:23.279 watched them sprint into the forest after something I couldn't see, 70 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:26.079 and I'd been too slow to stop it. The guilt 71 00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.319 was corrosive. It ate at the edges of everything else. 72 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:34.399 The wonder, the curiosity, the strange privilege of living alongside 73 00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:38.240 something extraordinary. All of it was shadowed by the memory 74 00:04:38.240 --> 00:04:40.720 of Bowie, wedged under a log, with the whites of 75 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:43.920 his eyes showing and ruby trembling in front of structures 76 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:48.279 that her brain couldn't process. Cliff noticed. He called one 77 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:51.720 Sunday in February, and I gave him my usual everything's fine, 78 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:55.000 and he said, you've been saying that for four months, 79 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:57.800 and you sound worse every time. He told me to 80 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.920 come down to Gastonia for a weekend, get off the mountain, 81 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:04.360 eat something he cooked, be around people who didn't have 82 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:07.519 four legs. I told him I'd think about it. I 83 00:05:07.560 --> 00:05:11.000 didn't go, not because I didn't want to, because leaving 84 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:13.920 the mountain, even for a weekend, felt like breaking a 85 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.800 vigil I couldn't name, like if I turned my back 86 00:05:16.839 --> 00:05:19.480 on the property for two days, something would shift in 87 00:05:19.519 --> 00:05:22.800 my absence that I'd never get back. What pulled me 88 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:26.439 out of it eventually wasn't a decision. It was the 89 00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:31.160 mountain itself, the way it always is. In mid April, 90 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:34.399 the whipper Wheels came back, the wood thrushes, set up 91 00:05:34.439 --> 00:05:37.120 in the oaks near Bishop Creek, and filled the evenings 92 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:39.800 with that fluted song that sounds like a question and 93 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:43.879 an answer. At the same time, Reba's zenias pushed through 94 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:46.639 the soil along the south wall of the cabin, right 95 00:05:46.680 --> 00:05:49.959 on schedule, as if fifty years of returning had given 96 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.720 them a kind of permanence that didn't require anyone to 97 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:55.959 plant them. And one morning I walked onto the porch 98 00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.560 with my coffee, and the meadow was green, and the 99 00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:01.199 ridge was soft with a new leaves, and the air 100 00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:04.399 smelled like warm earth and creek water and the sweet 101 00:06:04.439 --> 00:06:07.199 green scent of things growing. And I stood there and 102 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:10.120 felt something loosen in my chest that had been clenched 103 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:13.759 since October. Not all the way, but enough to take 104 00:06:13.759 --> 00:06:16.680 a full breath for the first time in months. I 105 00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:19.360 started sitting on the porch again. In the evenings, I 106 00:06:19.399 --> 00:06:22.279 opened the notebook and made a few entries. I walked 107 00:06:22.319 --> 00:06:25.920 the property line, just the lower sections, the meadow perimeter 108 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:30.759 and the creek bank. Small steps re entry, the kind 109 00:06:30.759 --> 00:06:33.240 of gradual return that happens when you've been pulled away 110 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:36.839 from yourself and have to feel your way back. Bowie 111 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:40.800 was nine. His muzzle was almost entirely gray now, and 112 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:43.439 the stiffness in his hips that I'd first noticed two 113 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:47.560 years earlier had settled into a permanent limp on cold mornings. 114 00:06:48.360 --> 00:06:50.560 He'd warm up by midday and move fine for the 115 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:53.560 rest of the afternoon, but those first few steps off 116 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:57.079 his blanket every morning were hard to watch. The vet 117 00:06:57.079 --> 00:07:00.920 in Hendersonville said it was arthritis common in deelers his age, 118 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:04.399 and gave me some anti inflammatory pills that helped but 119 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:07.839 didn't fix anything. Bowie took them wrapped in cheese and 120 00:07:07.879 --> 00:07:10.680 seemed to know they were medicine, accepting them with the 121 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:13.839 stoic patience of an old dog who understands that aging 122 00:07:13.959 --> 00:07:17.560 is a negotiation you don't win. Ruby was about four 123 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:21.519 by now fully grown, forty five pounds of muscle and instinct, 124 00:07:21.759 --> 00:07:24.160 wrapped in a black and tan coat that gleamed in 125 00:07:24.199 --> 00:07:27.720 the sun. She'd become the operational dog of the pair, 126 00:07:28.439 --> 00:07:31.240 the one who patrolled the meadow with purpose, the one 127 00:07:31.279 --> 00:07:35.600 whose ears swiveled at every sound. She'd absorbed Bowie's roll 128 00:07:35.639 --> 00:07:39.399 without replacing him. He was still the senior presence. She 129 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:43.480 was the working leg. The knocking had been quiet since December, 130 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:47.160 following the same seasonal pattern I'd observed for four years, 131 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:52.319 running quiet in winter, returning in spring, building through summer. 132 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:56.399 That pattern had become as reliable as the weather. I 133 00:07:56.439 --> 00:07:59.800 didn't dread it anymore. I noted it. I was on 134 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:03.000 the porch on a Saturday afternoon in late April, sanding 135 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:05.160 a piece of cherry I'd been turning into a cutting 136 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:08.360 board on Earl's lathe. When Bowie lifted his head from 137 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:12.959 his blanket and oriented toward Bishop Creek, not toward the ridge, 138 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:15.720 not toward the tree line behind the cabin, toward the 139 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:20.879 creek west. Bowie didn't do that. In four years, every 140 00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:24.160 alert he'd ever given had been directed northeast, toward the 141 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:27.600 ridge and the forest and the bluff corridor. The creatures 142 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:31.000 came from that direction, The knocking came from that direction. 143 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:36.120 Every track, every approach, every piece of evidence pointed northeast. 144 00:08:36.919 --> 00:08:39.200 West was the creek and the meadow, and beyond the 145 00:08:39.240 --> 00:08:42.159 creek a stretch of forest I'd never explored because it 146 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:46.360 wasn't my property. But Bowie was staring west. His ears 147 00:08:46.360 --> 00:08:49.759 were forward but not pinned, His body was alert, but 148 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:53.480 not tense. It wasn't his threat posture. It was his 149 00:08:53.919 --> 00:08:57.519 someone's coming posture, the one he used for Cliff's truck 150 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:02.480 or the propane delivery guy, recognition without alarm. Ruby picked 151 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:04.840 up on it a few seconds later and stood beside him, 152 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:11.480 her tail making slow, uncertain wags, not fear, not excitement, curiosity. 153 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:14.639 I set down the sandpaper and looked toward the creek. 154 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:17.919 Someone was walking up the slope from Bishop Creek toward 155 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:22.720 the cabin. A person, a woman, moving slowly but steadily 156 00:09:22.759 --> 00:09:25.120 through the tall grass on the far side of the meadow. 157 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:28.600 She was old. That was the first thing I registered. 158 00:09:29.279 --> 00:09:35.080 Not elderly, but active, old, truly old. Then stooped, moving 159 00:09:35.120 --> 00:09:37.639 with the careful deliberation of someone whose bones had been 160 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:40.960 making decisions for her joints for a long time. She 161 00:09:41.039 --> 00:09:43.759 wore a dark green quilted barn coat and a knit 162 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:47.200 cap pulled down over her ears. Despite the mild afternoon. 163 00:09:48.039 --> 00:09:50.879 She carried a walking stick, a piece of natural wood 164 00:09:50.919 --> 00:09:53.279 with the bark still on it, and she used it 165 00:09:53.320 --> 00:09:55.960 with every step, planting it ahead of her and leaning 166 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.639 into it before committing her weight. She crossed the meadow 167 00:09:59.639 --> 00:10:02.559 and about five minutes angling toward the cabin on a 168 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:05.559 line that suggested she knew exactly where she was going, 169 00:10:06.279 --> 00:10:11.399 not wandering, not lost, navigating, and the path she followed 170 00:10:11.679 --> 00:10:14.399 through the grass across the low spot where the meadow 171 00:10:14.440 --> 00:10:17.120 dipped toward the creek, up the gentle slope to the 172 00:10:17.159 --> 00:10:20.559 porch was worn. I could see it now that I 173 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:23.639 was looking for it. A faint track through the grass, 174 00:10:24.039 --> 00:10:27.840 tamped down by foot traffic that predated my arrival. Someone 175 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:31.879 had walked this route before many times. She reached the 176 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:34.759 foot of the porch steps and stopped looked up at me. 177 00:10:35.519 --> 00:10:37.799 Her face was weathered in a way that reminded me 178 00:10:37.879 --> 00:10:41.799 of earls, deep lines and sun darkened skin, and eyes 179 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:44.360 that had been looking at mountains for a very long time. 180 00:10:45.159 --> 00:10:48.960 She was probably in her late seventies, maybe older. It 181 00:10:49.039 --> 00:10:52.279 was hard to tell. Some mountain women age like rock 182 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:55.679 slowly and all at once, and Opal had the look 183 00:10:55.679 --> 00:10:58.200 of someone who'd been the same version of old for 184 00:10:58.279 --> 00:11:02.480 twenty years. Her eyes as were sharp, alert, the kind 185 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:04.960 of eyes that inventory a room before they settle on 186 00:11:04.960 --> 00:11:10.080 a face. Your Garrett, she said, not a question, a confirmation, 187 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:13.000 the way you'd say someone's name when you've been hearing 188 00:11:13.000 --> 00:11:15.840 about them from a distance and are finally matching the 189 00:11:15.879 --> 00:11:20.120 description to the person. I said, yes, ma'am, I'm Opal. 190 00:11:20.559 --> 00:11:23.720 I live across the creek. She pointed her walking stick 191 00:11:23.799 --> 00:11:26.200 back the way she'd come toward the tree line on 192 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:29.240 the far side of Bishop Creek. Been meaning to come 193 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:31.960 see you for a while now. Should have done it sooner. 194 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:34.679 Vernon would have come the first week you moved in. 195 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:38.320 He was the sociable one. There was something about the 196 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:42.279 way she said Vernon's name, not with grief, exactly, with 197 00:11:42.399 --> 00:11:45.399 the specific gravity of a word that carries forty years 198 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:49.120 of shared life behind it. I invited her onto the porch. 199 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:52.279 She climbed the steps one at a time, gripping the 200 00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:55.600 railing with her free hand. The walking stick wedged under 201 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:58.960 her arm. She settled into the chair beside mine with 202 00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:01.440 a sigh that came from somewhere deep in her frame. 203 00:12:02.320 --> 00:12:05.279 Bowie walked over and sniffed her hand. She rubbed his 204 00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:07.960 ears with the practiced ease of someone who'd been around 205 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:11.159 dogs her whole life, finding the spot behind the left 206 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:14.679 ear that he liked best on the first try. Ruby 207 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:17.080 hung back at the other end of the porch, tail 208 00:12:17.159 --> 00:12:21.159 doing that uncertain wag red heeler mix. Opel said, looking 209 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:24.679 at Bowie, Vernon's favorite breed. We had three of them 210 00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:27.200 over the years. He said. They were the only dog 211 00:12:27.279 --> 00:12:29.639 smart enough to live on a mountain without getting killed. 212 00:12:30.440 --> 00:12:33.840 I offered her coffee. She said she'd take water. I 213 00:12:33.879 --> 00:12:37.000 went inside, filled a glass and brought it back out. 214 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:39.960 She drank half of it in a single long pull, 215 00:12:40.440 --> 00:12:42.679 wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and 216 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:46.639 looked out at the view, the meadow, the ridge, the 217 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:51.679 tree line, the bluff just visible above the canopy. Earl 218 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:55.080 told me about you, she said, before he passed. He 219 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:57.559 said you were a good man, said you'd take care 220 00:12:57.559 --> 00:13:00.480 of the place. She looked out at the meadow, at 221 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:03.919 the ridge beyond it. Said you'd figure things out eventually. 222 00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:08.559 My stomach tightened. I gave her my full attention. Figure 223 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:11.399 what out, I said. She looked at me with those 224 00:13:11.440 --> 00:13:15.879 sharp eyes and smiled, just barely. Don't insult me, honey, 225 00:13:16.279 --> 00:13:20.879 you know what. I didn't say anything. I waited, opal 226 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:23.519 took another sip of water and settled deeper into the chair. 227 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:26.120 I've lived on the other side of that creek for 228 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:29.360 fifty one years, she said. My husband, Vernon, and I 229 00:13:29.399 --> 00:13:32.759 bought twenty acres over there in nineteen sixty seven, built 230 00:13:32.759 --> 00:13:36.399 a house, raised two boys. Vernon worked for the Forest 231 00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:40.399 Service his whole career. Knew these mountains better than anybody alive. 232 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:45.000 Knew every hollow, every drainage, every game trail from here 233 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:48.320 to the parkway. She adjusted the walking stick where it 234 00:13:48.399 --> 00:13:52.039 leaned against the porch rail. Vernon knew about them. He 235 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:56.000 didn't call them Sasquatch. Didn't call them bigfoot. He called 236 00:13:56.000 --> 00:13:58.919 them the residence, like they were just another family on 237 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:02.440 the road. The residents are active this week, he'd say, 238 00:14:03.159 --> 00:14:07.720 or the residence moved south for the winter casual the 239 00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:11.960 way you talk about deer or turkey part of the landscape. 240 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:15.279 I asked how long Vernon had known from the beginning, 241 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:18.679 from before we bought the place. He'd been working these 242 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:21.720 ridges since fifty nine, and by the time we moved in, 243 00:14:22.039 --> 00:14:26.399 he'd been seeing signs for almost a decade. Tracks, structures, 244 00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:30.559 the knocking. He heard the knocking before Earle did, because 245 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:32.559 Vernon was up on the ridges during the day when 246 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:36.360 most people weren't. She looked at me. Earl and Vernon 247 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:40.759 were friends. You know that, I didn't. Earl had never 248 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:44.039 mentioned a neighbor across the creek, never mentioned to Vernon, 249 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:47.559 never mentioned anyone living within walking distance of the property. 250 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:52.480 Opal nodded as if she'd expected that Earl kept things close. 251 00:14:52.919 --> 00:14:55.600 That was his way. But him and Vernon talked about 252 00:14:55.639 --> 00:14:59.720 the residents for years, compared notes, figured out the patterns 253 00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:03.919 to get the creek corridor, the seasonal movement, the way 254 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:06.279 they'd come down from the high ridges, and fall and 255 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:09.200 worked the drainages through winter and spring. Stay tuned for 256 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:13.159 more Backwoods Bigfoot stories. We'll be back after these messages. 257 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:18.279 Earl and Vernon mapped it out on a forest service 258 00:15:18.360 --> 00:15:21.559 toppo that Vernon kept in his office. I've still got 259 00:15:21.559 --> 00:15:24.559 that map, she said, this the way you'd mention a 260 00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:28.600 grocery list. I tried to keep my face neutral. Vernon 261 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:31.720 passed in two thousand and four, she said, heart trouble, 262 00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:35.080 same as everybody in his family. He was sixty eight. 263 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:37.919 She said it with the flatness of someone who's had 264 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:41.000 fourteen years to make peace with the loss that will 265 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:44.919 never fully heal. After he died, I kept the house, 266 00:15:45.399 --> 00:15:47.960 kept the land, kept an eye on things the way 267 00:15:47.960 --> 00:15:51.200 he would have wanted. And I kept watching the residents. 268 00:15:51.639 --> 00:15:54.840 She turned to face me more directly, Garrett, I've been 269 00:15:54.840 --> 00:15:57.639 watching you for four years, not in a creepy way. 270 00:15:58.080 --> 00:16:00.600 Don't look at me like that. I've been aware that 271 00:16:00.639 --> 00:16:03.039 you moved on to Earl's place, and I've been paying 272 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:05.279 attention to what's been happening over here because it's the 273 00:16:05.320 --> 00:16:08.240 same thing that's been happening on my side for fifty years. 274 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:12.200 The knocking comes from the same ridge, The tracks follow 275 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:15.320 the same creek corridor. The route they used to get 276 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:17.799 down to this valley runs right through the gap between 277 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:21.240 your property and mind a long Bishop Creek, the same 278 00:16:21.240 --> 00:16:25.440 way it's run since Vernon first documented it in sixty three. 279 00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:27.399 I asked her what she knew about what had been 280 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:31.080 happening on my property, Specifically, I know your garden got 281 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:33.559 hit in the summer of fifteen. I could hear your 282 00:16:33.559 --> 00:16:37.519 floodlights clicking on from across the creek. Those motion sensors 283 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:41.360 aren't as quiet as people think, she paused. I know 284 00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:44.559 something visited your cabin that August. I heard the knocking 285 00:16:44.679 --> 00:16:47.720 change pitch that week. It went from the ridge pattern 286 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:51.720 to something closer, something around the cabin. Vernon used to 287 00:16:51.759 --> 00:16:55.960 call that the inspection knock. Different from the distance communication, 288 00:16:56.559 --> 00:17:01.440 shorter range, more focused. My skin was prickling. She was 289 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:05.400 describing events I'd never told anyone about except Cliff. I 290 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:10.000 know about the mimicry, she said, quietly, looking at her hands, 291 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:13.720 because it happened to me too. I stopped breathing for 292 00:17:13.759 --> 00:17:18.599 about three seconds. She looked up. Nineteen seventy four, Vernon 293 00:17:18.680 --> 00:17:21.240 was away on a forest service trip three days in 294 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:24.839 the Shining Rock wilderness doing a trail survey. I was 295 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:27.720 alone in the house with the boys. Tommy was six, 296 00:17:28.200 --> 00:17:31.599 Dale was four. It was October, late in the month, 297 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:34.279 and I was bringing the boys inside after supper because 298 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:37.480 the dark was coming early. I heard Vernon call my 299 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:40.559 name from the tree line behind the house, his voice 300 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:46.519 exactly his voice, Opal, come here. I almost walked toward it. 301 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:49.440 I had one foot off the porch. My hand was 302 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:51.720 on the rail, and my weight was shifting forward. And 303 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:54.279 every part of me that knew Vernon's voice, that had 304 00:17:54.319 --> 00:17:57.039 heard it say my name ten thousand times across eight 305 00:17:57.119 --> 00:17:59.880 years of marriage, was responding to it the way you 306 00:18:00.119 --> 00:18:06.000 respond to gravity, automatically, without thought. Then Tommy grabbed my hand. 307 00:18:06.559 --> 00:18:09.599 He was standing beside me on the porch, six years old, 308 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:13.759 bare feet, pajamas with cowboys on them, and he grabbed 309 00:18:13.799 --> 00:18:18.119 my hand and said, Mama, Daddy's not here. Just like that, 310 00:18:18.799 --> 00:18:23.839 a child's logic, simple and inarguable. Daddy isn't here. That 311 00:18:23.960 --> 00:18:27.920 voice can't be daddy. And it broke the spell. Whatever 312 00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:30.960 the voice was doing to my brain, whatever override it 313 00:18:31.039 --> 00:18:34.279 was running on my instincts, Tommy's hand in mind shut 314 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:37.839 it off. I stepped back onto the porch. She went 315 00:18:37.960 --> 00:18:40.920 quiet for a moment. The porch creaked in the wind, 316 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:45.039 bishop creek murmured in the distance. A wren was singing 317 00:18:45.079 --> 00:18:48.519 somewhere in the eves of the workshop, its song absurdly 318 00:18:48.599 --> 00:18:51.200 cheerful in the context of what Opel was telling me. 319 00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:58.000 The voice called again, Opal over here, same direction, same tambre, 320 00:18:58.559 --> 00:19:02.240 same everything. And then from the other side of the house, 321 00:19:02.759 --> 00:19:07.559 from the east, from the creek, a second voice, not Vernon's, 322 00:19:07.559 --> 00:19:14.759 this time mine, my voice calling the boy's names, Tommy Dale, 323 00:19:15.599 --> 00:19:20.160 come here. She looked at me, my own voice calling 324 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:23.480 my children from the woods. I sat there and felt 325 00:19:23.519 --> 00:19:25.759 the ground shift under me, the way it had shifted 326 00:19:25.759 --> 00:19:28.720 in the ravine when Wade's voice came from two directions, 327 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:34.799 the exact same mechanism, the exact same intent, forty four 328 00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:37.680 years apart, on properties half a mile from each other, 329 00:19:38.279 --> 00:19:41.200 separated by a creek that the creatures used as a highway. 330 00:19:42.039 --> 00:19:45.799 But Ople's experience had a dimensioned mind, didn't The second 331 00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:49.440 voice hadn't just replicated a family member. It had replicated 332 00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:54.640 Opal herself, her own voice directed at her children. The 333 00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:57.599 creature hadn't just learned Vernon's voice from listening to him 334 00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:00.839 call from the yard. It had learned oples from listening 335 00:20:00.880 --> 00:20:03.680 to her call the boys in for supper, from hearing 336 00:20:03.720 --> 00:20:06.839 her say their names through the kitchen window, from close 337 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:10.480 enough and often enough to capture the exact maternal inflection 338 00:20:10.599 --> 00:20:14.599 she used when she said Tommy and Dale, and it 339 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:19.359 had deployed both voices simultaneously from two directions, creating a 340 00:20:19.400 --> 00:20:23.880 situation designed to split the family. Vernon's voice pulling Opal 341 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:27.799 toward the trees, Opal's voice pulling the boys toward the creek. 342 00:20:28.640 --> 00:20:31.039 If ople had followed Vernon's voice and the boys had 343 00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:34.240 followed hers, the family would have been separated into three 344 00:20:34.279 --> 00:20:37.319 groups in the dark, each moving toward a different point 345 00:20:37.319 --> 00:20:41.119 in the forest. The sophistication of that terrified me more 346 00:20:41.160 --> 00:20:45.599 than anything I'd experienced personally. My mimicry had been one voice, 347 00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:50.000 one name, one direction. That became two. Ople's had been 348 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:55.039 two distinct voices, three names, two directions, with apparent awareness 349 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:59.119 of the family structure and who would respond to which voice. 350 00:20:59.160 --> 00:21:02.359 That level of planting required not just vocal mimicry, but 351 00:21:02.519 --> 00:21:06.519 social intelligence. The creature had to understand that Opel would 352 00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:09.200 respond to Vernon's voice, but the boys would respond to 353 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:13.720 their mothers. It had to understand the relationship hierarchy. It 354 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:16.680 had to model what each individual would do when presented 355 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:20.880 with a specific stimulus. That's theory of mind applied to 356 00:21:20.920 --> 00:21:24.920 a human family by something that isn't human. I picked 357 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:28.000 up both boys, one in each arm, and went inside 358 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:30.079 and locked the door and pushed the couch against it, 359 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:32.440 and sat in the dark living room with my children 360 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:36.440 in my lap until morning, Opel said. Dale fell asleep 361 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:40.119 around nine. He was four. He didn't really understand what 362 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:43.359 was happening. He thought it was a game, Mama holding 363 00:21:43.440 --> 00:21:45.519 him in the dark, and he dozed off with his 364 00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:49.519 thumb in his mouth. Tommy stayed awake with me all night. 365 00:21:50.279 --> 00:21:53.839 He didn't ask questions, he didn't cry, He didn't ask 366 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:55.519 to go to his room or get a snack, or 367 00:21:55.559 --> 00:21:57.960 any of the things a six year old normally asks for. 368 00:21:58.839 --> 00:22:02.559 He just sat there holding my hand, watching the windows. 369 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:06.960 Something in him understood, at an age where understanding shouldn't 370 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:10.119 be possible, that the house was the only safe space, 371 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:13.400 and that his job was to stay in it. I've 372 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:15.720 never been more proud of anyone in my life than 373 00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:19.200 I was of that boy that night. She was quiet 374 00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:22.319 for a few seconds, her hand tightened on the walking stick. 375 00:22:23.119 --> 00:22:26.759 Tommy doesn't remember it. I've asked him carefully over the years. 376 00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:30.920 He's forty nine, now works for the power company in Ashville, 377 00:22:31.400 --> 00:22:35.000 good Man, good Father, but he doesn't remember that night. 378 00:22:35.559 --> 00:22:39.480 Dale doesn't either. Whatever the experience imprinted on them, it 379 00:22:39.559 --> 00:22:43.839 went somewhere below conscious memory. I think that's a mercy. 380 00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:47.079 She took another sip of water. When Vernon got home 381 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:50.240 two days later, I told him everything. He sat at 382 00:22:50.279 --> 00:22:53.519 the kitchen table and listened without interrupting, the way Vernon 383 00:22:53.559 --> 00:22:57.319 always listened. When I finished, he was quiet for about 384 00:22:57.319 --> 00:23:01.319 a minute. Then he said, they used your voice, not 385 00:23:01.400 --> 00:23:04.440 a question like that was the detail that mattered most. 386 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:08.160 I said, yes, they used my voice to call the boys. 387 00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:12.759 He nodded, and I could see him recalculating something, updating 388 00:23:12.799 --> 00:23:16.240 his model. Vernon always had a model in his head, 389 00:23:16.440 --> 00:23:18.759 a working theory of what the residents were and what 390 00:23:18.799 --> 00:23:22.200 they wanted, and every new piece of information either confirmed 391 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:25.480 it or forced a revision. The use of my voice 392 00:23:25.839 --> 00:23:28.680 was a revision. It told him they were closer than 393 00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:34.440 he'd thought. Listening more carefully, learning faster, Vernon drove to 394 00:23:34.480 --> 00:23:36.599 Earl's place that evening, and the two of them sat 395 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:39.599 on that porch right where we're sitting now and talked 396 00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:42.839 for three hours. I know because I timed it. I 397 00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:45.039 sat in our kitchen, watching the clock and waiting for 398 00:23:45.039 --> 00:23:47.400 his headlights to come back up the forest service road, 399 00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:51.480 three hours and twelve minutes before I saw them. When 400 00:23:51.599 --> 00:23:54.720 Vernon came home, he told me two things. First, the 401 00:23:54.759 --> 00:23:58.359