The Werewolf

When I was young I was terrified of the dark.  Then we went to a movie that had a werewolf in it and I became even more afraid of the dark and especially full moons.

I had two teenage uncles that were living with us while they finished high school. They were a barrel of fun and ornery as can be.  One of my uncles loved to hunt and he would get coyotes and skin them as the farmers would buy shells for your 22 if you would shoot them as they were loosing so much stock to them.

We lived 13 miles out of town and ½ mile from the nearest neighbor so they were pretty bored. We did not have TV and we lived at the end of the road so if you heard a car it was coming to your house.  You got where you could recognize the sound of cars that came often long before they got to the house.

My parents were gone for the evening and left me with my uncles. Now put two 17 year old boys and one little 7 year old girl to watch how happy they were.  So many things you can not do if you have a little 7 year old tagging along.

Being typical farm kids they had a good imagination and a big ornery streak in them. The moon was nice and full and I was being a brat wanting them in the same room with me, reading to me, anything but not alone. Lock the doors and stay right by me please.

Well they started outside to do the chores and I had a fit. I did not want to be in the house alone. So they went over and talked and decided Uncle John would go do the chores and Uncle Bobby would stay inside with me.  This still did not set well with me, it was a full moon and I was afraid for Uncle John to go outside.  They advised me someone had to go feed the animals and I was just going to have to deal with it and out the door he went.

I was sitting there with Uncle Bobby trying my best to listen to the story and he says “gee, seems like John has been outside for quite a while, I hope he is ok”. FEAR!  He reads a sentence and says “what was that noise?”  BIG FEAR! Back to the story and all of a sudden he tenses up and says “did you see something by the window?” FEAR EXTREME! “I could swear I saw some movement but it was probably John”  I start watching the window and not hearing a word he is reading and OMG! OMG! I saw a shadow of something running but it was to far from the window to see clearly but I swear it was an upright wolf.  My eyes are bigger then a plate. Uncle Bobby says get away from the window. I squat down and he peeks over the window sill and says “you are right, I saw something too. I crawl over and look over the sill…OMG! OMG! There it is again and it is closer and it is a wolf, a WEREWOLF, a man with a wolfs head…HELP DADDY!  I am screaming bloody murder!

By now Uncle Bobby realizes this is not as funny as they thought it was going to be I was not just scared I was terrified and their joke is no longer funny but he has no way to communicate with Uncle John. He is trying his best to calm me down.  He tells me it is Uncle John with one of his coyote pelts on his head. I am shaking so bad and crying and now I am mad too.

We hear dad’s car coming down the road, Uncle John rips the pelt off and heads for the house as fast as he can to get there before dad and get me to not tell on them.  Boy let me tell you that little piece of fun cost them more as I demanded everything I could think of in blackmail. It was a nice couple of weeks for me until my blackmail bribes ran out.