Night, North Woods Deer Camp

Darkness seeps through stately pines, outside this home-made, tar-paper shack. It’s two AM, and I cannot sleep again, so I gaze out into the black. I feel a relaxing sense of peace, and while it may be no normal thing, I’ve always found the embrace of night to be strangely comforting. Came up with my brother and a mutual friend, tomorrow is this year’s opening day. The tree-stands have long been built, waiting for deer to come their way. My family’s owned the land fifty years, grandpa built this three-room hut, and he chose well because this land has yielded some monster bucks. I know every inch of the acreage, all one hundred eighty-nine, but night’s stillness brings me back to a different place and time. Starring into the darkness, familiar landmarks shaded and gone, makes you wonder what hides behind every single leaf and frond. Is Bigfoot lurking in the dim, staring with almost-human eyes? Is the ghost of a murdered pioneer still haunting where he died? Is a trapper dressed in furs about to step out and hail the house? Will an Indian come in to trade, wanting blankets for fresh-killed grouse? Will spirits of an ancient time let loose with unearthly wails? Will a forgotten hermit soon emerge to tell us the old forest tales? Does Wendigo stalk amongst the trees, desperate for a taste of flesh? Do skin-walkers wander endlessly, unable to gain a needed rest? These things were once very real, when my eyes were only young. Now they’re impossible to envision after the rising of the sun. But sometimes in the still of night, when I come up to this place, the legends and monsters walk again, and it puts a smile upon my face.