The Legend Unleashed. L.S. Strange
the firepit and stood up to greet them. Michael and Noah clumsily ran to him. Between gulps of air, they excitedly blurted out, “It was so cool! Once we each put our pole into the water, we got a fish!” The boys looked tired but happy.
“Take those into John for dinner.”
The boys clambered into the trailer, regaling John with their fishing story.
Ron got up, stretched, and helped Scott pull the picnic bench provided by the campground over in front of the trailer. It was such a nice evening to eat dinner outside. Save the inside dining for rainy days.
Scott took the kindling that the boys had gathered and built a campfire. You couldn’t go camping without a campfire. He wanted it to burn long and hot so it would be ready after dinner for them to sit around toasting marshmallows and telling campfire stories.
Ron went inside the trailer to help out with the meal preparations. After a while, he and John carried dinner out to the picnic table. John had prepared a hearty meal, and everyone sat down to eat. They devoured the food. All were ravenous with what seemed like insatiable appetites. Once the group was stuffed, not a morsel of food remained.
Bob nudged Michael and winked at him. “Watch this.” He took a long swig from his beer. After swallowing, he began to belch the world’s longest belch. As he did this, he started speaking through the discharge. “A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.”
Both boys broke into gales of laughter. Scott said snidely, “What a great talent.”
“You can’t do it!” Bob retorted, wiping his mouth to clear the droplets of beer that sprayed out during his performance.
“That’s right! Do it again!” Scott replied and then began to laugh because deep down, he was still a boy at heart. The laughing turned into giggles that were very contagious. Soon their sides hurt from laughing. It was uncontrollable, and none of the adults could say why they were laughing which made the situation even funnier. Their laughter slowly subsided, and all pitched in, even Bob, to clean up. Afterward the group gathered around the campfire. Michael had the unfortunate position next to Bob. It didn’t take long for the beans from dinner to affect him, so in no time, he was letting them rip.
Ffffffttttttttt!
“Gross!” Noah cried, grinning the whole time.
“Stop that, Uncle Bob!” Michael shouted.
Bob just laughed and let another fart. First Scott started chuckling, then the others joined in. Farts are a funny thing where men and boys are concerned.
“Noah, pull my finger.” Bob laughed.
Not able to resist, Noah did it. As he did a long loud fart came out of Bob, this brought out more laughter.
“Man, Bob!” Scott joked holding his nose. “You keep that up, and I’m gonna stuff a cork up your ass!”
They smirked at each other while a fresh round of laughter erupted.
“Okay, okay, okay!” Ron shouted. “Let’s get down to business, campfire stories. Scott, if you please.”
“Wait!” Bob shouted. “I have a great one, but all the wussies have to leave so they don’t pee their pants!”
“Go for it,” Scott offered.
“Okay, now!” Bob focused his attention on the boys, and then to Michael, he said, “Remember when me and your dad camped up here for a couple of days last summer?”
Michael nodded, playing along. He knew his dad would never willingly go anywhere with his uncle. Bob looked at Noah.
“We were up here, and it started out as a normal trip like this one.” He looked back and forth between the boys as he continued. His eyes became intense as his voice deepened and slowed.
“The first night, we could hear this guy far off saying in a creepy voice, ‘Now I got you. Now I’m gonna eat you!” Bob was doing his best Boris Karloff imitation. “Well, that scared the shit of most of the other campers, but not me and your dad. We started hunting around to see what was going on, but we found nothing. The next night, we heard the same thing, only much closer to our tent. ‘Now I got you. Now I’m gonna eat you!’”
The boys were hanging on his every word, mesmerized. They huddled together, not willing to admit they were getting a little scared. Their eyes widened with anticipation, and their attention riveted on Bob. This was the fun kind of scared. The kind that excites you because you knew it was coming, and also that it couldn’t hurt you. The whole point was to be scared.
“Scott, over here, gets this bright idea to look around in the dark with a flashlight. I thought he had a screw loose, but we went. We looked around all the brush and trees, the entire campsite, again, we found nothing. It was driving us crazy! So on the next night, we was getting a little nervous ’cause some weirdo was running loose in camp. We got ready for bed, and then the batteries in the lantern went out! We sat in the dark totally still. We hear a rustling as the door of the tent was pulled open, and suddenly that something was in our tent! Scared to death, we jumped up and tried to get out of the tent but couldn’t. We wrestled around searching for the door. We heard, ‘Now I got you. Now I’m gonna eat you!’ We just sat there, terrified. We couldn’t move. Then I remembered I had a lighter in my pocket from the Doobie Brothers concert, so I took it out and lit it.” In a quick movement, Bob jumped up and screamed, “Aaaaahhhh! We saw it!” He repeated his fake scream. This caused the boys to jump with fear. They wanted more and leaned in so as not to miss a word. The firelight cast an eerie shadow on the Bob’s face giving his features a wicked appearance, especially his sneer.
“What was it? What was it?” Michael asked anxiously.
Bob was milking this for all it was worth. As he replied, his speech went from slow and mysterious to loud and goofy, “It was a boy.” He took a breath, and his voice was almost a screech. “A boy with a booger on his finger saying, ‘Now I got you. Now I’m gonna eat you!”
Both boys squealed. They were having a wonderful time. Their fear turned to humor, and this transformation fueled their squeals into loud uncontrollable giggles.
“That’s gross!” Noah guffawed, but he was smiling, loving every second.
“You’re sick, Uncle Bob,” Michael added; he too was smiling.
The rest of the adults just made disappointed sounds, and Ron rolled his eyes. All of them were grinning, and they enjoyed the story.
“Your turn, Dad,” Michael prodded.
“Yeah, Scott, your turn,” Noah added.
“All right, all right, gather in close,” Scott beckoned them close together with a smooth gesture. His laughing stopped, and a somber look came across his face.
“Now!” He paused, insuring he had their undivided attention. “This story I’m about to tell you is true. Not that goofy shit Bob had.” He teasingly glanced at Bob who returned the grin. “This story is based on facts, and it happened right in this very part of the Rocky Mountains.”
The boy’s giggles subsided, and they quieted. They didn’t want to miss anything.
“Many, many years ago, there was a mining camp for people who came west to strike it rich. Back then, only men were allowed to mine, and the women had to stay at home to do the house chores.” Everyone’s attention was directly on Scott. He leaned forward and was slowly looking from one person to another as he spoke.
“Well, there was this one couple, Lorene and Buck. They were newlyweds and had come west to strike it rich. Shortly after they had staked a claim to mine Buck was mauled by a bear and died. Lorene was grief-stricken but still had to work to survive.” He was intentionally lowering his voice to create a mysterious atmosphere and draw his audience deeper into the story.
“Even though it was forbidden for a woman to work the claim, Lorene began to do this. She had worked long and hard for the ore