April 8, 2014
2014 A to Z Blogging Challenge
A Rural Life
Day 7
G is for Ghost Deer
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About seventeen years ago we began to hear rumors of white
deer on the mountain. There was some discussion as we considered the source of
this rumor, but we couldn’t discount the possibility. Albino deer are not an
extreme rarity although my at the time eighty-eight-year-old grandfather, who'd lived here all his life, had never heard or seen any in our area. We were
naturally curious and so kept our “eyes peeled.”
The story was eventually given credence when a local park
ranger snagged a picture of a white fawn. My grandfather and I were ready to
hike out at night and conduct a stakeout where we knew the deer came to the creek to drink. We had to get a look at this bambi.
Unfortunately Pop mentioned our plan to the wrong family member (that being my mother, his daughter) and we were promptly grounded after dark. We didn’t give up hope, though. It took another two years
for our patience to be rewarded.
The dog woke me one night with what I immediately recognized
as his “critter” bark. I would have rolled over and gone back to sleep but it
was autumn and I’d left the bedroom window open. It was cold. Half asleep, I
staggered to the window, noted in some foggy part of my brain there were ghost
deer in my front yard, closed the window and went back to bed.
Yep. You got it.
I woke up in the morning and realized what had happened. I
used every foul word in my vocabulary and friends, I have an extensive
vocabulary. There had been two white “ghost” deer in my front yard, two
beautiful ethereal wraiths, and I had just gone back to sleep. Someone smack
me, please
I couldn’t tell my grandfather. He’d stay up for a week
sitting at his kitchen window watching into the night if I told him. I needed
something else to happen, and it did. The next week as my partner and I were
driving home from bowling, we were given a gift. Standing under the dusk to
dawn light at the neighbor’s barn was a white doe with a late season fawn at her
feet. We bolted to my grandfather’s door, hopped back in the car and let it
drift down the hill. She was still there.
The three of us sat there in silence watching her for the longest
time. She was worried about us, stomping her hooves and shaking her head and
tail, but her baby refused to get up and run away and she refused to abandon
it. Finally we decided to start the engine and leave her to the night. That did
it. The fawn jumped up and ran into the darkness and mama followed. That was
the only time my grandfather got to see the ghost deer. I was more fortunate as
my picture attests. The ghost deer took up residence in the woods behind my
house and frequently grazed in my back yard. There were four ghost deer living one year. I believe they were all doe because I never saw a rack on any of them. We know the last white fawn died young. Pop was out walking one day and found its body near the creek.
The ghost deer have vanished from here again but maybe some day the gene
will resurface and my woods will again be home to the white deer. I do hope so
because I’d love for the new generation to see them, but I realize they may not
even care. I already see the signs they won’t have the deep roots to this place my cousins and I do.
That will be as is. For myself, I feel the universe had
given me a scared trust. I will ever be grateful for those few years the ghost
deer lived in my woods.
_*_*_*_*_
You didn’t really think you’d get away without one more
brief book promo, did you?
G is also for GIVE ME ONE NIGHT.
brief book promo, did you?
G is also for GIVE ME ONE NIGHT.
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JF1BLLG
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01JF1BLLG
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01JF1BLLG
Apple/iTunes
Rakuten/KOBO
Barnes & Noble/Nook
Universal link to additional booksellers: https://books2read.com/u/bzppxj
Give Me One Night webpage:
KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys: http://kckendricks.blogspot.com
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My country life at Holly
Tree Manor
