Things That Growl, 2006, by Nolan Vander Weide

From MemoryArchive

Who: Nolan Vander Weide
What: Things That Growl
When: November 28, 2006
Where: Washington, Iowa

This past summer some friends of mine and I were bored, and had nothing better to do. We started driving around and ended up driving down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere near Rubio. As we drove we came to a railroad crossing. If you looked down the tracks you could see the bridge where they cross the Skunk River. We started walking down the tracks, into the sunset.

When we were close to the bridge, something smelled like something had died. It was the worst smell I have ever smelled. As we walked, there was a skeleton in between the tracks. It looked like a small dog. Finally after walking about half a mile we made it to the bridge. It was huge! The rusted color of steel and the smell of hot creosote. After playing on it for awhile and throwing rocks in the river, and spitting over the railing we headed back towards the car.

As it was getting darker, we started walking faster and faster. As we passed the dead thing, we heard a growl in the bushes off to the side. We all took off running down the tracks towards the car. My friend Gloria was wearing flip-flops, and it got caught under a railroad tie. “Run, hurry up!” I yelled to her.

“I’m coming.” She yelled back.

“Well come faster.”

When she caught up we finished running towards the car. We didn’t die, and weren’t anywhere close to dying, but it was still pretty freaky. We hurried to the car and left.

A couple of weeks later, some other friends and I were walking on the same tracks the bridge, the dead thing was gone, and nothing growled. What was it? Nobody knows.