The Sight

1,035 Words


"Dang, how did I get into this mess?" Jesse muttered. A rabid wildcat was trying its best to get to him up the tree, and over in the ditch lay his hunting dog Trapper, fighting for his life. Jesse was using the butt end of his .22 rifle to try to club the cat back down. he had lost his box of shells out of his shirt pocket running from the cat.

"Why didn't I listen to Nora?" he thought out loud, thinking of his wife. She had had a feeling tonight wasn't a good coon hunting night, and it turned out she was right.

"Now Jesse," she had said that afternoon. "You know my peculiar feelings usually come true. I would just feel better if you stayed home tonight."

"Oh, hush now Nora," Jesse replied. "Just 'cause your granny had the sight don't mean you do. Your momma ain't got it, does she?"

"No she don't, but they say it skips a generation sometime. And you remember the times I've had dreams about folks and they came true. Remember when I dreamed Sue Hicks was going to have twins?"

"Yeah, but she had triplets, didn't she?" Jesse pointed out.

"No matter," Nora said. "It was the first time in that family's history that more than one youngin' came out of a Hicks woman's belly. And what about the time I dreamed that something terrible was going to happen to Jim Riley? It came true, didn't it?"

"Jim Riley was drunker than a barrel of fishhooks and thought he could jump Spraddle Creek. He didn't make it and broke his leg. I doubt if your dream caused him to do that."

"You're just being pigheaded because you got your mind set on coon hunting," Nora said between clinched teeth. "No matter what I say you're going, ain't you?"

"Yep, I reckon I am." Jesse said. "And right now too. It's getting dark and I gotta pick Abe up. He's going with me."

"Abe's going with you?" Nora asked. "You usually go by yourself. That makes me feel some better I guess. At least you won't be alone."

Jesse leaned over and gave Nora a quick kiss on her forehead. "I'll be all right hon. You worry too much."

Jesse hurried out the door and called Trapper. "C'mon Trapper, hyah boy."

The hound came running out from behind the chicken house, tail wagging wildly and his tongue throwing drool all over the place. Trapper liked nothing better then treeing coons.

"C'mon boy, up here with me," Jesse said, opening the door for the dog to jump in. He had had trapper since he was four months old. He had gotten him from his uncle, and he loved the dog like he was kin. The dog jumped up in the seat and promptly stuck his head out the passenger side window, waiting for Jesse to start the truck and get going.

Jesse started the Ford truck and backed out of the driveway. When he got pulled around on the main road, he waved and blew Nora a kiss, feeling slightly guilty as he drove off. Abe wasn't going hunting with him tonight. Jesse had asked him to go, but Abe begged off, saying his back had gone out on him again. Jesse loved Nora with all his heart, but she just worried too much. He couldn't even go to town without her worrying to death over him. So he fibbed sometimes, not telling her certain thing that he knew would worry her, like tonight. He had hunted by himself hundreds of times. Why should tonigtht be any different?

Now he was stuck up in this maple tree, thinking about his lies.I swear if I ever get out of this mess, I'll never tell Nora another lie again, he told himself.

Trapper had bravely fought the wildcat away from his master but he now lay bleeding, and possibly dead in the ditch. Jesse had just barely made it up in the tree befor the cat turned to him.

The moon was full and bright, no clouds, bathing the woods in a mystical daylight. Jesse could see the cat, stalking around the base of the tree, looking to catch him off guard. Jesse had been up in the tree most of the night and he was getting groggy from lack of sleep. Every time the cat made a lunge up the tree, Jesse would club it in the face with the butt end of the rifle.

He knew that sooner or later though he would miss and the cat would either claw him or bite him. Rabies wasn't a thing to be fooled with and here he was alone, no bullets and he didn't know if his dog was dead or alive. He missed Nora.

All of a sudden, Jesse thought he heard something coming up the ridge. He knew he heard brush breaking and it sounded kind of big, whatever it was.

"Oh Lord," Jesse said out loud. "What now, a bear?"

Then he heard a familiar voice call out. "Jesse, you in here boy?"

It was Abe, his bad back and all.

"Abe," Jesse called out. "I'm over this way, up in a maple tree. Be careful, there's a danged wildcat got me treed. Rabies."

It got real quite when Jesse let that bit of information go.

The crazed cat was circling the tree when a shot rang out and the cat dropped. Jesse felt like the weight of the world had lifted off his shoulders.

Jesse tore out of the tree had ran over to his dog. Trapper was tore up pretty bad but if they got to the vet quickly he would survive. Jesse picked Trapper up and he and Abe started quickly back down the mountain.

"Abe, how did you know?"

"Nora called, bawling her eyes out. She said she just knew something had happened to you and wanted me to come and look for you."

"Good thing you did," Jesse said, thinking back on the night. "And I'm telling you now, it's a good thing Nora has the sight. He added to himself, I'll never lie to that little woman again.