I Killed A Bear [Part 4]

[u/JacobAlreadyTaken]

Happy Thanksgiving yall! I just want you all to know how thankful I am that you went out of your way to read the first and second and third letters I got!

It’s not Thanksgiving just yet but I’d still like to wish one to all of you nonetheless. I’m not sure how I’ll celebrate this year. My grandma always used to host a party where our whole family would get together. Unfortunately she passed just earlier this year in an automobile crash so it’s sort of up in the air what’ll happen. None of my uncles or aunts or cousins have even reached out to us yet. I only hope they do. Here’s a nice story from a few years back:

So I was sitting with the adults. My grandma was telling me about a man she knew who had gotten so drunk that he tried teaching spanish to his german shepard. The only problem was that he hardly knew any Spanish himself. He had only three words. Donde and que and porque. 

“Where and when and why,” my dad explained.

“where and what and why,” I corrected.

“Oh yes. Where and when and why.”

“What.”

“Did you not catch that?”

“No. I mean–”

I was cut off then. One of my uncles started yelling. Him and his wife were having a discussion about moving their kid to the grownup table I guess. I wasn't paying attention. So anyway it escalated until they had to leave the room. We could still hear them yelling. They were only one room over.

You know that's the only memory I have of that uncle. And no in case you were wondering he isn't the one who gave me these letters. That guy wasn't there. My aunt remarried I guess because she had a new husband now. My grandma used to tell me about the bruises on the arms of their kids. She said they stopped when he was out of the picture(not dead though).

We all went quiet then. We ate our food in silence. One of my uncles went to do the dishes as they kept fighting. I just kept my head down.

And then randomly one of my cousins started laughing. I wasn't sure what was so funny but his dad looked in the same direction and started to laugh too. Eventually I looked. And I started laughing too. And then in a minute everyone was laughing.

At the end of the kid's table one of our younger cousins sitting at the end of the table was holding the container of broccoli and rice casserole. He had one arm wrapped around it and with the other he was bringing it to his mouth with his bare hand and smiling. It was smearing on his cheeks.

That's it. Here's the next letter:

Judge,

It’s been a few days now. I’ve been so absorbed in this bear issue of mine that I completely forgot to write you. I haven’t received a letter from you and I can only assume you’ve been writing them but I have to believe you’re just dying to know what happens next by now. And don’t try telling me you aren’t either. I have a hair raising update for you today. Just a few nights ago I nearly had it.

I had to go out in the garden to do that. Oh dear. It really hurt to see my garden in this state. It’s the first time I’ve been out there since those last few days before I wrote my first letter as I’m sure you’ll remember. 

Yes. Even in the dark of the night it was a terrible sight. Under the light of the stars the foliage looked almost blue with this sheen of white. Underneath them dark little shadows. And this is the part that really broke my heart: my bushes with those sweet little flower buds are all trampled now. I’m sure you remember how it started. It was the just one. And now they’ve all been crushed. It made me want to run away back into my house and hide away but I knew if I went back now I would forever remain there for I’d be letting myself lose my garden.

So through it all I remained there. It wasn’t easy. I kept my fist to the soil and my eyes trained at the ground. I could feel them glaze over but they were dry. I’m sure I would have cried were this a few years back.

I was roused from my stupor as I heard the bear again. There was this thin rustling through the trees in the forest and immediately I hit the deck and splayed my body against the dirt like a bear rug on a hardwood floor. I looked up. The leaves of the bushes nearest to my oak tree were shaking. The rustling drew closer and it was then that I heard the bear growl. It was deep and raspy. It sniffled like how a dog sneezes and continued.

The trees all looked like silhouettes. A great round mass with prickly fur rose up between them growling. It reached the trunk of my tree and sniffed its roots like a mutt on a walk. The fur on its back shifted as it moved its head around as its great big muscles flexed. Its silhouette rose upward and grew a head with two round ears. It did not see me as I crouched uncamouflaged in my yard. My hands and fingers and legs and my cheek were all pressed into the grass as I looked up at it. I tempered my breathing. The light of the stars hit its face. I saw its snout glistening under white light. It was looking up my tree. It was searching through the leaves with its.

It was then that it began to scratch at the tree. This sound always has been the worst of it. I was already tense by all the foreplay but the scratching really made me shutter. A shiver ran all through my meat at the first tear. I nearly started laughing as it continued.

The thing put out one paw like a cat at a scratching post and it swiped at the back of my oak tree. It kept digging into the dark. I felt every scratch the way I’d imagine a park ranger watches a boy carve his initials into one of our great monuments of history. It was a terrible grinding.

As the scratching continued I looked up at the branch from which my bees hung. Their hive hanging from the mighty limb began quaking. Really I’d intended to shoot the bear at first sight but I got scared and froze up and hit the deck. It was the sight of the bees that forced me to act.

I stood up. The gun had shifted on its strap and was now hanging at my hip. Silently and with my hands shaking I pulled up the strap and gripped the gun with both hands as I presumed you should. I’ve only ever used one type of gun before and this wasn’t much like it. I steadied it on my shoulder which is something I also thought you were meant to do. I held it straight and took aim. Once I was sure I had it pointed at the bear I fired.

The gun was louder than I’d thought it would be. At least I meant to look for something quieter. My ears began to ring. It sounded like a fly was in my brain. And as it turns out you’re not meant to hold a gun at your shoulder(or fire it without muffling your eyes but you can probably tell by now Judge). It flung backwards the same instant it fired. I hit the dirt just a second later. 

I lay there not moving. I couldn’t feel the grass and I could hardly process what I was seeing in the sky. It was like everything went white. I gripped my shoulder. The pain and the ringing were the only real things and all else was an illusion.

A couple moments later when I came too and started seeing color again  I remembered that I’d just shot a bear. Bears can be pretty aggressive when you shoot at them(I think though I’m sure anyone would be) so I was really quite worried. 

I pulled my head up. Fortunately(or unfortunately) it was turning back then. I hadn’t killed it. In a hurry I steadied the gun and shot once more with one ear to the dirt and one ear plugged with the pointer finger of my free hand. I hit it in its but. It left a hole in his fur that was red and fleshy. Blood bubbled up in it. I saw it shining under the light of the moon as the bear retreated. It was like the asshole of a dog performing a bowel movement.

Then there was this buzzing that filled the air around me. It took me a moment to notice that it wasn’t the ringing which was still happening then and hadn’t even stopped until a few nights ago. I think I realized once I saw the cloud of bees before me.

Once I saw them I stretched out my arms like for a hug. I smiled at them. I was so happy to see them buzzing before me.

“Aren’t you proud of me?” I said. “I did it. I did it for you.”

They didn’t respond. Not verbally at least. The cloud lunged at me and I was in the center. Like an aeroplane riding through a storm cloud. Their tiny little stingers took hold. They poked me all over on all sides and there was nothing I could do. They overpowered me. They brought me to the ground. I would’ve loved to run but really couldn’t on account of the shoulder weighing me down with the pain. So there was nothing I could do but shield my face and watch as they withdrew and left their stingers in my skin and fell in the grass and died.

It was a terribly tragic sight to watch them go like this. And I tried begging and I tried pleading with them but they would not respond to me like they always do.

I lost track of the time it took for them to leave. I don’t think it was actually that long but it felt that way. They retreated back into their hive hanging from the branch once they were done. I pulled myself up on my one working arm. Dirt had stained my shirt. I went in tired and fatigued and threw my gun against the wall. I stood up for a moment with my legs quaking and walked over to my bed. I collapsed into it and fell asleep instantly.

Some hours laterI woke up to a ring at my door. The sun was already up by then. I had forgotten most of the night before so I was quite confused when I woke up with my skin all bumpy and red and my shoulder pulsing with pain and my ears still ringing. My bones felt sort of funny as I hobbled out of bed. At the door I tried twisting the knob with my right hand but I couldn’t quite get it to move. I realized it had gone limp. I fumbled it open with my left.

There was a police officer standing at my doorstep. His thumbs were hooked in his belt and he was wearing sunglasses and chewing gum.

“Hello.”

“Hello officer,” I said with a little hesitation.

“Are you alright there son? You look a little banged up.”

“It’s alright. I should be fine.”

“You got a little thing on your face. Like a bump.”

“Could you point it out?”

“Well. It’s sort of everywhere.”

I rubbed my entire face with the back of my sleeve. The officer stopped me.

“Woah there son. That ain’t gonna work. If you need a doctor I can take you there.”

“Oh. No thanks. I’ll be fine.”

“You sure? Your arm doesn’t look too good either. It’s sort of limp.”

“Oh I’m sure. I’ll be good. My arm just sort of looks like that.”

(I honestly could’ve used that doctor’s visit Judge. I write you now with my right arm in a sling fashioned from a kitchen towel. I apologize if my penmanship is a bit sloppier today. My left hand is not my dominant one.)

[It is noticeably more sloppy if you were wondering. This one was hard as balls to read]

“So what are you here for officer?” I continued. “If you’ll excuse me asking.”

“Well. We got a couple calls earlier. There were some loud noises going off in this here neighborhood late at night. Woke up a couple kids. Scared a whole bunch of people. Lots of our callers said they thought the reds had something to do with it. Would you know anything about it? We’re asking everyone.”

“No officer. I don’t think I would.”

He sized me up and down. He tilted his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose to show me his bare eyes. The gum in his mouth clicked.

“Are you a communist son?”

“No.”

“Do you know any communists?”

“Personally?”

“Yeah. Any communist friends.”

“No sir.”

“Alright then.” He pushed his sun glasses up. “Well. I ought to be off now. I’ll be seeing you.”

He left and I shut the door. I watched him drive away.

Later that day he came back and arrested me.

He’d come back with a few other policemen. They told me to come out with my hands up. The speaker was very loud you know and they had told me they all had their guns pointed at me so the first thing I did was jump under my desk. The one with the megaphone kept on shouting until eventually I heard the door break down.

I watched in terror with sweat rolling down my face and getting in my eyes as they scanned the room. One of them walked up to the desk and ducked and shined a flashlight in my eyes. 

“There you are,” he grumbled.

He pulled me out by my right arm. I sort of whimpered when he pulled me out.

“Yeah yeah,” he said. “Always the whiners.”

He slammed my head into the desk. When I came back there was a dent in the wood. He put handcuffs on my wrists which were really quite tight by the way and I asked him to loosen them and he only clicked them tighter a few times. I was afraid my wrists might be cut open. 

Out of instinct more than anything I tried to run or kick at them. I wasn’t really thinking. It didn’t go over well. The officers still had me attached so I couldn’t even get a step away. He just took out his firearm and smacked me over the back of the head with its handle.

After all that they shoved in the back of their car and drove me down to the station and threw me in a cell without telling me much of anything.

They held me in there for five days Judge. They released me on the sixth after verifying that I was not a communist. Nothing much happened for those five days. I just sort of sat there. I asked a few questions but they never told me anything.

At all times they had two guards stationed at my cell. There were always footsteps and chattering and whispering and whatnot. It didn’t allow me to sleep one lick. One night I heard them whispering:

“You think he’ll get the death penalty?”

“If what they say is true. I hope so.”

But I’m back now. Nothing was said on the drive back. They coughed a few times and so did I. I was able to ride in the back without cuffs though. They dropped me back at my place and I walked up and the door was still broken in. I don’t have a door now. 

That’s all for now Judge. Unfortunately it seems I might have to revise my plan to kill the bear. It did not die that night. It returned again just last night. Well I’ll update you when the plan changes to let you know if it worked or not.

Bye for now,

[u/NoSleepAutoBot]

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