A group of children from South Arkansas bonded together because their parents hunt at the same deerclub set about to prove the Fouke Monster is real.
When I was a child, my parents, grandparents, great aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors hunted at the same deerclub. I remember one night when my grandparents came back from hunting their deer hounds. They were terrified out of their minds. It seemed they had been chased by a bear. They never actually saw it because it was dark, but they heard it and smelled it and whatever it was did chase them. My Pappaw swore he would never hunt again after that, but he did. When they told the story, it was soooo good. We kids at the deerclub were glued to their story. Both of them told this tale until their death. The tale chaged a little as the years went by but the essence was the same. I took this event and explained it a little farther than the "bear" that chased them and made it be the Fouke Monster. Anyone living in South Arkansas in the 1970's knew about the Fouke Monster from the movie, "Legend of the Boggy Creek Monster." I wanted to protray that culture in my book for young people. However, instead of the Boggy Creek area, my setting is in the Ouachita River Bottom, which is what I know. Man! Those times growing up and going to the deerclub were fun!
Excerpt
Chapter 5
(All Alone)
We were alone in the river bottom woods. That thought kept going over and over in our heads. No one was saying a word. The thought of going after the monster wasn’t high on our list right now. We all were used to the outdoors. Our parents had raised us to respect nature and know that God had a reason for every creature. Just because our parents were hunters didn’t mean that we wanted to kill everything we came across. We respected His creation and didn’t have ignorant fears of nature. We could survive. However, it was dark and we were alone. The darkness was not the only thing we were afraid of, we were afraid of facing our parents when we saw them again. We were also afraid of their worry. How were our mothers reacting? Surely they had noticed we were missing by now. Did they figure out we had sneaked away in the back of my mammaw’s dog crate or did they think someone came along and grabbed us
