Bigfoot Prank Gone Horribly Wrong Part 1

A Fiction Halloween Story

This is the beginning of my Burk Family Chronicles. I am officially starting the series in February but this is where it all starts! Inspired by some of my childhood memories, actual Bigfoot sightings, and my own experience in the woods looking for the big guy!

Installment 1:

Heavy thick snow cascaded in big flakes from the sky. The wind blew it cross-wise. I closed the curtains and turned to my three grandchildren. They had downcast faces as they sipped on their hot chocolates, seated in front of the blazing fireplace.

“Grandma,” said little Hannah. “the snow has ruined Halloween!”

I shivered as I thought of the blizzard raging outside.

“Well, let’s think of something fun to do!”

“What, Grandma? What can we do?” whined Benjamin. He was mad because the Internet had gone down in the wind and he couldn’t play his games.

“Tell a story!” chimed in Elijah.

I thought a moment. Then I remembered something that had happened to me when I was a child, probably around Hannah’s age… That was when all our adventures—the adventures of the Burk family—began.

“Gather round, children! Let’s sit around the fireplace and I’ll tell you a story…”

A full moon on Halloween. When my brother Sean realized that, he laughed, a twisted half-grin showing a row of metal from his braces.

That would mean trick or treating near the woods of Granite Falls, Washington where we lived, a woods that ran for miles. Untouched forests that stretched out seemingly forever and ever from our backyard.

He and my brother Steven had seen “in Search of” with Leonard Nimoy the previous Spring. I’ll let you watch it on YouTube when you’re a little older. It featured the Patterson/Gimlin movie of “Patty,” the world’s most famous bigfoot. Intrigued, my brothers started “searching” for the infamous monster just for fun but had found nothing. No matter, anyway. My brothers both believed it was an elaborate hoax… After all, our father was a rocket scientist who worked at Boeing and he told my brothers it was impossible.

But still, what a chance!

Sean could finally get my big brother Steven back. Sean shuddered when he thought of last summer visiting our grandparents in Wyoming. Our Grandpa Sylvester (Syl for short. He hated that name) took Sean and Steven to the Big Horn Mountains where they searched for caves in one of the canyons. The story went that Grandpa Syl had gotten surprised by a blizzard one day hunting and found a cave to hole up in. It saved his life. But he never could find that canyon or cave again. My family and I searched every summer for it. We always joked it would be where our family—the Burk family— would hide out if World War III broke out with the Soviets.

Sean and Steven had also just seen the movie Trog that Spring. Maybe when you’re older your mother won’t mind if I show you that, too. It had been a featured movie on Channel 11. Yes it was a B movie but hey, life in the 70s was full of B-rated monster movies! After all, we were big fans of Kolchak: The Knight Stalker. Not sure you should see that one either! My brothers ate up monster films like candy! They liked it better than the new Star Wars movie, which was all the rage with their friends. I didn’t know much about it at the time as I was too little. Sean and Steven had seen it at the drive-in theater, but really they liked Star Trek and the Legend of Boggy Creek better! Oh the thrills! They were thrill seekers after all!

So that summer, as we were searching, Sean found a cave. He went in, flashlight scanning. He called out to my other brother and grandfather.

Nothing. Where were they?

Okay, this is creepy, he thought to himself. And yuck! What was that smell? It was a cross between a skunk and a garbage can! Sean held back a gagging sensation in his throat.

He scanned the flashlight back and forth against the walls of the cave. He thought he saw an opening toward the back and then almost dropped his flashlight. He gasped. Was that two eyes starting back at him? Red glowing eyes full of menace? Sean rubbed his own blurry eyes and looked again. Still there. He started to rub his eyes again when suddenly something hit him from the back, nearly pushing him to the ground.

“Rrrrooaaaarrrrr!” He heard in a low, gruff voice behind him.

Sean dropped the flashlight. The red eyes vanished as quickly as they had appeared. The horrible smell vanished.

“Beware the Troglydite,” Sean heard a low voice speak menacingly as two hands grabbed his back.

Sean leaped around, ready to hit this beast. Wait, trogs weren’t real. That’s just a dumb movie.

That’s just Steven, stooped over like a cave man and swinging his arms wildly.

Sean could feel something wet oozing down his leg underneath his 501 button-up jeans.

“Oh, I am so getting Steven back,” Sean said to himself as Steven laughed hysterically.

So now it was almost Halloween and it was going to be a full moon. A diabolical scary plan began to form in Sean’s mind.

Halloween day came and Sean was ready. Wolf costume. Check.

Sure, his friends would all have Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker costumes, but in the Burk household we did things differently.

Of course, Sean had to copy our big brother as Steven was fascinated with wolves. Ever since hearing the wolf-cry album on our grandparent’s old stereo, Steven was hooked! So a wolf costume it had to be. And Sean had to do what Steven did, and because I was their little sister Sally, being the precocious little girl that I was, I decided I would be Little Red Riding Hood.

Pillow case for treats. Check. Flashlights. Check.

After dinner, Sean hurriedly put on his costume, his mask on the top of his head. Steven was also putting on his costume. Every year my brothers trick or treated together so the plan was sure to succeed.

Surely, Sean thought, I would go with our mother, so he didn’t worry. Our father was in California. Yet another test for Enterprise, the new Space Shuttle Orbiter NASA was working on. He was at some Air Force base there. Sean couldn’t remember. But he thought it was pretty cool that it was named after one of his favorite shows, Star Trek. He always loved those re-runs.

But something bothered him. What did Mom tell them yesterday? He couldn’t remember.

“Where are we going to go” Sean asked, just to make sure his plan was going smoothly.

“We’re not,” Steven said, putting his wolf mask on. “I’m going with Brett and Trent.”

“But we always go trick or treating together. I thought we’d go to Alder Street. But we have to cross the Boyd brothers’ house. You know they’re bullies.

Steven raised his eyebrows underneath his mask. That street was particularly interesting because there was an abandoned Victorian house at the end. An old homestead that had been neglected for years upon years. Scary but intriguing.

“Okay, fine,” Steven said. “I wasn’t going to meet them until later anyway.”

Phew. Sean finally remembered to breathe. What a relief!

Just then their mother called up from the living room downstairs. Their split-level house was modern—well, modern for the 1970s—with three different floors and stairs everywhere.

“Boys,” my Mom was saying, “you need to take Sally out trick or treating. Remember? She wanted to go with her big brothers the wolves!”

“Oh Mom!” they both exclaimed together.

“I told you this yesterday.”

The boys raced each other down the stairs. Everything to them was a competition, including who got to the living room first. Why, just a couple of years ago Steven broke his ankle and Sean broke his shoulder skiing. Oh what a day that was for our mother! Our dad was furious.

I stood defiantly in my Little Red Riding Hood costume, my blonde hair cascading in curls that tumbled out abundantly. I had the thickest hair ever! How I cried when my Mom brushed it!

“Here come the big bad wolves now!” I said in my four-year-old baby voice.

“Okay fine. Cool,” said Sean, rolling his eyes.

“Let’s go,” said Steven.

“Be sure to keep a close eye on your sister! Bring her back in two hours!”

“Yes, Mom!” Both boys blurted out as they raced outside, each trying to be first while me their little sister tried to keep up but my short legs wouldn’t let me.

The boys headed toward Alder Street, careful to avoid the Boyd house. “Come on, Sally!” Sean shouted, holding back harsh words. Of all times to be stuck with his little sister! That’s how he sometimes felt about me!

After an hour or so of trick or treating on their way to the abandoned house, their pillow cases full and heavy, Sean wondered how he was going to pull this off. He had told his buddy Billy that they would be in the woods at eight. That was a little less than a half hour away and they had to take me back to our house. There was no way his plan would work if we backtracked all the way home…

Tune in next week for Installment 2!