It had started out exactly as planned ... clear night, full moon. It had been cold enough in the past few weeks, that all the snakes had long gone and still warm enough that someone would not freeze to death if they had to stay out all night. We left John holding the sack at about 7 that night and slipped away back to the house. About an hour later we were laughing it up, watching TV and having some pizza, when all of a sudden the trailer shook with an eerie sound
WWWOOOOOOOOOO.............. .........WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. We all looked at each other, then ran to the back door and looked down towards the woods. We knew that if John had heard this he would have freaked out and started mindlessly running about the woods. We would never be able to find him in the morning and then we would be in big trouble! We packed some flashlights and other gear and headed out down towards the woods. Along the way, to pass time, I decided to recant the tale I had heard of the Indian chief and his lost son.

Back during the days, before the white man had come to America, the Indians thrived here in this area. The local chief was a brave and highly respected man by the name of Wild Bear. Yes, there use to be bears around here in these parts and the chief had wrestled one at some point in his youth to man hood and that is how he came to that name. His son, Rambling Wolf on the other hand, was not very chiefly at all. He would spend most of his days in the tall woods, chasing after the fox or the squirrels and laughing as if he had not a care in the world. One day, Rambling Wolf was chasing a red tailed fox and lost track of the day. He ran deep into the woods and became lost. When Rambling Wolf didn't turn up for dinner, Chief Wild Bear took 5 of his best warriors and they went searching for the boy. They found him, sadly the next morning frozen, laying at the bottom of a tree. The chief was grief stricken and begged the Gods to bring his son back to him. The Gods were so touched by Chief Wild Bears grief that they came to him. They told him that although they could not return his son in his own body, that from this day forward his sons spirit would live in the Wolves of the woods and be a guide for all lost souls who happened to get lost.

Legend has it that the boys spirit is still in the woods today, running wild with the wolves. At that moment we heard a very loud howling and again looked at each other with fear. John was not very talented as far as finding his way around ... he could get lost at the mall and we should never have left him out there. We spent the entire night looking for him without any luck. The next morning we pondered over the best way to break the news to our families and getting help to look for him. When we arrived back to the house, to our amazement and great relief John was sitting on the porch waiting for us. When we asked how he had found his way back he just laughed and said: " You would not believe me if I told you." ... Looking down in the fresh dirt below I saw wolf tracks and smiled a knowing smile at John who had no idea why I was grinning so. *smile*