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Eliza Lynn Taylor

Eliza Lynn Taylor
Eliza Lynn Taylor Freelance Writer

Monday, October 28, 2019

Hunting Season - A Halloween tale

As many of you may know hunting season starts, at least for bows, in October in Wisconsin. There are gun hunts for deer that are eating up the farmer crops, but the real gun season is in November. People put out small amounts of corn, apples, and mineral or salt blocks for the deer, and they set up game cameras to see how many are in the area where they plan to hunt. I am one who sets up a camera. And if one is going to set up a ground blind, which essentially is just a tent with a printed camouflage design, it needs to be done about the same time as the game camera so the deer get used to it being there. I, for one, have no use for tree stands or anything up in the air because I hate heights, so I have a large blind. I check the camera frequently to see how many, if any, deer are coming to my mineral block. It's my first year putting one out. The pictures are...let say, creepy sometimes for the infrared night shots. If you look in the picture below you'll see something between the trees just above the deer's ear. There literally is nothing there that should account for that. NOTHING! It gave me the idea for "Hunting Season". Be prepared. It IS Halloween season too after all. Seriously, I may have a hard time going out there before daylight now. Just sayin'.





Hunting Season
“Lucas! Do you see that? Randall Slade asked his best friend. He had brought up the pictures from his game camera on his computer in his basement family room.
“Kind of blurry,” Lucas answered. “Maybe if you tell me what I’m looking for I’ll have a clue.”
“It’s a night shot. The infrared isn’t great on this cheap camera, but I can see something weird between the trees.” He pointed.
Lucas looked closer. “Well, it’s not a deer. Could be just the moon shining on a fern leaf. You do have your hunting camera set up in the swampy area of the back forty,” he said, referring the back forty acres of the Slade family farm.
“I made sure to mow all that out while it was still dry and I stomp everything down every time I go check the camera and the salt block. So, that’s not a plant. Besides, it was overcast last night and the moon was only a sliver. It didn’t stand a chance of shining into the woods there,” Randall explained.
“Hmm,” Lucas sighed. “I just don’t know what to tell you then. If there was power out there you could set up some extra lights for the camera. Those daytime shots are awesome. There’s deer all over the place. See if there are any other night shots.”
Randall clicked for the next few. “There are a couple, but they’re running! See how they are in the shots in different locations and heads are up looking around. Something has them alerted.”
“Yeah, but there could be a coyote out there too. You might not ever catch one of those on the camera if it sets it off. They are tall enough to set off the motion sensor but too short to get caught in the shot,” Lucas told him. “That might be why the pictures aren’t showing anything other than the woods.”
“Maybe,” Randall said, “But if it looks like that on the SD card tomorrow, I think we need to take a little overnight camping trip out there to see what’s going on. The blind has been set up for a couple weeks now and they are used to it, so as long as we’re quiet we shouldn’t scare them off too much.”
“As long as you don’t fall asleep!” Lucas said laughing. “You snore loud enough to scare a bear."
“The idea is to stay awake, genius.” Randall said. He stood up and grabbed a can of soda out of the mini-fridge. He handed one to Lucas and popped the top before taking a big gulp. He belched.
“Maybe we ought to pack water. We don’t any of that going on when we’re doing recon,” Lucas suggested.
“I might be nothing, like you said, but I want to check the camera again just be sure before we go out there,” Randall said. “An overnight trip might run all the deer off if we leave too much scent around.”
“Well, I’ll check with my dad, but I’m sure it will be fine to go. Tomorrow is Saturday, so we won’t be missing any school or anything.” Lucas told him. “I’d better get going before my mom calls because I’m late to supper…again.”
“Okay,” Randall said, “I have to get to the chores too or dad will skin me! I’ll call you in the morning after I get the cards switched out.”
The next morning Randall called Lucas. He was still in bed. “How do you think you’re going to get up to go hunting if you can’t even get out of bed before eight in the morning? We have to be out around six before the sun comes up to get set up!”
“Randall? Is that you?” Lucas said, still groggy from sleep.
“Yes! I told you I was going to call when I got the cards switched out. I’ve already helped with morning chores and had breakfast, and I still got out there and got the card.”
“You took the four-wheeler. That doesn’t take long, so it doesn’t count,” Lucas complained.
“Well, get your butt over here. I want to look at this card,” Randall insisted.
“Sure. I’ll grab a Pop Tart or something and be there quick as I can.”
Randall stared at the pictures. His eyes were wide with disbelief. “What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know man. That was creepy. One minute the deer was licking that salt block and the next it was on the ground and then it was just gone. The time stamp had it under two minutes,” Lucas said. His face was white. “Dead of night except for the odd shining, or glowing dots, or whatever it was. I really wish you had a better camera.”
“You still want to go?” Randall asked apprehensively.
“Yeah, but we’re taking guns, and our phones just in case,” Lucas said.
“It’s not gun season yet. It’s not legal. And the cell reception is spotty.”
“I don’t care! I’m not going without a gun in case there is something out there trying to get us. If there’s no reception, at least I can record it. I have one of those phone that records perfectly even in the dark,” Lucas bragged.
“Of course you do. I say about five o’clock we go out. It’s not dark yet so we can find our way into the woods. We’ll take the four-wheeler in case we have to clear out fast, but it won’t be too close, so if I say run you’d better act like your feet are on fire,” Randall told him. “The trail is mowed off but there are still a few stubs from brush so pay attention going in to where they are.”
“Alright. I’m going to go gear up and show my dad on the map where we’ll be in case he needs to find us and the phones don’t work.”
“Good idea! I’ll let dad know too. Mom will just freak out. They know we might go out there, but they don’t know why. If I take a gun, dad definitely needs to know why,” Randall said.
The boys lit out at five. The sun was setting pretty far by the time they got to the hunting blind and it was harder to see than they anticipated. Using flashlights they set up camp inside the blind, lowering the zippered windows only partially so they could see out through small sections rather than opening the window fully so as not to scare the deer themselves. They sat quietly for several hours communicating only through whispers or hand signals used by flashlight under a blanket.
Around ten they started hearing noises. Peering out through their peep holes, they watched deer wander past as the game camera’s motion sensor flashed for the photo. After about a half an hour they saw the strange glow. There were two about the same level at all times, but moving. The game camera flashed and Lucas gasped, covering his mouth. The eyes moved and the camera flashed. There was the sound of a low growl.
Lucas slowly put his phone into position to record as Randall got a gun ready. As the game camera flashed the boys could see it was some sort of creature. Randall quickly typed an SOS on his phone with another word and sent the text to his dad. As it got closer their hearts beat hard enough they were sure one another could hear it and if they could the creature could surely hear them.
Suddenly Randall’s phone chimed as his father sent a reply that he was on his way. His eyes grew wide as the creature turned their direction. It only took what seemed like a second for it to reach their blind.
“Run!” Randall whispered, nearly falling over Lucas on the way to the door they had left unzipped in case they needed a quick exit. He looked long enough to see Lucas right on his heels.
The creature growled more fiercely as it ripped the blind apart, collapsing it in its wake. It was after the boys once it tore through the thin nylon as they ran for their lives.
Mike Slade called William Tucker, Lucas’s father, on his way to the camp. He told him to bring a gun and meet him there. It only took ten minutes for them to meet up as William Tucker was as familiar with the hunting area as boys were since he and Mike were friends as well. They found no signs of the boys at the four-wheeler so they went on down to the campsite with bright lanterns. The tent was tattered and they found a shredded hiking boot that had been Randall’s.
After calling for twenty minutes they decided they needed to get the sheriff’s department involved and possibly the DNR. They called their wives and told them to hold up at Mike’s house and wait for the sheriff’s deputies to arrive to give them directions, but whatever they did, stay at the house and stay inside except to give the directions.
Deputies arrived and a DNR game warden. Everyone used high powered search lights to search for the boys and then radioed for search dogs. Some drag marks were found but they just as quickly disappeared. Photographs were taken of the campsite and the destroyed blind. The SD card was removed from the game camera.
At daylight the dogs were turned loose and they hit a scent right away. First Randall’s phone was found and then a short while later Lucas’s phone was found. There was blood on them both and more drag marks. They searched all day and found no further sign of the boys. The dogs had lost the trail.
Finally the sheriff’s deputy asked if he could use Randall’s computer to read the SD card since he didn’t have an adapter handy to use the one in his SUV. The pictures were benign at first with a few deer and the boys and more deer. Then the shots started with the glowing dots that kept moving around and then it looked in the direction of the blind and then it moved fast in its direction. A few minutes later it showed the boys being dragged off into the woods by the creature, Randall without his boot. They looked to be already dead.
Tears ran down the parents’ faces and the deputy and game warden stared blankly at the screen in disbelief.
William Tucker finally asked to see his son’s phone. He was sure his son had taken footage because he was always recording something. They gave it to him and he pressed the button on the side and swiped at the screen, tapping on the app for the photo gallery. It showed he had indeed recorded several minutes of footage. He wept openly as the sound of their scared boys whispering to one another not to breathe so loud so it wouldn’t hear them.
“Dad, if you ever get this,” Lucas whispered. “I don’t know how we’ll get out of this. Randall is loading a gun but I don’t think there is time to get it. It looks like a hodag. I know they aren’t supposed to exist, but it is here.” Suddenly Randall told him to shut the hell up before it heard them. There was the sound of Randall’s phone chiming and a panicked, ‘oh no,” whispered low by Randall.
The creature growled and turned toward the boys. Its full ugly and horrifying features were caught as with lightning speed it moved up on the blind and was reaching for it when the sound of Randall saying to run could be heard and the camera turned catching their fumbling escape from the blind. It recorded the boys running pointing at the ground up until Lucas was pulled to the ground, screaming and seconds later Randall screaming as he too was brought down.
“I didn’t really believe him when he said it was a hodag!” Mike Slade said. “I believed they were in trouble but I thought maybe it was just a bear,” he said, crying into his wife’s hair.
Everyone was horrified. The footage was uploaded to the deputy’s computer for a copy of the evidence of what had happened to the boys. No traces of them existed outside of the few that led them to the phones. They simply vanished.
No one hunts those woods anymore. No deer are seen in the vicinity. Occasionally helicopters fly over with sharp shooters in search of the evasive creature. No one dares to go on foot.
Everyone in Wisconsin knows hodags are just myth made up in the eighteen hundreds as a hoax. They don’t really exist. OR DO THEY???  

I uploaded a picture someone drew of the hodag from Instagram. Looks creepy enough to me!
 

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Education Needs a New Old Focus- Home EC!

Be patient and the title will make sense...Just a warning though- this is a rant...

I have to work for a living (outside of writing), as most of us do, but what you may not know is that  I cook at a convenience store. It's not glamorous, but I like to cook- usually. I have always liked to cook and even after working all day either on the farm (when we had a dairy) or off the farm at a regular job I still preferred to cook my meals at home. I enjoyed preparing healthful and tasty meals for my family. They used to teach this at school in a class call Home Economics, or Home Ec for short. I think this must have been cut with other classes that are necessary to life like Driver's Education. A lot of really useful life skills were learned there, and now some schools have a class just to teach students how to do a budget. That used to be part of Home Ec - how to shop for groceries, how to cook, how to make a household budget so you kept the lights and other utilities on. Now students look at you like you sprouted horns for mentioning that they might have their own bills someday and they need to learn how to take care of money.

Why do I bring this up? I work nine to ten hours a day with a mandate that I have a certain amount of food out before I leave. Now keep in mind I have to also clean the kitchen and do a few other things around the store before I can clock out. So when I say I am frustrated because people come in for
EVERY SINGLE MEAL or every night for dinner (wiping out all my hard work in a second and causing me to start over) you might say,' but that's job security', or 'that's literally your job to feed the masses." Someone actually asked, "What kind of restaurant is this?" when they couldn't special order burgers in five minutes one day and another clerk told them, "It's not! It's a gas station. If you want a restaurant; go a couple blocks." (Thank you co-worker. I loved your answer.) Other people have said, "It supports the economy and helps keep restaurants open creating jobs." Excuse me, but the occasional stop to grab something quick because we're on the way to such-and-such and we don't have time to make dinner is one thing, but every single night is just plain LAZY! I work all day too and I AM ON MY FEET 99% of the time. I still want to go home and make dinner for my family, but that's hard to do if someone is in there buying out the hot case because yet again they don't 'want' to cook. If you have something scheduled every single night of the week that keeps you away from home then you my friend are over scheduled and are missing out on some real family time. Every body has an activity but are you discussing anything that doesn't involve that activity with your family? If you ate at home over a nice dinner you'd have that opportunity.

This is where education has failed. This is where somewhere down the line parents have failed. They didn't teach the concepts necessary to plan a meal, shop for groceries, or cook the food. Learn to go to the grocery store, and please for goodness sake, don't use it for an opportunity to hold everyone else up in the aisle while you have old home week with someone you could just as easily go their house or call. Just so you know, I hate shopping too. I seriously despise it, mainly because people block the aisles and I can't get what I went to get so I can go home. It isn't fun at all for me, but I do it because it is necessary if I want to make food- which is the part I enjoy. Homemade food is better for you too. You can control how much salt and fat and sugar is in it. You can make favorites and desert and actually afford it. Restaurants require a tip and if you don't leave one they just might tack it onto your bill for you and you don't get a say in how much. That is not good for YOUR economy.

My boys did not leave home without learning how to cook so they could feed themselves. One is married and she is not a fan of cooking- not sure she knew how before (sorry for outing you D-I-L). As a result, they are a lot of takeout. My son finally said, "You know, we'd save a ton of money if we just cooked it ourselves and with kids coming, we have to save money somewhere." He took on the job of cooking a good bit of the time and they saved a ton. She cooks now too, maybe not anything elaborate but she is putting in the effort and over time has learned to cook more and more. The kids are involved and it makes it fun for them now too.

If your school isn't teaching basic home skills, tell them they need to start (or re-start!). Teach your kids to cook and that eating out isn't the norm but the exception. They will get used to it. 

By the way, I do have to stop at some point. I am not allowed to stay all night until the store closes. We have one cook a day since the store is not a twenty-four hour establishment and the area is really small. We get a lot of through traffic being on a US highway, but I am talking about people who live nearby and just refuse to cook for themselves.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

We Can Come Together

There was a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas last week. Another one in Ohio. These are the latest of many in recent years and anti-gun groups are using these to try to take away our Constitutional right to bear arms to defend ourselves. Pro-gun groups are angry and fighting back. The protests go on and on.

This is NOT about that. This is about a story I saw on Good Morning America about a man who had no one except his wife in this world and she was a victim of the shooting in El Paso. When he made arrangements at the funeral home for her he told them to invite all who cared to come because he was afraid it would only be him and the necessary staff in attendance. This happens more often than we we'd like to think - a person is buried without anyone or only a couple people paying their respects.
Well, let me tell you about the most amazing thing that happened. Word got around about this lady and this man. It went viral over the internet. People from all over the country sent flowers and condolences. People came from all over El Paso and the country to attend the funeral. THEY CAME TOGETHER, not as for or against anything. Not as any political party either.There were no protesters outside inappropriately holding signs during a funeral. They showed respect for this man who lost his whole world, love of his life.

How come in our country, where we all came together after 9/11 and cried for all the victims of shootings, can we not put aside our differences instead of protesting at funerals, stomping on one another verbally and physically, calling one another names, can we not just come together and get our country back on a compassionate track towards one another? It shouldn't take a tragedy.

Friday, March 1, 2019

Codename: Doppelganger New from Eliza Lynn Taylor

I'd like to share with you, my readers, that I do finally have a new Grant Sommers book out. Codename: Doppleganger. It is available on Amazon.com in ebook for Kindle as well as in print.

When teenaged Caroline Buckley has a tantrum over what she considers to be unfair rules she finds out some very interesting news. (You'll have to read the book to find out what it was!) She runs away to Washington, D.C. to find her aunt for whom she is a doppelganger (they look dead-on alike). When her aunt (Amy Ingersol) isn't home she relies on the 'kindness' of a handsome and charming stranger who drags her into the world of human trafficking. Through a mutual friend at the FBI, Amy is introduced to Grant Sommers for help finding her niece. Will they find out what happened to Caroline? Will they be able to rescue her before it goes too far? Will anyone come out unscathed?

If you read Codename: Cipher then you know Grand Sommers gets into all sorts of situations with all sorts of interesting outcomes. Please read Codename: Doppelganger and find out.

Hey, While I've got your attention.... You may not know this, but along with actually buying our books (duh) reviews are the next most important part for writers. So, please, if you read my books leave a review so others can decide if they want to read it too. No reviews usually equate, no matter how unfairly, to no sales. Thank you!

See you at the reading table!

Eliza Lynn Taylor

Codename: Doppleganger in print



Codename: Doppelganger for Kindle