The great turkey hunt, part 2

By By Thomas R. Tommy Walker / special to The Star
March 29, 2002
I had driven about 25 miles to the place my friend had suggested I hunt, I found a little turn-out where I parked the car.
I tore off across the swamp for the tall timber. I stepped into a fair
hole of water and got a pretty good weten, but no mater, I was in a hurry to get to the right place before daybreak. I got there with time to spare.
The flashlight beam picked up a few blocks of fire wood someone had left, I arranged them so I could lean back against one and settle between two others. I pulled in limbs for extra camouflage, making sure I had a good field of fire. I put the box call on the block to my right and laid the loaded 12 gage across the two on either side and lent back to listen for the red birds to start chirping. Yea, you right. I went sound asleep.
I was dreaming about snakes and something woke me by blowing it's hot breath on my right ear. I immediately perceived it weren't no sweet thing trying to seduce me. I did a twisting catapult from between them blocks at super sonic speed and by reflex or design grabbed that 12 gage.
My feet tangled in the branches. It was full daylight and I got a glimpse of a big, black, white-nose mule that must have been smelling of me. I was falling trying to catch with my left hand while my right hand held onto the gun. When my butt hit the ground the quite solitude of the forest was interrupted by a magnum blast from the 12 gage, that had somehow positioned it's butt plate about six inches from my face.
Hearing the birds
I hadn't heard the red birds but I heard a bunch when that gun went off! I also saw some bright lights, sky rockets, Roman candles and other things I can't explain and all my mind's eye can remember next is black.
Then I remember I was looking at a blurred blue sky and trees. My eyes wouldn't focus right and then I think I heard a mule bray somewhere in the woods. I tried to get up but a horrendous pain had holt of me between my eyes. I wanted to unload that 12 gage in that mule's posterior but all I could do was sit up with my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands until 8 o'clock.
Man was I hurten. I couldn't breath through my nose and my lips hurt when I licked them. My hands were covered with blood and I was mumbling to my self, probably prayers.
I got to my feet and felt like I was on some kind of whirl-o-magig. So I sat back down on a block and later slowly got up again. I checked to see if I had lost anything, and there was my genuine M.L. Lynch Box Turkey Call busted in a million pieces. I just scattered them and headed out for the car.
Man was I thirsty. I would have sold my soul for a cup of coffee. I came across a small creek and washed my face. It hurt and felt good at the same time. I also got a good drink hoping I wouldn't contract no beaver fever.
I came to the log road and figured I needed to go left to reach the car. That model 11 Winchester felt like a concrete post on my shoulder and I'm worried about getting Miss Dotsye's car home. lt's close to nine o'clock.
Then I heard a vehicle coming down that log road and through the woods I spied a green pick-up, "Lord have mercy! Game wardens drive green trucks," I thought. I dove over a clump of bushes. I'm lying there in the bushes trying to be invisible.
As the truck came by I saw what looked like one person. It was a teen-age boy and girl. Maybe they was going turkey hunting.
Well I finally came to the car and put the gun and my jacket in the trunk. I sat down in the car and looked in the rear view mirror, man was my face in a mess.
Checking the damage
My nose was swol up and looked flat and is still flat to this day. My eyes were turning black around them and my upper lip was twice its normal size.
I turned the key and that little 289-V8 sprang to life. I put it in reverse, backed into the road and just as I hit the brake I felt the left rear kind-ah sink.
Yea, you right again. I had backed too far and a wheel was in the ditch. The ditch was mostly dry but the wheel could get no traction.
I spent the next hour prizing, jacking and putting anything I could find under the wheel. My nose started bleeding again. I needed help.
At last I was on the road again thinking about the tongue lashing I was sure to get. There were open flat woods to the right and a four foot clay bank and a three foot net wire fence with strands of barb on top set back about three feet from the bank. I got glimpse of a black thing coming fast through the woods headed toward the road. "Good Gads Amighy," I thought. "That's a humongous turkey with a neck a yard long and a long beard a blowing in the wind. Red hot pure adrenaline shot through my veins like an erupting volcano.
(Conclusion next week)