" I saw my father's favorite bull. He was still standing up, and when he saw us, he didn't act ornery like usual. He just stood there and made a real low sound, all eerie. Avery went up to him, said he seen lines on him. He laid down, and my big sis Liddie cried and screamed, and Dad covered her eyes; because all the skin fell off him, like a rug, and he was ate up with bugs enough to make Avery stop in his tracks. He died right there, on the spot. To this day, I ain't seen nothing like it, well- maybe once or twice since..."

Christel read out the first printing of the account, from Real Occult Horror magazine.

" Which of the kids sent it in?" Allen asked.

Worrying his lip, Christel took a moment to reply.

" Joseph Perlmutter," he said. " Six at the time of the incident, seven now."

" Hell of a childhood memory," Allen remarked.

" It must've had some impact on him," Christel said. " He wrote into these magazines frequently. Had two short stories published under the name Joseph Pearl. They seem to be completely fictional, and typical for the genre."

" What worries me," Allen said. " Is that he didn't say once... He said once or twice."

This gave Christel pause.

" Twice...?" he asked.

" If we say once, we can say it was perhaps a reference to the entomologist," Allen explained. " But if it's twice... And we can assume he meant an unusual incident related to the cattle being skinned... Then what was the second time?"

Return......Next