Greg Dueck

The Weeds

Coyotes had been up on High Ridge Drive the last couple nights. They were tracking something. My uncle used to talk about how some winters they would form larger packs and stalk unusual prey. Talk down at the farm co-op sometimes turned to stories of savage attacks that seemed to happen when certain circumstances coalesced. The weather, the moon, the aurora borealis, the early season departure of the geese, I never listened to it much. Old Will Drucker often told of the time during The Great Depression a five year old girl had been killed by a pack down by Motrin's Mill. Although not everyone had believed it was the coyotes that got her.