The Bewildering Silence

It was a day just like any other, walking down the wonderful road which led to my favorite fishing hole up just behind a log I had so neatly claimed as my own personal seat. Every time my journey brought me there, I would lay out and listen to the world around me and wonder just what might happen that day. Just like times before, I laid myself out and enjoyed the peace that came from letting my bait sit and waiting for any unwise fish to rise up and become my next meal. However on this day, something felt amiss.

I could never really understand it until after it had happened, but I'm glad it happened when it did. It began around two that afternoon. My line had been slack all day and nothing was giving me a chance to work my magic. Deciding that I would call it a day, I brought in my line and got ready to leave. But then a thought came to me, "Its too quiet". Normally the chirping of birds or the chewing of a squirrel would be right in my ears, but not today. Everything was quiet as a mouse and gave off that creepy feeling that I was not in a good spot and needed to leave. I looked around to see if anything was out of place but nothing seemed to be out of order.

It was not until I made just that right turn of my head that I could see what had brought on this feeling of dread and boy did my heart jump like a racehorse. Just laying no more that fifty feet from where I had just been sitting was a calf moose, and quite a young one at that. Now I had run into many moose before and usually my decision would be to keep my distance. Much to my dismay in that instance, I had put myself in the crossfires of a very young moose and where there is a young moose, an angry mama is sure to be close by. Since I didn't know where the mama was at the time and not wanting to end up becoming human hamburger, I just got down on my belly and laid next to my favorite fishing log and snuggled as close to that log as I could. What came next certainly gave the the shock of my life.

Right where I had just set my line earlier that day to catch some nice juicy trout, out pops mama moose with a mouthful of watercress. Like a monster from the deep she trudged her way through the murk and came up to the bank and stood no more than two feet away from my head. The sound of crunching watercress could be heard quite clearly from where I was sitting and the dripping beads of water falling on my head were certainly not helping me keep calm. Seeing as she was just standing there and didn't seem to notice me, I just held my breath and hoped that by some miracle she wouldn't see me and just keep walking. To my surprise, she next knelt down onto her front legs and decided to continue munching away while laying down, now almost right on top of me.

The thoughts going through my head felt like a roll of film playing in high speed going back and forth on itself as the moose continued to lay there. This single moment in my life brought both terror and a world of amazement at the fact that she did not know I was laying just inches away from her enormous black body. After a bit more munching, a short pause was soon followed by her head tapering down to where I then laid huddling into a woody corner. She moved her head forward almost right to my face breathing in a heavy moose manner. I dared not move my eyes in fear of her lashing out but what surprised me more was her next reaction. With but a gentle snort, she dropped a piece of half chewed watercress on my head, slowly got up, and lumbered away. After that, I simply waited there for another hour before daring to move in fear of what could happen next. Gaining the courage to peek and finding that the coast was clear, my steps away from that log soon became a full on sprint and I never looked back once until I made it back to the safety of my home. To this day that event has always been on my mind, but at the same time I learned something quite valuable. If one is but as harmless as what one wish to be, everything shall pass you by and the world shall become a blank void of silence that will not be disturbed.