Author : Henry Gribbin

I am a searcher. In the past I have searched for god, little green men and the spirits of my ancestors. I have come up short all three times. However, I always felt that there was something out there, something different from what I have experienced in my life, and if I kept looking I would find it. Truth be told it found me.

I am a self proclaimed gentleman farmer. I grow corn on twelve acres of ground in central Pennsylvania. If I wanted to plow my land under and make a baseball field I could afford to do so. My neighbors (one is a dairy farmer and the other is a goat rancher) and I have been having some issues lately. It concerns drinking water, or the lack of it. You see, there are mountains to the east of us. Recently, an energy company bought the rights to the coal underneath said mountain. To get to that coal they basically cut the top of the mountain off and pushed the debris down it’s side. Also, a gas company bought property in our area and erected drills. Now we have fire in the sky at night. My neighbors and I believe that these actions polluted our ground water. There is a meeting scheduled for this evening to discuss these problems with agents from both companies at our local grange hall. Many other farmers were going to show up. It promises to be a testy affair.

It was dusk and I was getting ready to leave for the meeting. As a recently acquired habit I took a walk around my house and barn. Since our dear energy companies made their appearance, bears, mountain lions and other wild creatures have made their appearance known in our neck of the woods. I always go armed now which was lucky for me because I saw something which sent shivers up my spine. Along the outer perimeter of the corn field I saw a large red eye looking at me. I started to move back to the house, and the thing followed me. It looked to be on four legs, but I couldn’t get a good look at it. All I could see was the red eye. I unholstered my sidearm and kept moving. Then it sprang. I shot and whatever it was plopped to the ground. I slowly walked over to whatever it was. It was one hell of a shot. I got it right under its jaw, and the bullet went through its heart. Its hide was the fairest shade of grey I had ever seen. It appeared to be a mountain lion, but I have never seen a one-eyed cat like that. I went to the house and came back with some tarp. I covered the cat and put it in the back of my truck and went to the meeting.

The meeting itself was under way when I got there. The company reps were denying any knowledge of contaminated water, livestock being mutilated and any other thing they could think of to deny. I walked to their table and dropped my bundle. There was an uproar. I explained what had just happened a short time earlier. Other neighbors said they thought they had seen something like the thing lying on the table but were afraid to speak out because people would think they were making it up. The company reps made a hasty retreat, and the rest of us came up with a plan to combat our one-eyed friends.

Sometimes things should be left alone. Mountains are one such thing. They were formed eons ago by natural forces. But sometimes they were formed to bury things which were not meant to see the light of day again. One-eyed cats are a good example.