By Jim Chandler
The aliens got Bubba
James Kincaid while he was running
his set lines out
in the Big Piney Bottom.
They done some awful
thangs to me, Bubba told the boys
at the cafe. Run
all sort of tests on my brain and on my
goober too. . .I
suspect them little sumbitches was queers!
Cold chills ran up
and down the spine of everyone that
Bubba told his story
to. Everybody knew Bubba would
steal and Bubba
would fight, Bubba would drink and
Bubba would screw
your wife or your sister.
But Bubba, he dont
lie, they all said, shaking their
heads.
There was nothing
unusual about Bubba being out in the
bottom after midnight.
Many days hed go out in the
afternoon and bait
up some stout hooks with shad or
chicken guts. Hed
tie the lines off to sturdy saplings or tree
roots and then hed
go on about his business; very often,
that had to do with
liberating a boat motor or chain saw
he had spotted somewhere.
Then, after acquiring
his goods and filing off any
identifying marks
or numbers, Bubba would go back out
and run his lines.
He usually brought home a load of
flathead catfish.
What he didnt dress to put in his old chest
freezer he sold
to some of the cafes around the county for a
dollar a pound.
Folks around Pious
and the immediate area were well
aware of strange
things rumored to take place in the
bottom. More than
one resident had seen weird lights
moving about in
the thickly-forested swamp and along the
banks of the stream
that ran through it. People driving
along the levee
road at night had claimed to see large, hairy
creatures bolt across
the road, yellow eyes burning in the
night.
According to legend,
back in the fifties four duck hunters
from Memphis ventured
back into the bottom and vanished
off the face of
the earth. The only trace of them ever found
was a small piece
of khaki trouser material, bearing what
appeared to be savage
teeth marks.
Not only was the
bottom reputed to be full of strange and
evil varmints, but
the cottonmouth moccasins were thick
and huge. Most people
gave the area a wide berth because
they were afraid
of it.
Bubba James aint
afraid of nothin that walks, flies,
swims or crawls!
they all said. Hed fight the devil with a
circle saw give
half a chance!
So, people were a
little amazed, and frighten, to learn that
Bubba had run up
against something that scared him.
Them little bastards
jumped me right after I left my first
set line, Bubba
said. I had a 12-pound flathead in my left
hand an a 14-pound
carp in my right! I tried to go up aside
one ofums head
with the carp, but the sumbitch put some
kinda spell on me! |