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
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