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A Cry From the Woods

    A few weeks ago I had something unusual happen here at my home in the woods. We had been having a cookout and everyone had gone home except for my son. He doesn't live here but he had hung around to chat a while. We were sitting on the deck, my son, my wife and I. A cool breeze had sprung up from the north and the sun had just gone down a few minutes earlier.
    We heard a cry from the forest that sounded very much like a child who wanted his mother. There was really no words, just the cry. There was some discussion among us as to whether it was an animal or a child. I know that the hair stood up on the back of my neck. The sound continued on and on.

    It bothered me that a child could be in the woods, possibly having wandered away from his home. There are no houses within miles of us in the direction the sound was coming from. I went to the bedroom and retrieved a gun and a flashlight and my son and I set off into the woods in search of child or beast.
    The sounds continued as we reached a point about 100 yards into the woods. It was at this point that a huge owl came swooping down through the trees above our heads and then flew away without making a sound. The cries stopped then and I suspect that they were made by baby owls. For the previous few days my wife and I had seen an owl flying in an out of a big, dead oak tree in the area.
    We walked back home, not really sure what had made the sounds. It was just another odd happening in the rather odd place I call home. The experience reminded me of a line from an old song. You fill up my senses, like a night in a forest. From the green retreat, CE Wills

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