~attm~
i remembered this story a few days ago. i have started watching "twin peaks" again - the parts about the mill and the old woods (and BOB*) reminded me of it and it is now being re-told (re-typed?) fourth hand. what really happened is buried with the person who experienced it in the first place - my maternal grandfather. he passed away when my mom was very young. this story was told to her by her older brother – and she, in turn, re-told it to me and my siblings (i got the confirmation from her yesterday). now, i share it here.
my grandfather owned a lumber mill in the old country – a lumber mill that harvested old trees from an old forest. once the trees were cut, the most efficient way to transport these was to float them downstream in the river running next to the mill. often, there would be (literal) logjams in the river that needed to be cleared up. as the owner of the mill, it was up to my grandfather to check up on and clear these jams if there were no workers available. this meant going into the woods at night to check on progress of his floating lumber. he would bundle up, take his kerosene lamp and walk the few miles through the woods to the river's edge.
one such night, as he was walking back home, he heard the cries of a child nearby behind some trees. whether it was curiosity or kindness or the need to protect his property, my grandfather followed where the cries were coming from. he found a small boy, maybe about 4 or 5 years old, sitting all alone on the forest floor, sobbing. he asked the boy if he was lost and where his parents were but the child did not answer – he just continued to cry and cry. my grandfather picked him up and put him on his shoulder to take him back to the nearest village in hopes of finding his family. with one hand, he braced the boy on his shoulder and with the other, his lamp to guide him through the dark forest. he began walking towards civilization.
as he walked further along, he noticed something did not feel quite right – it seemed that with his every step, the weight of the child on his shoulder was getting heavier and his body seemed to be growing. as he fully became conscious of this thought, with his next steps, the legs of the child had grown to the point of dragging along the ground – and his weight became excruciating. panicked, my grandfather shoved the thing off his shoulder. when he turned around to look at what he had extracted himself from, the child had now become a full grown man, who promptly burst into a great flash of light – and then nothing but darkness and the quiet of the forest.
needless to say, my grandfather ran all the way home. whether he went back into those woods alone at night again, i don't really know. i can't imagine he did.
.
.
.
(side note: what a unique perspective he has to turn the pure into the perverse. pure genius.)
i remembered this story a few days ago. i have started watching "twin peaks" again - the parts about the mill and the old woods (and BOB*) reminded me of it and it is now being re-told (re-typed?) fourth hand. what really happened is buried with the person who experienced it in the first place - my maternal grandfather. he passed away when my mom was very young. this story was told to her by her older brother – and she, in turn, re-told it to me and my siblings (i got the confirmation from her yesterday). now, i share it here.
my grandfather owned a lumber mill in the old country – a lumber mill that harvested old trees from an old forest. once the trees were cut, the most efficient way to transport these was to float them downstream in the river running next to the mill. often, there would be (literal) logjams in the river that needed to be cleared up. as the owner of the mill, it was up to my grandfather to check up on and clear these jams if there were no workers available. this meant going into the woods at night to check on progress of his floating lumber. he would bundle up, take his kerosene lamp and walk the few miles through the woods to the river's edge.
one such night, as he was walking back home, he heard the cries of a child nearby behind some trees. whether it was curiosity or kindness or the need to protect his property, my grandfather followed where the cries were coming from. he found a small boy, maybe about 4 or 5 years old, sitting all alone on the forest floor, sobbing. he asked the boy if he was lost and where his parents were but the child did not answer – he just continued to cry and cry. my grandfather picked him up and put him on his shoulder to take him back to the nearest village in hopes of finding his family. with one hand, he braced the boy on his shoulder and with the other, his lamp to guide him through the dark forest. he began walking towards civilization.
as he walked further along, he noticed something did not feel quite right – it seemed that with his every step, the weight of the child on his shoulder was getting heavier and his body seemed to be growing. as he fully became conscious of this thought, with his next steps, the legs of the child had grown to the point of dragging along the ground – and his weight became excruciating. panicked, my grandfather shoved the thing off his shoulder. when he turned around to look at what he had extracted himself from, the child had now become a full grown man, who promptly burst into a great flash of light – and then nothing but darkness and the quiet of the forest.
needless to say, my grandfather ran all the way home. whether he went back into those woods alone at night again, i don't really know. i can't imagine he did.
.
.
.
(side note: what a unique perspective he has to turn the pure into the perverse. pure genius.)