few miles from this spot, Ben Johansson, the farmer, made his way across Prisco’s bumpy dirt roads in his age worn 1950s Ford tractor. He was out early this morning because he and his wife Julie wanted to run some errands in town in the afternoon. Actually, New Bismarck was more of a village than a town. The only place to shop in town was the department and general store ran by old man Josh Biller. Of course there were also a few small stores that sold everyday necessities. All of these businesses could be found along the Main Street in New Bismarck. However, the village only had a total of maybe twenty five roads and a population of about three thousand. Nonetheless, he was looking forward to their excursion even though shopping was not one of his favorite past times. While Julie browsed the store shelves at Josh Biller’s, he planned to stop by Betty Sue’s a small country style restaurant right next door to Jose de Villa’s barbershop. He’d get an update on the latest gossip and spend a few hours hanging out with his friends. That’s how they had always organized their shopping days -ever since he had inherited the farm from his dad twenty three years ago.
The fateful events had begun the evening before. A fox had caught a magpie. He had staked out the area for a long time and his stomach was growling with hunger when suddenly a magpie landed right in front of him. The bird seemed to be unaware of its surroundings and began to pick through the soil with its beak in search of a worm or a tasty maggot. The fox leapt from its hiding place in the brush. The bird almost managed to escape. It flattered its wings and rose from the ground, but the fox was in close pursuit, barely grabbing its tail feathers and tearing it to the ground. The fox quickly pounded the magpie’s body into the soil and broke its neck with one hasty bite. The magpie’s body fell limp instantly and a few droplets of blood trickled down into the forest soil, where they disappeared in the soft humus. The fox picked up its loot and, overcome by a sudden panic attack, ran off with it. A few seconds later he had vanished in the thick brush. The blood, on the other hand, awakened something hidden deep beneath the humus that should have never been raised up.
Ben Johansson had just begun to plough his fields when he noticed some movement over by the edge of the forest. Ben got a closer look and spotted a man in a blue coverall, check shirt and black-gray baseball cap standing there. The man waved at him. Ben responded with a wave of his own and recognized the man as Hank Bergson, a young man everyone called simply Hanky, although he stood more than 6.4 feet tall. Hanky had hair so blond it looked like straw and the mind of a seven-year-old boy.
His parents, Ellie and Daniel, had gotten married although they were first cousins. Here in the country no one gave it much thought back then. If kids fall in love, they should get married, is what everyone used to say back then. After all, they made such a beautiful couple.
Ellie and Daniel had been close friends who spent most of their time together ever since they were small children. Daniel’s father, Ray, was a forest worker. Every now and then he brought a piece of wild game home in the evening after work. In those impoverished, hard days, this meant the family would have meat for a week. His sister Wilma and her husband, mine worker Ed Leuten, lived right next door in a small cabin. Leuten never brought home enough of his earnings to properly care for his family. In fact, he frequently came home stone drunk without much change left in his pockets. Given these circumstances, Wilma and her little daughter Ellie often ate with her brother’s family. Then one day Ed did not come home at all. At first his wife thought he’d gone on another boozing rampage, but when he had not returned after three days, Ray embarked on a search for his brother-in-law. His rifle over his shoulder, he packed some bread and deer jerky into a bag and headed out. For days he hiked through the woods and searched the villages in the vicinity. He asked people if they had seen his brother-in-law, but nobody had spotted him anywhere. He finally found him on the fifth day, or rather, what was left of him. Ed’s body was lying in a ravine about five miles from his home. His remains were in a horrible state. Virtually every body part had been dislodged from its natural location. The disembodiment was so horrific that just looking at him made Ray vomit. After a while, Ray dug a grave for his brother-in-law with his bare hands and laid him to rest. He took great care to diligently cover up all of the traces of the ghastly events. He even spread leaves and twigs across the agitated ground. Once he was done, the forest looked completely pristine. Thankfully, he soon came upon a nearby creek, where he was able to wash and scrub his entire body clean before he returned home to his family. When he arrived, he simply told them that his search had been fruitless and that Ed had probably run off for good. His sister and her young daughter moved in with Ray’s family. From this day forward, Ellie and Daniel spent every waking moment together. Everyone in the valley soon got used to seeing them together wherever they went and it appeared to be a completely natural progression of events when they finally married.
Hank was born well over a year after the wedding. His parents soon realized that their son was different than the other children they knew. They gave the little tyke all of their love. He grew up quickly and his body was healthy, but something appeared to be wrong with his head, as the townsfolk used to say. Everyone in the valley knew Hanky. He often rode around on his old bicycle and sang children’s songs and continued to do so even though he was now close to thirty years old. Hanky loved his bicycle and he loved the forest. People said that he took after his grandfather, who’d had the same passion. He spent many a day exploring the woods and would not return to his home until dusk.
That is why Ben Johansson did not give it a second thought when he saw Hanky standing on the edge of the forest.
When Hanky approached the fringes of the woods, he observed Ben Johansson’s tractor making its way across the field. He liked Ben because Ben was always nice to him. Sometimes Ben would give the young man a piece of chocolate or a lemon drop. So Hanky made sure he was easy to spot at the edge of the forest and waved in the direction of the farmer. Maybe this would be another lucky day and he’d get a piece of chocolate if he waved real nice. But the farmer just gave him a quick wave and then focused on the vehicle again as he was getting ready to plough the next row.
“Well, I guess he didn’t bring anything today,” Hanky mumbled under his breath.
Next thing he knew, a squirrel dashed right by him and Hanky instantly forgot all about Ben Johansson. With eyes as wide as a child’s he watched as the animal quickly and skillfully climbed a tree. After a while he got tired of squirrel watching and stepped back into the forest in his clumsy manner.
At around the same time, Rita Miller, a Prisco Elementary School teacher, made sure that all of the pupils attending third grade had put on their jackets and hats properly. She was a highly responsible and committed teacher and her students loved her for it. Rita did not have any children of her own, and doctors had told her that she would not be able to have any.
She had eventually accepted her fate and focused entirely on her profession, which had become her calling and something she truly enjoyed. Her husband was a reporter with the local editorial office of the “New Bismarck News”. As a result, he was also in the loop and abreast of all the latest regional news. This was exactly what he wanted, after all, he loved to gossip and would probably have been a popular guest at every coffee klatch in town. Yet he preferred to drive around, stopping on and off to talk to the farmers and the employees of small business about their particular problems.
He had to drive into New Bismarck just once a week to see the editor and drop off his reports along with the occasional assignment to check out a specific story.
Rita Miller had the pupils form two rows. Today, she was planning to take them on a field trip into the woods. The kids were brimming with excitement, because that meant a day away from their desks and boring classroom work. The small group soon set out on its hike. They crossed Main Street and walked up a small side road which eventually turned into a dirt road that continued straight into the forest.
CHAPTER 2
Below the humus, the soil was warm and moist. Down here, there was no indication that fall was about to move into winter. He could have cared less. He didn’t feel it anyway. He only knew two feelings - “hunger and revenge”-, which in his case translated into a pure, unfettered lust to kill. That tiny amount of blood, which blended with the moisture in the ground, had encroached upon the place where he rested, had been just enough to arouse him. Now he had to wait. He would