Chupacabra

superstitions

   I live in farm country,  we have more cows than people . Farm work is seasonal and you can make a good amount of money in relativly short period of time  that is if your willing to work 7 days a week, 12 hours a day for a couple of months .  work -eat- sleep -repeat .

 

I worked Cotton gins a couple season , in various positons . my first season was the worst - 6 pm to 6 am - night time -  usually in fog and highly likely to be raining . being the rookie,  I was assigned yard man,  my job was to deliver a wagon load of cotton bales out into the yard to specific places as each module or trailer of cotton belonged to a certain farm . 

   One rainy night , I was fighting the mud , looking for an empty slot.  my poor excuse of a headlight  shaking out of sync with the diesel engine . as soon as I came to a  stop, the tractor and bale wagon would slide down  the slippery slope making rolling the bales onto the elevated 4x4's a rather difficult task . This was getting old after 4 hours let alone staring at another 8 to go . About this time the guy loading the wagon is feeling the same way and making my job no easier, as the once neat, tightly arranged bales are now just being thrown on .  Its now raining hard,  just pouring cats and  .... coyotes  . I'm out there  wrestling these bales and one slides over the racks  - damn  .  I run around to other side and a coyote comes charging out of the dark . Yow ! heart rate is way up!  I get the bales upright and I race back to the gin for the next load  - I'm standing there wet, cold, and a little wide-eyed and one of the guys says " hey  holmes' you alright  " .

I looked at him and I said "Man, I keep seeing things running around out there" ,

      He sort of brushes it off  and eventually it is lunchtime , half an hour with some of it dedicated to maintainence.  we are sitting around sharing our icechests  ( you eat a lot working 12 hour days )  when homeboy looks over and says "so holmes what did you see out there ? , these guys want to know " . This stops the rest of the crews jabbering and I said "I dont know rabbits , big rabbits , coyote, I couldnt really tell,  they moved too fast ",  I heard one whisper Chupacabra  and everyone stood up and they all begin a distorted chant of Chupacabra, Chupacabra,  I mean some of these guys looked  plain ol', flat scared shitless  . I then ask "What's a Chupacabra" 

   "Its a monster!"  as one jumped up from his chair . Quickly each other threw in their description. " its like giant rabbit with fangs" as one stuck his teeth out and hopped around , "it jumps and then UHHHHH"  as he thrust his hand into the air snatching an invisble throat, then shaking it with great drama towards the floor .  The others were equally animated, their versions with words I never learned in spanish.  I knew sangre - blood - and it was mixed into most of this now rising hysteria .

   Our boss returns from the office , walking into this melee of gyrating arms and wide eyes ,  wondering aloud "what in the hell is going on ?"   All together they turn , look at him and yell "Chupacabra! "

   He then looks at me and says "Amaral ,what in the hell are you doing,  you know I can't find another crew this time of night "...

 

I had my fun , but sometimes in that drizzly fog , under a moonless light  . . . nah ...

 

 

Reviews

[Ed Hart]

yeah, this is the stuff put a little hair on your chest...now, down in louisiana, those wile boars can take the fun right out of a life, and more than one man's wet his pants just remembering what they saw, and them alligators honestly look like they're smiling, and down in southern mexico they got cats the size of motorcycles...but, the most worstest of all, was this gal i met in...

[roarke]

meh, rookie.

made a great meal break floor show thought. lol

enjoy the entertainment whence ever it comes.

[John Jackson (El Juero)]

Aye! Tengo miedo ahora. Great story, Amigo.

[Samuel Dickens]

That's a funny one---I can just see it all taking place at night in that San Juaquin valley fog. Giant rabbit with big teeth, huh? That sounds an awful lot like something from a Monty Python movie I saw. "Now fetch the royal hand grenade"

[Black Cat Fever]

I wonder what a Chupacabra really is. I see pictures of what looks similar to coyotes with no hair and overly large fangs and on this radio program I listen to CoastToCoastAM they have guests that come on and talk about them, there are several different versions of what this creature could be. I like this story and the ghost one too.

[Coyote Poetry]

I saw a Chupacabra once. Only kidding. I like the story. I lived in may places in my life. I never saw a ghost or a monster. I tries to find them in old castles in Europe. I roam the holy grounds of the Maya land. But people like to believe in things that can be proven. Your story pace and description was very good. A very good ending to a outstanding poem.
Coyote

[TAO]

I saw a chupacabra... I also once saw a UFO hovering over a pizza hut... I assumed they had some major intergalactic munchies and Earth was the closest dive they could stop at to get a bite (let me mention that this occurred at Wright Patterson Air Force Base - there is meaning behind that).

I liked this story. At first, I thought "this might be the first dull thing I ever read from Robin" and thought I might end up regretting reading it simply because the title said "Chupacabra". Then, as I kept reading on, I became more and more interested. It was kind of funny, especially given my own experience (I may not have seen right). Needless to say, very nice.

[Nancy S.]

lol, vivid tales, great sense of humor. I like it. well done