See below for this months' Roomers contribution
Each month, we will share a piece written by our Roomers participants for you to read through and ponder at your own leisure.
Bear Hunt
A mistake on our part and Jay agreed, caught up in the camp, way up in the forest, where trees were thinned out, and the snow laid thin and slippery. A tough call but Jay and I had gone along with it. We’d never hunted bear before, just weekend rabbit shooters in the Sligo Valley to pass the time. We made camp, dusk approached, a cold south wind got in the bones. Nevertheless Briam was keen to go on, the bears less skittish, feeding likely he said. Jay and I shook heads, no thanks, excused by hunger, thirst and tiredness; but I for one had not worked up the guts for bear hunting, I’d need a good night’s rest.
It was past ten, neither of us had slept and now concerned. No gunfire, no Briam. Got lost? Accident? We fretted. An hour later we dressed, and half asleep we stumbled up the path. An orange three-quarter crescent moon lit the way. We found Briam’s body in brushwood off the track, ripped open, one leg torn away, both arms vanished, face ripped off. The Point 243 rifle, its barrel twisted lay a few yards away, teeth-marks had scraped the iron-coat away.
I chundered, then we scraped up leaves and deadwood, and burnt his remains. Least we could do, thinking the same as we trod back to camp. ”If we’d both stood our ground, said no to the hunt, Brian would still be alive.”
- Roderick Waller
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