An Extraordinary Encounter
There’s nothing particularly remarkable about the bus stop I was sitting at. Yes, it was in the middle of the woods, but around here bus stops in the forest are a dime a dozen. The forest is everywhere. It creaks, groans, and whistles when the wind blows through. Tonight the wind was whipping in relatively consistent gusts. I had half an hour to kill until my bus showed up. I don’t normally scare easily in the darkness, but something about the sounds of the forest and the solitude of my present location made my heart beat faster. What manner of dangerous creature was the darkness hiding? Surely soon such a beast would bound from behind a tree and snap me up. Dinner for one with almost no effort!
Occasionally a car passed by. This didn’t make me feel any less isolated though, quite the contrary. They sped past, never even noticing me on the side of the road. It felt as if I was a ghost or existed in a parallel universe, one in which I could see all the people passing by me in their cars but none of them could see me. To try and take my mind off these and other thoughts, I stood up and looked around the little wood hut that comprised the stop’s shelter. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one who had been stranded waiting for a connection here. There were all sorts of signatures and phrases either carved or scribbled on the walls. “Spent the night here! - Yannis”, “Karen and Markus forever!”, and, of course, quite a few erect penises.
It was while I was inspecting the various works of poetry and art that my fellow bus station visitors had made that I heard a branch snap. My heart started pounding. I listened intently for the next signs of my surely impending doom. But my ears were greeted only with the sound of the wind jostling tree branches. I was torn between leaving the little wooden hut and curling up on the bench and hiding as best I could. There weren’t many dangers in the forest, at least that’s what I had been told. Then again, people sometimes tell such lies to allay fears and instill courage.
After my heart slowed its pounding, I decided to venture out of the hut to see what vicious beast was outside. I walked around to the back of the hut as quietly as I could, and stared into the black of the forest in front of me. I saw nothing, but could hear some occasional rustling. I continued to peer into the forest for the better part of five minutes, but to no avail. Whatever was out there didn’t seem to want to say hi. This suited me just fine, and I began walking back around the bus stop hutch. Just then, I heard it.
grunt
I froze.
grunt, grunt, grunt
The grunts were followed by sounds of rustling leaves and snapping twigs. I slowly turned around, and, to my horror, saw six wild boars trotting towards me. “Do I make a run for it?” I wondered. I was no match for a pack of wild boars. You see, wild boars are not much like their pink cuddly domesticated counterparts, or so I had been told. Locals in the area had explained to me that they have a rather gruff disposition, to put it lightly. They had advised me to avoid an encounter with a wild boar at all costs.
It was with this advice in my mind that I made the decision to attempt an all-out sprint for the forest on the other side of the road. My hasty plan was to lose the boars in the dark of night, or if that failed, climb a tree and wait for them to lose interest. I inhaled sharply and tensed up, picturing myself as a wind-up toy ready to spring loose. Then, just as I was about to begin my escape attempt, I heard a voice.
“Hey wait!”
Startled, I whipped around, expecting to see another person behind me. Perhaps a local avid hiker that was returning from a late-evening walk and was now also caught in my same predicament. Instead all I saw were the boars. To my amazement, one of them opened its hairy snout and said, “Wait! We are not here to hurt you! Once in a while we like to come to this hut and sniff around for mushrooms. It is a wonderful spot to find some tasty fungus this time of year. What’s your name? Mine is blörgüs, pleasure to meet you!”
“I must be dreaming or on drugs” I thought to myself. As they drew nearer, I noticed that all of them were wearing small pointy purple hats. “Did someone slip LSD into my coke on the train?” I wondered. As Blörgüs and the other boars got close, I finally managed to blurt out “Uh..yeah…uh hi…I’m uh…Alex..and…and…I…uh-”
“It’s quite alright, distinguished sir!” Blörgüs interjected. “I imagine it is not every day you come across such beings as us! If you’d prefer, we can leave and come back later, but we’re quite hungry. We’d be much obliged if you would allow us to feast on the delectable mushrooms growing around the hut, and then we’ll be on our way.”
“S.ss.s..sssure” I stammered, still in shock. “How…how can I understand you? How can you talk?”
“Ah my dear sir, are you sure you’re ready for the answer? It can be quite mind-bending to learn about,” replied Blörgüs.
“Y..yeah.”
“Delightful! Simply splendid! I’ve been itching to tell this story again anyway. Why don’t you have a seat there on the bench, and I’ll fill you in.”
The boars and I all crowded into the little bus station hut, and Blörgüs lit a pipe. After drawing a few puffs, he began his tale. “You and I were not so different once. I once was one of your kind, in fact, all of us sitting here with you were…”
As Blörgüs continued, I leaned forward, listening to every word, and realizing that after this night, my world would never be the same.