He was still a young kid when he realized that nobody else saw them. He didn’t see them often; but no one else ever did. He called them the Squares. He saw the first one when his dog, Snoopy, died. The yellow square-shaped thing floated through the wall. He asked his dad what it was. His dad gave him a querulous look, and said there wasn’t anything there. A few years later, when the old tulip tree by the cemetery split and fell in two directions, he saw another. No one else saw it. He quickly learnt not to mention them. Maybe they were in his imagination. If they were real, there certainly were not many of them. But he did know that he did not like them. He wanted to kill them all. Maybe the one he saw didn’t kill Snoopy; but it was there just after it happened. If fact, they only seemed to appear after tragedies had occurred. He wanted to become a Square Shooter, a Square Killer!
He wanted to learn hunting and tracking. His Uncle Walter was a hunter, and was happy to teach him everything he knew. In the fall, they’d go deer hunting up on Blue Mountain, near Katellen. Buddy quickly learned the patience to sit in a tree for hours waiting for a deer to come by. Tracking could be tougher, but he developed the insight; he learned to think like a deer. Buddy became a good tracker. He saw another Square up on Blue Mountain after a kill. That was when he was in high school. Uncle Walter never saw it.
After high school he joined the Army. He learned everything that the Army could teach him about hunting and killing. He became quite good at it. After the Army, Buddy became a policeman in Port Clinton. Port Clinton seemed to be near where the Squares could be found. Maybe they could be found all around the world? He didn’t know, but he had not seen any when he was in the Army. None in Germany, nor in Korea.
Port Clinton is, perhaps, best known for the Yuengling Brewery on the Schuylkill, and the fact that the trail goes through town. It was a pleasant enough little town. He hunted up on Blue Mountain. Well, not too far west on Blue Mountain; Fort Indiantown Gap is a high security area. Years passed before he saw another Square. There was a multi-vehicle accident, with fatalities, down on I-78. He saw two Squares that time. He’d never seen two at the same time before. However, this was neither the time, nor the place to try to kill a Square. No one else saw either of them. Time passed without his seeing another Square. Buddy was a patient man.
His son, Walter Jr., was twelve. They were hunting deer on a cold November morning near Swartara Gap. They waited patiently near a deer path to Black Swartara Spring. They were motionless as the buck approached. He didn’t see them. A shot rang out. Walter, Jr., got his first kill. The Square appeared. “Dad, what is that?” His son saw it! Buddy took careful aim, squeezed the trigger, and shot the Square. He had been waiting more than twenty years for this moment. He was a Square Shooter!! The Square sank slowly to the ground. They went carefully over to get a look at it. Before they could get too close, a much larger yellow Square appeared, picked up the dead Square. Buddy heard, in his mind only, “Why have you destroyed the last collector?” Big Square and dead square both disappeared. Neither Buddy, nor his son, Walter, Jr., ever saw a Square again.
Paul (AHikingDude@aol.com)
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