A View of the Town, Episode 8: Otis Major in the Witch's Woods

Welcome to A View of the Town, the adventures of Dr. Willis Fletcher in a small coastal town in Maine. Offering tidbits of local color and the lay of the land, we now return to Dr. Fletcher and the continuation of his story about Otis Major.

This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by air.  It's here. It's there.  It's everywhere.  It's even in your hair.  Air.

And now on with A View of the Town...

Now last time, I told you about Louisville Sam, a spinner of tall tales.  Before that I told you about the Witch's Woods north of town.  I also told you about how Otis Major, a young lad of eight, took on a double-dare bet on Halloween from Hubert Stinct to venture off into the Witch's Woods.  Well, let me combine them into one of the stranger stories I have.

Otis wondered off into the woods at dusk.  Before long, a band of blue lights began to spin out of the underbrush and followed him.  According to the boys who dared him, these blue lights knocked him down into the brush.  Otis didn't respond to their yells. Just as the boys began to get nervous, Louisville Sam came strolling up from town. He had seen the lad head off alone and knew that trouble would be brewing.  He knew that tale of Amaryllis Stemm, the stranger the whole town believed to be a witch and had also disappeared in the woods.

Louisville Sam asked what they had been up to.  They nervously talked about Otis disappearing and the blue lights knocking him down.  Without a care, Louisville Sam strolled in the direction where Otis disappeared.  It was at this point that the boys said the oddest thing happened.   Louisville Sam simply vanished right in front of their eyes.  One boy said he was like a ghost fading away.  When that happened, the boys ran in every direction, skedaddling out of there.

The whole town searched the woods, only in daylight mind you, and never found a trace of Otis or Louisville Sam. Men kept watch on the woods day and night.  The police brought in hunting dogs who followed Otis' scent right to the place where the boys said he fell down.  But nothing was ever found.  Makes me think of that old Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley's poem about the goblins getting you if you don't watch out.

Now, all was not lost, because Otis showed up three days later as if he were in a trance. Walking down a side street.  His clothes all muddy and leaves in his hair.  Mrs. Jarvis, the local seamstress, saw him and immediately called his mother and the police. Otis Major muttered a fantastic story about meeting a young woman who matched Stemm's description and how Louisville Sam had introduced them.  Otis said that they took him to a room in house where they kept him.  They asked him to chant several words in Latin. After several days of this, they finally looked at him and said "Time for you to go home.  You're not the one."

The boys said he was making it up and he had hid from them.  Reverend Lord said that the devils had taken him.  Luther Stamp of the Mystic Cove Gazette said Otis had visited Heaven.  And Otis didn't care he was just glad to be back home.  Whatever it was, nobody to this very day knows.  But we do know this, a fence went up around the woods and was posted.  Nobody to this day has every entered it.

Otis Major later became a writer and moved to some place in Washington State.  His mother told me where, but I don't remember exactly.  But none the less, he's out there.  Writing away with a vivid imagination.

Join us again next time, when Dr. Fletcher tells us about Rosco, a gambler, and his girlfriend, Swanky Jane.

This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by air.  Drifting.  Floating.  Swirling.  All around you.  It's always there.  Air.

CSM

A View of the Town, Episode 6: Louisville Sam

Welcome to A View of the Town, the adventures of Dr. Willis Fletcher in a small coastal town in Maine. Offering tidbits of local color and the lay of the land, we now return to Dr. Fletcher as he recollects about Louisville Sam.

This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by pins.  They stick and prick you, but they're still you're friends when they hold up that hem.  Pins.

And now on with A View of the Town...

I know I told you the last time you all read that I would tell you about Otis Major and his trip into the Witch's Woods north of town, but if you've noticed I sometimes stray away on some other story first. In this case, Louisville Sam plays a part in Otis Major's visit in the Witch's Woods. So, I have to fill you in on him.

Tall, slender, and fit the name, Louisville Sam told us of his travels in his younger days on the riverboats along the Ohio River. Being an Ohioan myself, I knew some of the river ports he spoke of between Wheeling and over to where it flowed into the Mississippi. His stories were so fascinating we never quite knew what to believe, but could only sit back and revel in the tales he would spin.

I remember the first time I met Louisville Sam at the barber shop. The boys all sat back while I simply asked Louisville Sam "You been here all your life?"  I soon learned that the true history of Louisville Sam would always remain a mystery even down to the basics like when or where he was born.  If you asked, he would answer "Two days short of a million and between two rivers rolling south like piss into a stream."  So, with snipping of barber clippers in my ear, I heard the longest answer to my simple question.

Louisville Sam fiddled with the silver buttons on his worn denim vest. He kicked the leg of his chair with his right boot as if he was trying to shake a memory loose from his big toe and get it to travel up to his brain, then he said --  "I've been here long enough to remember the original cabin that founded this town. I was a little younger then. But I remember meeting old Jedediah Cork East. That must of been about 50 years ago or more. I honestly don't remember. I helped him hew those logs for that cabin."  He stopped for just a moment and then proceeded to tell me about the time he caught a glimpse of the whale that Moby Dick had been based on.

The others in the barber shop just grinned as I sat there  wondering why this guy hadn't been locked up in an asylum somewhere and I probably had the facial expression to go along with that thought. But, Louisville Sam never blinked an eye as he spun out his tall tale about meeting the long dead founder of Misty Cove.  I did know that I had learned my lesson.  At least until that day the Otis Major walked into the Witch's Woods at the edge of town. If I hadn't been there to see it, I would never have believed it.  And on top of it, I'll have to tell you about the time he met the Queen of England herself.  Now that's another story.

Join us again next time, when Dr. Fletcher tells us about Otis Major in the Witch's Woods.

This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by pins.  Both sharp and pointy, but never witty.  Pins.

CSM