Wes Coffey
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
I did something then that I can't explain.
I screamed.
Not a word.
Not hey, or get away.
Just a raw, animal sound that came out of my chest and tore through my throat.
I screamed as loud as I've ever made a sound in my life, and I screamed it straight down into the dark.
The echo came back off the ridge and the creek bottom, and the timber all around me.
It rolled through the trees and faded.
And then silence.
Nothing moved, nothing breathed, nothing touched the ladder.
I sat in that stand, gripping the rails for the rest of the night.
I did not sleep.
I did not close my eyes.
I did not turn on my headlamp.
I sat in the cold and the dark, and I listened to absolutely nothing for hours that felt like days.
The sky started to lighten around 6.15.
I know this because the gray came first, then the pink, and it came slow.
By 6.30 I could see the tops of the trees.
By 6.45 I could see the ground.
I looked down.