CURSE OF THE BEAR RUG

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CURSE OF THE BEAR RUG

© 2005 Jim Boulden

Some people don’t believe in “curses” where one person calls down trouble on another person. Perhaps that’s because they have never been cursed. Listen to what happened to me when I was your age and see what you think.

At the time this story happened, I was living in a tiny logging camp in the mountains of northern California. Our house was a small three room cabin set back in the woods. My mother kept house while my father operated a machine loading logs on the trucks.

Whenever I wasn’t in school, I would play in the forest with Bojo, my black Cocker Spaniel. The animals in the forest were my friends and no one ever bothered me. At least, not until the day my mother decided to give my dad a bear skin rug for Father's Day.

When mother asked around as to where she could find such a rug, her friends told her about an old trapper named “old man Tragger” He might have a bear skin she could buy.

Old man Tragger was a hermit and never came to our camp. This meant that mother had to go to his place which was far out in the forest behind the dump. Since mother was afraid to go alone, she asked my Aunt Dawn to go with her.

We didn’t have much money, so mother borrowed the money from me to buy the rug. This was the money I had made from babysitting the neighbor’s children

So the next day my mother and Aunt Dawn set out to find old man Tragger. On the way, they passed the dump which was filled with rotten garbage and smelly trash. Then, holding their noses, they hurried on until they found an old dirt road hidden back in the woods. They followed this road until it turned into a narrow path that led to a tumble down shack.

The shack was made out of rotten wood and old metal sheets taken from the dump. It looked haunted and Aunt Dawn suggested they turn around. My mother, however, was determined. She knocked and knocked, but no one came.

Finally, just as mother was turning away, she felt a rough hand on her shoulder. “Whadda you want?” a voice said from behind her. “Go away.”

This scared Mother half to death, as you can imagine. She turned around and saw this dirty giant of a man looking down on her. He had moved so quietly that neither my Mother nor Aunt Dawn had heard him.

It took a moment for Mother to get her breath, and then she told old man Tragger that she was there to buy a bear rug, if he had one. This seemed to interest the giant and he slowly opened the door for her to enter.

When mother looked inside, she saw that the shack was full of skins. They were everywhere … on the walls, on the floor, and even hanging from the rafters. There were all kinds of skins from skunks, deer, raccoon, and even a mountain lion. Mother felt a great sadness of all the animal lives the trapper had taken.

On the floor was a huge black bearskin rug with a fierce head on it. My mother fell in love with it at once and asked the price. She was afraid it would be very expensive and was surprised when the trapper asked how much she would give him.

My mother offered a very low price. She thought the trapper would surely bargain and then she would increase the offer.

To her surprise, the trapper grinned and said that he would accept the offer. The only condition was that mother had to take the rug with her and could not return it.

My mother agreed and took the rug away feeling she had made a great bargain.

That night I started dreaming of a black bear. He was a giant animal and king of the forest. By his side were his mate and two cubs. The animals all seemed happy and were very gentle with each other. I woke up feeling love and joy in my heart.

The next day my father saw the rug first thing when he came home from work. At first, he just stared at it. Then he began to get red in the face.

Dad asked where mother had found the rug and how much she paid for it. My mother said not to worry as it was a present for Father's Day. There was a short silence, and then Dad told Mother that he hated it. It stunk and took up the whole floor of the cabin. He wanted it out of the house right then and there.

Of course, my mother's feelings were hurt and she started to cry. This upset my father even more and he stomped from the room muttering under his breath. I helped Mother roll up the rug and hide it in my room until we could get rid of it.

Strange things started to happen that night. We heard animals moving outside the cabin and there were stinky smells in the kitchen. Bojo wouldn't come out from under the bed even when I begged him. There were ants all over the kitchen.

The next day my mother tried to return the rug to old man Tragger, but the trapper was gone. She looked all around and shouted as loud as she could, but there was no answer. Mother felt like someone was watching her, but couldn't see anybody. This frightened her.

Mother waited for several hours, but still nobody came. Finally she picked up the bear skin and brought it home again. We hid it again in my room so my dad wouldn't find it.

That night, I dreamed that I was sitting high in a tree and saw a great bear caught in a trap. The bear’s leg was broken and it was in terrible pain. A mother bear and her two young cubs were trying to help the father bear escape.

Soon an evil trapper appeared out of the woods. First he shot the mother bear and the cubs. Then he sat down to watch the great bear suffer. As the bear was dying, it called out a curse that anyone who touched the bear’s body would suffer terribly. Hearing this curse sent chills down my spine.

Laughing to himself, the trapper walked up to the bear while it was still alive. Taking out his long knife, he slit the bear wide open and took its hide. The bear screamed in pain. It was a terrible thing to watch.

At this point, I woke up screaming. Now I knew where our bear skin had come from and the curse that was on it. When mother and dad came running into my room, I was crying so hard that I couldn’t tell them what had happened.

That same day my dad came home with a broken arm. He had been injured when some big logs fell off the truck he was loading. This meant that dad couldn’t work for at least a month and we wouldn’t have enough money for food.

The second terrible thing that happened that day was the loss of Bojo. He just suddenly disappeared. If you have ever lost a pet, you know how I felt.

Later that day I told my parents about my dream and the curse on the bear skin rug. They just laughed at me and said it was my imagination. Nobody ever believes kids, do they?

That night I was so afraid that I tried hard to stay awake. When sleep finally did come, I heard a great roaring sound. It was coming closer and closer. Shaking with fear, I ran screaming through the woods. I ran and ran until I couldn’t run anymore. Then, just when the bear was about to catch me, I woke up.

My mother and dad came rushing into my room like before. This time my dad smelled the bear rug and found where mother had hidden it. Then Mother and Dad forgot about me and started having a big fight.

I had never heard my mother and father fight like this before and knew that it was the evil spell of the bear skin that was causing it. Still my parents wouldn’t believe me.

My father finally agreed to go with mother to return the bear skin to old man Tragger. They were both so upset that they didn’t talk all the way there. When they finally did arrive at the trapper's shack, they found the front door bashed in. Inside there were sharp claw marks on the walls and the furniture was totally trashed.

Mother and Dad decided the trapper was gone and probably would never return. There was nothing else to do, but bring the rug back home. Mother and dad hoped to sell it to someone else, because we needed the money.

That evening I developed a high fever. This was about the time a terrible storm came up with thunder shook our house. The lightening started a fire that threatened to burn down the camp. The rain came down in buckets and finally put out the fire, but the loggers couldn’t go to work because the woods were so wet.

My fever continued to get worse the next day and the day after that. Finally I went into a coma and was unconscious. This was enough to get my parents really worried. Still there was nothing to be done as there was no doctor and the roads were washed out.

While I was unconscious, the bear came to talk with me. He told me how much he had loved his family. He said that he could not rest because of all the pain and sorrow. He was terribly angry and I thought he was going to attack me.

When I told the bear that I had seen the terrible thing the trapper had done to him, he began to calm down. I told him that hurting others would not make him feel any better.

After a time, he told me that he just wanted peace and to be with his family again. He wanted his skin burned and the ashes spread in the stream that winds through the forest. I promised to help make that happen.

When I finally awakened, my fever was gone and I was hugging the rug. It was soaked with my tears. I called to my parents and told them that I was feeling much better. I also told them that they had to burn the rug.

My father started to argue that they needed to sell the rug for the money. I told him we would just be passing the curse on to someone else. That would be a terrible thing to do. Furthermore, the rug was purchased with my own babysitting money. He could keep the money; I didn't want it back. I just wanted the bear to be put to rest.

Finally my mother and father agreed to help. That very day we built a large pile of dead limbs out in the forest. Gently we lay the bear skin on top of this mound and said our prayers for the great bear.

My parents let me light the fire. Soon it was roaring, much like the sound an angry bear would make. Scarlet and blue flames played over the logs and I thought I saw the cubs dancing with their father. When the fire finally began to die down, a dark shadow arose from the skin.

I felt a tug on my leg and looked down to see Bojo smiling at me. He had returned and was sitting by my side. My mother and father were smiling and holding hands. I knew the bear had taken back his terrible curse.

As the storm began to clear, I could hear other people in the camp celebrating. The sun was drying the forest and soon the men could go back to work. My dad even said his arm felt better.

That night I dreamed that the bear and his family were together again. Now that his anger was gone, the forest was at rest.

The next day when I went out to play in the woods, I thought I saw the bear watching me. It turned out to be only a shadow, but still I felt that something was watching over me. I knew that I would always be safe in that forest.