It only took the silent sound of a falling glass and, suddenly, I found myself remembering a large rut in the forest floor – not to far from an old, rotten stump on Spier’s line. This was one of the first times dad had taken me deer hunting.
To this day, I am surprised it was not my last time.
I had promised that I would be quiet for the entire time we were on the deer stand. To keep my profile down, Dad pointed out the large depression in the trail and gestured that it would be my temporary hiding place for the next couple of hours. I did admirably well for about 3 minutes.
What was a kid to do? After all, dad had let me carry his old single shot pellet gun. Included with my new ‘piece’ was a tin full of funnel shaped pellets. It was not long before I tried to silently break open the barrel of my pellet gun and load it with a small silvery ordinance. Then, between dad’s ever panning eyes and glances, I picked a spot on the freshly cut stump and launched a small projectile at it.
“Thunk!”.
That was the sound of compressed air pushing the pellet out of the chamber towards my rooted target. Big stump down. The unique sound momentarily grabbed dad’s attention and I held my new firearm as if I had no idea what was going on. Dad rolled his eyes and continue to scan the surrounding forest for the unlikely visit of a deer.
Somewhere between dropping the metal tin of pellets (after my tenth shot) and my frequent position changes on crunchy leaves, Dad reacted. He sternly grumbled something like,
“If you are ever going to be a good hunter you are going to have to learn to stay still and BE QUIET!”
He stormed off the watch in frustration and indicated we were going to go back to camp for coffee. As the rest of the crew returned back from their watches and looked at dad and I already in the cabin, Grandpa asked why were back early.
Dad looked at me in mild frustration and sighed. I don’t exactly remember his words, but he said something humorous about his new hunting partner that liked to stump hunt.
Grandpa chuckled and somehow the glimmer in his eyes communicated to the rookie hunter that he had seen somebody else do this before. We all laughed at dad's comment. I could tell he was disappointed, but at the same time I could sense he was glad I was there. He understood that the whole learning process of his restless student was something he was looking forward to. Something his father must have once said about him. Stumps and all.
A new sound of shattering glass pulled me away from reflecting on my memory.
Lara (our 11 month old daughter), had managed to knock her first glass off the table and on to the waiting hardwood floor. It happened somewhere between flinging peas and spraying cracker bits. It had been a long day and I was slightly irritable as I scanned the large mass of glass shards now covering the floor. I looked in her eyes and she could tell I was disappointed. She was waiting for my response.
I laughed. She laughed. We all laughed.
A smiling stump hunter held out a torch from behind some cover in the shadows of my mind and faded from memory.
