Neighborhood Panther

How I caught something big

There is a panther in my back yard.

I know you think I'm crazy when I say that or it is just my imagination but I know it's true. I've seen it three times already and last night when I saw it, I think it was trying to get into the house.

I know panthers aren't supposed to be around here but that doesn't mean there can't be a panther in my back yard.

I didn't tell my parents because they will think that I'm telling stories again. They say that my imagination runs wild but that's just me having fun, this is real.

Tonight I am waiting for it. My dad works nights so I have to be the man of the house. I hear the howling just as I did the other times. It sounds like the stray cats that scream in the night, only louder. It has to be the panther.

I open my window a bit and lay on my desk with daddy's rifle. The last time I saw it, the howling came about half a hour before I saw the thing leap over the back fence.

I must have fallen asleep because I jump a little when I hear a noise in the bushes by my parents room. I look at the clock and it has been almost an hour.

I watch out the back with my rifle ready. I know how to shoot because dad took me to the gun range where we practiced with the black and white targets. Then, the next time, we shot at moving ones that look like deer and turkey and ducks. Dad says I'm good for a beginner.

I watch for a while until I see the shadow. It moves slowly along the back fence and just as it jumps over I shoot.

Mom comes running into my room.

"What was that?"

"I got the panther. I shot it!"

"What panther? What?"

"There is a panther that creeps around our backyard when dad works late."

"Oh my god." she starts crying and runs away.

I follow her outside and neighbors are already out there. They are all crowded around the panther.

"Gerald!" Mom screams and falls to her knees next to the giant cat.

"Mom, no! Be careful!" I run towards her and see feet with black sneakers and black pants on two long legs. Our neighbor Miss Toynbee is hugging mom and I see the panther is a man in a black sweater, writhing in agony and holding his shoulder. I hear the sirens and run home.

It couldn't have been a man. The way he moved in the dark, that predatory ease, it couldn't have been a man. But it was a man that I shot, a man all in black.

What was he doing in our yard? Maybe he is a robber, then I still did a good thing.

(Previously published in Vagobond Magazine )