I’d like to share a childhood incident with you, an incident that haunts me to this very day. When I was thirteen, a small, callow military brat stationed with my modest clan on the barren fringes of Nelis Air Force base (North Las Vegas), a fateful encounter helped define me as the man I am today…HERE GOES…on an extra long, after-school trek on one fateful Autumn evening in the dry vastness that encompassed our modest home, as I so often did to ‘find’ myself. An hour or so into my adventure and fast approaching a colony of trees speckling the wasteland, my tummy began to grumble.

With twilight fast approaching, curiosity reached its peak, supplanting my ever-growing hunger pains….WHAT SECRETS LIE WITHIN??…I obsessed…an urge to venture forth ignited my boyish soul, now compelling me half-speed ahead…a brave foot forward, my cadence briskly mounting with each step until successfully puncturing this curious, out-of-sorts patch of jungle…FULL STOP…a dead calm with nothing seemingly out of sorts…willowy shadows prancing about, playful breeze picking up…unsatisfied, I penetrated further, compelled by this foolish spirit of inquiry. Now finding myself at the very heart of this evergreen-encassed-bunker, it was then that I heard it…a devilish whisper, ANOTHER, then hair-raising silence!

Investigative duties reprised as I swept back sand-battered brush, partially exposing a recessed quadrant of dune; standing at its pinnacle, bathed in silhouette, two hulking, husky males, shovels in hand, frantically hollowing out a shallow body pit. Spotted instantly by the more svelte of the duo, I was encouraged to inch in closer, enticed to make a new ‘friend’ for a lonely young man caught in adolescent angst. This fiendish ploy did not sit well with survival instinct; retreating backward, I stumbled, staggered over a foreign object of ‘bodily’ proportions; my lower torso crashing to the arid foundation beneath. Squirmed to reinstate footing I harnessing a palm limb for balance, pulling myself back up, then high-tailing it out of there; my legs turning faster than they had in this life. A human locomotion barreling at top speed out of Hells inferno. With makeshift grave-diggers now in hot pursuit as early evening darkness made its stay; their thumping footfalls a steady companion. With youth & vigor my only lifeline, I accelerated with a generous kick of adrenaline supplied me…leaving would-be butchers in my dust…

In hindsight, I should of gone to the local military police, and recounted my grizzly unearthing. And to this day, not sure why I didn’t file a report. But one things for certain all those many years ago, I was moments away from colliding with my eternal resting place. Many questions still remain…Who were these disturbed, militant grave-diggers…what was their true intention & …who was their intended victim? Did my fumbled, unintentional intrusion of their sinister endeavor offset their well-hatched plan altogether or make little difference with regard to cadaver-dumping in the Nevada Desert. Fear & distrust for strangers I face today, stems from this very event. Since then, I’ve visited the gaming in Vegas a number of times, and made no attempt to visit the burial site in question. The next time I shall make a concentrated effort.

The aforementioned pre-pubesent tale of discovery will soon make its way into one of my written sagas…of that, I have little doubt.

JPabes X