# 3 Disturbing Stories from The Middle of Nowhere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErBrfP3So3U

[00:00] Hey guys, before the video begins, I just wanted to let you know I opened up a new tier on my Patreon where some friends and I will be reviewing horror movies.
[00:08] It's called the Dead Astronauts Movie Review Podcast and the first episode is up and it's a review of an awesome cult classic, The Exorcist.
[00:17] [music]
[00:18] Go check it out, link down below and thank you to everyone who listens and supports the channel.
[00:22] Jobless.
[00:37] My name's Ali.
[00:39] I'm from Las Vegas and growing up I was something of a problem child.
[00:43] I hit rock bottom after getting so drunk in my teenage years that I gave myself alcohol poisoning and I had to go to the hospital to get my stomach pumped.
[00:50] And then when I woke up, I had the single worst hangover of my entire life and my parents were there.
[01:00] It was a whole thing.
[01:02] Mom just cried.
[01:02] My dad was mad as hell though and said that I had two choices.
[01:07] I could go dry out on my uncle's farm up north or they'd send me to some Christian sober camp full of born-again weirdos.
[01:15] They didn't have the money to send me to some fancy smancy rehab center so those were my two options and I chose the farm.
[01:23] Technically, Uncle Alan wasn't exactly my uncle.
[01:27] He was more like one of my dad's third cousins but he'd been living up north on this little ranch for the past 20 years or so and since he and dad were close when they were kids, he figured that he could call in a favor.
[01:39] Alan agreed and so off I went for a whole two weeks so I could dry out and learn the meaning of hard work.
[01:47] The ranch was up near a little town called Wildhorse and to get there, we had to drive into the hills for a few miles before we reached a large green gully, like a dimple in the hills kind of.
[01:58] And that was my uncle's farm.
[02:01] It wasn't big, but he had plenty growing there.
[02:05] He had a tomato patch, a plot for all kinds of chilies, and then on the other side, he had a big watermelon patch and a whole orchard full of apricot trees.
[02:14] It was a really beautiful place, and I started to think that it might be a pretty cool place to dry out for a while.
[02:20] But bearing in mind that we're arriving at night, so as dad's headlights hit it, I suddenly saw just how run-down the house was.
[02:29] It looked like it used to be a nice place, like back when it was built.
[02:33] But by the time I arrived there, it looked [music] bad.
[02:37] There was also a part of me that thought it would be like, "Hey, long time no see, kid."
[02:42] But no.
[02:42] This guy did not seem pleased to see me at all.
[02:47] He and my dad said hi to each other, then I just stood by thinking that I was about to be introduced or something, but my uncle Allen cuts my dad off as he's speaking, and then very sternly tells me to get in the house.
[03:00] Now, I'm kind of stunned that he'd even talk to me like that, especially right
[03:03] In front of my father.
[03:04] But all dad did was tell me to listen to Allen.
[03:08] This was after sundown, too, maybe like 9:30-ish, so I started walking towards the lights of the house in front of me while in a total state of shock.
[03:18] I remember thinking how I should have chosen the Christian camp, and how at least they'd have been nice to me.
[03:24] And then the first thing I noticed as I walked towards the house was how all the windows had been papered over with old newspapers.
[03:33] I walked inside thinking that I made the second biggest mistake of my life, the first being alcohol poisoning.
[03:39] And then after putting my bag down, it wasn't long before Allen walked in behind me, told me to take my bags upstairs into the guest room.
[03:46] No hi, how are you, no offering to help me, just grab your crap and get moving.
[03:53] The guest bedroom's window overlooked the front of the house and it would have made for a nice view if it wasn't papered over.
[04:01] And then just seconds after sitting down on the bed, wondering what the heck I
[04:04] got myself into, I heard Alan suddenly call me downstairs.
[04:09] And that's when he laid down the rules, and they were harsh ones.
[04:13] Basically, it all came down to three things.
[04:15] I was going to work, and I was going to do what I was told, and I was forbidden from leaving the house for any reason at all.
[04:23] The first two I kind of expected, but not being able to leave the house at all had me thinking, "You got to be kidding me, right?"
[04:31] Well, he was not kidding.
[04:31] And if I didn't like it, I was welcome to march my ass back into Wildhorse to catch the bus back to Vegas.
[04:39] And since I didn't have so much as a penny to my name, I was basically a prisoner there.
[04:44] I figured the only thing that would get me through was going for walks in the orchard or picking ripe watermelons for us to eat.
[04:52] But no.
[04:53] I had to stay inside and either cook, clean, or read.
[04:57] Not because Alan had decided those were my options, but because there was literally nothing else to do.
[05:05] I just cried that first night.
[05:07] I cried myself to sleep, actually, thinking the next 2 weeks were going to be hell on Earth.
[05:12] But while I sure got a little taste of hell, it came much sooner than I was expecting, and it didn't come from Alan.
[05:20] The first day started pretty well, actually, because if there was one thing Alan was good at, it was cooking.
[05:27] I got this big breakfast of bacon, eggs, biscuits, and black coffee, and it was all great.
[05:32] But that breakfast wasn't so much a treat as it was fuel for the work that followed.
[05:37] He had me cleaning that house all freaking day, stopping only for an admittedly very good lunch of chicken salad sandwiches.
[05:46] And that was the friendliest Alan got with me.
[05:48] When I asked if he'd grown the tomatoes that we were eating, he said yes.
[05:53] I said they were good, and then he kind of pursed his lips and nodded before we kept on eating in silence.
[05:59] Now, I guess that's how I knew that he didn't completely hate me, but it was clear that he didn't exactly want me there either.
[06:06] And so after lunch, I went back to work to earn my keep.
[06:10] That first day I sucked, and the second day was more of the same.
[06:14] But then weirdly, by the end of the third day, I was actually starting to feel kind of at home.
[06:19] I guess it was the psychological effect of the place looking and smelling nice, but I started feeling this weird sense of ownership, and I found a new found appreciation for sobriety.
[06:32] Allen didn't exactly warm up to me, ever actually, but he did stop being such an A-hole with me once I started to sort of get with the program.
[06:42] But then that night, the third of my stay with him, I realized that there was a lot more to him than met the eye.
[06:49] So remember how I said that my windows were papered over?
[06:53] Well, there was a tiny little gap in one of them between the paper and the frame, meaning that I could look out over the driveway and some of the vegetable patches if I put my eye up real close.
[07:04] Well, that night I'm lying in bed not able to sleep when I heard voices
[07:08] outside the house.
[07:10] I got curious,
[07:12] and so I ended up rolling out of bed and creeping over to the window to see what's going on.
[07:17] Now, the first thing that I saw were these two dark figures, only dimly lit by the lights coming from the ground floor.
[07:25] And then at their feet, there were two big sacks of what looked to be Allen's produce.
[07:31] They looked like they were leaning over and checking out what the sacks held, and then when I heard the sound of the door opening and closing downstairs, the two figures stood up straight and backed off a little, like they were wary of what Alan might do.
[07:44] Now, I couldn't hear exactly what Alan said to them, but once he'd said it, the two figures reached out and picked up the sacks and then walked off into the darkness.
[07:53] It was weird because like while it looked like a fairly innocent exchange, it didn't seem friendly at all.
[08:02] Alan stayed watching them after they turned and walked off, almost like he didn't trust them.
[08:07] And I don't think these two guys said a
[08:09] single word of thanks as they took a heck of a lot of fruit and vegetables, too.
[08:14] It just looked so odd.
[08:16] And I couldn't help but wonder who these two guys were as I drifted off to sleep that night.
[08:22] Now, the next morning when I asked who the two nighttime visitors were, Alan looked very shifty before claiming that they were his friends.
[08:30] He also said it in a way that suggested that I shouldn't ask him any more questions.
[08:35] And so I decided to leave things at that.
[08:38] And then maybe an hour or two later, I'm peeling potatoes for that night's dinner, Alan announces he's driving into town.
[08:45] Now, he told me the rules still applied, especially when he was gone, and that I wasn't to leave the house for any reason whatsoever.
[08:53] Not unless it was for an absolute life or death emergency.
[08:58] Well, no sooner had he left, and in spite of how much he clearly trusted me not to, I went outside.
[09:05] I mean, can you blame me?
[09:08] The whole outside rule just seemed
[09:09] bizarre at that point.
[09:12] I get that I had to work and stuff to keep my hands and mind occupied, but the idea of not being able to look at all those beautiful trees and the sky, it just seemed ridiculous, you know?
[09:23] Now, I wasn't even considering running off to find drugs or alcohol by that point, so I figured why the heck not.
[09:29] And walked out onto the porch to enjoy the mid-morning sunshine.
[09:33] It was really beautiful out there, and not seeing the sky for about 3 days gave me a real appreciation for being outside again.
[09:41] And it didn't really sink in for me until that day on the porch that Allan had his own little slice of heaven up there in the hills.
[09:49] Assuming that he'd stay in town for a little while, I figured Allan might be gone for 40 to 45 minutes tops.
[09:56] And that gave me at least 20 to 30 minutes to sit out on the porch and enjoy the sunshine before it was back to being a prisoner again.
[10:04] I remember taking a book from Allan's collection, some local history thing that looked like it might be interesting.
[10:10] And then I sat flicking through it until I gave up and started gazing out into the apricot trees.
[10:17] Now, I figured if I got lost in the book, I'd lose track of time, at which point Allan might come home and see me out on the porch and well, I didn't want that to happen.
[10:26] But then as I'm sitting there just kind of soaking up the scene, I see someone standing in the apricot orchard maybe 50 yards away.
[10:35] Apricot trees aren't very tall, at least these ones weren't anyway, and they looked more like big bushes and were wide enough so that someone could kind of hide behind them.
[10:45] At least hide their body anyway.
[10:47] Because as I'm looking through the orchard, I see this pair of legs sticking out from under a big patch of green leaves.
[10:55] They weren't moving either.
[10:57] They were just sort of standing there and from what I could tell, they were just watching me through a gap in all that greenery.
[11:04] Now, my first thought was that it was one of Allan's friends, maybe even one of the guys who visited the previous night.
[11:10] And so not wanting to be rude or
[11:12] anything, I raised a hand and gave the person a little wave.
[11:14] Not just to say hello, but to say something like, "I see you watching me there and it's kind of creepy."
[11:23] Now, I figured they'd either move out of embarrassment that I'd caught them staring or at least wave back.
[11:29] But they didn't move.
[11:29] They just kept on watching me through the leaves of the apricot tree.
[11:34] We entered a kind of lopsided staring contest with me staring at the tree and him staring back at me through that greenery.
[11:42] And then before long, I started to get a little creeped out.
[11:46] I remembered how frosty the previous night's exchange had been, how Allen had claimed those guys were his friends, but I didn't believe him.
[11:55] Then realizing the person I was staring at might have been less than friendly, I got off that porch swing and then walked back inside the house and went upstairs to watch from my little spy spot.
[12:07] Now, Allen returned not long after, and then after a little bit of lunch, we
[12:12] each kept on working until dinner time.
[12:15] I wanted so badly to ask Allen about those visitors, especially the one who appeared in the orchard that afternoon.
[12:22] But as you're well aware, doing so would have been an admission that I hadn't followed the rules, which was completely off the table for me.
[12:30] Now, I'd only just started to feel settled, so the last thing I wanted to do was piss Allen off so bad that he actually kicked me out, at which point I'd have to walk the entire 10 miles back into Wildhorse, which I definitely didn't want to do.
[12:44] And so, without so much as a word about it, I went to bed hoping that he'd take another trip into town at one point so I could go for a little stroll in the orchard.
[12:53] Now, I didn't want to bump into whoever had been staring at me, that's for sure, but that's just where my head was.
[13:00] And anyway, that night, I remember waking up to go to the bathroom.
[13:04] And then when I got back, I heard voices outside again.
[13:08] I went to the window and then looked through the crack between the paper and the frame again.
[13:13] Just like the previous night, those two shadowy figures were standing there, but without any produce at their feet.
[13:20] There was a skinny, taller one and a fatter one, and to me, it looked like Allen was trying to convince the two men of something.
[13:27] I just couldn't figure out what.
[13:29] And then the next thing I knew, Alan was stepping off the porch and making aggressive looking gestures towards them.
[13:36] I figured they might back off like they did the last night because I was pretty sure those guys were sort of scared of Alan based on the way they acted when he walked outside to greet them.
[13:46] But this time, their reaction was the complete opposite.
[13:50] They didn't back up.
[13:50] They moved forward fast.
[13:54] And after knocking Alan off of his feet, they started kicking him again and again and again.
[14:02] I was terrified.
[14:02] And the only thing I wanted to do was hide under the bed until everything had stopped.
[14:07] But I knew that wasn't an option.
[14:10] I ran downstairs to the kitchen to grab the big carving knife that Alan kept in
[14:14] his knife block.
[14:16] And then after running outside onto the porch, I pointed the knife and yelled at the two men to leave him alone.
[14:22] Now close up, these were the two ugliest SOBs I'd ever laid eyes on.
[14:29] I don't want to go guessing and saying that they were inbred, but they sure as hell look like it.
[14:34] They backed off a little once they saw the knife, but neither guy ran off.
[14:39] Instead, the skinny one smiled and pulled a gun on me.
[14:44] And while the other one just sort of laughed.
[14:45] I didn't drop the knife or anything and I didn't back off either, but a part of me was convinced that I was about to die.
[14:53] And I started shaking like a leaf.
[14:57] Yet for a reason unknown at that moment, the tall and skinny one didn't shoot.
[15:02] As Alan crawled towards me and picked himself up, he told me to get inside in a voice that sounded like he was in a lot of pain.
[15:10] Now his whole thing had been do as I say, but I knew the moment that I was inside, those two guys were going to
[15:16] Keep on kicking the crap out of him or they were just going to shoot him.
[15:20] It didn't occur to me at the time that if they wanted to shoot either of us, they would have just done it.
[15:26] But like I said, I had no idea what those guys wanted or who they even were, so I didn't know what to expect.
[15:33] And once Allen was back on his feet and moving again, I followed him back towards his front door, taking little sideways crab steps until we were almost back inside again.
[15:42] Now, I yelled that we were going to call the cops, but both guys just started laughing again.
[15:48] Allen didn't have a phone and they knew it, so they were still laughing as they turned and walked off into the darkness.
[15:54] But not before one of them said, in a way that made my skin crawl, "I'll be seeing you real soon, little girl."
[16:03] Real soon.
[16:06] And when we got back inside, I was mad at Allen, yelling, "What the hell is going on? Who were those people?"
[16:15] But he came right back at me with the
[16:16] same energy, yelling,
[16:18] What the hell were you thinking?
[16:20] I told you not to go outside.
[16:23] It took me a second to figure out how he knew,
[16:26] but then things made sense.
[16:29] The guy who had been watching me in the orchard that time, it was either one of those guys or it was someone who knew them, and they'd gone and mentioned it to Allen.
[16:38] Now, I had no idea how this was all connected to him getting beat up, but it was very obviously connected somehow.
[16:44] So, I remember getting this overwhelming feeling of "Ah, crap, I messed up."
[16:49] I just didn't know why I'd messed up so bad.
[16:52] All I could do was apologize as Allen ranted and raved about how he'd warned me not to go outside.
[16:59] He mentioned something about papering over the windows, too, and how he did it so they wouldn't see me.
[17:05] I wasn't mad.
[17:08] It was more like pleading, but I started asking Allen who they really were, because they were quite obviously not friends of his, but also asking him why the hell he'd let me stay
[17:17] there if I wasn't safe.
[17:20] Now, I didn't think that he could get any madder, but when I asked him that last thing, he exploded and said the only reason that he'd done my dad the favor was because he said I'd die otherwise.
[17:31] He said things would have been fine had I just followed the rules, and while I don't entirely believe that to be true, I definitely accelerated whatever was coming by showing myself like I did.
[17:41] It was just a whirlwind of emotion in the moment.
[17:45] Now, first off, I was mad at my dad for choosing Allen's farm of all places.
[17:49] And what the actual f was Allen thinking in not letting my dad know that he was being extorted by some kind of redneck mafia, it seemed like.
[17:58] If I'd have known, I'd have chosen that freaking Bible camp in a heartbeat.
[18:03] But, I had no idea what was in store for me, and I guess my dad didn't either, or he'd never had wanted me there in the first place.
[18:11] Now, I never found out exactly who those guys were, but then again, Allen didn't really know either.
[18:17] All he said was that they showed up at
[18:19] the farm one night and gave him a choice.
[18:20] Provide them with food every so often, or they'd burn it all down.
[18:26] Then, giving the nightly visitors what they wanted kept them from stealing more than they got, at least for a while, anyway.
[18:34] They never saw eye to eye, but the way Allen saw it, it was the price that he had to pay to live in his own little slice of heaven, and much more preferable than starting a blood feud with a bunch of cousin-loving sons of as he put it.
[18:49] Which brings me to the second thing that had my head so whacked out.
[18:50] And that's why Allen and the visitors had gotten into their little altercation.
[18:58] So, on the third night, the visitors came to collect the fruit and vegetables, right?
[19:01] But, Allen said that he figured they weren't happy with what he'd given them.
[19:07] Then, on that afternoon, when I took it upon myself to sit out on the porch swing, one of the visitors spotted me after coming to steal extras.
[19:16] To me, that was an innocent if not fairly creepy encounter,
[19:20] but to the visitors, it meant that Allen had something new to offer them instead of fruit and vegetables.
[19:26] Myself.
[19:28] Obviously, when asked if they could take me away with them for a couple of nights, Allen said hell no.
[19:34] And then when the discussion got so fierce he insulted them, they attacked him.
[19:39] And that explained why the guy didn't shoot me when I appeared with a knife.
[19:43] They wanted to take me alive.
[19:47] I remember that full-body terror-stricken, this cannot be happening sort of feeling where I had to drag myself back from the brink of a panic attack.
[19:56] And then once I'd gathered my thoughts, only one of them stuck in my head and that's how we needed to get the hell out of there, pronto.
[20:05] But not only was Allen in no condition to drive, at least until a couple of painkillers had taken effect, but it wasn't safe for us to drive at night.
[20:13] Not with the visitors hanging around and expecting such an escape attempt.
[20:18] And the best thing to do was to just stay put until morning.
[20:23] Now, I'm losing my crap at this point
[20:24] saying, "What are they? Effing
[20:26] vampires?"
[20:28] But Allen said no.
[20:30] They were just men.
[20:31] And that I should just go get his rifle
[20:33] out of the closet up in his room.
[20:36] We turned off all the lights and then
[20:37] once Allen was able to walk around and
[20:40] shoulder his gun,
[20:41] we patrolled the house after peeling off
[20:43] all the newspaper from the windows.
[20:45] It was the scariest night of my whole
[20:47] life because it really sunk in for me
[20:49] that there are things much worse than
[20:51] death.
[20:52] And being carted off by those inbred
[20:54] freaks would have been a fate worse than
[20:57] dying.
[20:59] Thankfully, they didn't come back that
[21:01] night I guess because they were rounding
[21:02] up reinforcements probably for a return
[21:05] visit.
[21:06] But if they did show up again, I was
[21:08] long gone because Allen drove me into
[21:10] Wildhorse with a shotgun on his lap at
[21:12] the very break of dawn.
[21:15] Now, I thought that I might cry with
[21:16] relief, but I barely even breathed as we
[21:19] drove through those hills, thinking at
[21:21] any moment Allen's truck was going to
[21:23] start getting shot at by people on both
[21:25] sides of the road.
[21:27] I guess the adrenaline only wore off
[21:29] once I was on a bus down to a place
[21:31] called Elko, but even after a sleepless
[21:34] night, I still couldn't rest my eyes
[21:36] enough to fall asleep, and all I could
[21:38] really do was cry.
[21:40] I mean, the fact that I was riding on a
[21:41] bus didn't help, but I think even if I
[21:43] got a motel and a comfortable bed, what
[21:46] happened that previous night would have
[21:47] had me lying there wide awake wondering
[21:50] what the hell I just escaped from.
[21:54] And the aftermath was obviously messy,
[21:56] but much more boring and depressing
[21:58] compared to the stuff that I just told
[22:00] you about.
[22:01] Dad actually didn't believe me at first,
[22:04] and thought that I might have actually
[22:05] escaped as a way of getting out of
[22:06] rehab.
[22:08] By the time he did finally believe me,
[22:10] he was mad as hell at Allen for not
[22:12] telling him what was going on there.
[22:14] I get the misunderstanding, especially
[22:16] if my dad was telling Allen how I was on
[22:19] death's door,
[22:20] but it was one hell of a thing to
[22:22] suddenly find myself in the middle of in
[22:24] just days after I almost drank myself to
[22:26] death.
[22:28] Mom later said that Dad drove up to
[22:30] Wildhorse again to confront him, but
[22:32] found no one home when he arrived at the
[22:34] house.
[22:35] All he found was a bunch of broken
[22:36] windows and empty shotgun shells on the
[22:38] front porch.
[22:40] He reported both to local law
[22:42] enforcement, but he never heard back
[22:44] about it.
[22:46] He took a brief look inside, and the
[22:47] fact that he didn't see any blood
[22:49] anywhere gives me hope that Allen is
[22:51] still alive someplace,
[22:53] but I fear his little slice of heaven up
[22:55] there in the hills of northern Nevada
[22:57] belongs to someone else now.
[23:10] so let me tell you about this girl
[23:12] called June who I was friends with back
[23:14] when I was a kid.
[23:16] I had to move schools near the start of
[23:17] seventh grade, which was a real pain in
[23:19] the butt in terms of settling in and
[23:21] making friends, especially since I'd
[23:23] gone from the city to the country, which
[23:26] might as well have been two different
[23:27] worlds back then.
[23:30] June was the only one in school who
[23:32] bothered to take the time to get to know
[23:33] me because that's because she also knew
[23:36] what it was like being the new girl.
[23:39] Until just the previous year, June had
[23:41] been homeschooled by her parents on
[23:43] their farm out in the sticks.
[23:45] But then, for whatever reason, they
[23:48] decided to place her in middle school so
[23:50] she could be properly socialized or what
[23:52] have you.
[23:54] And when I say her family lived out in
[23:55] the sticks, in the middle of nowhere,
[23:58] boy, do I mean it.
[24:00] June had to wake up at 4:30 in the
[24:02] morning so her dad could drive her to
[24:04] the nearest town just so she could catch
[24:06] the 7:00 a.m. bus to school.
[24:09] Now, she must have felt like double the
[24:11] outsider having to start in a brand new
[24:12] school having never even been to one
[24:14] before. And I guess that's why she took
[24:17] so kindly to me after I showed up in
[24:18] town.
[24:20] We spent pretty much all of our school
[24:22] days together and she really helped me
[24:23] settle in.
[24:25] But unlike other kids who call each
[24:27] other or go over to each other's houses
[24:29] after school, me and June couldn't do
[24:32] really any of that thanks to how far
[24:34] apart we lived.
[24:36] Now, it was just too far to drive for
[24:38] either of our parents, especially after
[24:39] their long days at work. But that was to
[24:42] be expected.
[24:43] What wasn't was how June's family didn't
[24:46] have a phone line on their property,
[24:47] which obviously meant that they had no
[24:50] phone.
[24:51] That was the first real clue that I had
[24:53] that June's family were different. I
[24:55] mean, aside from the fact that they
[24:56] lived in the middle of nowhere, I didn't
[24:58] even think that it was all that strange
[25:00] that she was homeschooled since I'd
[25:02] known that was a thing for quite a
[25:03] while.
[25:05] But then in the summer between 7th and
[25:07] 8th grade, I went to stay with June and
[25:09] her family for about a week. And it was
[25:11] then, and only then, that I realized
[25:13] just how different her family really
[25:14] was.
[25:16] And so, like I say, visiting wasn't so
[25:18] easy with June since she lived so far
[25:20] away.
[25:21] And then by the time summer break came
[25:23] around, we couldn't bear to go months at
[25:25] a stretch without seeing each other, so
[25:27] our families made an arrangement.
[25:30] For a whole week, I'd go stay with June
[25:32] and her family out on their farm. And
[25:34] then at some point later on, June could
[25:36] do the same and come stay with us for a
[25:38] week.
[25:39] Now, I was really excited to go see her
[25:41] and meet her family, and just as excited
[25:43] for her to meet mine.
[25:45] And then when the time came, I packed a
[25:47] week's worth of my best clothes, a bunch
[25:49] of other stuff that I wanted to show
[25:51] her, and then my dad and I set off on
[25:53] the 4-hour journey to where June lived.
[25:56] Now, it felt like we drove forever,
[25:58] mainly because I couldn't wait to see my
[26:00] best friend. And then when we arrived, I
[26:03] couldn't believe what I was seeing.
[26:05] It was like Junebug, my nickname for
[26:07] her, was living in her very own Disney
[26:10] movie.
[26:11] Her family had their own homestead out
[26:13] there right on the very edge of the
[26:14] wilderness and farming country. And not
[26:16] only was it a really beautiful place,
[26:19] but they had horses, too.
[26:21] Junebug ran out in her OshKosh to give
[26:24] me a hug. And then our dads had a talk
[26:26] and shook hands before mine announced
[26:28] that he was leaving.
[26:29] We hugged and I promised him I'd be
[26:31] good, and then off he went. And I
[26:33] thought I was about to have the best
[26:35] week of my whole life out there on
[26:36] June's family farm.
[26:39] But holy crap, was I wrong about that.
[26:42] That first day and night were great with
[26:44] her parents and older brother and sister
[26:46] all being super nice to me.
[26:48] But then on the second day, I saw
[26:51] something which made me think all was
[26:53] not as it appeared to be.
[26:56] We were playing around the side of the
[26:57] house and her dad was fixing his truck
[26:59] out near the driveway
[27:00] when I saw this man walking down the
[27:02] dirt road the house was on.
[27:04] I saw him first and then pointed him out
[27:06] to June and then she yelled to her dad
[27:08] who looked up and saw him last.
[27:11] It was an older man, one who walked with
[27:13] a slight limp and I figured it must have
[27:15] been one of June's neighbors.
[27:18] But she said that she'd never seen him
[27:19] before in her life and when her dad saw
[27:21] him he started marching up the driveway
[27:23] to cut him off like he didn't want him
[27:25] coming near the house.
[27:27] Now June and I kept on playing but I
[27:29] kept my eye out on the two men.
[27:32] And while I couldn't hear what they were
[27:33] talking about, I watched them for a
[27:35] minute or two before the older man
[27:36] suddenly dropped to his knees.
[27:39] He was begging June's dad for something
[27:42] but he was gesturing all mad, pretty
[27:44] much saying get up, get up and trying to
[27:46] shoo the man off.
[27:48] It was really weird and even June
[27:50] stopped to watch as I asked her a whole
[27:52] bunch of questions that I didn't know
[27:53] the answer to.
[27:55] Now that's when I first started to
[27:56] suspect that her dad wasn't the super
[27:58] nice guy like I thought he was.
[28:01] And while he was never anything but
[28:02] wonderful to me personally, things got
[28:04] really strange from there on out.
[28:07] Like when I found the shed at the very
[28:09] back of the backyard.
[28:11] June's family had a gigantic backyard
[28:14] which led onto this big patch of woods
[28:16] that her dad and brother sometimes went
[28:18] hunting in.
[28:20] Then while we were out playing in the
[28:22] backyard on the third day, I ran over
[28:24] towards the shed only to hear June yell
[28:26] for me to wait.
[28:28] I stopped and turned around and she was
[28:30] running full pelt to reach me then as
[28:32] she caught her breath, she explained how
[28:34] we weren't allowed to go anywhere near
[28:36] that one shed and that her dad would be
[28:38] really mad if he caught us.
[28:41] I have to stress too, the shed wasn't
[28:43] like sitting there out in the lawn. It
[28:45] was way back among the trees, so far you
[28:48] couldn't even see it from the back
[28:49] porch.
[28:51] So, when June told me that we had to
[28:52] stay away from it, it kind of made sense
[28:55] that her dad wanted to hide something
[28:57] away in there.
[28:58] I wasn't allowed up near our attic
[29:00] because my dad kept all these dangerous
[29:03] tools up there. So, in my head, it made
[29:05] all the sense in the world that June's
[29:07] dad kept things away from the kids.
[29:10] But, these days I don't think that there
[29:11] was anything godly or innocent in there
[29:13] at all, let alone tools.
[29:16] On the fourth day, June's dad and
[29:18] brother went out on a hunting trip.
[29:21] I asked June if we'd be having whatever
[29:23] they caught for dinner, but she said no.
[29:25] That only rarely did they go hunting for
[29:27] meat.
[29:28] I started asking her a whole bunch of
[29:30] questions that she didn't know the
[29:31] answers to again, but we didn't focus on
[29:33] it for long.
[29:34] We were always playing and laughing and
[29:36] talking about what eighth grade would be
[29:38] like, so even once I'd started to notice
[29:41] things, there were too many distractions
[29:43] for me to get too freaked out.
[29:45] A few hours later, June's dad and
[29:47] brother came back with a couple of
[29:49] turkeys.
[29:50] We spotted them walking back through the
[29:52] woods when we were playing in the
[29:53] backyard, and that's when I first
[29:55] noticed how they didn't have any guns
[29:57] with them.
[29:58] Now, I'd pretty much learned to stop
[29:59] asking questions by then because June
[30:01] didn't seem to know much about anything,
[30:03] bless her heart.
[30:05] But, to this day I wondered to myself,
[30:07] how the hell did they catch those birds
[30:08] if they didn't have guns?
[30:11] Now, for anyone who doesn't know much
[30:12] about turkeys, they're not slow. They
[30:15] can easily outrun a human if they need
[30:17] to, and if they take off flying, forget
[30:19] about it. You're not catching one on
[30:21] foot.
[30:22] So, how the heck did her dad and brother
[30:23] manage to catch them by hand?
[30:26] Granted, I know they could have had
[30:27] traps laid out, but their horses roamed
[30:29] all over, too, so I don't think that
[30:31] it'd make much sense to risk hurting
[30:32] them,
[30:33] and not just those turkeys.
[30:36] But, that was just the smaller side of
[30:37] things because what really got my
[30:39] attention was how June's brother had all
[30:41] this and gore around his mouth and neck.
[30:45] Her dad laughed about how shell-shocked
[30:47] he looked later and explained it as a
[30:49] little rite of passage that his own
[30:51] father had him go through, too.
[30:53] But to me, it feels like another one of
[30:56] those things that had a deeper and much
[30:58] darker meaning behind it than what I was
[31:00] being told.
[31:02] We didn't see any of that turkey meat,
[31:03] either, just like June said. Her dad
[31:05] just took those things out to his
[31:07] forbidden shed and did God knows what to
[31:09] them.
[31:11] And that night, we woke up to hear
[31:13] June's sister screaming at the top of
[31:14] her lungs.
[31:16] The sound scared the ever-living crap
[31:18] out of me, but June just wrapped a
[31:20] pillow around her head and said it
[31:22] happened all the time.
[31:23] It turns out her sister had these really
[31:25] bad night terrors, and even after she
[31:27] woke up, she wouldn't quite know where
[31:29] she was for the first couple of seconds.
[31:32] And that meant that she sometimes
[31:33] screeched out things like, "It's here.
[31:35] It's here." when her dad went to wake
[31:37] her up, which is what she yelled the
[31:39] first night she did.
[31:41] She did it again the second night, only
[31:43] she shouted, "It won't stop. It won't
[31:45] stop."
[31:47] That second night, it just felt sad.
[31:49] Like listening to the way she cried, how
[31:51] tired she sounded, I just felt awful for
[31:54] her.
[31:55] But I think the thing that bothered me
[31:57] the most, and the thing that I still
[31:58] think was the weirdest and creepiest
[32:00] thing of all, the fowls.
[32:04] And so, on the fifth, sixth, and final
[32:06] day of my stay, June's dad was super
[32:08] busy dealing with pregnant horses giving
[32:10] birth.
[32:12] This wasn't a total surprise, as June
[32:14] had already pointed one out before
[32:15] telling me it was pregnant. But
[32:17] apparently, three of them all decided to
[32:19] give birth right at the same time, which
[32:22] obviously posed quite a challenge to
[32:24] June's dad, brother, and older sister,
[32:26] who joined him to help out.
[32:28] I remember asking June if she was
[32:30] excited to have some young horses
[32:32] running around because they would no
[32:34] doubt be super cute.
[32:36] But she just shrugged and told me how
[32:38] they never survived for very long.
[32:40] And as you can imagine, she didn't know
[32:42] very much. She just said it happened a
[32:45] lot and that her dad always took the
[32:47] newborn foals to the shed to try and
[32:49] nurse them, but they never survived
[32:51] because they came out different.
[32:54] And when I asked, "What do you mean they
[32:57] come out different?"
[32:59] June told me they came out looking wrong
[33:02] and it was clear that they weren't going
[33:03] to survive.
[33:05] And then when she said that some of them
[33:06] didn't even look like horses, I told her
[33:09] not to say any more.
[33:10] As the thought of those poor things
[33:12] coming out all confused and in pain just
[33:14] made me want to cry.
[33:16] It was like that for 3 days and in that
[33:19] time it was mostly just me, June, and
[33:21] her mom around the house.
[33:23] And then every so often the dad,
[33:25] brother, or sister would appear all
[33:26] covered in blood and gunk, usually to
[33:29] grab some water or a bite to eat before
[33:31] heading back to keeping on with their
[33:33] work.
[33:35] It was horrible and sometimes you could
[33:36] hear these horrible horse screams off in
[33:38] the distance.
[33:40] And so by that seventh and final day of
[33:42] my stay, I was more than ready to go
[33:44] home again.
[33:46] I remember my dad coming to pick me up
[33:47] and when he asked if I had a nice time
[33:49] during the ride home, I just started to
[33:52] cry.
[33:53] Once I stopped, I explained everything
[33:55] to him. How June's family were nice,
[33:57] just really, really creepy at times.
[34:02] My dad listened to all the stuff about
[34:03] hunting with no guns, the thing about
[34:05] the horses giving birth, and how June
[34:07] never saw the results of any of it.
[34:09] And he was just open-mouthed by the end
[34:12] of it.
[34:13] He and mom agreed that I was just to
[34:15] never go there again.
[34:17] And they were kind of weird around June
[34:18] when she came to stay with us later in
[34:20] the summer.
[34:21] We stayed friends at least until the end
[34:23] of middle school when my family
[34:25] [clears throat] moved all over again.
[34:27] Sadly, we didn't end up staying in touch
[34:29] for more than a year and I have no idea
[34:31] where she is now or what she's doing
[34:33] with herself.
[34:34] I hope she's okay.
[34:36] But I've never ever forgotten all the
[34:38] strange and frightening things that
[34:40] happened that week that I stayed over
[34:43] at Junebug's place.
[34:49] >> [music]
[34:54] >> Hey Joel, I've been a fan for the
[34:56] longest time now and I always thought
[34:57] that it'd be kind of cool to send a
[34:59] story in.
[35:00] But then since that also means some
[35:03] terrible and frightening thing has to
[35:04] happen to me, I'm always kind of glad
[35:06] that I don't have one worthy of
[35:08] submission, you know?
[35:10] But then after going through my
[35:11] grandpa's old box of keepsakes, rest in
[35:13] power grandpa,
[35:15] I found an old letter written by a man
[35:17] whose name I'd only ever heard of in
[35:19] passing.
[35:20] That of my great great great grandpa,
[35:24] Joseph Paget.
[35:27] Now I didn't know that much about him
[35:28] before I read the letter and I had to
[35:30] have my grandma kind of confirmed what
[35:32] it was before I could be certain of it.
[35:35] But after reading through it all, I
[35:36] realized why my grandpa kept it around
[35:39] and why he didn't take it out of its
[35:40] plastic wallet much, especially around
[35:43] us kids.
[35:44] And then rather than just describe it
[35:46] all, I figured that I just type it out
[35:48] word for word and maybe see what you
[35:51] guys think for yourself.
[35:53] It was dated July 17th, 1851.
[35:58] To my dear friend Robert,
[36:01] I must first convey my most sincere
[36:03] gratitude for your kind recommendation
[36:05] of Tremont House in the port of
[36:07] Galveston.
[36:08] The accommodations proved altogether
[36:10] comfortable and commodious. The
[36:12] excellent bottle of Chablis, which you
[36:15] so thoughtfully procured in advance, was
[36:17] much enjoyed. And I am given to
[36:19] understand that the faithful Francine
[36:22] continues to attend to dear Evelyn with
[36:25] every care during my absence.
[36:28] Your steadfast friendship remains among
[36:30] the choicest blessings which a merciful
[36:32] providence has seen fit to bestow upon
[36:35] me in this life.
[36:37] Yet, I regret that this might be the
[36:39] brightest note sounded in my present
[36:41] correspondence, for the tidings I bear
[36:44] are of the most grave and sorrowful
[36:46] nature.
[36:47] You will recall that shortly after
[36:49] Christmas last, I received a most
[36:51] generous offer of employment from the
[36:53] governor of Texas.
[36:55] I informed you at the time that the
[36:56] position was one of medical residency,
[37:00] and while that statement was in and of
[37:01] itself truthful, I fear I have not been
[37:04] altogether candid with you.
[37:07] Though my secondary duty was indeed to
[37:09] advise and assist the physicians of San
[37:11] Antonio, my principal charge carried me
[37:13] far beyond that settled place, into
[37:16] regions I am certain you would have
[37:17] strongly counseled me to avoid, the
[37:20] scattered settlements of the Texas
[37:22] frontier.
[37:24] You have expressed your views upon the
[37:26] subject of westward expansion with such
[37:28] frequency and force that I may safely
[37:30] presume you know them to be ever present
[37:33] in my mind. I respect those convictions
[37:36] deeply.
[37:37] Yet, I have seen with my own eyes a
[37:39] clear, pressing, and most urgent want of
[37:41] competent medical men in those distant
[37:43] outposts, not only for the preservation
[37:46] of the settlers themselves, but for the
[37:48] safety of us all.
[37:50] For in this age of steam and rail, the
[37:52] maladies of even our remotest neighbors
[37:55] may swiftly become our own.
[37:58] I speak chiefly of pestilence and other
[38:00] contagious distempers. While I fully
[38:03] understand the hesitation of my
[38:04] colleagues, I could not escape the
[38:06] question, if not I, then who?
[38:10] I arrived in San Antonio in the spring
[38:12] following a dire and dusty journey from
[38:14] the coast, and upon my arrival, I was
[38:17] immediately struck by the brilliance of
[38:19] the old Spanish cathedral of San
[38:21] Fernando, which rises over the main
[38:24] plaza.
[38:25] Surrounding it was a curious mix of
[38:28] ancient adobe homes and newer, more
[38:30] contemporary-looking buildings.
[38:32] And while the streets teamed with both
[38:34] Tejanos and a great many European
[38:37] settlers, among them were a handful of
[38:39] soldiers and the odd Comanchero trader.
[38:43] Those were the men who caught my
[38:44] attention the most, not only for their
[38:47] strange manner of dress, but for the
[38:49] surety with which they carried
[38:50] themselves.
[38:52] They aren't natives, of course, but
[38:54] Tejano Spanish who forged trading
[38:56] arrangements with certain bands of less
[38:58] aggressive Comanche.
[39:00] They're fearsome to behold and appear as
[39:03] men who've seen things of great
[39:04] magnificence and great terror.
[39:07] And I despaired to look at them.
[39:10] For it was the plains on which they
[39:11] lived, fought, traded, and died that I
[39:14] myself was destined for.
[39:16] After a night spent in lodgings much
[39:18] more humble than Traumont House, myself
[39:21] and some hired guns rode westward onto
[39:24] the open plains toward an isolated
[39:26] settlement known as Fort William.
[39:29] We rode for 2 days and 1 night, camping
[39:31] on the open prairie and beyond the ring
[39:33] of older settlements.
[39:35] The land opened up into a vast rolling
[39:37] sea of grass dotted with mesquite and
[39:41] prickly pear, with a horizon so wide it
[39:43] seems to swallow a man's very sense of
[39:46] scale and proportion.
[39:49] We made a good progress the first day,
[39:51] albeit a fierce sun, and paused at a
[39:54] spring-fed creek among a small party of
[39:56] traveling settlers.
[39:58] The night was spent under the stars with
[40:00] a low fire, the coyotes singing their
[40:02] eerie chorus while we kept watch against
[40:05] ever-present threats.
[40:07] The journey tested both our horses and
[40:09] constitution, and the second day brought
[40:11] a drier country still with the desolate
[40:14] distance shimmering in the heat.
[40:17] We rode for hours until at least the
[40:19] modest stockade of Fort William appeared
[40:21] on the plain.
[40:23] Appearing as a lonely sentinel among a
[40:25] vast expanse of nothingness.
[40:28] I must confess to expecting something a
[40:30] little more professional, but what
[40:31] greeted us was a small and rather
[40:34] haphazard collection of picket walls,
[40:36] log huts, and adobe structures, which
[40:39] appeared to have been thrown up with
[40:40] more haste than order.
[40:43] A mere dozen or so families made their
[40:45] home there, mostly hardy frontier folk,
[40:48] a few soldiers, and some teamsters
[40:50] clustered together for mutual protection
[40:52] against the savagery that abounds in
[40:54] this place.
[40:56] Water is drawn from a brackish creek,
[40:58] meat from the hunt, and news from the
[41:01] outer world arrives only when a rider
[41:03] chances through.
[41:05] Life is stark and unyielding.
[41:07] The women tend small gardens and mind
[41:09] the stock, while the men work
[41:11] construction or stand watch.
[41:13] Evenings are spent around common fires
[41:15] with stories, hymns, and constant
[41:18] vigilance.
[41:19] The sky is immense and the wind
[41:21] ceaseless, and one somehow feels both
[41:24] the freedom and the peril of such a
[41:26] remote place all at once.
[41:29] Yet it is there that these people choose
[41:30] to make their home, and for that choice
[41:33] they pay dearly.
[41:36] On the second day, a curious incident
[41:38] occurred that set the families on edge.
[41:40] As late one afternoon, a lone rider
[41:42] appeared far out on the prairie, moving
[41:44] slowly across the crest of a distant
[41:47] rise.
[41:48] At first, we took him for a welcome
[41:50] messenger or lost traveler, and several
[41:53] men rode out a short way to hail him.
[41:56] But the stranger halted upon a low rise,
[41:58] sitting motionless upon his horse for a
[42:00] long while, and simply watching the fort
[42:03] with a stillness that carried no
[42:04] friendly greeting.
[42:06] No signal was returned, nor any approach
[42:09] made, and then after some minutes, he
[42:11] returned and rode away at an easy pace
[42:14] before being swallowed by the distant
[42:15] horizon.
[42:17] The fear that settled over the little
[42:18] community was palpable. Mothers drew
[42:21] children close, rifles were checked, and
[42:24] quiet talk of Comanche scouts, or worse,
[42:27] lingered well into the night.
[42:29] The next morning, tensions rose sharply
[42:32] when the inhabitants awoke to find dead
[42:34] birds deposited near the fort's walls.
[42:37] Doves, meadowlarks, and blackbirds were
[42:39] found strewn about as though some unseen
[42:42] hand had cast them down in the night,
[42:45] and the sight unnerved the entire
[42:46] settlement.
[42:48] Some of the other frontiersmen muttered
[42:50] darkly that it was a deliberate warning
[42:52] from the Comanche, a sign that the fort
[42:54] was marked for destruction, and that the
[42:56] warriors were closer than any scout had
[42:58] detected.
[43:00] Others, their faces set like cut flint,
[43:03] declared that they would die where they
[43:05] stood before they abandoned their homes
[43:07] and fields.
[43:09] Rifles were oiled with greater care that
[43:11] day, children kept close to the cabins,
[43:14] and a heavy silence fell over the fort,
[43:16] broken only by the melancholic howling
[43:18] of prairie winds.
[43:20] Tensions were already high after the
[43:22] lone rider and the grim discovery of
[43:24] dead birds scattered about the fort,
[43:26] but on a moonless night, they rose to
[43:28] outright terror at a sound that came
[43:31] drifting on the winds.
[43:33] For emanating from the darkness beyond
[43:35] the pickets came the unmistakable sounds
[43:38] of a war dance.
[43:41] We heard drums beating low, steady
[43:43] rhythm that seemed to cut through our
[43:44] very bones, but these were nothing
[43:47] compared to the screeching chants of the
[43:49] warriors.
[43:51] Their war songs drifted across the
[43:52] prairie like the wails of tormented
[43:54] spirits rising and falling in eerie
[43:56] cadence, fierce, yet mournful.
[44:01] The fort's families huddled together in
[44:02] their cabins, while the men gripped
[44:04] their rifles at the walls while peering
[44:07] into the blackness.
[44:08] No one slept for every soul feared that
[44:11] at any moment the darkness would erupt
[44:13] into an onslaught.
[44:15] The ghostly songs continued for hours
[44:18] before fading into the emptiness,
[44:20] leaving the little fort shaken to its
[44:22] core. Yet still, they did not waver.
[44:26] For several days afterwards, a strange
[44:28] lull settled over the fort.
[44:30] No further riders appeared, nor war
[44:32] songs drifted on the nightly wind. Yet
[44:34] the tension remained as taut as a
[44:36] hostile's bowstring.
[44:39] The fort's occupants went about their
[44:40] tasks, but rifles were never far from
[44:42] reach. Sleep came lightly with every
[44:45] gust of wind or distant dust devil
[44:47] drawing anxious eyes to the horizon.
[44:50] Then one night, a loud alarm was raised
[44:53] when a sizeable party of Comanche
[44:55] warriors came riding boldly toward the
[44:58] fort from across the prairie.
[45:00] The menfolk rushed to the walls,
[45:02] preparing for desperate battle as they
[45:04] loaded rifles and primed pistols.
[45:07] Yet to their infinite relief, the riders
[45:09] halted well short of range and raised a
[45:12] large white flag high above their heads.
[45:16] On the assumption they wished to parlay,
[45:18] the fort sent out a small armed
[45:20] delegation of three men.
[45:22] Yet scarcely had greetings been
[45:24] exchanged when the trap was sprung.
[45:27] With a sudden and violent screech, the
[45:29] Comanche overwhelmed the delegation
[45:31] impaling them on their war lances.
[45:34] Warriors then dismounted and began
[45:36] butchering them alive, all within plain
[45:38] view of the men on the fort's
[45:40] battlements.
[45:42] The effect of the delegation's screams
[45:43] of agony had a terrible effect on the
[45:45] defenders.
[45:47] Then once terror had settled firmly
[45:49] among their ranks, the main body of the
[45:51] Comanche war party surged forward.
[45:55] They forced the gates with sheer numbers
[45:56] and fire, then poured inside, running
[45:59] amok among the cabins and corrals.
[46:02] What followed was a protracted and
[46:04] brutal struggle.
[46:06] Men fought hand-to-hand with knife,
[46:08] tomahawk, and clubbed rifle as the air
[46:11] filled with smoke and screams.
[46:14] Warriors attempted to drag women and
[46:15] children away into the plains, with
[46:18] several only being stopped by desperate
[46:20] point-blank shots with the fierce
[46:22] intervention of husbands and fathers
[46:24] wielding axes and knives.
[46:27] The battle raged across the dusty
[46:29] enclosure for what seemed an eternity,
[46:31] with every hut and wall becoming a
[46:33] separate field of combat.
[46:35] For a short period, I feared all was
[46:37] lost.
[46:39] But by God's mercy, the defenders
[46:41] prevailed at last, driving the attackers
[46:43] out and securing the shattered gates.
[46:46] But the victory came at a terrible cost.
[46:50] Many good men lay dead or dying. Women
[46:52] and children were wounded, and the
[46:54] little fort ran red with the blood of
[46:56] both attacker and defender alike.
[46:59] I remained there for days afterwards,
[47:01] tending the injured as best my skills
[47:04] and limited supplies allowed. I set
[47:06] broken limbs, extracted rifle balls, and
[47:09] dressed cruel lacerations.
[47:11] I also eased the passing of those beyond
[47:14] earthly help using a meager supply of
[47:16] morphine I carried with me.
[47:18] The survivors now face the future with
[47:21] grim resolve, but the price of holding
[47:23] that lonely outpost upon the plains has
[47:26] already been dearly paid.
[47:28] After doing what I could for the wounded
[47:30] at Fort William, I moved on to another
[47:32] small settlement some miles further
[47:34] west, one that had suffered a recent
[47:36] attack all of its own.
[47:39] There I found a man lying in a darkened
[47:41] cabin, sorely wounded by lance and shot,
[47:44] yet the deepest injury of all was to his
[47:46] spirit.
[47:47] For I came to learn that his wife and
[47:48] young daughter had been dragged away by
[47:50] the Comanche during the assault.
[47:53] Day after day, I dressed his wounds and
[47:55] tried to raise his spirits, but he would
[47:57] only turn his face to the wall and
[48:00] whisper that he could no longer care to
[48:02] live.
[48:04] The light had gone out of his eyes and
[48:05] he seemed a man already half departed
[48:07] from this world, waiting only for the
[48:09] final summons.
[48:11] All of this has left me with a heavy
[48:13] heart and the clear conviction that a
[48:15] great and terrible conflict between the
[48:16] settlers and the Comanche is now
[48:19] inevitable.
[48:21] The hatred runs too deep, the outrages
[48:23] too many on both sides, and the frontier
[48:26] too wide and lawless for any lasting
[48:28] peace.
[48:29] I therefore mean to finish my immediate
[48:31] duties here and make arrangements to
[48:33] leave these western plains before the
[48:35] storm breaks in earnest and this entire
[48:38] region is consumed in fire and
[48:40] bloodshed.
[48:41] May God protect you and may he in his
[48:44] wisdom reunite us soon.
[48:46] Your faithful friend and servant, Dr.
[48:49] Joseph Padgett.
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[49:47] zinc
[49:48] is the answer.