ROBERT TUCKER
Owner of RT Marketing & Short Story Writer
I welcome you to my site. It's all about animal wildlife and we much need to protect the species that are facing and losing a fierce battle with survival. Just today I got an e-mail that spoke of an elephant sanctuary where one of the pachyderms paired with a ranch dog. They were inseparable.
That's some of the good news!
Next there's a wolf habitat in Missouri that must maintain a $40 - 50,000 monthly budget to get by. Already $100,000 has been raised with a matching donation of $100,000 from a private donor.
We all need to remember the good graces of these natural species and protect them at all cost.
We urge you to be of kind support by purchasing our valuable products through this website. 50% of all proceeds will go toward funding these and other outreach programs.
Please read all of this site as there are great things to click on!
This first link is to a site working with animals. Check it out!
Click Here!
Are you concerned about global warming? Of course! We all are. What about the threat of nuclear war? It's getting scarier by the minute. In less than three years our world will be facing a critical moment in history . . . the year 2012 . . . the day December 21.
Be READY and take ACTION . . .
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Now that you're at least a little bit more informed about our future take a moment now to check out this site. It's full of heart-warming photos of what God meant our planet to look like . . . teeming with gorgeous wildlife! Order your very own CD NOW!
Click Here!
As this site becomes more visible on the internet I will be adding more content. Perhaps you have a story that is about wildlife or pertains to our beloved four-legged creatures. I will leave you now with this fable I wrote under my pen name Oliver Robert Brett.
Little Angie Claire looked up at her mother and asked, "Mom, what's a ghost?" Her mother looked at her quizzically and said, "A ghost is a spirit that isn't quite sure of where it is or where it's going." Angie thought about this for a minute and then said, "Well, my friend, Sarah, told me that she went to a house that her parents said was haunted by an old lady that had died there in the 1800s."
Rhonda Claire then put her hands on her hips staring down at her daughter declaring, “You, my good friend, are gonna be late for school, so put away any thoughts of ghosts.” Angie darted into her bedroom to grab her books as Mrs. O’Henry blasted on the schoolbus horn outside the house.
Ben, Rhonda and Angie Claire lived in the dusty old heart of Oklahoma in a small town called Fallbrook. Ben worked for the Suncamp Oil Company as a drilling captain for over ten years. One day he came home with some wonderful news. “Hey, everybody, I got something great to tell you!” he said as Rhonda and Angie came up to hug him.
“What’s with the big smile, dear husband?” Rhonda asked. Then Angie said, “Dad, your hands are shaking.” Angie’s father then said, “You’re all in for a big surprise! First, I got a raise of five times what I’m making now and second, we all have to move . . . to Alaska!!!” “Hooray, hooray,” they all shouted.
The next day Angie told her teacher and all her friends where she was moving to. In two weeks, after summer vacation would start, she and her family would be in Alaska. On the last day of school she got a signed card with crude oil thumbprints under each signature. She also got a fuzzy plush toy of a seal with the name “Huggy” on its collar.
Every day they packed. Ben and Rhonda’s home was put up for rent and a nice couple with two young boys took over the house. With a great big U-Haul the Claires made their journey west to San Francisco where they boarded a passenger and cargo ship to Anchorage. While they were there they learned about the Iditarod Sled Dog Races that ran from Anchorage to Nome. From there they traveled south to the seacoast town of Seward.
Ben’s new boss, Adam Nelson, met them and explained his new job as general manager of the oil well plant in Icicle City, a little town constructed in 1982 for the employees and their families. Ben would be flying to and from the site every two weeks on Nomad Adventure Airlines. Rhonda said to Adam, “What are the schools like there?” Adam replied, “We all do home schooling.” “All right!!!” Angie burst in.
Their new home that was owned by the company sat at the end of a dirt road from the edge of town behind which was a meadow, the open forest and the mountains. Ben, Rhonda and Angie took a hike on one of the trails leading up into the high country after they settled in. While they were out Angie had the strangest sensation that something was watching her. “Mom, are their wild animals here?” she asked her mother. “Oh, yes, my dear, there are bears, wolves, beavers, eagles and the usual kinds of flying and scurrying little critters. Don’t you worry,” Rhonda assured her.
One day while Angie’s father was away in town she decided to wander into the woods on her own. She was amazed at the beauty of the trees and the flowers that bloomed along the trail. That’s when she heard the snapping of twigs in the distance. Angie was mesmerized by the sound and followed it into the trees.
About twenty yards off trail to her left she saw an old log cabin. There was no door on the entrance and no windows in the two openings on either side of the cabin. Against the back wall was a stone fireplace with a metal pail sitting next to the hearth. Then a chill came over her and she could feel something behind her. A voice whispered to her, “Be not afraid, I will not harm you.” It was a bear. A grizzly bear. But he was different. There was no solid form to him, it was as if he was transparent with a slight glow around him.
“Are you a ghost?” Angie asked, now very calm and relaxed. “I am the spirit of a bear, but you can think of me as a ghost if you like.” Angie then said, “I was very afraid and now I’m not! Why have you come to see me?” The bear answered her saying, “I have seen you hiking with your parents and chose you to tell a story because you are young and innocent.”
“What shall I call you . . . Mr. Bear?” Angie inquired. “Oh, no, you must not give me a name or else I will become different than all other things in nature. Just consider me your friend as you are mine.” “Okay,” Angie said and walked up to greet him. The bear quickly said, “No, please, just have a seat over there and listen to what I must tell you.” Angie went and sat down on the pail, eager to find out what the bear wanted to say.
“I am from the northern region and my pregnant mother came to a cave near here to give birth to me. It was guarded by wolves. She then left me in their care until I was a year old. Then one day I happened upon a small group of cubs that I thought were my brothers and sisters. The mother saw this and mauled me to death. Eight days later, after the wolves tended my body, the eagles came and devoured my flesh. It was then that my soul and spirit emerged and returned to the cave.”
Angie was again in awe of this experience. She tried to gather her thoughts as a Bohemian Waxwing alighted on the window sill and chirped at her before flying away. “Do you know of this bird?” she asked. “I know of all things, except people,” the bear responded. He continued by saying, “You are the second person I have come in contact with.” “And who was the first?” she asked.
The bear then went on with his story relating that, “His name was Percy Willingham and he built this cabin with his own two hands. He was a trapper and made his living trading pelts for supplies in the town of Mulestop, about ten miles north of what is now Seward. Percy met me just as you have and that is when I first began to speak. You see, I can only travel from twilight to twilight for fear that the other spirit bears might see me. That is why I must stay in the cave during night fall.
“One day we were walking together to search for beavers when Percy saw something shiny in the water. It was gold. Then I heard through the spirit of the eagles that many men would be coming to find it and that the eagles and other birds of the air would protect the area of the river.” “Wow!” Angie shouted, “Is there more?” “Yes, I will take you to the cave now, it is directly out the door as far away as your home.” Suddenly the bear vanished.
“Angie!!! . . . Angie!!!” That was her mother calling from the meadow. Angie dashed out from the cabin and down the trail and out into the open. “You shouldn’t run off like that without telling me,” her mother said and the two of them walked back to the house. That evening her father came home and got to hear her tale of the bear. “Mom, Dad, I met a bear and he’s a ghost.” Her father said, “Is that so? Would you please tell us where you saw this bear?”
Angie answered saying, “He met me at a cabin that was built by a man a long time ago. And there’s a cave he wanted me to see but Mom scared him away before he could show me. The bear said it was straight through the door about as far away as we are from the cabin.” Her father asked, “So where is this cabin?” “Well,” Angie said, “you go left into the trees about ten steps past the trail marker sign.” Her mother then said, “Okay, no more wandering off by yourself. You don’t know if this bear ghost is dangerous!” “But Mom, he’s my friend!”
That’s when Ben and Rhonda had the same thought -- he must be an imaginary friend just like the hoot owl that she came to know in Fallbrook. Two nights later Angie disappeared while her parents were sleeping. Unfortunately she left the screen door unlatched and the wind banging against it awoke them. When her mother went in to check on her she was gone. “Ben! We’ve got to find Angie! She’s off to see that bear, I’m sure of it.” Ben responded with, “Yes, I’ll get the lanterns and flashlights.”
As Ben and Rhonda left the house they looked up to see a bright full moon glowing over head. “This is a good sign,” Rhonda said, “we should have no trouble finding that cabin.” Though it was dark in the trees the little bird showed them the way. It then flew off chirping as it went. “Angie said the cave was right out the front door so let’s go,” Ben said to Rhonda.
With lights flickering through the trees and twigs and small branches snapping under their feet they tried to follow what seemed like a scent of their daughter and the bear. Just then many wolves began to howl and Rhonda stopped dead in her tracks, obviously terrified. “We have to go back and alert the rangers to find Angie!” “No, Rhonda, we’re very close, hold on to me, those wolves are farther
away than you think.”
On and on they went until finally they saw what appeared to be a small landslide of rocks. Up on top was the bear waving at them to enter the dimly lit cave. Ben and Rhonda entered to find Angie sitting next to a small fire snuggling with two wolf cubs. Without hesitation her mother ran to Angie and embraced her saying, “You have scared the living daylights out of us! We’re leaving right now.” “But these are my friends!” Angie declared.
The bear then came into the cave and said, “You must not go, there is something I must show you.” The bear led the three of them past the fire and the wolf cubs to the very end of the cave around a bend. There on the ground were the skeletal remains of Percy Willingham, his bony arm resting on a wooden box. “Please remove his arm and open the box,” the bear instructed. Ben did so and found it full of gold nuggets and fine dust. It twinkled under the light of the lanterns.
Then Ben reached down to remove the pan that was attached to the under side of the lid. On its bottom were scrawled the words, “Percy’s Frying Pan.” This was how the old trapper made his fortune. Now it belonged to the Claires. “We’ll never be able to move it,” Rhonda said just as the bear reached down to pick it up and carry it out. Outside the cave the wolves were steadily yipping and yipping to let everyone know that Percy’s life had not been given in vain.
When the bear and Ben, Rhonda and Angie reached the house the box was set down on the back porch. The bear then said goodbye and walked into the meadow toward the forest. With a congratulatory wave he turned and faded into the moonlight. His soul was now complete and he could go on to his heavenly reward.
The next morning Ben called Adam to tell him that Angie’s allergies had flared up and that she had to see a specialist in Seattle, Washington. This was all a fabrication to get them out of Alaska and down south to redeem the gold. Adam bought into this and the Claires then took their bounty to the Anchorage airport. But first Ben made a larger crate for the box and had the neighbors help him load it onto their truck.
Ben explained to the check-in counter that he was transporting heavy rock samples to a scientific analysis company in Bremerton. It took two brawny porters to load the crate onto the plane. From there they flew into Seattle and had a freight van move the gold to a receiving office downtown. At three hundred pounds, or 4,200 Troy ounces, the gold was valued at one million four hundred thousand dollars. The clerk gave them a cashier’s check and the Claires boarded another plane for Tulsa, Oklahoma.
At Rhonda’s sister Joan’s house they displayed the check and a bottle of nuggets before a mouth watering audience. “Where did you find this gold!?” Joan’s husband Ray asked. “Where else but Alaska?” Angie said. That night Ben and Rhonda bed down in Ray and Joan’s spare room with Angie on the floor in a sleeping bag. The next morning Angie got up and asked her mother, “Mom, what’s a ghost?” Her mother replied saying, “Oh, never mind about ghosts, I have a surprise for you! Your father just got a job in Alaska!!!”
Was it all a dream? You decide.
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