Dancing with the Sandman
Revisiting the ‘Coyotes’ Episode
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I loved to spend the night with Nanny and Granddad on the farm out in the middle of flat nowhere. It wasn’t as bad as one may think; there was lots to do and lots to wonder about. It was especially fun when Tandy and I got to spend the night together in order to ponder the universe.
One thing that always did scare me at night was the coyotes. Of course, everybody knows that these small wolves are more afraid of humans than the other way around. But when I was young, I was not so sure of that. They would come out at night and start howling, and Tandy and I would sit by the screen door and listen to them, and it was almost like living in Transylvania for we both truly believed they were bloodthirsty animals that would emerge from the darkness and spring on us like werewolves, rip us to pieces, and drink our blood. Sometimes Tandy and I would get a flashlight and sit under the covers and shiver as we listened to the coyotes sing their nightly haunting songs.
“Why do they do that every night?” asked Tandy.
“I guess they are hungry,” I said.
“Oh….,” said Tandy.
“Do you think their eyes are red or yellow?” asked Tandy.
“Don’t know,” I said. “And I hope I don’t get to find out!”
“I’m glad the chicken pen is sturdy,” I said.
“Yes,” Tandy replied.
“Why don’t we go watch Johnny Carson with your daddy?” asked Tandy.
“Good idea,” I said.
Then we would get up and tiptoe into the T.V. room where Daddy was usually snoring through Johnny’s monologue even though it was funny and all that. Sometimes if he wasn’t snoring, we would find him laughing at Johnny’s humor. The television would invariably wipe out the sound of the bloodthirsty coyotes and we could forget about them for a while. Then maybe later we would move on to other unexplained phenomena like the Phantom, Bloody Mary, and light switches.
