The Cows
In 2010, my three sons and I were heading to my parent's house for a family's party in Richmond, New Hampshire. This was a very rural part of New Hampshire. My parent's place was in the woods; it was somewhat creepy but still pretty because of all the trees. My parents had also cleared out a lot of trees in their backyard to make this open field where they could host these large family events. Also, it was an ample open space for children to play. Immediately, I could tell that there were many people here from the number of cars in the driveway. I spotted many of my cousins and nephews mingling and chatting amongst each other. I approached one of my cousins, and before I could even speak a word to him, my three sons sped off running to play with their cousins.
I spotted my youngest son Rowan, two years of age, running around chasing my parent's cat a few moments later. Other adults in the area had also spotted him running around chasing this cat but didn't think much of it as it was a kid being a kid. But after a while, I noticed that I hadn't seen my son anywhere. I began asking one by one if they had seen Rowan, but they all gave me the same answer: they had spotted him chasing the cat. Afterwards, I made an announcement to everyone if they had seen him, but none knew where he was. We all began looking for him in the house, out in the yard, and inside the cars. But he was nowhere to be found. Rowan was just gone. The only other place where he could've been was the vast and huge forest. I didn't know how long Rowan had been missing, so instead of waiting around for him to pop up, I just called the police.
The police showed up, but many locals who had heard of Rowan's disappearance began to volunteer with their ATVs going into the forest to look for my son. But by the time the search had started, the sun started to set, so there wasn't much time left. They called the search to a pause and continued first thing the following day. I was incredibly horrified by what could've happened to my son out there in the woods, all by himself; I couldn't get any sleep that night.
Again the next day, the volunteers began looking for my lost son in the woods. A couple minutes into the search, I see a group of men coming out of the woods with Rowan in their arms. At first, I wasn't thinking about what had happened to him or where he was; I was just glad that he was safe and unharmed. After I made sure that Rowan was safe, I asked the rescue workers where they had found him, and their response left us confused.
The rescue workers said they had decided to search a few miles farther away from the initial search area. Where they ended up was a swamp, and it was rugged terrain to travel through. The swamp was wet and very deep. The swamp was deceptive in that the ground sometimes may feel like it's solid, but when you step through it, you could fall down into the water, up to three feet in depth. They didn't get wet because they had waders on.
These workers began searching through the very thick swamp when they suddenly spotted a pair of shoes sitting on a log. They make their way over to the log, get up on dry land, and notice that the shoes were kid's size. They begin calling out for Rowan, and Rowan responds.
The workers made their way to where Rowan's voice was coming from. They made it to a pool of water with a tree in the middle. On the tree was Rowan, clutching onto the tree. They make their way towards the tree to pick up Rowan. The workers said that it was strange how Rowan could've ended up in that place since the swamp was up to the workers' chest. The workers didn't care about it as much and just took Rowan in their arms. Even because of the wet environment, the workers said that Rowan and his clothes were surprisingly dry. Then they made their way back to my parent's house.
Afterwards, I asked Rowan what had happened to him and where he went, but Rowan was shifty with what he was saying. He said he started chasing the cat into the forest, and then he couldn't remember anything after that. Then he said he woke up clenching onto the tree where he was found and placed cows watching him. We chucked it up and said it was his child-like mind and imagining things. But none of us cared; we were just glad that he was found safe and alive.
But that still begs the question and gets me thinking about how Rowan got to where he was in the first place? Rowan is small, so he couldn't have navigated through the swamp to that tree. So he must have swum through, but he's only 2 years old and doesn't know how to swim. And even if he could swim through, how was he dry? This only means that someone, or something, took him to that place and left him there hanging from the tree. But to this day, Rowan hasn't been able to recall anything that had happened that time and will remain a mystery forever.
By: Jesus Arambula
THE SCOOP 45