STORY #6 - HAROLD
Two men, Bill & Matthew, owned a cow farm out in the country. They lived & spent all their time working on the farm all day & would come in at night, have supper & went to sleep. It wasn't too long that they started getting bored on the farm & look to anything to entertain themselves.
One day Matthew came up with an idea.
"Let's build a scarecrow." suggested Matthew.
"A scarecrow?" questioned Bill.
"Yeah. But not any scarecrow. Let's build one that looks like Harold."
Harold was a farmer from the next farm over that always annoyed & argued with Bill & Matthew. They always had property problems with Harold & the way he did things wasn't the way they did things. They never saw eye to eye with Harold so making a goofy looking scarecrow to resemble him was a good idea in their heads.
They made the scarecrow out of sacs & hay. They even gave it a pointy nose like Harold. The 2 men had finally found the ultimate form of entertainment. Every morning they hung him up in the fields & every night they would bring him back inside. They joked with the scarecrow. They would talk to him.
"How are the crops doing today Harold?" They'd tease & laugh at him.
The problem is that he wasn't just their entertainment; he was also their scapegoat. Any time something bad would happen on the farm or if they were just mad in general, they would yell at him & even smear food all over his face. It was easier for them that way then to admit their wrongdoings or just things to blame things on a scarecrow that it couldn't control; like the weather & the cows.
One night in particular, Bill was unhappy about the weather. He felt as though the harvest wouldn't be good for that season so he got up during dinner & smeared his leftovers all over Harold's face. Matthew started chuckling when all of a sudden...
Harold grunted.
"Did you hear that Matthew? It made a noise"
"That's impossible." demanded Matthew.
From then on the 2 men kept an eye on Harold. They stopped hanging him outside & they stopped talking to him. He just sat in the corner of the living room as he always did. Every now & then he would grunt. That's all he would do though.
Eventually the 2 men came to the conclusion that Harold was harmless. 'Maybe a family of mice or a bug had gotten inside of the scarecrow & were making noise.
So again they started to joke with Harold. They started teasing him again. This led to them taking out their anger out on him again.
One morning Bill pointed something out to Matthew.
"Harold is growing." said the farmer in bewilderment as he observed the scarecrow.
"But that's impossible." refused Matthew.
The 2 men once again kept a close eye on Harold until one day the unthinkable happened.
Harold stood up...
Harold walked outside & climbed the roof. Matthew & Bill could hear what sounded like footsteps quickly rushing back & forth. Harold paced on the roof all day & all night. The two men were afraid to sleep.
The next morning the men awoke to complete silence. They feared the idea of even leaving their rooms as they felt as though Harold would be watching. When they got to the living room they saw that somehow the roof had caved in a little. They wondered if this was Harold's doing. When they finally got outside they saw Harold standing in a far corner of the field, not moving. They went about their work on the farm, making sure they had one eye on Harold at all times.
"I say we throw the bastard into the fire pit." said Matthew with anger.
"Well he hasn't hurt us yet or even hinted at it so let's see what happens these next few days."
After their conversation. Both men looked towards Harold's direction only to see that the scarecrow was missing. The 2 men were scared but they tried to carry on as if nothing was wrong.
That night while Matthew was sleeping. He was awoken by the sound of the front door opening & closing several times. When he peaked to see what it was from his bedroom door he saw Harold. The scarecrow stopped & look as towards Matthew. The farmer quickly shut the door. On the other side he heard Harold approach the door & let out a sigh. The scarecrow then took off.
The next day Matthew told Bill what happened & the 2 men decided to leave the farm. Cows & all. Harold was not seen for a majority of the day which gave them time to pack everything up.
When the men were finally down the road from the farm they remembered that they had left their milking stools back in the barn. They knew it'd cost quiet a bit of money to replace them considering they lived out in the country in the middle of nowhere. So the 2 men drew straws to determine who would be going back to retrieve them.
Bill drew the shorter stick so he decided to go.
"Go ahead, I'll catch up." Bill assured Matthew.
Matthew traveled about 10 minutes on the same road. He thought to himself how silly it was that they were afraid of a scarecrow. It may talk & move around but it was made of hay & sacks. It was virtually harmless.
'Seriously, what could a scarecrow do to us? He's not dangerous, right?' Harold said to himself. He finally came to a rise in the area where he could see the farm in its entirety. He did not see Bill however. He quickly became worried & figured that he better go make sure that everything was alright.
About 5 minutes into the ride back on, Matthew noticed something on the roof of their house back on the barn.
It was Harold. He was holding a large light colored material. The size of which was about 6 feet in length. The size of the average male.
Matthew watched in horror as he saw Harold hold up a complete human skin & lay it out to dry in the sun on their roof.
The skin looked very familiar as Matthew remembered,
BILL WAS ABOUT 6 FEET TALL...
