Ghost Sheep

CHAPTER 61 

GHOST SHEEP

The young shephard tried keeping up with his mentor, listening intently as they walked.

“Keeping the wolves away will be difficult , but if you do all I’ve taught you the sheep will be safe.  We’ll stop here.”

“Why are we stopping here, Master?” asked the young boy.

“That’s sacred ground over there,” replied the elder shephard.

“Sacred? Are people buried there?” continued the boy.

“Not people… sheep.  I brought you this far so that you can see the result of negligence.  DEAD SHEEP!” 

The boy looked puzzled.  “That land is sacred because sheep are buried there.  You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish I were.  The truth is that not that long ago, a young shephard like yourself fell asleep and the wolves took advantage and slaughtered all the sheep.  All but one… Bo.  Bo, in his angst buried all the sheep and when he finished he died of exhaustion.”

“So, what you’re telling me is that the dead sheep were buried by another sheep.  One named Bo.  That’s ridiculous, how does a sheep bury other sheep?”

“…with a shovel, my boy, with a shovel…, but ebough of that.  Now this area is haunted by Bo, and it said that anyone who wanders into that area will meet his doom,” the older shephard trailed off. “Now we must sleep.  But let your senses remain keen.  Listen carefully for the ghost sheep in case he decides to leave his domain…”

The boy was hardly spooked.  He was wondering what the purpose of this ridiculous story was, but he wasn’t going to ask.  He figured it was better not knowing.  Slowly he nodded off.

Suddenly the boy heard a sound in the distant, “baa, baa, baaaaaaaaa…” He turned and tapped his master.  All of a sudden he believed! “Master, master, I hear him.  I hear the Ghost Sheep!”  The master listened.  “Son, that’s no ghost, that’s one of your sheep.  Don’t you know what a sheep sounds like?”

The boy felt silly.  He should have stopped and thought about what he was hearing before jumping to any conclusion.  Of course he was going to be hearing sheep!  He turned over and nodded off again.

Again, the boy was startled to alertness.  These weren’t baas he was hearing now.  “Boo, boo, booooooooo…”  “Master, it’s him, it’s him!  I hear boos!”  The master woke up and listened.  That’s no ghost sheep, boy.  It’s an ordinary ghost.  Go back to sleep.”

“Go back to sleep!  It’s a ghost shouldn’t we get out of here?”

“No, no, son, it’s just probably my Aunt Myrtle.  She died tripping over the sheep dog.  She’s just trying to spook him.  But that dog’s stupid, so it’s a pointless exercise.  I’m not sure who’s dumber, Aunt Myrtle or the dog.”  Turning around, he yelled, “Aunt Myrtle with you shut up, we’re trying to sleep here!”

“Easy for you to say.  Just watch your back though.  I wouldn’t trust this dog!  Mangy critter!”

The boy didn’t know how to react now.  Things couldn’t be more ludicrous, but now a true fear was coming over him.  “Master, how would I recognize the ghost sheep?”

“You’ll know, son.  You’ll know.”

The boy lay down, but he could no longer sleep.  He no longer knew what to believe or what to expect.  He stared all around him expecting for something to happen.  And for a long time, nothing did.  Then he heard it.  “Boo. Baa. Boo. Baa. Booooooo. Baaaaaaa.”  There was no mistake in his mind this time.  It was the Ghost Sheep.  But before he could wake his master, he noticed a row of sheep walking towards the sacred ground.  As afraid as he was he knew he couldn’t let the sheep escape, and he figured he needed to do this to show his responsibility or he would not be trusted by his master.  He ran to where the sheep dog was and pushed him towards the sheep to help round them up.  He ran right by the image of Aunt Myrtle and felt a shutter at her sight.  That sure was one ugly woman! “Bring back the dog,” she moaned, but he simply ignored her.

As he got closer to the sheep he was attempting to round up, he could hear louder and louder… “boo, baa, boo, baa, boooooooooo, baaaaaaaaaaa…”  His skin was beginning to crawl in fear, and he was trembling like a young boy caught outside in the snow without his sweater… in other words, a lot.  As he approached the lead sheep, he saw it… the image of a Booing and Baaing Bo.  His eyes were blazing, and his demeanor was terrifying.  All that could come out of the boy’s mouth was, “You!”

“I’m no ewe, you moron, I’m a ram!” replied Bo.

“You speak!” said the boy.

“I’m no longer restricted by that sad excuse for a toungue that did not allow me to do so in life, so I do!  Why are you hearing disturbing me.  Leave me alone!”

“No problem, I’ll just round up the sheep and go…” started the boy.

“NO!” interrupted Bo, “I need them!  That’s why I called them.”

“You’re going to have them join you aren’t you.  I won’t let them.  And my stupid dog isn’t afraid of you, so he’ll help me.”

“Really, then why is he running away?”

The boy saw the dog running at full speed away from the whole situation.  He was now alone.  Apparently the dog wasn’t stupid.  He just thought that Aunt Myrtle was, that’s all.  Now he faced Bo alone.  “Well, do what you like, but you won’t take me without a fight!” yelled the boy.

“You, why would I want you?  Walk away and leave me alone.  I’m looking for someone else… and here he is,” Bo finished as he looked over the boy’s shoulder.  Bo turned around and he saw him, the wolf, and by the look on Bo’s eyes he recognized him, and before the boy could say anything, Bo was gone.

Now the boy had a bigger dilemma, facing a very real wolf.  Behind him was the sacred sheep burial ground.  Before him was a fierce wolf with a number of easy targets… including him.  He couldn’t run into the sacred grounds, he felt, because he would then have to deal with Bo (although he said he didn’t want him), but the alternative was a very real wolf with very real teeth. 

And then the wolf pounced.  The boy fell back as the wolf’s body flew at him.  A cold breeze flew right over him.  He was sure it was death’s breath.  What he hadn’t realized is that he had fallen into the sacred ground… and the wolf was flying right into it.  “BOOOOBAAABOOOBAAA”, “HOWL”, and the wolf was gone.

The boy jumped to his feet and off the sacred ground.  He turned to llok in and heard nothing.  It was quiet as can be.  The sheep had already started venturing back to the area where they had stopped that night.  The ordeal was over.  Forever.  He was just a pawn.  Bo needed him to get to the wolf, and now the wolf was taken care of.  The young shephard followed the row of sheep until he was back in his camp and collapsed.

The shephard shook his young helper trying to wake him. “Boy, you really sleep pretty soundly, huh?  It’s a good thing the wolf didn’t come last night.  We’d have had to bury a whole new slew of sheep!”

The boy rubbed his eyes and slowly opened them.  “That won’t be necessary, sir.  The wolf’s dead.  Bo took care of him.”

The shephard looked perplexed.  “Bo took care of him?  How did he do this?”

“Well he lured the sheep over to the sacred sheep land, and used them as bait for the wolf.  I went to go round the sheep up, and I ran into Bo.  Then the wolf showed up and made a run at me but wound up landing in Bo’s grasp, and I figure Bo did the rest.”

“Amazing… honestly I wasn’t 100% sure Bo really existed, but if you say this happened… and the sheep are all safe…” the shephard stopped talking when he heard a voice.

“Boo, baa, boooooooo, baaaaaaaa, boobaa, boobaa!”

“It’s him,” shouted the boy, “it’s Bo, the ghost sheep!”

“What are you talking about, son, that’s no ghost.  That’s Aunt Myrtle and she’s calling me in.  Breakfast is probably ready.”

“But, Master, it’s yelling Boo and Baa, just like a ghost sheep would…”

“Son, I’m Buba.  It’s short for Bubadislav.  Aunt Myrtle has called me Buba since I was a child.”

“But isn’t Aunt Myrtle dead?  Didn’t she trip over the dog… and die?”

“No, what a horrible thing to think!  She’s very much alive.  She just moved back from a cottage on the other side of the lake.  She’s going to be staying with us.  What made you think she was dead?”

“I thought you told m…, oh no.  I think it was all a dream, sir.  Maybe Bo didn’t take care of a wolf.  But, it felt so real.”

“Son, you’ve had a long night, first night outside with the sheep and all.  Go inside and eat some breakfast.  You’re probably hungry.”

The boy ran in a little saddenned about finding out he had dreamt the whole thing up.

“Buba! Is that your new helper? What a fine looking young boy.  He’ll be great.”

“Yeah, but only if he doesn’t sleep so soundly.”

“Sound sleeper?  Last night I came to bring the dog a snack and he whisked him away to go fetch some sheep that had wandered off.  He barely even glanced at me.”

“Can you blame the kid?” thought Babu, after all Aunt Myrtle was one ugly woman.

“The dog came back alone.  I figured the boy had finished rounding up the sheep.  Were they all there this morning?”

“They sure were, Myrtle, they sure were…” pondered Babu, and then he added, “and I don’t think we’ll have to worry about the wolf anymore either.”

With that the two of them began walking back to where the boy was.

THE END