Spooky

By the time I got back from Birmingham the night was as black as pitch, but the dog was still demanding a walk, so it was on with the coat and out with the maglite and off I went. I was feeling a little spooked, and the strange hootings and rustlings just increased my apprehension. I reached the corner of the woods and followed the path around the far edge. Without warning the dog started straining on his lead and made for the dry stone wall that marked the boundary of the wood. I had a sudden sense of a hulking shape in the darkness and I shone the torch to see what was there, my heart momentarily in my throat.

It was a cow, staring over the wall in mute incomprehension. It stared at us for a moment or two, and then lumbered off across the field into the gloom.