Outstanding In His Field

Now what I’m going to tell you, ain’t a lie or nothin’ – it’s the God’s honest truth – and don’t be giving me any guff about Stephen King and his clowns – ‘cause this ain’t a story like he makes up.

Let me tell you who I am. I’m a computer guy, and I work for folks who survey these big farms down Indiana way. I’m the guy who gets to operate the drone – or one of the guys – on these farms, we usually need 5 or 6 of us. We fly the drones over the crops each day to make sure everything is right and dandy.

Well, everything was okay until I saw this photo - you are probably looking at what I found last summer. The field in question is about 25 miles out, and there ain’t no one lives around that area. I’ll tell you for a fact that we don’t need scarecrows. This area is all big business. Thousands of acres of fields, all watched over by these drones.

So when the boss saw the photo, he got real angry and decided to send some poor fool out to reccy the place. We drew straws – ‘cause as the boss said, he can’t afford more than one to lose a day’s work.

Young Elmore won the task – if ‘won’ is the right word.

Here’s where it got strange. He never came home that night or the next. We sent drones over, and all we could see was that crazy clown scarecrow.

On the third day, the boss decided that he should send the cops over – perhaps he should have done that at the start, but we’ll never know.

That evening when the police officer came into our building, I could see he was a bit tense. It seems that they found young Elmore - but not in a good way. When they took the clown’s mask off of the scarecrow – it was him, Elmore – he was the man who was outstanding in his field.

They never did find out the truth of what happened. Except that is until yesterday. I was flying the drone over the field for the first time this year, and there it was again — the clown.

The boss said we should draw straws, and this time, I won. I said we should call the cops.

He didn’t listen. So I’m riding my bike out there. I’ll let you know what happens.

bobby stevenson 2020