Browntown Chronicles: The Swamps
This is a submission received August 4, 2006 via Mutant Mail from a former resident of the Browntown area.
Growing up in the burgeoning Browntown neighborhood of
the late 1980's, I often sought refuge from the dog eat dog lifestyle of Jack
and Neil drive. The closest and most relaxing escape was the area around "the
old railroad bridge." Seduced by the natural beauty of the
area's wetlands (or perhaps the semi-narcotic and ubiquitous scent of
Pennsylvania crude), I spent many summers there, falling in love with nature,
and felling trees across the railroad grade to piss off ATV enthusiasts.
In the summer of 1997, I wanted to give something back to that area for all
that it had given me. So, with the help of my best friend, I reintroduced a Just Pishes nile monitor (varanus niloticus) into the swamps around the bridge. Nile
monitors had been hunted to extinction in the Browntown area before the last Ice
Age, and this release was an act of contrition for my Browntownian ancestors.
The monitor was 6" in length, and weighed roughly 20 pounds. The beast quickly
made it's way towards the swamps by Lewis Run. The creature has never been seen
since.
Dean
Cambridge,
United Kingdom
©2006 MBPS
