Author Description

Upon college graduation Mary Jane Madison accepted a teaching position in Mayfair, Virginia, and ventured to the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains not so far from Shenandoah Valley in Western Virginia. It was a move born by a feature story in National Geographic accompanied with glossy photos that called to her. On a most uneventful day, she went picking berries for a recipe, and paused before a cave when she heard a dog crying inside the cave. She guessed the dog had either wandered in the cave and couldn't find its way out or was hurt in some fashion. With a little can of mace in her hand, she walked into the cave calling for the dog. Looking for a dog she was totally unprepared for what she encountered; something like a bear that was on her in a flash grabbing her with big hairy hands. It picked her off the ground in a bear hug, and it was then she remembered the mace, and shot the animal it in the eyes. What she thought to be a bear threw her down, and she started running down the road as the animal could be heard jumping in the lake in the cave. She made her way to the town square two miles away where she sat down on a park bench still holding her pail, wondering what she should do.