The West Bluff and surrounding swamps along the Sabine River between Texas and Louisiana have provided a modest but comfortable shelter and satisfactory sustenance for Robert Andrew ("Dick") Jackson and his Cajun sweetheart, Penny, for many years since the loss of both his parents-his dad through divorce when he was young, and his mother years later in a horrendous explosion and fire in Texas City. But lately, things have not seemed right. Trapping has become dangerous, as a terrifying aspect of death and a fearful presence seems to have crept its way into this region known as the Big Thicket. Dick has already lost two of his hunting dogs within days of each other under unusual circumstances, and the remaining dogs whine and pull at their chains. Four friends come from Georgia to join in the hunt for whatever it is, and Cajun folkways are employed to ward off this haint. But the challenges seem only to multiply.

Living in a violent and dysfunctional alcoholic family forced the author to confront ultimatums that pushed him to leave behind a Texas home at 15 and seek sanity and opportunity elsewhere, without much of an education and no money. As a kid Jon Bunn grew up in and around honkytonks from his pre-teen years and had little chance of finding a bright future, a mentor, or a pathway forward as a high school dropout. Then came Indiana and a distant family that took him in and told him he had worth, something few others had ever said to him. Jon re-entered high school with nominal paperwork for the Registrar. The only work he had done before leaving Texas was hand sanding cars at an auto body shop, helping a welder build highway billboards, and cooking on a seismic exploration ship in the Gulf of Mexico when he was 14. He never dreamed he would complete high school and was told he would only make it by working with his hands and his back. On a dare, he applied to Indiana University and was accepted. Financial aid was his friend. Finally, he could do what he wanted to do with no one to tell him "No." In hard times, which were frequent, he had high school friends who provided the food that kept him going. He wore clothes he found in restaurant's lost and found. He did a lot of jobs to pay for his college and learned that education would be his ticket to a future. Though steered by counselors towards vocational classes, he went on to graduate from Indiana University with a B.S. in Speech and Theatre and a minor in Folklore, and later earned an M.S. in Secondary Education. After many touches and goes after college, Jon became inspired to teach in unconventional settings and to encourage others who may not have seen a pathway forward. Jon first taught 6th graders in a gifted and talented school at the city zoo in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and taught skydiving on weekends. He worked in public and private schools as a teacher, administrator, and with disruptive youth in restricted environments. In the 1970's he taught adult education at Vincennes University in rural settings throughout southern Indiana-high school cafeterias, community centers, church basements, and county jails-and lived on a farm within the Amish community. Jon's work experiences along the way have been wide and varied-welder, machinist, carpenter, busboy, waiter, cook, dishwasher, assembly line worker, recording technician, actor, stagehand, bartender, artist, musician, teacher, recruiter, glass blower-and now, writer. He feels strongly that an education is a wonderful thing to have that no one can take from you. He says, "It is your gift to yourself, from yourself, for yourself. Some people are called to teach others and some gifts are those people who teach us all."