Quockerwodger

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Every big city has its rundown, abandoned areas. Places where the majority of the buildings lie vacant and hollow, home to only to squatters. If the land remains empty long enough nature will begin to retake it. Forgotten lawns will grow into savannah. Concrete will burst and crumble under the tenacious roots of tough, hardy trees like red cedars, honey locusts, sumac and trees-of-heaven. Wildlife will move in. First the ubiquitous coyotes and raccoons, then deer and sometimes even bears will return to reclaim the places that humanity temporarily thought to control.

Usually these “urban prairies” are caused by natural succession. But in the center of one of the biggest cities on the Northeast coast there is a small square of grassland in the middle of prime downtown real estate that no developer will dare touch. For the land is haunted.

Large vehicles left overnight on the site will be completely dismantled by morning. Even monstrous bulldozers and earth-movers do not survive the night intact. The haunted prairie is free of birds and other animals and any human who lingers too long within it begins to feel a sense of dread that slowly grows into an almost animalistic panic. A feeling that immediately disappears as soon as the afflicted steps onto the cracked sidewalk that rims the lot.

There is one mark of Man in this ominous field, though. In the center, almost totally hidden by the tall grass, stands a bucket-headed scarecrow.  Everyone naturally attributes the haunting to her, though no one has ever actually seen her move. Curiously, despite the constant exposure to the elements, her over-sized sweater, checkered pants and pork pie hat do not rot away. From time to time, it even seems that they are replaced with a new, but identical set.

There are a few people who do know the true story behind the strange happenings. It is, of course, the scarecrow’s doing, because that is how these urban legends work. They even know the name given to the scarecrow by her creator: Quockerwodger. The knowledgeable  know that she was created over a hundred years ago to guard a farmer’s field that was eventually swallowed up by the amoebic expansion of the city. Though her charge is long gone, Quockerwodger still protects the land from those she believes to be thieves both human and animal. Even the knowledgeable, though, do not know what became of the farmer who created her. Some do suspect that he is somehow responsible for her occasional gifts of fresh vestments.