In South Arkansas there's talk of a monster. Where he roams, the locust thorns build barbed walls around the riverbank, not far from your house. Your real home isn't made of stock millwork, but telephone lines: an online forum for undiscovered creatures where everyone knows you as 'cripplefoot'. You debate the existence of the strange as your friends leave for distant universities. Outside your childhood bedroom, the cypress trees stretch for miles.

In South Arkansas there's talk of a monster. They say he always follows the creeks.