BETTER THAN HEARSAY - Easter Imaginings

By Michael Ryan

CORNWALLVILLE - “To be clear, the deer hit me,” says Andrea Macko, a local correspondent who perhaps met the Prince of Peace.

It may have happened in early March as Macko, a founder and co-owner of Porcupine Soup, a well-respected online newspaper, was driving out near the old fairgrounds in the town of Cairo.

The fairgrounds, which hosted the Greene County Agricultural Society festival for sixty years in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, have been purchased by the county after laying dormant for quite a spell.

A new county Mental Health building is planned for the site which also had horse races until the early 1960’s and even some stock car racing.

Macko was tootling along old Route 23B, around dusk, when she heard a thump which she knew, being a crackerjack journalist, couldn’t be good.

I remember when deer used to come out only at night, compared to nowadays when they mosey across the road anytime they please.

Andrea, being the ripsnorting reporter she is, would likely dispute the “only at night” claim but I swear there are more of them than ever.

Whatever, one of the lovelies smacked into the back of her car, not hurting it badly but appearing as if she or he was not long for this world.

“I’m not sure if it was a buck or a doe,” Macko says, explaining to me there are 72 official human genders, something I didn’t realize.

“I was heading to the Red Rooster to play pool,” Macko says, meaning the bar and grill at the end of 23B where the Triple C used to be.

“We play nine ball on Sunday nights,” Macko said, part of an 8-team league that travels to different spots down in her neck of the woods.

Almost to her destination, Macko heard the thud, pulled over and says, “I got out and saw the deer was still alive but it didn’t look good.

“It had that glazed look in its eye. I got back in the car and called the county dispatcher to have someone help the poor thing enter the light.”

At that point, Macko didn’t formally shake hands with the Good Shepherd but she is thinking they probably mystically crossed paths

“The state trooper got there in maybe five minutes but before he pulled up, I looked in the rearview mirror, I saw the deer laying in the shoulder, and then I see this guy,” Macko says.

“I didn’t see where the guy came from, but all of a sudden he’s standing there, hanging with the deer, squatting down, talking to it.

“The guy is close to the deer and I’m looking at this, thinking we might need to call an ambulance next if that deer kicks the guy,” Macko says.

“I’m watching this and the next thing, the deer gets up and walks away, into the fairgrounds. Right around then the trooper shows up.

“I was distracted for a second, and when I looked back, the guy was gone. He’d shown up out of nowhere and he was nowhere again.”

Sending the trooper on his way, Macko, being the astute journalist she is, says, “I nosed around a little bit about the guy.

“Somebody matching his description might live in the apartment building there,” Macko says, referring to Fairground Estates.

“All I know is he got a lot closer to that deer than I was comfortable getting, and I was very surprised to see it get up.

“Realistically the guy was just a concerned resident, but he has a magical touch. Maybe he’s the Deer Whisperer,” Macko says. “I’ll just pretend or maybe, who knows, he was sent from Above.”