In nineteen ninety seven, when I was ten years old, I was spending the summer with my grandmother. One day, she told me that we were going to Grandpa's house for lunch in Geneva, a small town in Seminole County, Florida, about a fifteen minute car ride away. During the car ride, my grandmother and I were listening to the radio. There was a bright, hot and humid, sunny Florida day, about close to eleven AM, and I was looking out my window when all of a sudden, my grandmother slammed on
her brakes and her giant osmobile, screeching the tires. Thankfully no one was behind us. My head shot forward to see why she was breaking so fast and driving like a mad woman. There it was. There was this thing, this creature on two legs. It looked like an orangutan with long orange hair. We were fifteen feet away from it. It was about seven feet tall, walking upright, and it stopped in the middle of the road and stared at
us for a few seconds. Well. I turned to my grandmother and she turned and looked right at me, and we were both in total disbelief. Our mouths were wide open and shot We turned back to the creature, and it showed us its teeth, sort of like how a chimp shows its teeth, and then it continued on its way. My grandpa's house was only maybe a thousand feet away. My grandmother told my grandpa and aunt what we had seen. Grandpa said it was the Old Red started laughing. He
was an outdoorsman. He used to live in old campers. Sometimes he'd even sleep outside. Now remembering having a pet deer. He had squirrels and raccoons and possums, and we would talk about his pet monkey called Old Red. I never believed him about Old Red because I never saw it myself. At that time. The deer and the raccoons would come inside his trailer. He would feed them all, and I would sit there just watching him. The nights I stayed with my grandpa, he would try to get Old Red
to come out so I could sing. He'd call out, Red, Red, Red, come on out. At the time, I was a quiet kid, and I never asked him who Old Red was. Before my sighting, I thought Old Red was a squirrel. Grandpa was very protective of his wildlife. He said, the deer and the squirrels and Old Red were his, and nobody better hurt him or else. He wouldn't even let me touch the deer of the squirrels. He made me sit
there and just watch. And my grandpa was a quiet man, and he kept to himself, and he had a few close friends. But that day he laughed his butt off. You believe me now, he said, laughing and dancing in circles. My grandparents are both gone now, but I still have so many questions. Did Old Red come inside and sit with my grandfather and eat? What kind of food did he like? How long did it take him to befriend to this animal? I found one picture on the internet
that looks like Old Red. There's an old species of primate that exists around here in Florida. You can even visit this creature at the Wilkiva Spring State Park. Based on that, I think two scenarios could coexist. One that somebody let the orangutang like Bigfoot loose and it was somebody's pet at some point, or that there are wild animals that look like orangutang's that live in the swamps out here on the Saint John's River,