Creature Feature

South of Port Kirwan, on Newfoundland’s Irish Shore, along the dirt road east of Renews, is the former lighthouse at Bear Cove Point. My friend Ray grew up here. His father ran the lighthouse, as did his grandfather a generation before. The coast is treacherous, but then so are the woods inland. There are rumours. When Ray and I hiked the cove twenty-five years ago, I heard things, but I kept it all to myself: that occasional moaning was probably just the wind. We met up with a cousin of Ray’s, driving the same road, a dog in the back seat, a rifle on the driver’s side. “When springtime comes to Renews,” the cousin told us, patting the gun, then the dog, “something’s got to die.”

Things live in the forest near Renews, possibly fairies, they say. The delighted tourists are told to carry bread in their pockets, to help negotiate in the event of capture. The locals roll their eyes but, at the same time, pay due regard to the mystery of the place. Another friend, a...