The Goatman

Mitchellville Maryland has a legend that the locals know as Goatman. He was supposedly half man, half goat and for some reason he like to prey on couples who found themselves near Cry Baby Bridge which is now thankfully long gone.
Cry Baby Bridge happened to be a one lane bridge on the old Lottsford road. It flooded almost every time it rained and people would try to cross it anyway, often misjudging where the bridge was and driving straight into the swollen river. It got its name from a couple who broke down at the bridge. They were young with a newborn baby in a car that would not start. The husband told his wife to stay in the car until he found help. When he made it back house later his wife and child were nowhere to be found. All he could hear was the cries of the baby somewhere out in the swamp. He tried to search for them both, but there was never any sign of them. Late at night though, people would swear they could hear a crying baby off in the distance, trying to tempt them into going to look for it.
We lived in the house closest to this bridge. It was at least a half mile away, but on calm nights you could easily hear the screech of tires and crunch sometimes followed by the horn blaring without stop as someone crashed and died on that bridge. I was never to go anywhere near the bridge of course because I wasn’t to be anywhere far from the house.
I went there all the time. Thousands of baby toads would pop up each spring some of them albino white. I saw a few cars submerged in the water downriver from the bridge and wondered often if they were still trapped inside or if they made it out before their car ended up almost lost forever.
One year our family got a couple goats. We tried to ride the large male named Bullwinkle but I was the only one who ever managed it for more than a minute at a time. I figure out how to bribe him with syrup after allowing me to sit on his back and guide him around. Apparently this later ended up being confusing for some teenagers I found partying in the barn one night.
They had parked some cars and trucks with their headlights on and aimed them to light up the inside of the barn. They had music blaring and you could hear the singing and cheering from my room that night. I left the house and let Bullwinkle off his run so I could find out what was happening. We went wide of the field the barn was near and came up from the shadowed side near the swamp. Bullwinkle kept stopping and eating things so it took almost an hour for us to get close enough to see what was happening.
I saw teens dancing in the barn and making out everywhere. There were cars bouncing with people inside and beer was being consumed with abandon. People were having such a great time that no one noticed my dad approaching. He had a shotgun and a giant flashlight and I think the kids assumed he was a cop.
People started running in all directions including straight towards where I was still sitting on Bullwinkle.
Screams and shouting indicated when they finally saw me. I expected them to be mad that they found me spying on them but instead they were running for their lives.
Apparently in the dark, the kid sitting on a goat who had his head down eating whatever he found there, with his arm raised in hello, is the scariest thing they had ever seen.
They ignored the man with the gun and fled back to their vehicles as they escaped.
I used the confusion to get off Bullwinkle and lead him back to the house before my dad could get there and lock me out.
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