Sierra MackelprangFollow

Date Collected

Fall 9-14-2018

Place item was collected

The Hub, Utah State University, Logan, Utah

Informant

Ryeanna, Tucker

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Ryeanna is a 23 year old college student here at Utah State studying Animal Science. She hopes to one day be a veterinarian. She grew up not too far from Logan in a little town just north-west of here called Tremonton.

Context

Ryeanna had told me this story last year when a bunch of use were sitting in The Hub in the TSC at Utah State. We were talking about pranks, supernatural events and weird dream occurrences when she shared this story. I thought it was so funny and weird that I asked her to share it with me so I could collect it for this Folklore project. She agreed with no complaint and set an appointment with me so that I could record it. We met in The Hub in between one of my classes and she retold me the story.

Text

Ryeanna: “So umm This happened to my friend, well it’s my best friend, we’ve been friends since like… I don’t even remember we met, before… since like, intermediate school, is what it’s called, that’s where we met. Umm she got married like two years ago and her husband is like a marine, and he went and got deployed but he didn’t go to Afghanistan or anything like that…he went to like these islands off the coast of Australia or something like that. And he was doing humanitarian work down there, and in their free time they could go through the village where people were selling stuff and this is where he got the cannibal fork…”

Me: “Did he have to go buy down some creepy back alley or something or was this just like in town?”

Ryeanna: “You know I don’t know the whole story exactly, I just know it was in a shop, and that supposedly it’s like this replica, because they use to practice cannibalism on the island because it was like a religious practice you know? And uh it’s a replica of a fork they use to use during this. So he was doing that and he brought it home and he pulled it out of the bag and his wife was immediately like ew… [Ryeanna grins and starts to chuckle] that’s like gross… but like he was just so proud of it so that she couldn’t’ tell him that, [chuckles while talking] that like she didn’t like it ya know?!”

Me “I just love how understanding she is, like okkkkkay I guess we’ll keep the fork”

Ryeanna: “Yeah and uh so It’s like a decor item basically, so they put it on display like in their living room in front of the TV, just like laying on its side, and she just said that like every time she would like see it,…she would just get this like gross feeling! [Grins and chuckles while talking] and like she just HATED THE FORK OK? And umm eventually it started moving, like it would move all over the house.”

Me: “Like teleporting?”

Ryeanna: “well yeah she would see it in like different places, and at first she thought it was like her husband, [said while grinning and chuckling] messing with her and like, no, he’s like no and honestly he’s like really bad at lying, so she like knew it wasn’t him like messing with her and it just kept like moving and she would just keep finding it in like, weird places and she’s like ok. Like. I hate this fork. like IT SUCKS! [Laughing]

And you know this kind of just became a regular thing and like… but it always stayed like…like their house is two levels…and it always just stayed down around the first level, like around the TV ya know? And she would tell her husband, I don’t like this fork like it keeps moving and he’s like ‘you’re crazy I don’t know what you’re talking…about there’s nothing wrong with the fork…’ and she’s like ‘whatever.’.

Well one day they only have one car because they’re like…a new married couple and stuff, so she had to take him to work, so she took him to work… and it’s like just the two of them you know…so she takes him to work and she was gone maybe like ten minutes. Comes back home, goes upstairs to start getting ready so she can go to work…and it is in their room. On the shelf [trying to hold back her own laughter] In front of their bed! Standing straight up, like staring at them! Like if they were laying in the bed it would be staring at them! And the shelf is like four feet high too, so it is just standing their on the shelf straight up, straight at the bed and she’s just like No. absolutely not! [Laughing]

She calls her husband. ‘Did you move the fork this morning?’ and he’s like ‘No why would I move the fork.’ and she’s just like ‘It is in front of our bed like staring at us! If we were laying in our bed!’ and he’s like ‘That’s BS.’ so like, he tried to blame the dog! [hardly containing laughter at this part]. And he’s like ‘The dog brought it upstairs.’ and she’s like ‘yeah.’ [Rolls eyes] And they have like a thirty pound red heeler, and he’s like ‘Yeah he like, put it on the shelf.’ And she’s like ‘And stood it straight up, four feet off the ground, so that it perfectly stared at us in bed?’ And he just wouldn’t believe it and she’s just like I can’t do this anymore, I hate this fork [giggling the whole time] but she can’t get rid of it because he loves it!

So she tells her friend about it and her friend is like oh I have this like friend and she’s like pagan or whatever…I don’t even know and she’s just like well I’m at my wits end I don’t even know what to do about it so she calls the pagan woman, and she’s like, look I have this situation I have this fork, And the woman is like oh well I can’t get over there today or like anytime this week, just like put a ring of salt around it to like, ya know keep it in its place. So she does, she just like poured salt around it and it never moved again! [Shrugging and smiling] and I think like she came over and like burned sage or something I don’t know yep…and it never moved again.”

Me: [laughing] “Her husband comes home. Why is there a ring of freaking salt around my fork?”

Ryeanna: “Yeah and she’s like nope! Just leave it haha.”

Texture

Ryeanna had told me this story before this interview at previous meeting. The first time she told it to me we were at The Hub in the TSC and we were in group of friends sharing funny, scary stories and pranks we had pulled, or heard over the years. The first time she told it, she told it loudly and with a lot of facial expressions and gusto, and the second time was way more subdued, probably because she knew I had already heard it ad a story loses it’s natural appeal after someone knows it. The tone in her voice and just the overall vibe I got when she told it, told me that she didn’t know if it was real or not, just thought it was funny because of how her friend’s husband reacted and how distressed her friend was over a fork. I think even though there was a lot of light laughter she was suspicious of the creepiness of it all.

Course

ENGL/HIST/ANTHRO 2210

Instructor

Lynne S. McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2018

Theme

G7: Unexplainable Phenomena

EAD Number

2.1.6.8.15

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Additional Files

Cannibal Fork.jpeg (70 kB)
Picture of the Actual Caniibal Fork in the story

Cannibal Fork - Ryanna-1.m4a (9329 kB)

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