Tuesday, August 27, 2024

Squatch Huntin'

 

🍬🤍🍬


 

            Twigg had sort of run out of things to do at home. He was experiencing a tad bit of pre-adolescent ennui. The puma bros. were tired of his attempts to fool them by disappearing and re-appearing somewhere else. They had retired to their favorite branches high up in a fir tree, from where they could still see anything gong on below. But they were drifting off to sleep.
            His mom was busy prepping dinner and playing with Cherry. Ralph had gone on a firewood expedition.  He probably should have taken Twigg with him.
            “Mommy, I’m going to go explore.  I want to find something new that I never ever saw before,” said Twigg to Ramona.
            “Don’t go down to the river and come back before I start to wonder where you are,” she said.
            “How will I know that?” asked Twigg, looking at her in confusion, but interested.
            “When you have been out there for a while and you wonder whether I am wondering where you are, well come home then.  That means I am about to wonder where you are,” said Ramona enigmatically, but with a chuckle. Ramona has a pretty good grasp of basic psychology.
            “Alright mommy. I won’t go to the river, and I’ll come  home when I think of you.”
            Twigg’s experience of the forest was complicated. It was deeply tactile, but also non-physical. Being close to the ground, he was familiar with the plant life, the very forest duff soil, the insects and any small animals that he could get close to, almost as if they were an extension of his own self. He was fearless.
            He had a place where he like to play. It was his own little grove. Usually, he had Berry and Bob with him when he went there but they were up a tree. His place was among some small sapling firs that had grown up around a nurse log. Often he would arrange things that he had found there on the nurse log. Special rocks, flowers, feathers, metal things, just stuff that he thought was interesting or pretty.
            That day, when he got there, he found all of his stuff cleaned away and an alien object lying on the log. It was wrapped in colored paper. He picked it up and sniffed it. It smelled sweet. He peeled the paper off of it, getting some brown material on his fingers. He cautiously put out his tongue and tasted it. Well, it was a Baby Ruth bar, and he went down hard! It didn’t take long to eat the whole thing.
            Now, as it happened, the day before some retired grey hairs and a couple of unemployed hangers on had arrived in Ralph’s neighborhood intent on gathering evidence and perhaps a specimen of the storied legendary wild man of the forest, i.e. Sasquatch. Preferably a small manageable one.
            They found Twigg’s little grove, with its obvious signs of life and they set the trap. Candy and an obscured trail camera set to react to motion.
            On the first day in question Twigg thought of his mother after eating the Baby Ruth and went on home. But he didn’t mention his find to anyone. He had an idea a parent might tell him not to eat strange things he found in the forest.
            Day two dawned. He thought of the candy bar quite a bit. He was very curious about how it had gotten there. He decided to go see if there might be another one in his play area. He waited until his parents were busy and the cats were asleep near the cook fire. Then he told Ramona he wanted to go play in the woods again and took off after hearing the same directions from his mother.
            Frank L. Dearth and Billy O’Dear were pretty darn happy when they saw the photos. So were the other four guys.  There was jubilation in the big van parked down along the highway. Success was as sweet as Baby Ruth had been to Twigg. All six hearties decided to go in for the capture.
            They baited the trap. They waited just a bit away, out of sight they hoped. Six guys hiding in the underbrush.
            Twigg arrived on the scene all full of hopes and hunger for more. There is was!  Another mysterious colorfully wrapped sweet delight waited for him just as before. He took the bait and busily began tearing the paper away. He was just about to take a bite when he was suddenly surrounded by six strange persons the like of which he had never seen in the forest. His world took a strange twist. Frank grabbed his arm, and Billy grabbed the other arm. Popular success and wealth flitted briefly through their minds.
            Twigg thought of his mother. He thought of Ralph. He wished that he had Berry and Bob. He decided to go home.
            He vanished. Clean as a whistle. The hunters were left to stand with their mouths hanging open in amazement. Photos of this scene were also snapped by the trail camera.  They were not so proud of those photos later. In fact, they were kept private.
            Now, when Ralph had been gathering firewood the day before, he had come upon the big white, somewhat official-looking GM van out by the highway. He didn’t think much about it. Just some people doing whatever it is that people do, he thought. Big deal. He slipped back into the trees.
            Twigg reappeared near Ramona’s fire. He was looking startled, and Ramona could see that all was not right with him.
            “Twigg, where have you been? What happened to you?” she said.
            “Oh mommy, I did find something I’ve never seen before,” said he, and the whole story came out.
            But when they told Ralph about it he just laughed. “See, that disappearing skill is something those jokers were not expecting Twigg! But you know what kiddo?  I think I know where their van is.  I’ll bet anything it belongs to them. And I think they need another surprise to send them on their way! And I bet they’ll never have the guts to return either!
            “You stay here and take care of mommy and Cherry, and I am going to go pay those characters a visit!  This is gonna be great! I’m taking the cats with me too!” said Ralph with a happy sparkle in his big brown eyes and a grin on his big mug.
            Down by the two lane highway Ralph saw that the van was still parked there. He and the cats approached it silently. To make sure it was the right van, Ralph listened in on the conversation within. They were discussing the disappearance that they had all witnessed. It didn’t make sense to them at all. They were patently flummoxed!
            Okay then!
            Ralph went to work.  He jumped on the back bumper making the van hop up and down. He told Berry and Bob to get up on top and stare in the windows and make noise. They did a great job.  The cats screamed hideously. The guys inside began to holler and thrash around.
            Frank turned on the ignition and the headlights, it was getting dark by the way. Ralph shoved the van sideways, rocking it in a sickening fashion, laughing his head off.  Then he stood right in front, where they could see him through the windshield. He stood at his full appalling eight feet of height and five feet of breadth. He sucked in a great breath of air and let it out in horrible bellows and howls, and he whooped like he had never whooped before. Ah, it was grand!
            Then he stepped politely aside, called the cats to come to him, and let the mighty hunters take off with a squealing of tires and a rather ragged entry onto the highway. He watched it disappear, headed south at about 70 mph.
            Ralph watched the retreat with delight, and mighty chuckles. He was pretty darn sure they wouldn’t be back or talk about their adventures too much. Problem solved.
            He and the cats walked on home to report all. He giggled to himself all the way too.

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