Hannah didn’t notice any one thing;
it was a constellation of related observations. She kept her eyes open. She had
a lot of free time working as the camp host, when no one needed her for
anything.
The first odd thing was smoke. Not dirty black smoke, but a consistent column of light smoke above a certain location in the forest. It was there nearly every day. It seemed peculiar. No one was supposed to be living out there, but obviously someone was. Or, something else was happening out there, something on a daily basis.
Hannah thought about talking to Dexter about the smoke. But she hadn’t actually brought the subject up yet. She kept looking, without saying anything.
One day when she was taking a bike ride on SR 20, heading east, she rode past a spot where the verge was very wide and had a lot of tire tracks on it. She noticed that there was a very well-traveled looking path heading out into the forest. Hannah stopped and tried to peer into the trees there, but she couldn’t see very far into the forest. It was hard to see anything because of how close and shady it was in there. As she was standing there holding her bike upright, an extremely large raven flew out into the open, saw her there and then headed right back into the trees, as if it were in a hurry.
Hannah had never seen such a stunningly large raven before. It must mean something, she thought.
Then, once or maybe twice when she entered Rick’s office when Dexter was there, the two men had given each other a very noticeable look when she came in. There was relief and a bit of alarm in the look. Women notice such things. She didn’t ask any questions.
But she began to feel like they were keeping secrets from her.
Now, Hannah was not completely out of the loop. She had a computer, like everybody else and she had seen some interesting videos about this very part of the world. She wasn’t completely dead set against the stories she watched, but she was a curious newbie. The subject had never come up with either Rick or Dexter, or any of the campers either. The subject was the possible existence of Forest People, Sasquatches, or Wild Men who lived apart from human society.
The next time Hannah had some free time she went back to where she had seen the great raven. She was there to examine the ground. She was just curious. What she found was tire tracks. Not surprising. But it also looked like there was a scuffed foot print near the tire tracks in an area where there was some loose soil. She looked all over the wide spot in the verge, but she only saw the one possible very large footprint, because there was a lot of rough grass and so on just a little closer to the trees.
It was too much. Curiosity was getting the better of her. She brought her bike up away from the road, and laid it down out of sight as best she could. She decided to just start walking the path and see what she could see.
For some distance the path was wide and clear, and then it wasn’t. Looking into the trees, in an attempt to keep following the trail, Hannah saw it kind of fade into underbrush and grass, and huckleberry bushes. She decided to push on. Maybe it cleared out up ahead. But it didn’t.
Poor Hannah. She shoved her way through thick underbrush and found herself facing SR 20 again.
Now she knew something special was going on here. She pondered her next step.
She decided to try leaving something nice, and just see what happened next. So, she hung one of her old Easter baskets with six perfect Delicious apples in it on a broke alder sapling branch. Then she bided her time for a couple of days.
When she rode out there again, she brought a big jar of homemade peanut butter. She’d heard that they, if they were real, doted on peanut butter.
The apples and the basket were gone. So she placed the jar down in the grass at the foot of the alder, sort of out of sight from the road. The next time she came back it was gone, slick as a whistle.
This was becoming fun. Next trip to the unofficial parking spot, she left a nice bunch of bananas. This was kind of a joke because the videos said the Forest people didn’t like bananas or oranges, or carrots! Leaving bananas was like an experiment.
The experiment was successful because when she came back to check, the bananas had vanished. After a moment’s elation, she saw there among the greenery, hanging on the same little stub was a beautiful, fantastical work of art.
It was formed in a loop, woven of several types of greenery, and reminded Hannah of a sort of green crown. It had to be a gift. Someone out there in the trees where she couldn’t go, had made this beautiful thing for her. It was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to her. She placed it on her own head, and it fit perfectly.
Back in the campground she parked her bike by the mobile where she lived when she was working. Then she marched down to Rick’s office. This was going to be fun!
And it was fun.
“Hi!” Hannah called out as she stepped into Rick’s office. Both he and Dexter were there, drinking coffee. They gave each other a wary look.
“Wow, did you make that?” said Dexter.
“Nope, I did not,” said Hannah, agreeably.
“Where did you get it?” said Rick. If his face had an expression it might have been called ‘the jig is up.’
“I found it on an alder sapling over by the wide spot on highway 20,” she said.
“Cool!” said Dexter. “I wonder who made it?”
“Oh, come on!” she said. “You two are obviously hiding something from me, and I think I know what it is! Why don’t you just tell me? I won’t cry or run away!” Then she told them about seeing the smoke in the forest, the big raven by the parking spot, and how nervous they looked sometimes when she popped into the office. And she told them about how the basket of apples and the peanut butter, and the bananas had all been taken when she left them there.
“OK, Hannah. Take a seat,” said Rick. “You’re right. We have been keeping a big secret from you.”
Then he and Dexter, filling in for each other, and talking over each other, explained to her about the big secret, and why it needed to remain a secret.
She sat with her hands folded together and listened quietly to the whole story. “I knew it,” she said happily.
“I want to meet this guy, Ralph,” said Hannah at last.
The first odd thing was smoke. Not dirty black smoke, but a consistent column of light smoke above a certain location in the forest. It was there nearly every day. It seemed peculiar. No one was supposed to be living out there, but obviously someone was. Or, something else was happening out there, something on a daily basis.
Hannah thought about talking to Dexter about the smoke. But she hadn’t actually brought the subject up yet. She kept looking, without saying anything.
One day when she was taking a bike ride on SR 20, heading east, she rode past a spot where the verge was very wide and had a lot of tire tracks on it. She noticed that there was a very well-traveled looking path heading out into the forest. Hannah stopped and tried to peer into the trees there, but she couldn’t see very far into the forest. It was hard to see anything because of how close and shady it was in there. As she was standing there holding her bike upright, an extremely large raven flew out into the open, saw her there and then headed right back into the trees, as if it were in a hurry.
Hannah had never seen such a stunningly large raven before. It must mean something, she thought.
Then, once or maybe twice when she entered Rick’s office when Dexter was there, the two men had given each other a very noticeable look when she came in. There was relief and a bit of alarm in the look. Women notice such things. She didn’t ask any questions.
But she began to feel like they were keeping secrets from her.
Now, Hannah was not completely out of the loop. She had a computer, like everybody else and she had seen some interesting videos about this very part of the world. She wasn’t completely dead set against the stories she watched, but she was a curious newbie. The subject had never come up with either Rick or Dexter, or any of the campers either. The subject was the possible existence of Forest People, Sasquatches, or Wild Men who lived apart from human society.
The next time Hannah had some free time she went back to where she had seen the great raven. She was there to examine the ground. She was just curious. What she found was tire tracks. Not surprising. But it also looked like there was a scuffed foot print near the tire tracks in an area where there was some loose soil. She looked all over the wide spot in the verge, but she only saw the one possible very large footprint, because there was a lot of rough grass and so on just a little closer to the trees.
It was too much. Curiosity was getting the better of her. She brought her bike up away from the road, and laid it down out of sight as best she could. She decided to just start walking the path and see what she could see.
For some distance the path was wide and clear, and then it wasn’t. Looking into the trees, in an attempt to keep following the trail, Hannah saw it kind of fade into underbrush and grass, and huckleberry bushes. She decided to push on. Maybe it cleared out up ahead. But it didn’t.
Poor Hannah. She shoved her way through thick underbrush and found herself facing SR 20 again.
Now she knew something special was going on here. She pondered her next step.
She decided to try leaving something nice, and just see what happened next. So, she hung one of her old Easter baskets with six perfect Delicious apples in it on a broke alder sapling branch. Then she bided her time for a couple of days.
When she rode out there again, she brought a big jar of homemade peanut butter. She’d heard that they, if they were real, doted on peanut butter.
The apples and the basket were gone. So she placed the jar down in the grass at the foot of the alder, sort of out of sight from the road. The next time she came back it was gone, slick as a whistle.
This was becoming fun. Next trip to the unofficial parking spot, she left a nice bunch of bananas. This was kind of a joke because the videos said the Forest people didn’t like bananas or oranges, or carrots! Leaving bananas was like an experiment.
The experiment was successful because when she came back to check, the bananas had vanished. After a moment’s elation, she saw there among the greenery, hanging on the same little stub was a beautiful, fantastical work of art.
It was formed in a loop, woven of several types of greenery, and reminded Hannah of a sort of green crown. It had to be a gift. Someone out there in the trees where she couldn’t go, had made this beautiful thing for her. It was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to her. She placed it on her own head, and it fit perfectly.
Back in the campground she parked her bike by the mobile where she lived when she was working. Then she marched down to Rick’s office. This was going to be fun!
And it was fun.
“Hi!” Hannah called out as she stepped into Rick’s office. Both he and Dexter were there, drinking coffee. They gave each other a wary look.
“Wow, did you make that?” said Dexter.
“Nope, I did not,” said Hannah, agreeably.
“Where did you get it?” said Rick. If his face had an expression it might have been called ‘the jig is up.’
“I found it on an alder sapling over by the wide spot on highway 20,” she said.
“Cool!” said Dexter. “I wonder who made it?”
“Oh, come on!” she said. “You two are obviously hiding something from me, and I think I know what it is! Why don’t you just tell me? I won’t cry or run away!” Then she told them about seeing the smoke in the forest, the big raven by the parking spot, and how nervous they looked sometimes when she popped into the office. And she told them about how the basket of apples and the peanut butter, and the bananas had all been taken when she left them there.
“OK, Hannah. Take a seat,” said Rick. “You’re right. We have been keeping a big secret from you.”
Then he and Dexter, filling in for each other, and talking over each other, explained to her about the big secret, and why it needed to remain a secret.
She sat with her hands folded together and listened quietly to the whole story. “I knew it,” she said happily.
“I want to meet this guy, Ralph,” said Hannah at last.
🍁
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