Sasquatch across the camp fire

by Michael Joy

of his truck cooling-off and so he had shot his truck three times."

  The Sasquatch nodded," I've sat near to dozens of camp fires in the evening while I listened, especially when men are trying to train their sons to hunt. It used to be that the hunter had shot a cow. I think in truth that more hunters get shot that way."

  "So you understand the danger, if fools carrying guns start chasing through the forest searching for you, it becomes dangerous for everyone concerned. I know your people like to be left alone, and you can survive under conditions far more rigorous than most men could encounter, but now with modern transportation and surveillance equipment the situation has changed."

  "You mean the people who want to put together a TV series based on searching for Big Foot. Those people have been coming out into the wilderness for years. They look but they do not truly see, that and they are easily distracted." He paused his stew pot only half consumed. He pointed to his foot I stared at the bottom of his foot where he had stretched it out in front of him. There was a tread pattern on the sole of the boot; it was clear and easy to read. A part of the sole that appeared to match up with the ball of his foot had been formed to resemble the hoof print of a large elk. Also protruding at the heel was what looked like the tread of the small pair of runners. This meant when he walked rather than one large footprint he would be leaving behind imprints in the dirt that resembled two different creatures following the same path. This kind of trick might not fool a skilled tracker, but no one would be looking at a large muddy footprint and saying "Look what I found."

  "I agree that having more people out here hoping to get rich is going to be a problem. A bigger problem will be if people who have dealt with us in the past start discussing how to contact us." He was looking at me, as if he was gauging whether his problems could be solved by going for my throat.

  "Look I am just carrying a message."

  "So you have said." His eyes dwelled significantly on my shotgun, not that I would carry a weapon as light as a twelve gauge if I planned to hunt one of his people.

  The silence that followed was long and deep, he continued to study me while I searched through what I had planned to convey. I had spent hours crouched over a laptop researching phrases using Indian sign language. I have known some already, friend, share my fire where is water? And I want to trade this for that.

  I had mastered for this conversation, bad men come from far away, hide your family deep in the forest. In truth I felt slightly cheated that so much of what I prepared was not needed.

  "Who do you learn English from?"

  "You are not the first man our people have met in the wilderness and in the beginning when there were trading posts my people would send some of the members of the tribes down towards the eastern sea to learn of your ways and your language." My jaw had dropped. "You know of course that when children are young they pick up languages easily, something we learned by accident was that our young could learn to hear high pitched sounds like those used by human children if they start when they are young, they also learn to hear accurately our speech from their parents. I am one of the eighth generation that has learned English, therefore you cannot hear my accent, the younger ones have more control of their speech until they mature, they can even sound like one of your women."

  He leaned back and he pulled up a medical mask to cover his face. "You realize that the big problem is not that we can't deal with your language or your technology, the reason why we don't move about in your society is that your people are such nasty breeding grounds for disease. There were originally two views as to how we should deal with the European interlopers when they landed here. One view was that we would just club them down when they didn't show the proper respect, the other was that we would observe at a distance and only set up alliances after we had figured out what you had that we wanted in exchange for letting you settle here."

  "Letting my people settle," He had touched a sore point that I had not realized existed.

  "You must realize that one time we were spread across this land, much as the tribes were. We were not bound in small pockets of people that I can walk across in a week. We traveled where we willed, your people have a joke that talks of this, where does a five hundred pound gorilla shit."

  "Anywhere it wants?" I answered for him.

  "So then we had the coming of the white men and we had to decide. For a long time we were undecided but in the first days we learned that your people carry disease. You are a plague upon the earth,it's easier to keep our distance."

  I looked down at my pack, this now explained why the material reeked of some kind of hand sanitizer. I had eaten enough that I set my plate aside for now.

  "So if you are concerned about becoming infected why meet with me at all?"

  "I needed to learn whether you have been talking to other people about this method for contacting us, have you spoken to any others?"

  "No I felt it best to keep that to myself."

  "Someone need only study the remains of your fires to recognize the Cedar and the Juniper bows."

  "There are the other herbs that have to be added as well, just small portions and they are quickly consumed by fire, and I can smell the difference in the smoke but most people would have nowhere near my ability."

  "So you retain the ability to follow your prey by scent? And you believe that other men can no longer do this?"

  "The closest most people come is women who sniff their husband to see if another woman's perfume has been rubbed up against his neck. I believe I'm one of the last of my kind."

  "So tell me more about these people who contacted you?"

  "They didn't tell me much, they said the Council in St. Louis was concerned that this large a reward would cause an influx of treasure hunters searching for your people in the wilderness, that many would be injured or even killed through stupidity and misadventure. That and if any of them were injured by your people there would be fear mongering and…"

  "So you fear that there are some who would call us dangerous or unnatural and there would be some kind of official response?"

  "Such things have happened."

  His eyes watched me closely, "You have lived long, that I know. Your face says that you have knowledge of this, what do you know of such things?"

  "I was given a task almost 70 years ago in Europe, luckily I only had to find the boundaries of the disturbed earth and others had to mark the sites and dig, I really didn't need to get that close to point the way, but men wanted to count, to document to understand why. I have little desire to learn why."

  "You avoid telling me much, what is the reason? Do you think that you need to shield me?" He scowled again.

  He sat there calmly, composed, confident in his power and because he was so large and he seemed to imply that he believed himself to be smarter. So I gave in to a spiteful prodding and nodded. "Auschwitz." I told him.

  He was still then, as if struck heavily to the body, I could not tell with the heavy almost pelt whether the blood had drained from his face or rushed up as he strove to hold down anger. Some words have power.

  "So that is your fear?"

  "Part of it,all people who find themselves different have the shadow of those events looming behind them on a dark night."

  "We have moved away from my question. What else did you tell them?"

  "I told them there might be some isolated areas in the Appalachians where your people still reside, but more likely I would need to travel to wilderness areas near the Rocky Mountains."

  "So you gave them no specifics as to where you would travel and how you would attempt to lure us in for a parlay."

  "No I told them nothing."

  "And no other hints as to how you would communicate with us."

  "No I did tell them that I would be using sign language and that I
had forgotten much of it over the years."

  "So they didn't offer to send you an expert on sign language to assist you, or someone to help carry your bags."

  "They didn't send anyone, they sent me some links to sites that had information on sign language, most of which I had already found from other sources."

  He grunted then, and he looked towards my pack for a moment. "Did they pay you money or offer you a piece of any reward?"

  "No they arranged for flights and rental cars to defray expenses but they didn't offer me any money for my time."

  "So they knew when you would fly in to the airport's and they also knew what you would be driving, I understand you are a police officer would you be able to tell if someone was following you?"

  "I suppose, at an airport you have lots of people who are leaving at the same time as you and following a similar route." I shrugged as if it was of no importance.

  "So you didn't check your back trail?" The way he kept returning to the idea that I could be followed was disturbing.

  "I did once I got close to my destination."

  "So you were only careful that they did not follow you once you arrived at the place where you would light the parlay fire?"

  "Well in case someone was watching I did take pains to conceal my trail."

  "Ah of course in years past you were a hunter so what steps did you take?"

  "After I parked I spent an hour checking the