“I’ll do that,” Aly agreed, nerves mulling. Though curious, the idea of braving another interrogation was sickening. As if she made an open invitation, her grabbed her elbow, guiding her the short few yards before waving inside and leaving her to her own devices.
Gee, thanks. “You must be Alyson,” Ajay said. He lifted the sleeve of his blazer, a piece to a brown pants suit, scratching his golden skin mindlessly. Though an older man, he had a quaint sense about him, already setting her as ease. Smiling from beneath an oddly shaped graying mustache, he motioned for her to sit, adding, “Please join me.”
Pulling a chair out, she blurted, “Is this about the old report?” “No, no. The new one,” he explained, lifting a stack of paperwork. “I just had a conference call with a Noah Locklear. This boy says he is your boyfriend?”
She smiled, glancing at the hands folded in her lap. “Yes, I was young once too. Blushing the darkest violets, when I met my wife. Prettiest girl everseen, I almost say,” Ajay laughed. Getting serious, he dove for allbusiness. “Now, don’t get upset, Allí, but I have to ask, do you believe you had a bear encounter?”
“It was the Wood Beast,” Aly corrected, grimacing, “Which, I know, sounds totally cliché when you say it out loud.” “You know,” Ajay said, hesitating, “some scientists think that most ‘big-foot’ sightings are actually an error in the human cognition, part of our psyche, to see ourselves in other animals.”
“This wasn’t anthropomorphism. This is me telling you exactly what I saw. It wasn’t a humanoid wild-man. It was some… freaky primate,” she explained, feeling inadequate. Her hands moved as she spoke, trying to convey the words that didn’t come. They fell into her lap.
“You are sure this is not a bear? Some of the biggest live in Alaska. Have you heard about the Kodiak bear?” “Yes, I’ve heard of the Kodiak. I grew up in the Adirondacks, with their little cousins. I was in the truck’s cab with my aunt when my uncle slid a ladder in a dumpster so a baby could crawl out. I grew up around life-size carvings and local stories about encounters. I’ve studied and painted them. I know grizzlies have a lot on the black bears, but I’m telling you, I have never seen or heard of anything like this”
“Except for Sasquatch,” Ajay finished, nodding. “Your boyfriend, he said the very same thing.”
“You don’t believe me.” Aly sighed, slumping back in her seat. “No, Allí, I believe you,” he corrected, adding, “This is my career, all my life. I have heard stories much stranger that I have believed. You know, it’s a very big deal that this species is in a place, like, like America and has not been studied. It may not feel like it now, but you have had a very lucky experience. You should keep that with you, because someday there will be many people who know of it, but you are someone who can say, ‘I told you so! I’ve seen this animal!’Am I right?”
She smiled to herself, raising her gaze to share it and nod. “Yes, thank you.”
Ajay grinned. “You know, Allí, you are a very nice girl when you let yourself be. You should let people see you a little bit more.”
Biting her lip, she asked, “He really called you?” “Well, I called him. Your father asked. But Noah has told me, ‘you have to listen to this girl. She’s very smart, and she does not lie.’ He’s quite taken with you, Allí. He said, ‘I have a good feeling about this. You’ll see, it is worth it.’”
She nodded, standing to go.
“And Allí?” Ajay added. “I believe him. I believe you, as well.”
CHAPTER 24 | NOAH Sarah stood behind the counter, transferring ketchup between bottles before filing the emptied containers. She was humming a song to herself, and from the sound of it, it had been stuck in her head all morning. In spite of her good-natured agreement not to pry, Noah could barely look at his sister. Even more than his own bafflement, he was filled with guilt for not being able to tell her what he’d discovered just yet.
This is part of her too.
Overwhelmed, Noah stood, walking back and forth across the diner.
Maybe there’s a reason we’ve always been different.
Glancing up, she frowned. “No’, you’re pacing. Why are you pacing?”
I don’t even know if it’s true.
He blurted, “Any clue if Lee was drunk yesterday?” Sarah raised her brow, clearly trying to evaluate wheth er he’d broken their pact. Too curious not to encourage more details, she replied, “I didn’t see him. I mean, it didn’t seem like it to me. I think they’re broke this week. I was surprised they forked it over for your meds, but I, ah, made the case. Even if he had some stashed, I think he was scared sober.”
“Okay. Thanks,” he mumbled, sprinting to the door and leaving without another word. Speed walking to the docks, he headed straight for his father’s junky vessel. Clutching his arm to cushion the pressure of jogging up the ramp, he stood, half-crouched and breathing hard, at the center of attention. His brothers, amongst the few hired help, dropped what they were doing, pulling their heads out of buckets or pausing as they wound rope around a forearm.
Raising his voice in spite of strained gasps, Noah demanded, “Everybody off.” They stared, unmoving. When the shock began to wear off, some of them laughed, most nervously. John looked between Mark and Andrew, glancing at Isaac and the part-time navigator, Clark Thomas, before settling on Noah. His face twisted into a sneer as he crossed his arms, stepping forward until he was close enough to breathe on him. Noticing that he nearly met John’s height while slouched, he wondered if the aggressive tactics his brothers used on each other was really what they sought.
They’re not my brothers.
“Cousin,” Noah warned, “You have about ten seconds to get out my face.” He deadpanned, backing up a step in shock, as though Noah had smacked the bear in the nose. As John’s face warped into a homely snigger, Lee climbed from below deck, commanding his crew to get off his boat. Looking perplexed, sharing glances that said they’d be talking about it, they left in silence, John backing away and following with reluctance.
Unexpectedly, Lee grumbled, “Your mind, boy. Say what’s on it.”
Unsure how to even approach the subject, Noah demanded, “What don’t you like about Alyson?”
Glaring, Lee replied, “I’m disgusted with your priorities.” “Well, she is. She’s what I’m concerned with at the moment,” Noah admitted, unashamed. “She’s the only thing that’s changed in the past eighteen years. At least, enough for you to say a thing like that.”
“You mean, to tell you the truth about your mother,” Lee paraphrased, his voice dropping an octave below irritation. “Your brothers played a prank and sabotaged his little Squatcher-group, or whatever they call it, and the Glass man raised holy hell. The people look after their own. He is not one of us.”
“What does that have to do with Aly?” Lee flinched, the subject changing in a sudden burst of anger, “Your biological ‘father’ and your mother…. The Rob boy, he comes in and gets her hooked on more drugs than you have fingers. Things no one should mess with. Overnight, my sister’s on Jupiter, no idea who anyone or what anything is. She ran away with him. One day she shows up with you, says she can’t take care of you, your father left her again. She says you need to grow up in a house with parents, and tells us to name you. She never went to no hospital, so we say my wife didn’t know she was pregnant. Three years later, and she does the same, has a little baby she names Sarah Maria Grace, and we do the same, and I told her, ‘No more babies. You need to come home.’ I don’t hear from her again until her body’s identified in some hotel in a dirty part of Seattle. She overdosed, and she was dead. Her desire to leave, to be unappreciative… She had no love for our culture, no respect for her family. She wanted to live in the big city, and forget her people.”
Noah listened intently, a hand subconsciously probing his wounded shoulder. It was too much information for a drunken spiel. It fit too well into empty stories, making sense in ways it shouldn’t. It should feel alien, a wild headline under weird-news ta
gs or a television talk-show story, nothing that belonged to him.
He’d seen Aunt Maria, this woman he should call mother. From her photographs, she didn’t look like a drug addict – young and lively, she was beautiful, long hair and bangs, wearing a colorful scarf and a dimpled smile. It was more put together than he’d ever seen Lee or Mary-Agnes.
He couldn’t imagine the woman sprawled across the bathroom floor of a motel, though he’d heard the tale a thousand times. He certainly couldn’t picture her as his mother, although her resemblance to Sarah had always been noticeable.
“You drink, hard,” Noah noted. Lee grunted, “Not like that, boy! She’d been arrested twice by fifteen, ran through that very street, bare assed”
“As a babe,” Noah finished, adding grimly, “With milady’s sour bastard.”
“Yeah,” Lee snorted, astonished. “How-”
“An old lyric.” Noah sighed, chewing his cheek.
Tony’s my freaking grandfather. Noah busted an awkward silence, assuring Lee, “I cherish this culture, my culture, our culture– and I’m telling you, Alyson’s different. You should hear how she talks about the dancers from the troupe, the legends in the tunnels, even the foliage has that girl amazed. You should see the art she’s capable of, the love she has for this. No one said it was all pretty, but she sees it. She gets it.”
Looking hesitant, like a kid going to get teeth pulled, Lee agreed, “If you feel this way, and she does not act like a Glass daughter, I will not fight this unless there is something to be concerned with.”
“Lee -” Noah paused, taking an uncomfortable leap of faith. “Dad, I am not Aunt Maria, and neither is Sarah. Alyson is not Rob Gabriel.”
“She thought you deserved better than a disowned mother, addicted to drugs and moving through the cities in the lower fifty. A better life.”
“What about my license? School papers?” “It’s all paperwork,” Lee mumbled. “You have any idea how many a child is born each year? You don’t need a test to say it’s mine or hers.”
“And Sarah? Saying Maria showed up for her birth?” “Sarah Maria Grace,” Lee began, “was an incident at the age where you are too old to hide it from, too young to know how to keep it a secret. You, boy, were a little child. You wrote her story.”
Noah whispered, “That’s not right.” Hesitant, Lee put a hand out for a shake. When Noah took it, the old man pulled him into a hug, somehow managing to avoid harming his shoulder wound, bursting open a thousand others.
“No,” Lee rumbled. “I don’t suppose it was.” CHAPTER 25 | ALYSON Standing in the doorway to Greg’s office, Alyson didn’t know what to think. As he spun in his chair, she heard the low sounds of fast forwarding and rewinding, playing over and over. Folded in his hands was a camcorder, her camcorder, the digital panel opened to reveal the tiny screen. Resisting the urge to freak out at his lack of privacy, she couldn’t help but wonder how he’d gotten his hands on it.
Choosing her words carefully, she announced her presence. “Investigating myths – I can’t imagine there’s much profit, there. Why is this office?”
“It’s a secretive research facility,” Greg snapped. Looking up, he blinked, as though it took a moment to recognize her. Wincing, he softened. “We have private ownership and we know better than to ask.”
Closing the panel, he set the camera on the desk, typing something into his computer. Pointing, her gaze followed his to a flashing flat screen on the wall across.
The video was straightforward and unwavering at first, the unbelievable image of an infant Gigit, a baby bigfoot, swinging through the trees. She and Noah spoke in the background, her voice sounding soft and lyrical, unlike the powerful speech that resounded in her head.
As the video progressed, the screen swung between the ground and the spaces in front and behind her, like a pendulum. She shuddered when Noah slammed into a thick branch jutting into the path, twigs flying off like splintered wood. He subconsciously recoiled, half his body held back while the other kept moving forward. Shuffling to regain his footing, they barely lost speed.
Only flashes of the large primates were captured, rather than her steady view of the baby in the trees. In a few seconds, he fastforwarded an additional sixteen minutes of footage. The screen went dark.
“When you left the hospital to drive the Locklear kid’s truck to Lee’s,” Greg offered, “I was just about to leave when someone handed this to me. I suppose it’s because of the label on the back.”
Aly raised an eyebrow, weary of the hope twisting in her lungs. She prompted, “And?” “And you did what I would have done,” he sighed. “You got evidence of an indisputable nature, a credible claim, and video or photographic documentation – twice. You had more than one witness on multiple occasions.”
He believes me– us, Noah and I. He’d never say it, but for Greg, this is groveling. Aly nodded, talking in his comments. They sounded just short of flattery. “You weren’t looking in the right place, or the right time, or using the right tactic or something.”
“I don’t know everything,” he confessed. “I’d really like to know how this happened.” “Oh, you can hear the whole story,” she began, adding, “on the condition that you accept that it was an accident, not some hell-bent attempt to get your attention or some beyond the grave conspiracy that Mom is trying to destroy whatever you’re doing here.”
“You’re so much like your mother,” he murmured, squinting. For the first time, it didn’t sound like an insult. Forcing a laugh through his irritation and perplexity, he continued, “Alyson, I know I haven’t always been the most objective. It’s gotten me into more trouble in my own work than anything. I know this was something you explored in selfinterest. My comments were in my own. I’m fascinated by your investigation, and I’m glad you and your friend learnedyour lessons.”
“If you’re talking about his arm,” Aly warned, her voice low and seething, “I will not hesitate to confiscate my camera, tell everyone in your business that it was a hoax you perpetuated, and I’ll punch you harder than Mom when you tried making her get out of the car pregnant and alone, dark in the woods on a road fifteen miles from town.”
“Just like your mother,” he repeated. Greg scratched his growing stubble, loud enough to hear across the room. Embarrassed, he admitted, “I was not a nice kid. Both of my… suggestions were… uncalled for.”
“You’re damn right. We’re going to respect each other, from now on, no exceptions. Noah is off limits, so is Doctor Whatshername. I think that’s fair,” she demanded, arms crossed. He nodded curtly, lifting her camera.
“I think it’s important,” he began, hesitant, “for you to be aware that the professional relationship with Lee that I’ve referenced in its entirety… it was going nowhere, fast, anyway. I apologize for making it seem that that was any fault of yours specifically. Also, the issue with your mother…”
Aly swallowed her comments, allowing him to finish.
Maybe she should be off limits too. “She had a lot of distain for everything I did. She wanted me to get a fanciful job and an extravagant house so she could raise you like her mother, barefoot and cleaning and all that glorified traditionalisms.”
Aly raised an eyebrow, motioning for him to go on in spite of every alarm blaring that he was either dead wrong, insane, misunderstood, or generally, her mother had changed and warped in ways she’d never seen.
He continued, “I had a lot of issues, especially with my father growing up. When she paralleled some of his expectations, I checked out. I wanted to forego everything I loved about her and leave town, never looking back. There was one fight too many, and I didn’t see to her term. I ran, as always. When I went back, I was too late– I was a stranger to you, she wasn’t interested, and there was another man that apparently made her hate us all forever. When I tried again, she was… dying and you were a ferocious teenager, and again, I was too late.”
“It never is,” Aly corrected, filling in a hanging silent. “You ha
ve opportunities to change things now. I’ll leave that at that. As far as the video…”
“You want to know what to do with it,” he said, leaning back. “If it should be kept secret?”
Aly nodded. “Well, it depends on a series of factors. How do you feel about the species? Do you want it noted or cataloged? Do you want to handle the ridicule that comes with coming forward? What is your stance on it – should it be protected, studied, left alone, or contained? After evaluating that, prepare yourself for ninetysomething percent of people to completely write you off. Consider dealing with a tarnished reputation, having your name on something that would affect future career choices. And”
“And Noah’s as well,” she finished, nodding. “Can you use the footage anonymously?”
“We could, if that’s what you want,” he agreed, expression grim.
“I’m going to talk to Noah. I’ll think about it,” she decided, analyzing his expression for approval. He seemed pleased. “You do that,” he said.
~
Though eternally confused, the experience of running in the sunlight was much different than when she was sobbing beneath the stars. Yards away at the docks, Aly watched Noah half-hug his sister. Sarah stood, tears falling, chest heaving. Nodding at her brother, she smiled at Aly as she passed, breaking into a run towards the house at her back.
She knows. As Aly crossed the pier, Noah stood, meeting her halfway. Unsure whether touching his arm would hurt, she waited until he wrapped the good one around her waist, pulling her close, tight against his chest. He smelled of wood and leather, classic and comforting. She smiled as his lips brushed her forehead.
Heart fluttering, she tried to hold her breathe, lest she audibly lose it. Her flesh tingled, sending gallons of adrenaline through her veins, where his fingertips trailed her face. Holding her close, his voice no louder than breath, he murmured her name. She flushed; skin alive as she pressed her lips to his. Sliding her arms around his neck, trying to favor one side, she whispered, “Everything okay?”
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