by Dale Cozort
Chapter Twenty-Six
As they pulled into the cryptozoologist camp, Greg said, "I forgot to give Lyle the last page of the notebook."
"Hang onto it. We'll look at it when we have time."
Most of the cryptozoologists were hanging around the camp talking. Several young men clustered around Heather. Most of them dispersed when they saw Greg.
'Steve' sauntered over and said, "These guys couldn't find a quarter in a gum ball machine or a crooked politician in Chicago. I wouldn't mind having some of their equipment though. Nice stuff like thermal motion-detecting game cameras, and night-scope video cameras."
"I would dearly love to have some of that stuff," the pastor said. "But it would take the challenge out of the game."
"So, are you really into this mystery animal thing, pastor, or are you just clipping the sheep?"
"There are a lot of mysteries out here," Pastor Julius said. "A person could find remarkable things within walking distance if they knew how to look."
“I can vouch for one of the mysteries,” Greg said. “I’ve heard the Wind Lady.”
“Have you seen her?” Steve asked.
“No.”
“How about you, pastor?”
“I’ve tracked her. I’ve never seen her though. Just shadows and movement in the distance.”
“You don’t even have fuzzy pictures?”
“I’ve recorded her songs.”
The pastor strolled into the camp and quickly dominated it. He chatted, backslapped, flattered, and listened sympathetically. Greg and Amelia stayed at the fringes.
Amelia asked Steve, “What are you doing with this bunch?”
“Research. Killing time too. I’m supposed to meet someone for a business deal. They’re late, probably deliberately.”
“What kind of research?” Greg asked.
Steve laughed. “The kind where you go to exotic places and write it off on your taxes.”
The pastor took on the informal role as host and organizer to the cryptozoologists. As the afternoon wore on he turned the near anarchy of the camp into a reasonably efficient group of teams scouting the surrounding woods and placing game cameras. In the evening he got out a guitar and a harmonica and organized a pseudo-karaoke session.
Greg and Amelia hung around the edge of the group, chatting with Steve until he wandered off. Heather ignored them until the pastor whispered something to her, then she strolled over. “I’m supposed to play loving wife again. I’m not sure why. These people aren’t staying. Oh well. He wants loving wife. He gets loving wife.” She gave Greg a lingering kiss on the lips. “There. Loving wife.” She hugged Amelia. “And loving mother.”
“Gee, thanks for the thoughtfulness, mommy.”
A couple of guys did an ear-hurting version of an old Beatles song. Feral dogs or dog lemurs howled in the distance. The attempt at a song ended. A few seconds later, they heard a high-pitched, obviously non-human voice saying, “She loves me yeah yeah yeah.”
The pastor put his guitar down. “Excuse me. Got to talk to something.”
The group broke up as the pastor walked over to the ‘Dunnes’. “There’s a dinosaur out there. Either one of them should have come in. Why didn’t it?”
“It did a better job on the song than those guys,” Heather said.
The pastor yelled. “Fido! Come here Fido.”
“It’s probably the other one,” Amelia said.
“I’m not going to yell for Fluffy. I feel silly enough yelling for Fido.”
Steve wandered over as the pastor said that. “Dinosaurs named Fido and Fluffy. Somebody has a weird sense of humor.”
“That would be Lyle.”
“Weird sky you have over here.”
“Nine million years old. The planets aren’t much different. Minor changes with the moons and asteroids. Different comets. We’ve seen a few.”
The pastor flexed his knee. “I’m ready to give it up for the night. In another thirty-odd years we’ll be able to predict sunspots and comets and fireballs, plus the incoming weather. I just hope we don’t get a Carrington event.”
“It’s predictable because we’re in a computer simulation,” Steve said.
“If we are, it makes no practical difference. My knee still hurts. My eyes still keep wanting to close, and I still wonder who you are and why you’re here.
Steve said, “I’m here to find myself, and hopefully talk sense into my hard head.”