A Story in a Forest (3)

3. Consequences of The History Channel

[Weeks Earlier]

“Years of probing have only begun to scratch the depth that is the Okanogan forest. Many scientists estimate that there could be hundreds, even thousands of undiscovered species hiding just beyond our vision. With the wealth of photographs, sightings, and inconclusive DNA samples, there is but one conclusion to be had. Sasquatch is alive, hiding in the woods, and just waiting for us to come and find him.” Jimmy stood at the front of a highschool classroom filled to the brim with bored teenagers. In the back row his professor stood, admiring something outside the window and basking in the breeze that occasionally blew through.

There were only two weeks left until the end of summer term, and frankly the professor couldn’t be bothered to give a damn. Grades had to be put out yes, but that was more of a last minute, alcohol induced task, rather than requiring planning. The notebook he held to appear like he was critiquing contained nothing more than a couple of racy doodles and a coffee stain. At the moment Jimmy was giving his groundbreaking presentation about the existence of a large ape dwelling deep in the Canadian wilderness, Mr. Mortimer had but one thought God I hope this is fucking over.

When Jimmy ceased to speak he assumed it was, and gave a few languid claps before preparing to move on to the next presentation. “Very good Mr. Tucker, very good.” It wasn’t amusement he was conveying so much as just a sarcastic aplomb that appeared to be lost on everyone but himself. A bug flew by the outside of the window with a bright blue shell; Mortimer found it infinitely more interesting than what was going on inside.

A young girl with blonde hair blew a bubble with her chewing gum and let it pop loudly in the awkward silence that had formed. At the front of the room Jimmy stood, silhouetted by a massive projection of a brown Sasquatch, shaking excitedly. Mortimer took it as a sign of ADHD, which while true, was not the specific cause of Jimmy’s shaking. Jimmy, bless his soul, had never had much of a read for sarcasm; an unfortunate side-effect of a rather passive-aggressive upbringing. At that moment Jimmy felt as if Mortimer had given him a tacit agreement to steel all of the school’s AV equipment and head off on a monster hunting trip into the wilderness.

When Jimmy took off excitedly into the hallway Mortimer paid no real attention and instead continued to ‘teach’. “Next!”

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     “Wait a minute, you’re telling me all of the video equipment in the back is stolen from the school?” The station wagon bounced along what had become a very treacherous road.

     “Well, I do intend on returning it.” Jimmy said, feeling for the first time shame at his acquisitions. “It’s just, they wouldn’t have let me check it if they knew what it was for.”

     “Of course they wouldn’t have. It’s a dumb fucking idea we had as children, now turn this car around.” Edgar was fuming in the passenger seat. Luckily for Jimmy the child locks had kept him in place, despite his desperate attempts to launch himself from the moving vehicle. A sad silence settled over the car as Jimmy pondered whether or not it really was a lie. He had spent years cataloging and collecting various hoaxes, sightings, and mad journals, but had never stopped to think about the off-chance that they were wrong.

     “Do you really think The History Channel would lie about this?” Edgar let out an exasperated sigh and smacked his forehead heavily on the window. “Jesus! Don’t break the damned thing, we’re almost there anyway. If I let you out here you’d probably starve to death before you hit the main road again.” Edgar slumped back, realizing that Jimmy might’ve actually had a point. They had gone deep into the forest and it had been hours since they had last seen another car.

     “And if you weren’t so busy bitching you’d see that we’ve come to a beautiful place.” Overhead hundreds of feet of canopy twisted, blocking out the sun, leaving only twilight. “You were the one that wanted to take a camping trip.”

     “That I did.” Edgar had loved the forest since he was a child, but after the death of his parents had stopped going. His grandmother never left the house, and didn’t much like it when he did either.

     “This is our last opportunity to do this. Just think about it as an extended camping trip with a purpose.” Jimmy was drumming on the steering wheel in anxious anticipation. He looked a bit like a puppy who had been promised a walk, but wasn’t sure if he was going to get one. It was the point of no return for Edgar. Disappointing Jimmy was not something he was good at.

     “Alright fine. Don’t give me that look! A few days max, then we head back.”

     “Whatever you say!” Edgar felt himself relax a bit as the car rumbled deeper into the darkening forest.