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I didn’t tell any of the kids about what I’d seen near the drainpipe. Not even Hailey. I didn’t want them to think I was scared, or give them any ideas. I didn’t even know if I really had seen it.
By the end of the day it started to drizzle again, so Mom picked me up from school.
Dinner was another Dad pick: chicken tenders and jalapeño poppers. He did pick up a salad for Mom though.
I sat munching on some chicken dipped in BBQ sauce. It wasn’t bad for grocery store deli chicken. I kept glancing out the window. The porch light was on, reflecting the drizzling rain across the lawn. The trees beyond were spooky as ever.
“Weather says it should clear up before morning,” said Dad, looking at Mom’s phone. Handing it to her, he said, “Partly cloudy, cool eighty-five degrees.”
“Why is this place so hot all the time?” complained Mom, taking a bite of her salad.
Dad laughed. “It’s just the humidity!”
Mom took another bite of lettuce. “I have a morning meeting tomorrow, so I’ll have to leave pretty early to get to the animal clinic.”
“How early?” asked Dad, crunching down on a fried popper.
“Probably by 5:45 A.M.,” she answered. “Just make sure Scotty gets ready in time for school.”
“Don’t worry,” said Dad.
“Promise?” said Mom, giving him a look.
“Yes!” said Dad, taking another tender. Then he said, “Scott, what are you looking at?”
I shook my head, startled. I must have been staring out the window in a trance or something. “Uh, nothing. Just the woods.”
He nodded, apparently satisfied with this answer, and dipped his tender in bleu cheese sauce. Mom was looking at her phone now, plastic fork with salad in hand.
“Hey Dad,” I said. “Do you believe in Sasquatch?”
Dad looked at me. “You mean like Bigfoot? Of course I believe in Sasquatch.”
Mom looked up from her phone and gave Dad another look. Dad laughed and glanced out the window before saying, “Wait, is this a serious question?”
I almost nodded my head, then decided not to. “No.”
Dad laughed again and finished off his last tender in one bite. “‘Course, I have seen some weird stuff in the wilderness before. I’ve heard around town there’s supposed to be a Wildman in these parts,” he added spookily.
Mom rolled her eyes.
I took my plate and cup to the sink. As I rinsed them off, I looked out the kitchen window to the woods.
Of course they wouldn’t believe me. Why would they?
I stared, entranced by the soft rain hitting the leaves on the edge of the woods.
There was something out there, I knew it. And I was determined to find out what it was.
If only I’d known how bad I was going to regret that thought.
