| |
When I woke up, I was alone in the tent, but I heard Tom moving around outside. We made quick work of our morning routine, opting to eat granola bars on the trail so we could get back to the ATV sooner. "How far are we from the ATV?" I asked as I slipped my arms into my pack.
"Should be less than two hours."
Great. I could do two hours. We cautiously packed up the feather and attached the bundle to Tom's pack. It was hard to know what to think about our outing. Was it a good or bad thing that we found the government facility? Should I be excited that we found the feather? What if there were giant birds flying over my new home? Did I care? Should I?
"You're deep in thought," Tom said. "What are you thinking about?"
"Everything, I guess. Just trying to figure out why I should care about any of this."
"That's a valid question. I think we're still missing lots of pieces of this puzzle."
We both agreed that the more we learned, the more questions we had. I was relieved when we got back to the ATV. It was where we left it, and there was no sign it had been tampered with. We loaded our gear and got on the road. I hadn't slept well the last couple of nights and with the engine noise, I found myself falling asleep. I kept jerking my head up when I felt it falling toward Tom's back.
We stopped, and Tom stepped off. "You're falling asleep. Are you OK?"
"Just tired. I haven't slept well the past few nights, and I'm exhausted."
"Do you want me to stop at the next campsite so you can get some rest?"
"No. I want to get back."
"OK. When we get back on, wrap your arms around me, and lean your head against my back. I'll take it slow. If we come to a steep section, I'll have to wake you."
I settled in with my head against Tom's back and fell asleep. I didn't wake up again until Tom stopped the ATV. "Did you have a nice nap?" he asked.
"I did. Thanks. How are we doing?"
"We just have to keep going. I haven't seen anything."
"Good."
I napped off and on, surprised to realize I could actually sleep on the back of the ATV. I'm sure it wasn't particularly safe, but there wasn't much I could do about it.
"Decision time," Tom said, after we'd walked around the ATV and stretched our legs. "Do you want to stop and make camp or see if we can make it home tonight?"
"If we can get home safely, I vote for that."
When we were back on forest service roads and the going was easier, Tom took a break and let me drive for a while. We made more frequent stops as it got later, but the road was clear and had leveled off as we left the mountains behind. We just needed to cross the miles to Tom's house.
When he pulled up beside his garage, I climbed off. "It's late, and we're both tired. You can sleep in the guest room."
I nearly fell asleep in the shower, but I managed to shut it off and crawl into bed. My dreams were populated by bigfoot, giant birds, Uncle Harry, and my guyumvirate.
When I woke up, the sun was shining outside. I got up and pulled my phone out of my backpack. It said it was 10:21. I enjoyed another long hot shower, dressed in the cleanest clothes I had, and made my way to the kitchen following the smell of coffee. Tom was sitting at the counter working on his laptop and drinking coffee.
"Morning. Do you have more of that coffee?"
He motioned me to the pot on the counter. "Help yourself. I set a mug out for you."
"Did you get any sleep?"
"Enough. How about you?"
"I'm good. Sorry I slept so late. Guess I'm not use to the fresh air or altitude or physical activity or excitement or..."
"I get it. I hope you don't mind. I already set up a meeting with Chance and Jim for this afternoon. We're going to meet at Chance's. Jim's bringing lunch."
"Great."
Tom fixed us toast and eggs, while I sat at the counter with two pads of paper and made lists. One was for things we wanted to make sure we told them. The other was for questions we wanted to ask.
After Tom helped me load my stuff into Snickety, he went back inside to retrieve the feather. He wanted me to take it, but there was no way to get it in my car without bending it. Tom got a tarp from the garage, wrapped the feather, secured it with bungee cords, and put it in the back of his truck. "They're not going to believe this," he said.
"I wanted to ask you about that. You said you believed in cryptids, but you seem skeptical about a huge bird."
"True. Having physical proof should make it easier to believe but that feather is damn big."