12

Jordan was so excited he couldn’t sleep. He stared at the ceiling, listening to the swamp sounds drift through his bedroom window. Somehow they didn’t sound as strange and alien to him as they did before. They seemed to be calling out to him now, like a chorus of friends.

The dank, mysterious odors were now more inviting, too. He shut his eyes and inhaled deeply through his nose, taking it all in. The nasty stench that suddenly invaded the other smells hit him like a stink pie in the face. He knew that smell. Bernard.

He sat up and took another big whiff. He couldn’t see the Skunk Ape, but he was out there, all right. And he was close.

Jordan’s mind raced. Maybe he was being tested. He could imagine Eldon, who was all about passing tests and earning badges, running a mock drill to see how Jordan might handle an AWOL Skunk Ape. If there was a mock sighting, Jordan might even be expected to pull off a mock hoaxing. He grabbed his grandfather’s suitcase containing the Skunk Ape hoaxing stuff. Best to be prepared, he thought as he crept out of the house in his pajamas.

Or maybe Bernard was sneaking out on his own. He was very stubborn, and not at all happy about having to be watched. It might be like him to do something dramatic, just to show that he wasn’t going to behave himself if he was left with an inexperienced non-Keeper.

Jordan tightened his grip on his grandfather’s old suitcase as he ran through the cool night air. Either way, he was going to prove himself, just like a real Creature Keeper.

He stopped where the hedge met the wall. One big whiff told him Bernard was on the other side. He pushed through the hedge and stepped into the swamp.

The swamp at night was a very different place. Every sound and smell seemed more intense, every shadow more dark and creepy. Jordan thought of his grandfather running through this same swamp in his pajamas, just like him. This made him stop in his tracks. He realized he’d lost Bernard’s scent. He’d also lost his bearings. He wasn’t sure which direction the wall was. He thought again of his grandfather, and how that turned out. Crrrooooaaak! Jordan’s head snapped in the direction of the sound. It could’ve been a bullfrog, or it could’ve been an alligator. It could be the alligator that ate Grampa Grimsley! Jordan really didn’t like alligators. He clung to the case as he began running, barely able to see in front of him. His stomach felt cold, yet his neck felt prickly and hot. Sweat was beading on his face and he could barely swallow as he ran around a large eucalyptus tree.

WHUMP! He slammed into something large and bounced off, falling backward and dropping the hoaxing kit. He sat up and focused on the black mound in front of him, and the nasty but happily familiar smell that filled his nostrils. He never thought he’d be so happy to sniff such a stanky stench. He smiled as Bernard helped him to his feet.

“What in the devil are you doing out here?” Bernard whispered.

“I could ask you the same thing!” Jordan shot back.

“Well, I was looking for you.”

“And I was looking for you!”

They stared at each other for a tense moment. Bernard smiled. They both burst into laughter. Bernard fell backward, his giant butt flopping in the marshy muck. This made the two of them laugh even harder. They were both in tears, and Jordan forgot all about alligators.

Moments later, Bernard was carrying the suitcase, escorting Jordan home through the swamp. “I must say, running out here in your pajamas just to find little ol’ me? Impressive.”

“I didn’t want to let Eldon down. I really do want to help out the best I can.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that. I know Eldon thinks the way for you to help is to take care of me. But it’s him who we need to protect right now.”

Jordan glanced up at Bernard’s face. He looked sincerely troubled.

“Eldon thinks I like to just go out wandering around,” he continued. “And I do. But that has nothing to do with why I wanted to accompany him to Scotland. Something’s going on over there. I’m worried it may be more than he can handle.”

“But you said Nessie probably just wandered off, to get spotted.”

“I thought that at first, but it’s been weeks, and there hasn’t been a hint of that chubby diva. She’s not subtle—we’d have seen something by now. I was just saying that, hoping he wouldn’t go. I’m worried. And I’d like you to go with him.”

“What?” Jordan stepped back. “I can’t! He’s counting on me to take care of you!”

“Trust me, he needs you far more than I do. I’ll be perfectly safe here on my own.”

“I saw you fall down an elevator shaft just today! And yesterday you were hit by a car!”

Bernard thought for a moment. “The elevator incident wasn’t my best moment. But as for the car, you guys didn’t hit me—I hit you.”

“You knew it was us?”

“I’m not proud of it, but I was desperate. I’d made a deal with Eldon that the only way I’d stay is if he got a real Grimsley to watch me. When he wrote that ridiculous Noodlepen letter, I figured I’d better keep a lookout for any Grimsleys. And sure enough, there you were. I thought if you got spooked, maybe you’d all turn tail and head home.”

“So you hit our car? How did you know it was us? How did you know we were Grimsleys?”

“It’s hard to explain, but a creature can sense its Keeper. It’s a bond that lasts a long, long time. I have it with Eldon, and I felt it, a tiny bit, as you and your family got closer. I just knew.”

In the dark, Jordan felt the ring on his finger. “Because of my Grampa Grimsley. He was your first Keeper.”

“That could explain it. That or the horribly ugly car you were driving. It’s just like what your grandfather might’ve driven. Probably did, at one point. He had no taste in the finer things.”

Bernard reached down and gently lifted Jordan onto his shoulder. He took a deep breath, and continued walking. “It was a long time ago. I’d been running and hiding from men for centuries. In the early days it was sticks and rocks. Then spears and arrows. As time advanced, so did their weapons and methods. They even trained their own creatures to track me. Between the shotguns and the bloodhounds, the swamp grew smaller, with less room to run and fewer places to hide.”

Jordan looked out at the dark swamp, imagining it swarming with hunters and hounds.

“Luckily, your grandfather found me first. He said if I wanted to survive, I should go hide in the great lemon tree. I climbed to the very top, and hid within its bursting lemon blossoms. Its thick, white petals kept me hidden from the men’s guns, and its sweet, heavy fragrance kept me hidden from their dogs. When he came back, he offered me a more permanent safety—a fortress beneath the tree I’d hidden in, deep underground, sheltered by its roots. Your grandfather invited me to stay forever. So I did.”

Jordan thought for a moment. “What was my grandfather like?”

“He was all alone. He’d been estranged from his family after spending his life traveling the world, finding incredible creatures that he didn’t dare tell anyone about. But he could tell me. He told me about every one. Every adventure, every amazing place he’d been, every amazing cryptid he’d discovered and met.”

“His life’s work,” Jordan said.

“Not quite. What he wanted was to offer them the safety he’d given me. So we worked on a way. But men were still sniffing around the swamp, and he feared they’d ruin everything. Something had to be done to lure them away, once and for all. So that summer, he did it.”

“Skunk Ape Summer.” Jordan looked up. As they reached the wall, Bernard set him down, along with his grandfather’s Skunk Ape kit. Jordan clicked open the suitcase. Bernard chuckled as he pulled out the rubber face and held it up to his own.

“He’d wear this suit and let himself get spotted, each time farther away from the swamp. Every sighting drew the attention closer to Leisureville, farther from the Okeeyuckachokee Swamp—and the future base of the Creature Keepers.”

Bernard took another deep breath. “Of course, for it to really work, for it to get people to give up on the notion entirely that I was real, one more thing had to happen. And your grandfather was the only person to do it. He let himself get caught. He allowed himself to look like the local fool. But he didn’t look nearly as foolish as the people who’d claimed to have seen an actual Florida Skunk Ape. Suddenly no one believed I was real—it was just a crazy old man in a costume. I never saw him after that. I understand that he tried to make it back after getting caught, but—” He blew his nose—SKRONK! “After all the incredible creatures he’d tracked over his lifetime, it was a boring old alligator that did him in. I found his pajamas strewn all around the gator’s nest. Then I found the gator. It had died from a bad case of indigestion. I guess you could say your grandfather didn’t go down easy.”

Bernard smiled as he placed the mask back in the suitcase. “But what was done was done. I couldn’t get a dead alligator to uneat your grandfather, so I cremated them both. Your grandfather and a scaly old swamp creature, man and beast, all mixed up together in that urn. I like to think it’s the way he’d have wanted it.”

Bernard clicked the suitcase closed and stood up. “Your grandfather wasn’t just my first Keeper. He taught me everything I know, including how to sense humans who have hearts that are young and pure. That’s how I knew to trust Eldon when he dropped into my life, and probably how I knew your ugly car contained a Grimsley or two. But more than anything, your grandfather sacrificed his life to save mine. And that’s why I can’t let another one of my Keepers get hurt, ever again.”

Jordan picked up the case. “I’ll help you, Bernard. Tell me what to do.”

“Just be ready tomorrow morning.” He gently took the case from Jordan. “And if you don’t mind, I’d like to keep this. You won’t be needing it where you’re going.”

“It’s yours anyway,” Jordan said. “In a way, he made that hoax kit for you.”

Bernard smiled. “Oh, that reminds me.” He held something out to Jordan. “This belongs to you.” It was Jordan’s FrankenPhone.