CREATURE OF HABIT
Eric Wilder
Donny Collins rolled in his sleeping bag, unmindful that the moon had just crested above the fir trees surrounding the tent where he slept. An insistent hand on his shoulder roused him. He scratched his head and rubbed his neck, stiff from lying on the hard ground.
"Listen, Donny. There's something out there."
Donny blinked, then gazed at the dim figure of his pal Jamie. When his eyes focused, he saw Jamie's freckled face barely visible in the dim light filtering through the tent.
"What?" he asked, voice still dull with sleep.
Jamie put his finger to his lips. "Shhhhh! There's something outside the tent."
Donny listened and heard muffled footsteps. "It must be the coons again," he said.
Jamie shook his head doubtfully. "It's too big for coons. I think it's a bear."
"If it is," Donny whispered, holding his nose, "he must have taken a dip in a sewer."
"Gross!" Jamie said, making a face. "Maybe we should wake your dad."
Donny shook his head. "If it's a bear, we're probably better off staying quiet until it goes away."
Realizing the merit in the suggestion, the two boys pulled their sleeping bags up around their ears. The commotion outside the tent soon ceased and they drifted back to sleep.
Next morning, a deep voice awakened them from their stupors. "Are you boys going to sleep all day? Breakfast is almost ready."
Donny Collins rolled over, opened his eyes and immediately smelled bacon and eggs cooking outside the tent.
He shook the sleeping bag beside him. "Wake up, Jamie." The bag moved and a head protruded, Jamie brushing red hair from his face. Slowly, he unzipped his bag and followed Donny, already outside the tent.
"Did you hear the bear last night, Dad?" Donny asked.
Sam Collins stared blankly at the boy. "Bear?"
Jamie stuck his head out of the tent and looked around the campsite. "There was a bear all right, Mr. Collins. Have you checked the food yet?"
"You bet," Sam Collins said with a grin. "I'm cooking it."
Donny glanced dubiously at Jamie. "You sure, Dad?"
Sam raised his eyebrows and cocked his head, the abruptness of the action almost causing him to lose his lure-decorated fishing hat. "Look for yourself. You boys must have had a bad dream or something."
Donny quickly glanced around the campsite. Jamie joined him and they combed the area for some sign of a nocturnal visitor.
"Anything missing?" Sam Collins asked.
"All but a half dozen pieces of my peppermint candy," the portly Jamie replied.
"You boys must have drunk some bad pop," Sam Collins said, laughing. "Lets eat or the fish will be in Canada before we reach the lake."
Forgetting the bear, the boys attacked the breakfast. When they finished, they hiked a forest trail to a clear mountain lake. Many trout later the boys had all but forgotten the episode with the bear.
"Gotta go to the bathroom," Jamie said, reeling in his line.
He leaned his rod against a tree and then disappeared into the forest. In a minute, Donny and his father heard a screech.
"Donny! Mr. Collins! Come quick!"
They found Jamie staring at something on the straw-matted ground. "What is it?" Donny asked.
Jamie shook his head, his freckled face even whiter than normal. Donny and Sam saw a giant footprint that, other than its size, looked vaguely human. They stood in a semi-circle, mesmerized by the mark in the dirt. Suddenly, a branch snapped; its sound echoed like the crack of a rifle. Jamie glanced nervously at Donny. Whatever had broken the branch was moving rapidly in their direction. Sam Collins pushed the boys behind him and picked up a fallen branch from the ground. When the noise maker sprang from the bushes the two boys jumped and Sam flinched, knocking his hat to the ground.
It was a little man wearing an Australian bush cap. Sam picked up his hat as Donny and Jamie grinned sheepishly. The stranger had a bushy, Teddy Roosevelt moustache. When he smiled the gap between his front teeth enhanced the similarity.
"I'm Horace Miser, professor of anthropology ," he explained in a clipped British accent. "Seems you've beaten me to the proverbial punch."
"I’m sorry, but I don’t have a clue what you are talking about," Sam answered.
The little man rubbed his chin, trying to ascertain if the big man with booming voice was pulling his leg. Finally, he said, "I saw you looking at the footprint. Surely, you know what it is?"
The two boys exchanged dumbfounded glances and Sam said, "I do? Maybe you should tell us."
Professor looked at his watch. "I wish I had time but I haven’t as yet established a base camp."
"We have a camp about a hundred yards from here. You are welcome to join us," Sam said.
Professor Miser thought about Sam’s offer for only a moment before accepting. "Very kind of you, sir. My knapsack is behind the tree."
"Let me help you," Sam said, following him behind the tree and retrieving the heavy pack before Miser had a chance to protest. "Follow me," he instructed.
That night, after dinner, they waited by the fire for the Professor to explain about the giant footprint. After a nip from a silver flask he produced from one of the buttoned pockets in his safari jacket, he finally began:
"I've traveled the world searching for the fabled link between ourselves and our ancestry," he began, smoothing his unruly moustache. "I first heard of the creature while exploring Nepal as an apprentice anthropologist. I'm obsessed with finding the elusive creature they called yeti. The creature is also called abominable snowman, stink-bear, and bigfoot." The old man's words trailed into the darkness.
Sam Collins cast a doubtful look. "Professor Miser, you're telling us some giant, mythical monster made the footprint?"
His father's words sent a chill down Donny Collin's spine. He glanced at Jamie, his freckles faded in muted moonlight. He looked frightened.
"Giant, yes -- monster, no -- mythical, never," the Professor replied, solemnly. "I've tracked one of the beasts right here," he said, pointing to the log on which he sat. "The far reaches of the Great North Woods."
Unable to contain themselves, Donny and Jamie told the professor, as Donny’s father stared at them incredulously, about the commotion they had heard the previous night. Donny, finally, gazed nervously into the darkness. "The footprint in the woods looked like a man's, only bigger."
"Primate, yes -- human, no," the Professor answered.
"Pardon me, Professor," Sam Collins interrupted. "How can non-intelligent creatures continue to elude capture -- assuming, of course, they do exist?"
"Chimps and apes are intelligent, but just not human and neither is this creature," Professor Miser explained. "We have the benefit of our humanity and, therefore, an advantage." "Then why haven't you captured one?" Donny asked.
"We will remedy that situation tonight, my boy," the Professor answered, frowning.
"You're going to catch one tonight?" Jamie asked.
"Not catch, my boy," Miser answered with a toothy grin. "Simply document. The bigfoot is a creature of habit. According to what your lads just told me, he visited your camp last night looking for food. He'll return again tonight. I have a wildlife camera system complete with flashes and trip wires. If my hypothesis is correct, tomorrow we'll have proof of the creature's existence."
Sam Collins looked concerned. "Isn't it risky drawing him into camp?"
"Nonsense," Miser answered. "There isn't a single documented case of a bigfoot attacking a human. They are, quite simply, a non-violent species."
Only half-convinced, Sam Collins and the boys helped Professor Miser rig the automatic camera using the remainder of the peppermint candy as bait. The flashes and trip wires installed, they retired to their tents for the night.
"Do you think Bigfoot will show?" Donny asked, resting his hands behind his head.
"I don't know," Jamie answered. "I just wish we didn't have to use the last of my candy as bait."
Donny grinned. "You can have all the candy you want when we go home. Poor Bigfoot may never have peppermint again."
"I didn't think about that," Jamie said.
Donny asked another question. "Jamie, do you think Bigfoot is human?"
Jamie frowned. "Who cares?"
"Why did he take the candy and not the bologna?"
"Maybe he's a vegetarian," Jamie suggested. "Go to sleep."
Donny fell asleep listening to a distant owl and the wind in the trees. Several hours later, the same insistent hand shook him awake again.
"Wake up Donny," Jamie whispered. "It's out there."
Donny opened his eyes and listened. He heard the gentle padding of something outside the tent, and then a crackling pop. A brilliant flash lit the camp and a giant shadow darkened the canvas. They heard a whimpering squeal as something very large moved away into the forest.
Donny and Jamie sat bolt upright in their sleeping bags. They found Sam and Professor Miser searching the perimeter of the camp. When the Professor returned he quickly checked three of the cameras.
"Blast!" He said loudly. "Nothing on these three. I presume, from his squeal of terror, the first flash must have frightened him away."
"He managed to find the rest of my peppermint," Jamie said.
"The squeal we heard wasn't from fright," Donny said.
The Professor, Jamie, and Donny's dad looked at the boy standing by the fourth camera -- an instant picture developing in his hand.
"Then what was it, my boy?" The Professor asked.
"He was laughing," Donny stated. "At us," he added.
The Professor frowned and took the picture, peering at it over the top of his glasses.
"What is it?" Jamie asked.
Sam Collins grinned and winked. "Looks like a big hairy rear-end to me. It seems your creature played a little joke on us."
Jamie bit his lip to stifle a giggle and Donny laughed out loud. The boys returned to their tent leaving the little Professor alone in the darkness with only his puzzled thoughts.
THE END
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