"Normal-PARA" Read online

It had been days since Sammuel and Trisha had seen each other. They gave each other a long kiss and hug at the edge of the forest upon seeing each one another. They had been in a relationship for about a year and developed a strong bond, just after meeting during an outdoors party put on by one of Trisha's friends over a year ago. Since then, they had hiked the Tualatin Mountains a few times--their idea of a night out!

  On a couple of those occasions, they ran across several splintered trees, remains of animals so mutilated that one would have thought them aliens, and--most interesting of all--vignettes made out of a few pebbles; nothing else! The tiny stones were either piled into a tiny pyramid or some crude geometric. Usually, they were found atop a fallen tree or a slab of rock...it was those collection of pebbles, in light of the other findings, that convinced Trisha and Sammuel that there was something out in those mountains that was not typical of animal forest species.

  At first, they tried telling a few of their family and friends, but often the comeback--and valid, the couple would admit--would be, 'How do you know the pebbles weren't just some other hikers leaving "bread crumbs" for themselves in the forest?' Or, 'You guys are just being brainwashed by all those paranormal shows and movies.' Even with the video footage that Sammuel and Trisha provided via their smartphones, none within their circle believed them...

  So that was when the couple got deeper into their new-found mission in life. Over the past few months, they both had invested money in some high-tech wildlife monitoring cameras and sensors! When asked by a local radio show out of Portland during an interview about their search, they both made sure not to use the names Sasquatch, Yeti, or Momo...it was the interviewer that brought up the name, Bigfoot.

  Trisha and Sammuel were just one team out of a several that existed in the Portland area that were on the hunt for Bigfoot. They were still new to the practice, and they were young, so no one among the older organizations really took them seriously. But the Bigfoot community did listen to the Protect Against the Real Anomalies--Search organization: PARA-Search.

  "What the hell are you doing here," Trisha exclaimed after she and Sammuel ran across the media-slick, world-renowned paranormal hunting group. Their temporary camp-site was awash in lights from the television production equipment and two of their team members were recording just as the young couple walked into their videoing.

  There were seven in their crew, their ages running from about that of Sammuel and Trisha to the oldest at a mere thirty-five years old. They wore mostly black uniforms--dark slacks with polos; although some in the group wore jackets. All, of course, with the organization's logo printed on their uniforms. And just like any other world-wide paranormal organization, their hunting equipment was top of the line!

  "Alright, cut, Ben..." The tallest of the group, and leader, Richard Hessl impatiently blew out a sigh and turned to see Trisha and Sammuel standing about fifteen yards away from them in the forest; their equipment looking more like they were about to take music lessons!

  Richard started, but then caught himself. Others in the group looked at him, also noticing the same thing. "Hey, aren't you that couple that was on that community radio station a few weeks ago?"

  Admittedly, it was hard for Sammuel and Trisha to be entirely angry at them after that.

  "Yeah," Sammuel spoke up. "But, like you said, that was a few weeks ago. I'm surprised you even know about that!"

  Richard, easily seen with all the lights among the crew, smiled. "We like to take time to do a lot of research before we start filming at a locale..." He placed a hand to his chest; pointed to the respective person he began to name off. "I'm Richard Hessl...my crew, Beatrice Crowe, Pam Alter, Tom Zeimmer, Al Port...and behind the cameras are Chris Hapshaw and Ben Arrow!"

  All of them, as Richard ticked off the names, either nodded toward the young couple, or gave some quick wave and a smile. Sammuel, the friendlier of the couple, introduced himself and Trisha, and her behalf. She still did not like the fact that one of those know-it-all, Hollywood-types paranormal group was in the woods, now, and she and Sammuel would have to compete against them to find whatever it was they all believed was out there! The PARA-Search crew had a pretty good idea of this, given Trisha's less-than hospitable demeanor.

  "So...any good vibes tonight," Richard asked after an awkward silence.

  Sammuel shrugged. "Just decided to check it out tonight." He glanced at Trisha. He knew she did not want him to carry on too long with them.

  Richard gave a quick face. "Oh...truth be told, we were just listening in on the cops' radio scanner and got a lead!" The whole crew softly laughed.

  The private irony was not lossed on the couple. Even Trisha shared some teeth! But Sammuel gave a knowing look at her, and even his hospitality had a limit...they had to get moving before PARA-Search did!

  "Hey, listen," Sammuel finally said, "we better let you guys get back to work."

  Sammuel gave a friendly wave while they both started to go off to another direction before Pam, one of the main co-hosts on the team, called out to them. Trisha and Sammuel were surprised to see such a concerned look on her face.

  "We probably shouldn't tell you this," she gave a somewhat rebuking look toward Richard as she said this; then looked back at the couple, "but I couldn't live with myself if we didn't give you a heads up...there's word from some of the locals that one of Portland's top Bigfoot hunters got killed tonight!"

  "What," both Sammuel and Trisha called out. Their attention was now fully on the team.

  "What was his name," Sammuel asked. "The Hunters are pretty much a tight group around here."

  Ben, one of the tech helpers in the PARA team, spoke up. "I believe it was a Ted Bishop."

  Both Sammuel and Trisha gasped; she up against Sammuel's chest. They both looked away for a few seconds. The PARA team gave glancing, saddened looks at each other.

  "What happened to Ted," Sammuel finally said.

  Nearly everyone shrugged from the production crew. Richard looked among his subordinates. "One of the locals told me he has a nephew that's a cop and he was one of the officers called to the scene..." At that point, the radiant countenance of Richard had darkened. "Something about a trail of blood that stretched for several meters and they couldn't even find his body. But for the fact that his equipment and backpack were left on site, there would've been no way to even know who the blood belonged to..."

  Now, literally, everyone at the campsite was silent and gave worried looks between one another.

  "You won't read about it, though," Tom, another of the co-hosts on the televison show, warned. "The best we could guess between all of us is, the cops are still investigating--"

  "Or they don't want to scare everyone in the Portland area," Chris, the other technical hand, put in from behind his camera. He had been recording their encounter all that time!

  "Chris," Richard admonished, "really? It's one thing when it's our crew, but we don't know how this couple feels about being recorded!"

  "No, it's ok," came a softened Trisha. All heads slowly swiveled to her. Given her previous attitude, no one expected such understanding from her. Perhaps it was the news of a local friend's death? "In fact..." She gave a questioning look at Sammuel, then glanced at the PARA crew. "Would you all mind if Sammy and I kind of tagged along...just for tonight?"

  Sammuel thought on the news of the long-time Bigfoot hunter, and gave a consenting nod. "If it's alright with you and your crew, Richard?"

  Without a second's delay, the crew had already voiced their agreement and waved the couple over to their camping ground. Sammuel and Trisha finally got to shake all of their hands. Chris had never stopped recording, while Ben had hefted his camera and resumed.

  ...............