Cryptid Summer: Angels Among Us

"Excuse me," the woman said, standing by my desk. "I was wondering if you have a moment."
You ever meet one of those people where you see them, and immediately think,"Oh, shit"?

She'd come to me a few years ago to bitch me out for an article I'd written. I'd found an obit of a man who'd claimed to have created a very popular product, except he hadn't---The patent documentation from the company proved he'd been eleven when the product was invented. I'd written an article about it, and this woman had turned out to be his granddaughter. She'd stopped by to  ream me for about an hour.

"What can I do for you?" I asked coolly.

"Well, I wanted to talk with you," she said. "You'll be getting some old documents from my family."

"Um....Me personally, or...."

"Well, the library. But I know that you seem to be in charge of the history here, so I wanted to let you know. An old house in my family is being sold, and there's a lot of old papers.  I wanted them to come here, and I just wanted you to promise me that you'll check with me before writing about my family."

Well, that was definitely not going to happen. As diplomatically as I could, I said,"I'm unlikely to be writing about your family, ma'am."

"Well, you might change your mind. There's some fascinating stuff. And I just wanted you to promise that you'll check with me before you do it."

"As I said....I'm unlikely to be writing about your family."

"If you change your mind, I want you to check with me."

"I doubt I'll be changing my mind."

"Just in case. Do you have my contact information?"

"I won't be needing it."

I could see her considering who else she might complain to. "Is Diane still the director here?"

"No, she retired three years ago."

"I see. Do you still write for John?"

"I still write for the Record, but he sold the paper."

"Mmm."

She stared at me for another moment, and then turned and left. I turned back to my desk and went back to work. 

My phone blipped, that little sound it makes when the call's for me. I picked it up. "Lou."

"Hey, Lou. It's Ian." My friend Ian, a park ranger with DCNR. "I know it's a little late in the year to ask, but would you be willing to do a program for me?"

"I'm always willing, Ian, you know that. What do you have in mind?"

"Any stories you can come up with. You always do some good ones. Talk about true stories from the area."

"I can handle that. You want me at Little Pine or Kettle Creek this year?"

"Actually," he said,"This year I want you at Hyner Run."

I was working the desk when Gracie came in. "Hey, boss!" she said. "How was your trip?"

I'd been calling our director "Boss" for three years, and I'd referred to Theresa that way in the past. It felt considerably different being on the receiving end. "It was good," I said. "I looked for some ghosts, and checked around for the water monster. How have you been?"

"Pretty good," she said.

"Is that a Fresno Nightcrawler button on your vest? Proud of you."

She smiled. "Got anything for me to do today?"

"I do," I said. "I'm gonna sic you on the microfilm."

"Yes!" She did a little fist-pump.

"Oh, you've been waiting for that?"
"I really, really want to try it."

"You're familiar enough with the system by now. I have a program to give up at Hyner Run State Park in two weeks. I need you to find me some material. Look up Chapman Township, Hyner, North Bend, and see if you can find anything good."

"Okay," she said. "Should I look up Youngwomanstown, too?"
"Good idea. Excellent thinking. We'll be camping out up there, so I figure I'll look into some stuff. The Giwoggle is up there, Clinton County's official cryptid, and the Swamp Angel, the ghost of a woman who died in the swamps. A century ago, they believed that if you went to the swamp and asked the Swamp Angel for help, she'd come and help you with your problem."

"That's pretty cool. We have some good legends here, don't we?"

"We do," I agreed.

Gracie was hard at work when the phone rang. It was Tif.

"Dad, you may want to come home and check on Duke. He's not breathing well, and he can't stand up."

"I'm on my way," I said.

I hung up the phone and went to the microfilm.

"Gracie, I gotta run," I said. "My dog isn't doing well."

"Go," she said. "I got this."

I biked home to find Duke lying on his dog bed, unable to stand. I knelt down beside him.

"I'm sorry, Daddy," said Tif. "I'm sorry I had to call you."

"You did the right thing," I said.

"I thought you should be here."

I held Duke.

"You're a good boy, Duke. You are so much loved." I whispered to him as I hugged him. "I love you, buddy. You saved my son's life. I love you, so, so much."

I got to the coffee shop at about the same time as my last two editors. LaKeshia, who'd recruited me for the Pennsylvania Wilds in the first place, and Hannah, who was currently pretty good at putting up with all my crap. Hannah had sent me a rare e-mail that morning, inviting me to get coffee with them while she was in town.

Hannah gave me a hug. "It's nice to meet you in person finally," she said.

"Nice to meet you, too," I told her.

"I'm trying to get better about the e-mails," she told me.

"I have no complaints," I assured her.

We got our drinks and sat down at the table. Hannah said,"So how are you doing?"

"As well as I can. Our old dog Duke died on Monday."
"I saw on Facebook. I'm so sorry."

"It kind if creeps up on me in unexpected places, you know? I'll go get the leash to take him out, and then remember. Otherwise, doing okay. Got a talk to give in Hyner Run, so I'll be double-dipping and doing an article for you about the trip."

"That sounds great," said Hannah. "I love those little family articles. Paul is so cute."

"He is aware of that."

"I love that blue thing he always wears on his head."
"He pretends that's his hair. It started out with him trying to look like his favorite cartoon character, and then Covid hit, and I think it's now a security sort of thing."

"Aww."

"I thought of you recently," said LaKeshia. "Well, not immediately. But afterward. I saw a cryptid."

"Tell me about it."

"I was driving out on the Farrandsville Road," she said. "It ran across the road in front of me. It was weird, a small brown thing---Not a deer, but looked a little like a deer---And its legs didn't bend. It's hard to describe, but strange-looking."

"We can file this one under Not-Deer," I said. "A creature that you think is a deer at first, but then you realize it's not. I just learned about them from one of the newsletters I get. I recently got another sighting of one. I'll look into it."

"Look, the creek is up," my wife said as we drove into the park.

"There's been a few flash flood warnings lately," I commented, getting out of the car. Hyner Run was up and running strong, right beside the campsite.

"The sound is nice," said Michelle. "Maybe it'll help me sleep tonight."

"I'll get the tent set up," I said. "Then I'm going to check in at the main office, and take a walk."

"We'll be up at the pool."

I got the tent set up. We've had the same tent since before we were married, an eighteen-dollar Ozark Trail piece of work. I'm always astounded at how much use we've gotten out of it; we wound up paying less than a dollar a year for this thing. One day, it'll fall apart, and I'll genuinely miss it.

I walked up to the office to check in. There was a woman working the desk.

"Hi," I said. "I'm the guest speaker for tonight. I just wanted to check in, mention I'm here."

"Oh, yes, thanks for coming," she said. "I'm a big fan. I read all of your columns."

"Well, that's nice to hear. Thank you."

"I'm looking forward to hearing you tonight. Is that what you always wear for these things? Kind of so people know who you are?"

I looked at myself. I was wearing black jeans and my black ghost t-shirt. "Pretty much, yeah. It's the uniform."

"Well, I'm really looking forward to this. Thank you again for coming."

'Thanks for having me."

I walked around the park for a while, getting a sense of the place, and then back to the camp. I lit a cigar as I tried to get a fire started. It was an uphill battle; my firestarting skills seemed to have atrophied in recent years. It was about an hour before Michelle and Paul came back.

"I'm hungry," said Paul.

"Well, that works," I said. "I think I have this fire started just enough to cook a couple of hot dogs, if you like. Or we have cold baloney sandwiches."

Paul thought it over. "Can I have a baloney sandwich while we cook the hot dogs?"

"Yeah, you can do that."

I got out some of the cooking equipment and retrieved two of the extendable skewers. "This stuff is older than I am. My dad used to use it, and he gave ti to me. One day, when my camping days are done, I'll give it to you."

"I don't like nature as much as you. I mostly come because you like it."

"Is that so?"

"Daddy?" Paul said softly. "I feel like nobody likes me."
"What? People like you. You're a good little guy."
"I feel like I have no friends."
We'd been going through COVID for a year and a half now. Paul hadn't been in school, and had mostly been playing with the little girl next door, who was a grade-A pain in the ass. Like everyone else, his mental health had taken a hit.

"You're a good kid, Pipper, and people like you a lot. Right now, it's still too dangerous to send you back to school, but as soon as we can get you vaccinated, we'll get you back in."
He thought this through for a minute.

"Do black lives matter?" he asked me.

"Yes."

"Do I matter?"

"God, yes, you matter," I said. "You matter more to me than anyone."

"Thanks for coming, folks," I said, standing in front of the small audience. "I hope you enjoyed the talk. Check out my column."

I greeted Chris and his wife, who'd shown up for the program, and talked to Ian for a minute. Afterward, I walked back to the campsite. Michelle and Paul were waiting there. Paul said,"I don't want to complain, but I'm not having fun. I want to go home."
I shrugged. "Gonna be honest, I'm not as into this as I thought I'd be, either. If you two want to pack up, I won't be upset about it."

"Let's go home," said Michelle.

"We'll roast a few marshmallows, put out the fire, and get on the road," I said. "Honestly....Last year when we went to Little Pine, it made me feel better about stuff. Now....Now I'm just depressed."

"I miss Rosie," commented Paul.

"I'm going to take a little walk," I said. "Soon as I come back, we'll pack the car."

"Are you okay?" Michelle asked.

I shook my head.

"Nobody is."

I was partway down the path when Paul caught up to me. "I want to come, too, Daddy," he said.

"Okay," I said. "Why don't we go down to the bridge, and look for the Swamp Angel a bit?"

"What's the Swamp Angel?"

"It's the ghost of a woman in the swamp, from an old legend. They say if you need help, and you ask, she'll come and help you. Christ, half the country needs help right about now."

We walked down the path toward the bridge. I said,"Look at the mist coming from the creek."

"That's campfire smoke."

"Well. Maybe."

"Dad, I feel lonely," Paul said. "I feel like everyone will always pick on me."

"That's not true," I said. "Mostly lately, you've been playing with the kid next door, and she's not a very good friend. Hopefully soon, we'll be able to get you vaccinated and send you back to school, and then you'll have plenty of kids to choose from." And because of the assholes refusing to get vaccinated, I now had a choice between my son's mental health and his physical health, which made me furious as hell.

We reached the bridge and turned down onto the grass by the creek. 

"The Swamp Angel lives here?"

"Well, around here somewhere. According to the story."

"I want to wish for new friends."

"I wonder if I can still skip a rock," I said.

I picked up a flat rock and tried to spin it across the water like I had when I was a kid. It plonked right in.

"Nope," I said. "I used to be better at that."

Paul picked up a rock and threw it in. "I can do it. Wait, that didn't work."

"You have to get a flat rock, and kind of spin it. You want to just drop rocks off the bridge?"

"Yeah!"

We found a couple of good-sized rocks, and I let him heave them off with a satisfying splash. He sat on the stone wall.

"Dad, you've been acting weird all day."

"Have I?"

"Yes."

I sat down next to him. 

"I haven't been doing so well myself, little man. You know how you've been feeling sad and lonely? I have, too. I still miss Duke. The Coronavirus has lasted too long, and hurt a lot of people. I'm feeling depressed, so I know how you feel."

"I'm sorry, Daddy."

"You know what? You and I need to come up with more stuff to do together. Maybe I haven't been spending enough time with you lately. Might make us both feel better."

"Yeah. That would be good."

Maybe the Swamp Angel had managed to find a way to help, after all.

"Come on, buddy," I said. "Let's pack up and go home."