What He Heard

Chapter 3

            Rune sighed and leaned back in the deck chair, turning his head so he could see Willow. “Okay, definitely outside was the better decision. These chairs are way comfier than they look.”

            She smiled, face only just visible in the light streaming out from the sliding door. “Told you. We spend more time outside than inside, so our deck furniture always the best. And I’d have agreed to stay inside if we hadn’t spent all that time in the meeting hall. You’ve got claustrophobia, so you should kind of understand our need to be outdoors.”

            “When you put it that way…” he said, a grin crinkling the edges of his eyes. “So, I’ve got to ask, what’s going to happen to the pot farmer? Your family didn’t kill him or anything, did they?”

            “God no! Aunt Celeste secured him, then called the cops. He’ll be going on about this horrible monster in the woods, a psychologist will be called, which will almost certainly be Uncle Hubert, he’ll declare the man insane and he’ll be committed. Problem solved. We try everything we can before we make someone ‘disappear’. Too many of those and people will start looking for a reason so we try to avoid that. But we haven’t had to do anything like that since Uncle Allistair was a kid. We’re pretty good at keeping things quiet. We’ve certainly had a lot of practice.”

            Rune sighed again, stretching his arms over his head. “Oh good. I didn’t think your family seemed like the type to do that stuff, but when it’s a threat to the people you care about…”

            “There have been accidents in the past, but we’ve basically got stuff set-up to minimize that. It’s why we all wear at least two pieces of silver. Me, I don’t trust stuff not happening and I wear four. Turning into a giant half-bear half-human creature has a tendency to put a damper on most situations.”

            He chuckled. “I imagine it would. You know, you never explained why you’re sasquatches. Just that it was a curse of some kind.”

            Willow shook his head at the unconcealed fascination she could hear in Rune’s voice. She should have known he’d be all over the story. “We’re not one hundred percent sure. But I’ll tell you what we know. A long, long time ago, like farther back then we have records of, our ancestor, or as I like to call him, the asshole, made a name for himself as a hunter. And not just any hunter, but one known for taking down bears. He killed them, and killed them. When he had killed his hundredth, or thousandth, something that causes no end to family arguments, let me tell you, he was cursed. Don’t ask by what or how, we have no idea. The curse put on him and all his descendants was that they would take on a form that was neither bear nor human, but both. Hence the hairiness. We’re not really sure when the whole missing link-Big Foot thing started, but we’ve always preferred the term sasquatch.”

            “And all the sightings, the pictures people get, they’re all of your family?”

            She laughed. “Nah. Most of them are hoaxes. Only once in a while is it actually one of us, and that is almost always when we’re on vacation. We’re super careful around here, for obvious reasons.”

            The sound of the sliding door opening cut off Rune’s reply as both of them tilted their heads back to see who was there. Willow made a face at the familiar figure in the light of the doorway. “What do you want, Ed?”

            Her cousin slipped outside, dropping down to the deck after shutting the door. “Uncle Basil and Aunt Peyton got drinking with Uncle Allistair. They asked me to drive Rune home for them.”

            She rolled her eyes. “I swear, every time Mom, Dad, and Uncle Allistair get together, I end up having to babysit them when they get home, because they’re drunk. Last time, Mom thought it was a good idea to cut up straws and throw them at people, when she wasn’t shoving handfuls of them into people’s drinks. Since they’re somewhere else, Dad’ll probably try and drunkenly make popcorn again. More of it ends up on the counter and the floor than in the basket. I wish we could have a dog so I didn’t have to clean it up.”

            Rune frowned. “Why can’t you have a dog? Are your parents allergic or something?”

            Ed shook his head. “We can’t keep animals. Our scent scares them off. We could conceivably have fish, and maybe, if we trained a dog or cat right from birth to get used to our scent, that might work, but it’d be too cruel until then. They’d be desperate to escape and likely nearly kill themselves as they tried it.”

            Willow nodded. “And it’s worse on the property because we put strong scent markers all around to keep stuff from wandering in. And that’s without what a high concentration of us there already are here.”

            Rune chuckled again. “You guys really did get a raw deal when they were handing out super powers.”

            “I wouldn’t call what we have super powers,” Ed said. “More like surprise benefits to the curse. Mostly it is a curse. I suppose Willow told you all about it already?”

            “I just finished,” she replied.

            “Good. Then you can help us and the rest of the family keep the rumours about us to a minimum, now that you know why we have to be so careful.”

            Willow rolled her eyes. “He literally just found out this afternoon about us and you’re already trying to recruit him? You’re as bad as Aunt Celeste. And anyway, Rune’s not family so you can’t make him get involved in your crazy obsession. Hell, you can’t even make me get involved.”

            “It’s not crazy. It’s an important duty. We need to set an example for the younger cousins.”

            “No, you feel like being older gives you the right to order the younger cousins around. It’s not a duty, just something you like doing. Because you’re crazy.”

            Rune glanced at his watch then coughed, stopping the argument before it could escalate. “As much fun as it is to watch you two get into it, I do need to be home in the next hour or so or my mom will kill me. We have a set of katanas on the mantle I’m sure she’d use on me if I broke curfew. It’s already later than I said I’d be back. If I could get that ride, that’d be great.”

            Willow and Ed exchanged looks for a moment before both standing up at the same time.