I've always been fascinated with the unknown, particularly creatures of the unknown. I don't know when this obsession of mine started. It probably started when I was a young kid and would watch documentary series on aliens, Bigfoot, Yeti, unknown sea monsters, and the like.
My obsession earned me my share of names and bullying in school. Like a good nerd I pushed up my glasses and shook it off and moved onto college where I earned degree in zoology and eventually my masters and PhD. Along the way I had discovered the gym, alcohol, women, contacts, and other things life had to offer. However, my main love was cryptozoology.
I spent two years of my late 20's running around the world with well known and respected biologists, zoologist, marine biologists looking for new species and studying others that we knew little about. My colleagues and myself found new insects, fish, reptiles, but never anything that would fall under the strange or mythical. I made a name for myself in the science community. People liked to say I could find anything but Bigfoot. I enjoyed my small notoriety.
After those exciting two years I decided I wanted to work somewhere more traditional. While creating footprints around the world was fun, I was tired of never being in one place for more than a few weeks at a time. I also wanted to spend more time trying to research and find these storied monsters than work on someone else's expedition.
I landed a job at a big state university in Ohio teaching in the biology department. I also started a cryptozoology club, which attracted a large following of students. With permission from the university, I would take students to so-called haunted places, hot spots for unknown creatures, and the like. We would always come up with some crazy disembodied EVP, blurry video, or grainy photo. We never had anything conclusive but it was fun for the students and myself and it got them to think outside of the box and question what we really know about our world. The passion for trying to discover the unknown that I saw in the group's members is what kept my interest in it strong.
Like I said before, my main love was cryptozoology until one faculty Christmas party. There I met Diane. She was this beautiful brown haired woman about my age who worked in the English department teaching creative writing. I knew I needed to meet this woman. I wasn't a scrawny nerd from high school anymore. I was in shape, successful in my field, and not too bad looking (at least I told myself that). I used a corny pickup line to introduce myself, she had a cornier comeback, we laughed, talked the entire party, exchanged numbers and the rest is history.
A few months after we started dating, we moved in together. I had never fallen so hard for someone. We shared a lot of common interests but had a lot of differences. I liked the outdoors and she preferred to stay in. I was a busy body and she was more relaxed. We both liked wine and a good book. She was a published writer who wrote these amazing stories about make believe creatures. I read several of her short stories and one of her books which all seemed to be centered on forest fairies and children.
"Diane," I said closing her latest published book as I was sprawled out on the couch one evening. "Have I told you that you are an excellent writer?"
Diane was in the kitchen making her famous chicken alfredo. "Yes, but you can tell me again if you like," she playfully responded.
"Can I ask you a question? Where do you get your inspiration for these stories?"
She walked out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a dishcloth. "I get them from the stories my grandmother told me when I visited her in Canada when I was young."
I sat up on the couch and she gracefully took a seat next to me. "Tell me more, please," I asked inquisitively.
"When I was young," Diane began with a look of remembrance on her face, "we would visit my grandmother every summer in Alberta. She lived in a town called New Village. There weren't many people there. It was a beautiful town shadowed by snowcapped peaks. There was a great big pine forest that lay between the town and the closest mountain. It was probably a few hundred acres or so. At the base of the mountain was this crystal clear lake that was full of fish and that emptied into a small river. All the kids in town would play in the forest, lake, and river but were strictly forbidden from staying out past sundown. This was enforced harshly by the towns people including my grandmother." Diane paused for a moment.
