Page 17 of With You

The ‘museum’ was just an old store, the shelves had been removed and glass display cases were arranged around the open room. A small sign stood in the middle of the entrance and I bent down to read it.

Cryptozoology: The study of and search for animals, especially legendary animals, in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence.

Cryptid: An animal that has been claimed to exist but never proven to exist.

I reread the definitions three times, dread growing inside me as I realized where Roe had brought me. My suspicions were confirmed when I looked up.

“Is that bigfoot?” I gaped at the seven-foot tall, hairy reproduction in front of us.

“It’s actually a recreation of the sasquatch from the Patterson-Gimlin footage, which is a part of the bigfoot race as a whole,” the feminine voice spoke so quietly I almost didn’t hear it.

“It’s amazing! Makes you think that at any minute it’s going to come to life and start walking away.” Roe circled the sasquatch, or ‘Patty’ as another sign described, like he was examining an animal in a zoo.

He loved this kind of thing. There were countless times in the office when he tried to engage us in talk of UFOs, paranormal sightings or the aforementioned cryptids which I was apparently going to learn all about.

I looked at the woman who’d corrected me and saw her cheeks darken with a blush as she watched Roe ramble on about the dusty sasquatch.

“You don’t look like a Henry,” she tore her eyes from Roe, shrinking under my stare. Which made me feel like an asshole, she couldn’t have been more than twenty and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t caught myself admiring Roe the same way she’d been.

“Um, Henry’s my dad, he started the museum before I was born, so I kind of grew up here. He made Patty.” She gestured to the massive recreation in front of us.

Roe started in again about muscle movement, body proportions, footprint casts and so on.

I walked to the counter that Henry’s daughter was hiding behind. Her shoulders curled inward, her gaze darting everywhere in the room but at me. She couldn’t have been more than five feet tall and my height combined with my resting bitch face could be intimidating as hell. She wore a black nametag with the name ‘Maria’ written in white.

“Maria, I’m Sam, I have no idea what cryptozoology is or the Patterson-Gimlin footage but I’m interested to learn if you wouldn’t mind giving us a tour.” I smiled at her, trying to make up for my earlier rudeness which was absolutely not jealousy. Nope, it was just me being a rude jerk and not the fact that Roe and this tiny woman shared a common passion, no matter how bizarre.

Her gaze bounced between me and Roe but she straightened her shoulders and visibly brightened at my request.

“I can do that, absolutely. Let’s start with the humanoids since you’ve already met Patty and then we can move on to the lake monsters and atmospheric beasts.” Maria walked out from behind the counter and over to a freestanding billboard with fuzzy pictures tacked to it.

“What have you gotten us in to, Ross?” I whispered to Roe as he tore himself away from his new girlfriend, Patty, to join our tour.

“You’re going to love it, I promise. Oh, I hope they have an exhibit on the Jersey Devil.” His fingers linked with mine once again, as he led me over to where Maria was waiting on us. Her eyes dropped to our hands and a disappointed look crossed her face, a smile quickly replacing it when she started talking.

It was one of the strangest places I’d been in my life but I had to admit it was also the most interesting tour I’d ever been on. So interesting in fact that I was able to ignore the fact that Roe and I had kept our hands intertwined the entire time.

7

ROE

“Don’t lie, it was awesome, you loved it and you’re going to start watching all of those documentaries with me now.” I slurped on my milkshake as I indulged in my favorite pastime, teasing Sam. Reaching into the bag that Maria had given us, I grabbed the two matching shirts and tossed one to her.

She caught it effortlessly and held it against her chest. There was a picture of a sasquatch on the front with, ‘I met Patty at Henry’s Cryptid Museum.’

“It was…not horrible. I thought Maria was very knowledgeable and patient with your incessant questions.”

“I was just trying to take advantage of the fact that we had a genuine cryptozoologist giving us a private tour of the best cryptid museum in the state.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s the only cryptid museum in the state. How do you become a cryptozoologist? Do you complete a questionnaire on the internet and then print off your ‘diploma’?” Her fingers curled into air quotes.

“How dare you,” I gasped in mock outrage. “I’ll have you know that cryptozoology is an incredibly well-respected pseudoscience amongst the most intelligent pseudo-academics. Maybe there are websites where you can get a diploma and maybe I’ve investigated it more than once but I will not have you besmirching the field of my people!”

Her laughter rang out in the small restaurant where we’d stopped to get lunch. Two teenaged boys were sitting at the counter and turned to watch her, twin looks of awe on their faces. I glared their way, causing them to quickly refocus on their food.

She was a fucking sight to see when she was laughing, a wide smile on her beautiful face and pieces of golden hair falling from her braid. I was sure I had the same dopey look as those kids while I watched her. Still, I wasn’t sharing her with anyone.

“All jokes aside, I had fun. Thanks for taking me there. I don’t think I would’ve stepped into that place in a million years otherwise.”

---