The screams, wails, and whistles had been coming from the mile wide belt of trees that lined the Walnut river, for two weeks now. All up and down the course of the river they had been heard.
But the most activity seemed to be from around the bridge that allowed highway 53 to cross the Walnut just outside the small town of Argue, Kansas.
    The noises had been explained away by some as nothing more than a stray panther, though few could say for sure that panthers ever came this far west. In fact, nothing of any real excitement ever did, with the exception of the occasional bobcat, and coyotes were always letting people know they
were around with their howling. But this was not a bobcat, or a coyote. At lease none that anyone had ever heard before.  The screams and wails, maybe if they were hurt or misformed.  But the whistles?   No, no one had ever heard of either animal whistling hurt or otherwise.
    And then there was the stench! It would drift in to the west side of town on the wind. Every time the farmer who owned the field, that sat between the river's tree belt and the road that ran beside the  town's dike would start plowing, it was so bad he would have to leave. And the smell would last for hours.
    There was one man who thought he might know what the source of the noises was, though he did not voice his opinion aloud. He had been interested in the creature since he was a teenager, his
interest sparked by seeing something while out hunting one foggy morning.
    At first he thought it to be a black dog, simply getting  itself a drink from the course of the stream. He had almost decided to look away when suddenly the "dog" stood erect, on two legs! It was then  he noticed that it was built like a human but was covered in a fine coat of black fur.  It did not scare him, but rather made him more curious. In hindsight he wished he had simply remained hidden. To watch it as long as he could.  If he had seen it walk off on two legs, it would have left no question
as to what he had seen.  But instead he decided to work upstream to get a better look. By
the time he got to above where the creature had been, it was gone. It could have been on the other side of the trees or right beside him, he did not know. And for years he did not tell. Not even his closest friends, and certainly not strangers.
    But that was over twenty years ago, and he had not heard of anyone else seeing it. But it did fuel a fire in him. He would read anything he could find on bigfoot. But still no sightings in Kansas, not one. So over the years, he began to question if he had seen it. The creature was small compared to the reports from the pacific northwest. It was but five ten to six foot, not the monstrous seven to eight feet of the west coast. The hair was short and jet black not long and reddish brown, as
was the bigfoot. But he could not explain his encounter as any other animal. It had to be a bigfoot!
    From the report he had read, this was a classic Bigfoot occurrence. The screams, wails, whistles, and stench. All the sensory signs, of a visit. It was called a visit because they generally do not last for long. The creatures move on, after a few weeks maybe a month. So he figured that to
say anything would just bring about, at the very leas, ridicule of him.  At the very  most  a bunch of trigger happy hunters wanting to bag a bigfoot.
    Ether way it would be a tough sale, after all bigfoot was in the pacific northwest not here.  No, the better part of valor is to remain silent.  He was curious, but not to the point he wanted to go looking alone.  He took to carrying a small camera with him in the truck. Also, whenever he would cross the bridge, he would slow to a crawl. looking in amongst the trees, hoping for a glimpse of the creature.
    Than it happened, one faithful evening.  He was returning from a job, and had just started to cross the bridge.  Looking at the stand of  trees on the north side of the bridge, he saw it.
    There it was walking out into a clearing, just one hundred feet from the end of the bridge! If it had stayed in the trees, he might have missed it or perhaps thought his eyes were making up the thing standing there.  If it had kept walking, it would have disappeared back into a grove of trees
on the other side of the clearing.  But it stopped, and froze in it's tracks, as if it thought by standing still, it would not be noticed.
    So the driver coasted to a stop, and started taking pictures. He reacted by instinct, as he had thought out this scene many times with the "what if?" game.  And still the creature stood, not moving. With each step the driver took, he would stop and take another picture.  Each time getting
a little closer until he was just twenty feet away. It was with the last click of the camera, that the creature reacted. It bolted up the embankment toward him, its arms flaying in the air, omitting the most horrorable scream.
    The driver ran backwards toward his truck and the relative safety of the cab.  He was just able to get the door shut and locked when it hit, with an earth shaking "thud".
    The creature was enraged.  It pounded on the top of the cab and at the windows, until the driver thought the glass would surely break. Large dents appeared on the bottom side of the roof.  It tried to turn the truck over, by picking it up from the bottom of the body, but though it was strong, it just could not get the leverage, which seemed to make it even more angry. It went back to pounding on
the roof, and side window with a passion.  The glass on the side window started spider webbing and the driver screamed in terror. Than he remembered the nine millimeter that he had hidden in a small compartment.  He had put it there over a month ago when he had to go out of state. He kept meaning to take it out, but had all but forgotten it was there.
    He reached behind the seat, and retreived the firearm. He slid the bolt back, loading a shell into the chamber. The window flew in on top of him in a thousand pieces. He did not even know he had pulled the trigger twice until the gun reported. The creature let out a  sound that could only be described  as a yelp! And fell to the ground, at the side of the truck.
    The driver sat shaking, he could not stop. The gun seemed to be bouncing in his hand, as if he had to fire again. He could not have hit it standing at the side of the truck.  But there was silence, not even a moan from the creature lying just out of sight. The driver thought he should look, but feared it was be like a "B" grade movie. He imagined bending forward to look out the shattered window only to have the monster pop up in his face.  So he slid across the seat, and exited from the passenger's side, figuring he could always jump back in if the creature started moving.
    It was lying there, and he thought it was dead until he noticed that it was breathing! A pool of blood was forming at the side of it head.  The creature was unconscious, a gash a long side the right temple. The driver's first bullet had missed all together. But the second had grazed
the creature's skull.
    It was alive... he had a bigfoot!
    But what to do with it?
    It may need medical attention, but where to take it?  The Vet...the doctor's office...the zoo?
It was how human it looked that finally made the decision for him - the hospital's E.R.
    He bound the creature with rope from the back of the truck. If it woke up, he did not want to feel it's wrath again.
    He wished he had help, but no one stopped. After the last car passed, it occurred to him that he had been standing there all along, with the gun in his hand! Not to mention loading a large hairy creature into the back of his pickup. If he had not already been there, he would not have stopped ether!
    When he rushed in, and announced he had a gunshot victim in the back of his truck.(on the way to the hospital, he had decided not to say what the victim was) The nurses and the lone doctor rushed to the truck then rushed back into the hospital! So he grabbed a gurney and loaded the creature onto it. He was met at the door by what had to be the oldest intern on earth. After some hard talking, he was finally let in.  The doctor started examining the creature, as much  to determine the extent of the wound as to look for a zipper.
    The driver had formulated a plan.  He called one of the local T.V. stations and told them what he had.  Again with some hard talking, he convinced them to send a camera crew.  Next was the local college, and to get someone from the faculty to come over. That was even harder than convining the T.V. station.  The next  people to be notified, he figured would come to him.
    The creature was moved to the local zoo, as they thought it was more or less an ape.  He was heavily sedated, so they could run some tests. Before long, as the driver figured, the goverment sent some doctors. Also as the Driver expected, they wanted to move the creature to a goverment run  facility.  With camera crew in tow, the driver laid out his conditions:
    1. The creature must be treated with the up mostconcern. No surgery tests, such as exploratory surgery.
    2. He must have good conditions, no small cages.
    3. No cover up, this has been a long time coming and the public had a right to know.
    4. Before he is moved anywhere, I must give my premission.
    The goverment doctors were more than happy to agree to all of his demands. They wanted to study this rare find, they said.  But before long, the driver became aware that it was not going as
planned. Upon his first visit to the facility, he found the creature sitting in the same small transport cage that he had been in since leaving the zoo. When he complained, they told him that they had no
place suitible for the creature at this time, but plans were "in the making" for it.
    The driver looked over to the cage. The creature was awake and sitting in the corner of the cage staring at the wall.

    When he awoke, the pain in his head was intense.
    This was strange to him. Gone were the trees, the river, and the others.
    The smell of pine filled the air. But there were no trees! All there was, were these small long limbs of the same color as the snappers, those things the his father had showed him before they started walking north. The snappers were used by the animals to kill others.
    He had not truly understood why his father and mother refered to the strange creatures that walked as they did on two legs, as "the animals", as all were animals. But the animals were different, they were noisy.  Always talking in a strange fashion, not making any sense, always out loud as if they could not mindspeak. If they are so much like us, why can they not mindspeak?
    He had tried to mindspeak with the animals when he first woke but all that was in their heads was a "humble". They were not talking, they were humbling! He thought that must be one of the differences between the animals and the others.
    The only other time he had been this close to an animal was back in the wetland, home of the pigs with long teeth and short tempers. One day an animal came far into the wetland, and was setting snappers. He hated snappers! They were round and made of a rock so hard that no other rock
could break it. The animal had to be careful, as he opened the jaws. If the animal was not, the snapper would bite him and he would have to lay there until he died like the others would, when caught in the snapper's jaws.  He had tried to mindspeak with the animal. To ask why he want to kill the others with a snapper.  But all he heard was the humble.
    He found the humble frightning, and it caused him to scent. The animal became frightened too, when he smelled the scent, and ran away before he could get the snapper's jaws to stay open. He watched the animal run away then went to look at the snapper.  It was a bad thing.  He threw it into the water.
    Now he was surrounded by animals.
    He had tried to call to the others, but got no response. All that happened, was the animals rushed up to the long limbs, with black boxes that had long vines, with short sticks on the ends.  And they jabbered, and jabbered, but said nothing.
    Suddenly he heard in his head mindspeak!
    It said "Boy, I wished I had never done this!"
    Whoever it was, had to be close. Mindspeak does not work unless you are close.
    At first all he saw were the same animals.
    Than he saw him, the animal who was  in the noisy, bright light thing.  He suddenly felt sorry, he did not mean to make the animal mad. Just scare him away.  But he had only done what his father had told him to do. If an animal gets too close, run at them. If the animals are in a noisy, bright light thing hit the thing, till the animals leave.
    He looked into the animal's eyes, because his father told him that the eyes are the windows to the soul.  This one was not like the other animals in that he had a soul ... and he was
mindspeaking!

    The driver asked if he could have some coffee and was directed to a canteen.  As he sat drinking his coffee, two younger doctors came in.  They were so busy talking, they hardly noticed the driver. Than he heard one ask the other if he was going to be part of the surgery team that would visosect the bigfoot!
    It was cramped in the broom closet, but at least noone had found him there. The driver had another plan. He could not let them kill the creature,whether it was a man, beast, or in between. It was not right!
    So the plan was simple, get the creature out!
    The how would have to be worked out as he went.
    The driver was surprised at how easy it was to get into the lab. No guards, no alarms, not even locked.  There was a video camera, on a tripod facing the cage he guessed to record the creature while they were gone.
    He crept to the cage, and looked inside.
    The creature was looking back, from the same corner he had been in earlier.
    The driver slowly opened the cage, not sure what to expect. Would he be attacked, would he be able to get the creature out? All the driver knew was that he had to try.

    He looked at the animal entering the opening.  It scared him, and the scent started.
But then he looked into the animal's eyes.  He had a soul, but there was nothing in the animal's mind. The animal reached out and touched his arm.  At first he did not understand what the animal wanted, But than it came, "Please don't be afraid. You must come with me. Come on!"
    The animal was mind speaking again!

    The two crept through the hallways, almost being caught several times. It was hard trying to hide with a six and a half foot tall man-beast!  But they made it to the parking area, and once again the driver had to find a way to get the creature into his truck.

    He could not understand what the animal wanted. The opening to the noisy, bright light thing was open and the animal seemed to be showing him something. But he saw nothing of importance.
Than he heard the mindspeak again, " Please just get in!"
    So he did, but the inside of the thing was small.
    So he got behind the seat place, which seemed to make the animal happy as he heard, "Oh, thank you!"

    The driver waved at the parking area guard, as he drove through. They were on the highway in no time. He looked over the seat, and the creature was sleeping! "Poor dumb animal, he has no idea how close it came!" the driver thought to himself.
    The driver turned down a small two-lane country road that went past the river, toward Argue.
At the place where the road and  the river were at their closest the driver stopped, and heard the creature stir. The driver opened the door and motioned for the creature to get out.

    He by now could almost understand the animal's hand motions. So he got out of the noisy, bright light thing. They stood on the side of the road just looking at each other.
    The animal loud talked some jabber, and pointed toward the river. He sensed the animal wanted him to go. Then he heard mindspeak again, "I wish I could tell you how sorry I am."
    He reached out, and gently touched the animal's face. Then both of them heard the sound of noisy, bright light things coming. It sounded like three of them. And they were going fast.
    The animal motioned with his hands again toward the river. And he knew he must go.
    He ran to the safety of the trees, calling for the others. His call was returned.
    Once in the safety of the treeline, he stood and watched as the animal ran back to his noisy, bright light thing and left with the other three noisy, bright light things chasing him. All three had other bright lights on top of them.
    Suddenly from the tree beside him, he heard mindspeak. "What are you watching?"
He turned, and there was another standing at the tree beside him.
    "A beginning, I think!"

    The driver made it home after losing the police cars. He sat thinking of how his day had turned out.  He had shot a bigfoot, taken it to the hospital, rescued it from certain doom. And let it go!
Finally I know I was not seeing things back then, he thought.
    They are real, and smart.
    The driver moved around to find the "sweet spot" in his chair. He was almost asleep, when it hit him.
    "That is not the creature I saw twenty years ago!"