Out of Place Animals and Uncle Max
Four hours on the road and Max agreed to meet me at Armstrong park, after what happened between us I guess I should feel lucky. As I wait I notice a small flock of Quaker Parrots hopping around a radio antennae. I can’t help but think that they are a part of what my life has become. They are not native to Texas but Argentina, clearly a breeding pair got loose from some owner and they decided to take up residence in this park, not terribly exciting but they aren’t suppose to be here. This is not their native environment, Duncanville gets hotter and drier than Argentina, it gets colder in the winter than Argentina, and the food supply is wrong…yet they thrive. Though they are known animals they are technically cryptids… I believe the term is “out of place animals”…seems like all cryptids are “out of place” or maybe more like “out of time”. Most of these animals seem to be holdovers from epochs gone by, they should not continue to exist, and yet they do.
“Howdy, Tom.” I hear Max’s smoke-stained voice from behind me. “I see you’ve found our parrots.”
“Yeah, there seems to be a dozen or so individuals. It’s strange, I was just noting that they don’t belong here but they are doing great. They all seem to be about 10 percent bigger than the average Quaker parrot, while not freakishly large it does show the group has established its own genetic profile.”
“Y’know, before they went extinct, there used to be parrots native to Texas and New Mexico. Maybe it isn’t all that strange that these parrots are doing so well, just ‘cuz the parrots that were here are gone doesn’t mean these parrots shouldn’t do well in the same place.”
“You’re talking about filling a niche.” I’ve always underestimated Max’s intelligence. He comes across as pure blue-collar but he reads Hebrew, Greek, and Latin while speaking three others.
“You didn’t drive five hours to talk about lost pets and niches…and from your tone I don’t figure you want to apologize.”
“Well, I should apologize, the things I said were unfair and unkind…”
“Water under the bridge, kid, what’s with the box?”
The parrots all take flight, swing around the radio antennae, and pass overhead in a very tight formation. Their squawking fades away to silence, “This box has ruined my life. It’s full of reports and DNA tests and accounts of animals that I’ve spent my entire life believing were hoaxes and urban myths. Things that were only believed by the gullible and the ignorant.”
“Like me?”
“Yeah…like you.” I go through the whole bloody story, about Glenn working for SIRU, about how they’ve been covering up discoveries, how they killed Glenn, and how they ruined my life. I can’t even look at him, this man practically helped raise me and five years ago I go off yelling about how stupid and ignorant I think he is for believing the things he does. And now here I am with a box full of my own ignorance, needing his help.
“Not easy being thought of as crazy, is it? Still it does explain why you’re holding that hog-leg so tight.”
“You can see it?”
“Yup, but I’ve been around the block a couple of times….which also makes me think you’re wrong. I don’t think anyone is out to kill you.” He takes the hominid file out of the box.
“But Glenn..”
“…was working WITH SIRU, right? And SIRU has spent the last hundred years covering up big discoveries right? Is it possible that Glenn sent this to you as a way of redeeming himself? That perhaps he actually committed suicide? Look, if this group was used to killing people you’d already be dead, they wouldn’t have sent your dean to get that box back. They would have simply waited for you to go home and kill you in your house then break into your office at school. I don’t think they want you dead, so relax.”
“Look, I knew Glenn and he would never…”
“Did you know he was working to cover up what could be the most important discoveries of the last century?”
“……”
“Yeah… look, kid, I don’t envy your position. You’re in a tight spot and I’m not saying not to keep the gun on you because ‘not wanting you dead’ can turn into ‘not wanting you dead, YET’ pretty quick. I’m just saying you need to relax and stop looking over your shoulder or you’re going to go nuts. Secondly, even if you prove the existence of Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster you’ll never go back to the way things were. SIRU has locked you out of academia and they will do your best to continue to suppress you. They have a vested interest in keeping this quiet, we don’t know why, but they do and they have been doing this for a long time.”
“So what do you think I should do?”
“Cowboy-up and do it anyway. Things like this work themselves out…if you do the work. So what is a Mande Burung?”
Tags: Cryptid, Cryptozoology, Loch Ness Monster, Mande Burung, Out of Place, Sasquatch