Part 18 (1/2)

Chapter 10.

Joey glanced at Annja and rolled his eyes. Annja herself wasn't quite sure what to make of Jenny's statement. She seemed so utterly certain that it was almost hard to argue with her conviction.

”Big foot?”

Jenny glared at her. ”I know you think I'm being crazy.”

”I don't-”

”I do,” Joey said. ”Completely bonkers. You need serious help for that condition.”

Annja frowned. ”Joey...maybe we should just let her talk and get it out of her system.”

”Get it out? That's not going to happen. She's completely obsessed about this stuff. Like I said earlier when I saw you on the trail.”

Annja held up her hand. ”Regardless, we have to let her speak her mind and tell us why she thinks that the Sasquatch had something to do with her disappearance.”

”He had everything to do with it,” Jenny said. ”I was almost asleep when Joey left me, just about to drop off into deep rest, when I sensed this presence around me. As if I was being enveloped by it. And then I was rus.h.i.+ng through the forest.”

Annja frowned. What Jenny said sounded similar to the experience that Annja had had when she was spirit tracking. Was it possible that the Sasquatch really did exist? Or was it something else? Something far more sinister?

”Did you see it?” she asked.

Jenny shook her head. ”I was asleep, remember?”

”Yes, but if you didn't actually see it?”

Joey sighed. ”What about a smell?”

”Smell?”

Joey nodded. ”A lot of people who have claimed to see the Sasquatch say that it smells really awful. Some kind of body odor. But it's supposedly awful stuff. Nose-pinching quality. Did you smell anything?”

”Well, no, actually, but...” Jenny's voice trailed off.

Joey shrugged. ”Seems weird that a giant ape creature could stroll in and pick you up, run you through the woods and yet you didn't think to open your eyes or take a whiff? Doesn't fly with me. I think you hallucinated the whole thing. Maybe you were sleepwalking or something. In your condition, right there on the brink of hypothermia, anything's possible.”

Annja took a breath. ”He might be right, Jenny.”

Jenny frowned. ”I didn't ask you to come all this way just so you could belittle my experiences, Annja.”

”I'm not trying to belittle them. I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here. It doesn't add up. Surely you can see that?”

Jenny took a sip of her tea and then sighed. ”I guess. But why did I think that it was a Sasquatch, then?”

”Maybe because that's all you think about,” Joey said. ”You're so keyed up on the idea that it exists, you're filling in parts of your brain with the notion that anything even slightly unexplainable is due to something Sasquatch related.”

Annja c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. ”That was awfully insightful, Joey.”

”Thanks.”