"Moose Tracks"
Charles knocked at Theresa's door. He banged on it a few more times before Emma called her. "Theresa? Are you in there? We are on the hunt! The Flasher struck again!"
"
Are you serious??"
Theresa opened the door with an aqua robe on her. She fumed a she blew her hair over her head. "Why the hell would he want to take more pictures of us?"
"Look, we're in as much dark as you are." Charles piped into the women. "As much as we want to know, we first need to capture the Flasher."
"We need as much people as we can get!" Granger yelled. He pumped his water blaster at full blast. "Are you with us or not?"
Theresa stared at the old officer and blinked. "You know what? I'll take you up on that offer. Let me get dressed first."
"Get snappy!" Alice yelled. "The slower you're going, the more we're gonna lose that bastard!"
Soon, the gang ran through the woods, trying to dodge any branch. There were logs rotting and moss flying as they ran through them. There were a few mishaps along the way, but they were only minor. Jules was one of those mishaps when he caught up with them. He simply asked what was going on and everyone got spooked!
"Keep your voice down!" Emma whispered to the Belgian. "We don't want to scare the Flasher away."
"I see." Jules whispered back. "We're hunting the Flasher now! This will be fun."
"No, son." Major Granger pointed his water blaster to the young man. "This will NOT be fun. We are tired of that monster taking our pictures. It's not his place to do such a thing."
"I'm only curious as to why." Sumie shivered. "I mean is he...trying to make a porno movie? Maybe he is attempting to kidnap the camp and the state has to pay ransom."
"That is a nasty idea!" Eleanor bantered. She and Ruth were baffled at the very iota of an idea. Pastor Alfred pondered with the idea. "I understand the usual kidnapping where the person snatches another for ransom. But someone kidnapping a piece of land for money? Don't you think it's rather risky for one person to do this?"
"What kidnapping?" Farmer Fred pointed his boom stick at the open area. "He is trying to steal what is Billy's."
"Where is Billy?" Ruth asked. "Shouldn't he be part of this group?"
Charles scratched his chin. "Yeah, well he's not here. He wasn't in the mood to chase that guy without his clothes."
"What was he doing without any garments?" Eleanor asked. Sumie gulped and sighed in disappointment. "Eleanor, do you live in a world of ignorant bliss? If you had no clothes on you, what would you be doing right now?"
"About to take a bath?"
Emma tried to contain her laughter. Her cheeks all puffy as Charles rolled his eyes. "Eleanor, what do you want to do with Father O' Sheehan since you first laid eyes on him?"
"Well, Charles, that's different!" Eleanor blushed over the guy's question. "He's my fantasy! Billy, on the other hand, doesn't have anyone specific to fantasize."
"He does now." Emma coughed as her friends started to realize that Billy had someone to really lay beside. "Yeah, he was bouncing our new employee right outside our diner."
"I see." Eleanor sighed and caught her own heart. "I will pray for Billy to calm his own carnal impulses."
"Am I late for the angry mob party?" Out came Rosana from her cabin with her glamorous hunting outfit. Her safari hat fell over her eyes as she caught up with them. Alice pulled her hat from her eyes and put them on the tuft bangs. "Oh, thank you, Alice. This hat drives me bonkers."
"Why do wear that thing then?" Charles asked in dismay. Rosana turned to the guy. "What do you think? I need something to go with my outfit. The hat says, 'savvy huntress on the prowl.'"
"In my book, that hat says 'Caution: trip hazard!'" Charles commented, removing the hat to its entirety. "Put your hat back in the cabin. Your outfit is good enough without one. And 'ere! What's with the net??"
"I want to capture the pervert!"
The others rolled their eyes over by Rosana's over-the-top preparation. Charles lip snorted and kept going ahead of the party. "Now look, we are going to catch that guy red handed, not trap him like an animal. That is not how this little community works."
"If you think about it, Charles, the guy taking pictures is so beastly!"
"Theresa now is not the time of your opinion. What we need is find a scene we can use to catch him."
"That is what we regular folks call setting a trap." Farmer Fred commented.
"Shut up! Now, what we to find is some-
BAIT!!"
Charles flew into the air upside-down and the others watched in shocked. The next moment, he dangled in front of them with a rope around his ankle. He struggled to get himself down, cursing and asking for help. At a nearby grove of cabins, a young girl came out and sang out,
"I caught the Flasher! I caught the Flasher!"
When she came to see Charles hanging around in her trap, she gasped.
"Charles!" The girl said, her lavender pig tails puffed from sweat. "Don't tell me you're the one who is behind all of this!"
"Why the fuck would I take pictures of my neighbors, you daft tart??"
"Charles, calm down!" Emma stroked her husband's cheek bone. She turned to the girl with a guilty look in her copper eyes. Believe it or not, this girl is one of our sorority sisters. Okay, I left her out, and forgot her no doubt, but her part of the story is just plain dandy! So, to finally show her glory, the girl's name is Lori, but the rest of us call her Brandie!"
Now we call her Brandie not because she drinks too much brandy. No! We call her that due to the fact she liked to brand her name on her stuff. The labels were cute. She had these teddy bear stickers with anything she owned. Apparently, she heard about recent robberies in our college. So, she decided to put her name and teddy bear on everything she owned. And no, she's not possessive with her stuff. She lent me her comb a couple of times. If we return her stuff, everything is fine.
Other than the branded stuff, Brandie is one with nature. She loves everything what nature has. She adored songbirds that chirped in the early hours. She loved the creak that flowed next to our sorority cabin. You can always see her talking to squirrels and now our new pet skunks. And yes, she was with us with our first visit to cabin 13.
I do admit. At the beginning of the summer vacation, her days were rather routine. She gets up, takes a hike, drinks her juice and be one with nature the rest of the day. This would include spending her time talking to the skunks among other animals. Now, when I heard about Brandie's habit of talking to animals, I was skeptical. But when her little secret was revealed to me via Emma, there was a deep shock in my head
"Brandie, honey, what's with this trap?" Emma asked the girl. Farmer Fred had his Swiss army knife to cut the rope as Brandie complied to answer. "I wanted to help this community. I heard about the Flasher by my sisters. Katie and Pam both warned me about him and decided to set a trap for him."
Eleanor ran a short pace to Brandie. "Are you an expert of making traps like that?" She looked at the tree branch with the knotted rope at its twigs. "That is one excellent trap you made!"
"Well, thank you, but I had help making the trap. I had Cecilia to guide me with this."
"Cecilia?" Emma said. She counted our sisters with her fingers, naming all of us in the sorority. "I don't remember any Eta Lambda Phi sister by that name."
"Oh, no, she's not a human. Cecilia is a new mother skunk who remembers seeing that trap."
The adults looked at Brandie with their mouths open. Well, Charles was still out of it, trying to drain the blood from his brain. Emma giggled strangely to Brandie. "Okay, honey, run that by us again."
"Well, Mrs. Mersfield, since that first visit to cabin 13, I came by every day to see Cecilia and her babies. I checked up on them to see how they were doing. I even fed them some of my nature trail snacks. They slowly warmed up to me, earning their trust. Of course, the skunk kits liked me straight off. Oh, they are so adorable!
"Well, Cecilia opened up to me one day and told me about hunters that trapped her parents and her mate."
"Wait a minute, soldier!" Alfred came up to the naturalist. "Why do you call the skunk that name?"
"I can't pronounce her real name. In her language, it's like 'Cecilia'. For some odd reason, she is called 'The blind one.' Maybe she was, but she and I shared some things in the past week. She has shown me about the happenings in the woods. She even taught me how to make traps."
"How would a skunk make traps??" Fred interrupted. Brandie turned to the farmer. "She is very sharp. She could never forget that mechanism who took her family."
The others kept quiet, ashamed of their ignorance. Brandie went to the willow tree and untied the rope from its branches. "Cecilia is a smart animal. She remembered the trap so well. And she was right, it works! I concealed this trap so well!"
"Yeah." Charles laughed, rubbing his ankle. "Sorry about cursing and all, love. You did a fine job. I think we are going to use your help catching the Flasher."
"Really?" Brandie clapped her hands together, her smile widening. Alfred agreed with Charles with the idea. "With your studies and your new skill, we can use your talent."
"Don't I freak you out because I can communicate with animals?"
"Nope! I had a couple of friends that could do that when I was in 'Nam. I'm not surprised with this at all."
"Your skill is a gift from our Lord." Rev. Samuel patted her shoulders. "Many people would do anything to have that."
