Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 Abbi rolled her eyes. "Daniel, there's no such thing as Bigfoot." "I dunno," Lydia said, tapping her finger against her mouth as she thought. "You know how the local news does the Bigfoot-sighting roundup at the end of every year? There are always a lot of people who say they saw one." Abbi wanted to keep arguing, but then she looked at Daniel. He was really shaken! Bigfoot or not, whatever he saw had clearly scared him. "Well, something is out there," Abbi said. "Let's tell Arthur. He'll look into it and find

out what it was, for sure!" The plan seemed to calm Daniel. His shoulders relaxed, and he nodded. Into the walkie-talkie, he said, "Arthur, are you there? Over." Static crackled through the little speaker, followed by Arthur's voice. "Little busy here, Daniel. Anything to report?" He sounded out of breath. As if he'd been running! Maybe they found more clues, Abbi thought, excited. Maybe they were chasing after the cougar right this moment! "We saw something, sir. Well, I saw something through the binoculars," Daniel said. "It wasn't on the trail cams. It looked like…it looked like Bigfoot!" As soon as he spoke the word Bigfoot, his cheeks and the tips of his ears flushed. It was fine for Daniel to suggest to his friends that

Bigfoot was real. But it was another matter altogether to suggest it to Arthur, of all people! Sure enough, Arthur laughed through the walkie-talkie. "Listen, the dark will play tricks on the mind. I know that more than anyone. You probably just saw a strange shadow or a bent tree limb. Or maybe you just wanted to liven up the proceedings? It must be getting kind of boring for you kids over there." Abbi frowned. She didn't believe in Bigfoot, either, but she believed in her friend! He wouldn't lie about something like this. She

was about to grab the walkie-talkie and say so, but the line crackled to life again before she could. "Why don't you call it a night and head home?" Arthur said. "We can—" "I see something," Steph said urgently in the background. "Hurry, let's check it out!" "We have to run, kids. We'll tell you what we find tomorrow!" The connection went dead. Silence fell over the three of them again, broken only by Uncle Walker's soft snores. Lydia stood, ready to head back to Moose Manor. Then she looked at Abbi and sighed. "I know that face," Lydia said. "We aren't going home, are we?" Abbi shook her head. "We're going after the maybe-Bigfoot, aren't we?" Lydia asked. Abbi nodded. Her mouth was set in a determined line.

Daniel snapped his head toward her. "We're what?" Lydia reached for the blanket spread over her lap and slung it around her shoulders like a cape. "Let's get going, then. We're going to catch a Bigfoot."