The following week seemed to drag by for Jordan. He trained his replacement, Mike, for 10 hours a day, then went home each night to pack his small condo.
He lived a fairly Spartan existence, and everything would fit into a pile of boxes in his living room, except for his bed, dresser, television and a futon that doubled as his sofa and guest bed.
He figured that he would have to take the following weekend away from his new family of Bigfoot to get himself moved. He would have to ask a friend for some help loading the bigger items in his truck, but he could move the boxes himself. He estimated 2 trips, and possibly a third to come back and clean.
Jordan felt bad for leaving his work in such a bad place. Mike wasn't an ideal candidate to replace him. He couldn't read a soil compaction table to save his life, and Jordan was constantly correcting Mike's mistakes, only to watch him make the same ones.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Jordan was called out to a job site where a commercial job on a hillside had started to settle. It wasn't his or his company's mistake, but he brought Mike along in the hopes that his replacement could fix it. He had to hold the man's hand, figuratively, while he figured out the retaining wall and pylons that would be needed to permanently stabilize the foundation and support the load of the building and parking lot.
He climbed into bed, exhausted each night, and called Megan before he fell asleep. She hadn't calmed down yet about her experience the previous weekend. She had written a report to her superiors in the organization, and was receiving a lot of professional attention, which she was loving.
Megan was spending the week preparing for their next visit, and was full of bubbling energy, which Jordan found infectious, in spite of his tired state. She had her first ASL lessons planned, with grape rewards for participation. She had special bands made for her fit bits that would stretch big enough for the Bigfoot, and she had a smartphone app that could read multiple sensors at a time.
Megan also had gotten a portable ultrasound device to check on the status of the pregnant females and measure their development. She was especially thrilled about this, because no one had ever studied a pregnant female Bigfoot that wasn't under sedation, and no one had ever managed repeat visits.
Friday night finally rolled around. Jordan made his usual shopping trip, stocking up on provisions to feed his family of giants. He spent over $150 on groceries, and had a cart piled high with meat, fruit, vegetables, grains and dried fruits and nuts.
He packed them in his saddlebags, and tried to get to bed early. He had agreed to meet Megan at 10 in the morning, which meant leaving at sunrise. He was too excited to sleep, and woke often to look at the clock.
***
Jordan sprung awake at 4:55 AM the following morning, 5 minutes before his alarm was set to go off. He was showered, dressed, fed and packed by 5:30, and decided to get on the road to beat Megan to the trading post where they were supposed to meet.
She was there at 9:30 when Jordan pulled up. She crooked her finger at him, and gave him a big kiss before she asked him to join her in her jeep.
"Dr. Stein has a bunch of stuff he wants to talk to us about. I think we've made his life this week pretty hard. Interesting, but hard. He's waiting on our call." She said.
Megan pulled out a tablet, and pulled up the Skype application. In a minute, Dr. Stein's face appeared on the screen. He wore dark glasses this time, which somehow made him look more distinguished.
"Good morning Jordan and Megan. I hope you're both ready for another exciting weekend of research." He said cheerfully.
"Of course, I could barely sleep last night I was so excited." Megan bubbled.
"Great. Listen, I've got a bunch of things I want to talk with you guys about.
"Jordan first: Your permits have all been approved and signed off on for the building of your cabin. The inspections are complete and on file with the county." He said.
"Don't you need the floor design and specifications of my cabin? I don't even have the foundation in yet. How can you have it approved already?" Jordan wondered.
"Jordan, you're a civil engineer, right?" Dr. Stein asked. Jordan nodded. What's the recommended roof load capacity for the elevation at which you're building your cabin?"
"Above 9000 feet elevation, they recommend 70 pounds per square foot, but the winds get pretty bad, and given the damage done to my other cabin by the local wildlife, I was going to plan on doubling that. I have some CAD drawings, but they aren't completed yet." Jordan answered.
"I think you'll be fine. Inspections are so some yahoo doesn't try living in an unsafe structure. I have no doubt what you build will still be standing in 200 years. Send us those CAD drawings when complete, and we'll get the county's file updated.
"We also have approved a little gift for you. Megan tells us you estimate another thousand pounds of dry cement mix and 300 pounds of rebar for foundation and septic tank?" Dr. Stein asked. Jordan nodded. "A national guard helicopter will be delivering a pallet of supplies tomorrow around noon.
"When you hear the helicopter coming, we want you to wave the orange flag Megan has in our care package, and plant it where you want them dropped."
"That's incredibly generous. Thank you!" Jordan answered.
"There's more. A moving team will show up at your house on Friday morning before you leave for work. Leave your keys with them. Once you are moved out, a cleaning crew will come by to take care of your condo. We have already vacated your lease, so when you are done with work on Friday, head straight for your new apartment in Gunnison. Megan will give you the address." Dr. Stein said.
"This is too generous. I don't know how I can repay you for everything you are doing for me." Jordan said.
"Jordan, we asked you to keep a secret, and you did. Then we asked you to share your time and land with us, and you agreed. We also asked you to quit your job and move half-way across the state to go back to school and get a degree so that you can come work for us, and you did.
"We take care of our own. We have considerable resources at our disposal, and I don't think you understand what an incredible resource you have been, and will continue to be in the future. We are investing in you, and we expect that it will pay dividends." Dr. Stein answered with a kind smile.
"But, permits and National Guard helicopters, tuition, movers and building supplies? That's a lot." Jordan said.
"Jordan, since the beginning of this year, there have been over 500 human encounters with Bigfoot reported to us. Most of them were at night, or at a distance, but we still have had to intercept 14 videos taken as good as or better than the Patterson footage. We have to create hoaxes just to keep the real videos that slip through looking fake.
"Every day is a scramble for our organization to stay ahead of the general public and their curiosity. Ten years ago, we wouldn't expect half of that number of videos in a whole year. Now every hiker, hunter and camper had a camera and camcorder in their pockets. Once the technology gives them night vision, or telescoping lenses, the jig is up.
"Add the cheap trail-cams hitting the market, and our job gets even harder. One silver lining is those new trail cams with the wireless data connections that will email the pictures to you. We have a back door into their servers, which allows a nerd at a computer to screen the pictures before their owner sees them.
"Sooner or later, the general public will find out about the existence of Bigfoot. We have legislation crafted to protect them, scientific papers and books written, videos made. We can't afford to be made out for the conspiracy that we really are, and will not cross certain lines to keep it a secret.
Whether it's tomorrow or 10 years from now, the general public will be made aware of Bigfoot's existence, and our organization's focus will shift from concealing to protecting the species.
"You still don't seem to understand what a big deal you are. I've been in meetings all week long, and the sole subject has been you, and Megan's report about you. Like it or not, you are an ambassador to the Bigfoot, and your ladies are going to be the Bigfoot's ambassadors to the world.
"When that day comes, we are going to need to show social, peaceful interactions between you and your ladies...and Megan of course. We are going to need to dispel the public panic of the monsters in the mountains, and in the woods.
"In the meantime, we need to fill the holes in our knowledge. Megan is the best we have at what she does. Two pregnant Bigfoot to study, two toddlers, and several other adult females, and Megan has been accepted into their lair. We expect great things from her and you.
"The next action item is the annual Bigfoot conference. You just missed the conference this year, but we would like for you and Megan to be prepared to present at next year's conference in Salt Fork, Ohio. It will be the weekend of May 16th. About 25% of the attendees are crazies who have no idea what's truth and myth, but are excited anyways. They provide camouflage for the rest of us.
"Half of the rest of us will play the part of skeptics, but are really 'in the know,' and the other half will play 'believers.' If anyone asks you your thoughts on Bigfoot, you can choose whether to be a 'skeptic' or a 'believer,' but steer away from statistics and facts.
"It took me forever to stop saying 'evidence supports the existence of Bigfoot,' after I found out, and start saying 'I believe.' Framing the issue as a matter of faith in the scientific community allows us to keep talking about it, educating the public while keeping their existence and our knowledge a secret.
"Next action item. We monitor populations weekly by infrared on a small aircraft. Part of the duty of an alpha is to mark his territory with his musk as a warning to keep other males out. Since the death of the alpha on your property, we have detected two paired individuals sniffing around his old territory as the scents have faded. We're guessing two males, but it could be a male and female.
"In the care package we sent to Megan are two large spray bottles of synthesized Bigfoot musk. You need to go around and spray trees all around the valley where your ladies live, especially the northern boundary where there have been incursions.
"Luckily the girls haven't had to forage far from home since you are feeding them, but sooner or later they will encounter the interlopers if you don't protect your turf. The spray is a good first defense. We made it extra aggressive." Dr. Stein announced proudly.
"That sounds like it was expensive." Jordan answered.
"Not at all." Dr. Stein answered. "The mercaptan and thiol musk molecules are common to most animals of the weasel family and some others, and we have a fairly inexpensive mix of that. They are personalized by the individual bacteria on the male's armpits and crotch. We simply grew up a culture of Bigfoot sweat, mixed it with skunk and beaver gland extracts, bottled it and sent it to you.
