One false eye forcing him to miss
Walking McBeans through the woods after work today, I notice there are two people on the side of the path. This is not uncommon. There are always people, usually teenagers who have come to smoke cigarettes after school. But these people are not teenagers, and they are not running away as they see me approaching. They are full grown adults, a woman emerging from a hedge as I come up upon them. Getting right up close, I notice that she’s fashioning a homeless person’s haircut, all shaved down, with various patches that are completely missing and a long strand that hangs down in front. Her cohort is also sketchy. He’s kind of this Phil Ek-looking character, wandering around in the leaves. She gives him direction from the path, and then he moves in that direction, always looking down. It seems completely strange to me, and so I ask, “What are you doing?” They give a little sign of embarrassment and then explain: “We’re looking for a canister,” the woman tells me. This doesn’t really explain it all, and so I enquire. “You mean, like you lost a film canister out here or something?” “No,” she says, “It’s a game. Someone hides a canister and then we try and find it.” Some internet website dedicated to the retrieval of various treasures, I reason. Do you win a prize if you find it? I want to know. “No, there’s no prize,” she says. “It’s just for the fun.” The fantastic element of fun seems reduced, however, out here in the elements, with the onset of darkness coming soon. All of this really does seem pretty bizarre to me. But they do have some sort of compass-type mechanism and are in the process of looking for something. Although, this could be the cover for the actual activity of exhuming the body they’ve buried out here and forgot to disarm of its jewelry. Oh, man, the days are getting weirder. The woman goes on to explain that there is actually a whole underground community dedicated to these treasure hunts. “It’s pretty cool,” the guy says chiming in. “We actually just came from one up in Bennington, Vermont last weekend. You get to know some of the people in the community and it’s a real good time. ” I look at him with a moderate amount of amazement. “Do you think you're going to find it?” I ask them. "Well, we might have to reposition our coordinates," he says. Well, I hope you find it, I say. And the weird thing is, I actually mean it.