We had some good friends, but we also had enemies. And of
course, one in particular.
The sasquatch mother murder case against Felix Sinsley was
dismissed from court eventually, the judge ruling that it was
not yet ascertained that a sasquatch was indeed human and that
element of doubt swung it. Sinsley insisted that he thought
the Bigfoot was attacking me and that he was saving my life
from a frightful monster. He had a good lawyer and as he had
said, it was my word against his.
By then I was tired of the whole thing and "admitted" that
perhaps Sinsley could have seen it that way and the murder
charge fell apart. It wasn't going to help Adam's mother
anyway, but at least after so much public attention it was
unlikely that anyone else would go out and shoot any other
sasquatches.
However, had the shooting taken place in Skamania County of
Washington instead of Snohomish, he would have been fined
$10,000, since there is an ordinance protecting sasquatches
there, enacted even before it was proved that they actually
existed.
There was a certain amount of public outrage at the killing,
since sasquatches had long been a popular myth in the Pacific
Northwest and many people protested against the shooting of
such a rare animal with obviously human attributes, but Sinsley
stuck to his story and the furor eventually passed him by.
Occasionally I would see Sinsley in town when I went shopping.
Sometimes he was with his wife and little boy, at those times
he ignored me. Other times, when he was alone, he would follow
me with his eyes and glare threateningly.
Once I was in the vegetable section of Safeway when he came
around the aisle pushing a shopping cart. Our eyes met: it was
a very dramatic moment. I had been thinking about avocados,
and suddenly I was caught up in an exchange of bristling
antagonism.
He coasted to a stop beside me. "Y'know, I've been thinking.
I figure you were so upset about that she-animal because you
were fucking it regular."
I pretended not to hear and went on to another aisle, but he
began to follow me.
"I know why you've got that monkey-boy in your house: it's your
own kid!"
I kept my voice as calm and controlled as I could. "Hmmm. If
that was true then the mother would have to have 46 chromosomes,
as humans do. That would certainly constitute legal proof that
you murdered a human woman."
He looked suddenly worried. That was all I wanted.
"But," I said, "it seems that sasquatches have 48, so they
can't really breed with humans."
A surge of rage flashed across his face and he dashed the
shopping kart against my knee. I almost went down, it hurt so
much. He hissed something at me but I didn't understand it
through the pain. Other people were noticing. We were both
rather notorious in Monroe.
"I said step outside and let's finish that fight fair this
time!"
"Oh, drop dead. And leave me alone or we'll just end up in
court again."
He smiled, unpleasantly, satisfied somehow at that.
"Chickenshit," he said and rolled off to do his shopping.
I left the store with a decided limp. I felt he was right,
calling me chickenshit, I didn't want to fight him. Oh I
wanted to--I wanted to punish him for everything he'd
done, I'd love to relive that magic moment when I had bashed
him into the dirt with his own rifle. But I knew that if we
were to get into it I would lose this time, that I would really
get hurt and I was afraid. I'm no hero.
Sinsley stepped up his campaign to have Adam taken away from
us. He continued to claim that I had stolen his rightful
"catch" and was now making money off it by making a freak show
out of owning a trained baby sasquatch. In an earlier squabble
he had made an issue out of Elaine and me being unmarried and
therefore living in sin, providing an unfit home for the poor
little urchin. It was so double-faced and contradictory that
it was obviously ridiculous, but it did cause trouble in some
religious media.
Sinsley was working for the railroad those days and made good
money, but not enough to afford a big court battle, so he
just stirred up the hornets and then stepped back to watch,
probably laughing. There were inquiries made and applications
for custody of Adam made by people who wanted to get their hands
on Adam for reasons ranging from benevolent to depraved.
So Elaine I finally got married, not only to maintain our legal
custody of Adam, of course, but also to cement our claim to those
"family values" so important to the pious. Fortunately, we also
became friends with the very judge we had to deal with for several
legal decisions concerning Adam's fate. After that all we had to
do was raise the little monster.
Okay, I realize that I've been presenting Felix Sinsley as the
real monster of this story, an utter villain, a man with no
redeeming qualities, an evil bastard. I only do that because I
hate him. However, he is important to the telling of this tale,
and for the sake of accuracy, I should also mention the rest of
the truth about him.
It would seem that no one could love a dirty rat like Sinsley,
but he had a rather devoted wife named Sarah and he took good
care of his family. Whether or not he cheated on his wife or
beat her, I have no information. For my sake I hope so, but
for her sake I hope not, because she seemed like a rather nice
person.
I did some research, most of which I won't report on here
because he'd probably just sue me, but I was delighted to find
that he was a troublesome youth who got into fights and was
several times arrested for drinking underage and speeding. He
was, unfortunately, never arrested for any crimes, only
youthful follies.
Then he joined the Army and became a hero. He had been an Airborne
Ranger, had served in Iraq, then in the mountains in Afghanistan,
here there and everywhere for ten years. And nowhere; I found it
hard to research his life after a certain point, but there are
hints that he was assigned to CID and CIA and went underground in
Latin America. He has a Purple Heart and several commendations for
valor, so he was no slouch. Damn, he was Rambo, no wonder I was
afraid of him. How did I ever beat him the first time?
His last year in the military was at Ft. Lewis, Washington,
training Special Forces troops in specialized combat
techniques. There he met Sarah Minder, daughter of the post
general, whom he got pregnant. That was the end of his
military career, since Sarah's high-ranking father hated his
guts, but the beginning of his family life. They had a son,
Peter.
They moved to Monroe when Sinsley got a job with Burlington
Northern Railways, about a year before he and I met over the
body of Adam's mother.
I talked with Sarah Sinsley once after a School District meeting,
when I was a teacher once again, years after her husband's and
my great enmity had been going on. She was a very pretty woman,
dark with fine features and blue eyes. I knew who she was and
she knew who I was. You would think that we had nothing to say
to one another, but we talked at lengths about many things, each
of us interested in who the other was. I was very impressed with
her brains as well as her beauty.
"This has been very interesting for me, Mr Forest. I've only
heard the worst about you at home."
"Well I hope I've lived up to all your expectations," I kidded.
"Not really. I feel that you are a very competent teacher as well."
"Oh, Felix likes to run down my teaching too, does he?"
"It's a hobby with him. I don't even know if he means it anymore."
"What's a nice girl like you doing with a guy like him?" I tried to
make it sound like a joke. But she took it seriously.
"He's a good man: strong-headed, opinionated, quick-tempered, yes.
But I like him a lot the way he is."
Since she was being serious, I dared to ask a very personal
question. "Do you love him?"
She smiled one of those Mona Lisas. "Most of the time."
Then she asked a very serious question, with very personal
ramifications. "That young bigfoot you've been raising, do you
really consider it...human?"
At that time Adam was 6 years old, in contact with other
children, had been documented on television several times where
he spoke unreasonably good English for his age, no one could
possibly believe that he was a "dumb ape" any more. But I
understood why she had to ask that question and I gave her the
polite answer. "Adam is of another species, if that's what you
mean, but he's about as human as anyone I know."
"Emotions? Feelings?"
"Just like you or me at that age...except that he's bigger and
hairier." That was supposed to be a joke, but she didn't smile.
"He's going to be even bigger and stronger, I hear," she noted.
Then she asked the big question: "Do you think he wants revenge
for his mother?"
Then it hit me why Sinsley couldn't drop the enmity, what he
feared, what his family was feeling as they watched Adam grow
older, bigger and bigger, more inhumanly strong, year after
year, until the day finally came...
"I don't think 6 year old kids tend to worry about that sort of
thing," I answered, "he's never talked about it once."
"No, probably not... yet."
"Sarah--I know Adam. He's extremely gentle. I doubt that
revenge will ever cross his mind. Nor will I ever suggest it
to him."
She nodded, but I could hear her still thinking "yet".
Okay, so although Felix Sinsley is a major villain in my story
here, in another story he could have been the hero. All a
matter of timing or Fate, a chess game of the gods. I certainly
don't believe that any of this was chance or circumstance.
Writing this now, about things that happened so long ago, I can
see that he and I were set up as adversaries. Not necessarily
enemies, but we got caught up in the swirl of events and took
them personally. With predictably tragic results.
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