“It was right there!” Herman said, pointing to his left. “I turned my head to get a better look, and it was gone.”
“Where was you standing when you saw it?” Woody asked.
“Right here. I haven’t moved an inch. I just turned my head to get a better look.”
“Can you put your head back the way it was pointed when you caught sight of it?”
Herman had been scanning the wood line, looking for lateral movement, when he had heard the cry of a condor above him and to the right. He retraced the line of his sight across the base of the tree line, then glanced up towards where he had heard the bird. When he did, something appeared in his peripheral vision to his left.
“There it is!” Herman cried out, but it disappeared when he focused his eyes on it. “And now it’s gone.” He heard Woody chuckle.
“Ya cain’t look right at it. You can only see it sidewise. It’s kinda like one of them Magic Eye posters they used to have when we was kids. Give it another go-round, but this time when you see it, don’t move your eyes or your head or nothing.”
Herman retraced his line of sight and had to fight his own body’s reflexes to keep from focusing on it when it reappeared.
“There it is! I’ve got it!”
“Good,” Woody said, bringing up the rifle he carried so that he could take aim through its enormous telescopic sight. “Gimme some landmarks so I can draw a bead on it.”
“Okay. See where that rock shaped like Jay Leno’s chin covers the bottom part of a tree, but you can still see the top part behind it?”
“Yup.”
“Go three trees to the left where a dead tree is leaning between two others like a capital ‘N.'”
“One, two, thr… Oh, I see whatcha mean.”
“Okay. It’s right under the leaning tree, exactly between the two trees. Standing maybe eight feet tall.”
Instead of a response from Woody, the tranquilizer gun responded instead with its muted reply. A couple of minutes later, as the pair approached the site, the creature materialized. It was seated with its back against the tree where it had fallen. Its legs extended in front of it.
“We knocked it out of the in-between,” Woody said. “Now we can see it clear as day.”
“And smell it,” Herman chimed in. “Pee-yew, like eau de wet bear.”
Woody dropped to one knee and pulled the tranquilizer dart out of the animal’s flesh where it was lodged between its chest and neck.Suddenly, Woody flew through the air and impacted a neighboring tree with enough force to render him unconscious. Herman felt his legs fly out from under him as he impacted the ground hard. The last thing he saw, out the corner of his eye, was another creature carrying their would-be captive back to the in-between.
