The big day came for the cotillion. Nogdorf and Lester brought Nogdorf’s camera and equipment, along with his boombox to the great forest flats. “Who is going to operate the camera, Nogdorf?”
“Sarge has had a lot of experience in the service with cameras and knows what he is doing. In the army, Sarge photographed new recruits and worked on advertising photos so he could encourage more people to join the army. He agreed to operate my old 35 millimeter and was very gracious about missing the dancing. He did ask to have someone bring him the yummy snacks while he worked,” Nogdorf explained.
Lester helped the other rabbits to set up tables and chairs and two of his bunnies placed the tablecloths on the tables. They were all matching, with a harvest theme of orange, red, and yellow colors.
Two days before, Jordan adjusted the focus on the drone’s camera and his eyebrows raised as he saw the muggy steam rise up off of the marsh. Tom had asked him to fly the drone over a certain parcel of land, not telling him why. He looked closer as a long snout appeared from the murky waters. A fish jumped as the snout opened, revealing rows of sharp teeth. The fish fell into the gar’s mouth, meeting its fate. Jordan’s jaw dropped in disbelief. He had lived here all of his life and knew there were no swamps for hundreds of miles, but his eyes told a different story.
What was going on? He flew the drone with a steady hand, mapping out the large land area and shook his head in disbelief as he watched 5 large alligators sunning themselves beside a large snapping turtle. As the drone flew along the north border, he saw a large flat area. What a surprise to see Japanese paper lanterns! He had to show Steve and Tom what he had found.
Jordan set up the drone recording in the conference room for Steve and Tom to watch and then excused himself to go to the restroom. He splashed water on his flushed face and looked himself in the eyes, saying, “OK Jordan, get ahold of yourself. There has to be a good explanation for all of this.”
Walking back into the conference room, Jordan listened to Steve and Tom discuss this swamp area and their options.
Jordan was dumbfounded that they seemed to accept the fact that there really was a swamp here, which should , in all reality, be in Louisiana.
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Steve was saying, “There, do you see the wizard? Let’s drive out and talk with him.”
Tom said, “What good will that do? And by the time we get there it will be dark.”
“So, bring flashlights,” Steve said determinedly.
The Mercedes drove east on highway 22 until the cutoff, turning north on a rough dirt road on the perimeters of the swamp. It was slow going, with all of the ruts and bumps in the road and they watched the beautiful sunset off to the left. The golden glow gave an eerie light to the whole area as they turned left once again, driving into the sunset. When they finally reached the great forest flats, they parked the car and had to walk through some brambles to get out of the pine trees and other undergrowth. Their eyes hadn’t deceived them. There were indeed Japanese lanterns, which were hard to make out with the dimming light.
Steve and Tom looked around for Nogdorf and, not seeing him, shone their flashlights slowly around, taking in the unusual sights. Nogdorf chuckled, knowing the moon was still casting some light in this area. He had decided to wait a couple of days for the cotillion for that very reason.
“Something moved over there. Maybe it is the wizard,” Tom whispered.
Steve shone his flashlight where Tom had pointed. He gasped and crossed himself when his legs turned to jelly. A giant triceratops was running straight toward him. Tom, on the other hand, ran toward the car. Steve thought it was the end, but instead of being gouged by the triceratops’ horns, he lightly felt the dinosaur pass right through him. He was glad to be alive, but felt a range of emotions occur, rapidly! First, he felt shock at seeing a creature who was supposed to be extinct, then utter repulsion, as the energies of the triceratops turned his stomach physically. Then he felt relief after the creature didn’t take his life, followed by hair-raising fear when he saw more dinosaurs headed toward him.
Tom ran back toward him, when he saw the dinosaurs were see-through, grabbed his arm and dragged him back to the car. Tom opened the door, shoved Steve into the passenger seat and quickly ran to the other side of the car, jumped in, gunned the engine and they got the hell out of dodge.
Tom was no doctor but he would have bet his eye teeth that Steve was in shock. He thought about what he had seen as they drove as quickly as the rutty roads would allow them. He was tempted to feel he was going crazy, but knew he had to keep his wits about him if they were going to get away from here. He pushed the visions of what he had seen to the back of his mind and concentrated on driving the dirt paths in the dark, grateful for headlights.
