Excerpt from Silent Stranger

Michelle Bowman gazed at the scene outside her kitchen window while pulling her brown hair into a ponytail.  A cloudless sky provided the perfect backdrop for the ranch yard and the mountains beyond.  The rainy, spring weather had finally broken.

"Good day for a field trip."

She called the mothers of her six students, her sisters-in-law, and asked them to pack lunches.  Usually, the kids ate at home, a duplex across the yard, while Michelle used the time to correct papers.

She stowed her lunch and other supplies in a backpack, then laced her hiking boots.  After loading her Winchester 3030 rifle, she checked the safety.  Having spent her entire life in these mountains, the rifle seemed as natural as her boots.  The kids raced up the walk while she pulled on her backpack.

"Where we going, Michelle?"  Matt, the oldest at twelve, asked.

"I thought we'd try for Cougar Rock."  She smiled at their delight.  Cougar Rock meant a whole day away from the classroom.  She slung the rifle over her shoulder.  "Matt, take up the rear."

"Again?"

Michelle frowned.

"You know why."

Matt nodded.  Following the trail past her parents' house, she picked a fern in the woods and asked them to identify the species.  They crossed the still-flooding creek on a bridge her grandfather had built.  The trail began climbing almost immediately.

Michelle set her pace according to the capability of her youngest student, Tim, seven.  Frequent stops to teach science gave them a breather.

"Plant species change as much when we climb a hundred feet as they would if we traveled a hundred miles ... See how the heavy rain has eroded the soil up here.  All the good soil washes into the valley.  That's why your great-grandfather built his ranch there."

The kids identified bird species and collected minerals.  During a rest stop, Matt shouted.

"Hey, look!  A cougar track!"

"Is not!"  ten-year-old Sara said.

"Is too!"

"Let me see," Michelle said.  She leaned over, examining the patch of mud, no bigger than a baseball, filling a depression in the rock.  It contained part of a foot print with three toes.  "Well, I'm not sure what it is, but it's not a cougar.  Remember, Matt, a cat's toes are farther apart at the end than at the base."

"Oh.  Yeah.  But it's too big for a wolf.  What is it?"

"We can't see enough of the track to say.  It could even be a small bear.  His claws would have touched the rock and not made a mark in the mud."

"Maybe it's a big foot."

"Pretty small for a big foot."

"A baby big foot?"

"Nice try.  You lead the way for a while."

He grinned, the unexpected honor making him forget the track.  But Michelle could not forget.  It looked more human than animal.

At a place with a panoramic view she quizzed the kids on the names of the surrounding peaks.  They watched an eagle soar below before hiking on.

She stopped for lunch at the Stadium, an expanse of granite the size of a football field with no overhanging cliffs and little cover for predators.  Boulders provided chairs.  When they finished eating, she told her students to use their backpacks for pillows and take a nap.  Although the older students did not need it, they cooperated for the sake of their younger siblings.

Michelle, rifle in hand, wandered the edges of the granite where larger boulders and gnarled trees promised something with which she could interest her students.  She decided to explain that these were the same species as the magnificent trees around the ranch buildings.

She froze, staring at the patch of mud.  This time she could see the whole print.  The whole human foot print.  She placed her foot beside the track.  A little bigger than her boot.  A man's track.

How could anyone walk around barefoot at this time of year?  She searched for any distinguishing features and found none.  It rained hard last night.  He left this track today.  She repositioned the 3030 and surveyed the area.  Nothing moved.

"Whatcha looking at?"  Sara asked, Much too close.

Michelle turned, destroying the track with her boot.

"Just looking.  Let's wake the kids and head back."

"But we were going to Cougar Rock."

"I don't think Jeff and Tim can make it there and back.  We don't want to carry them part way home."

Sara agreed, as did Matt, having carried tired siblings on other occasions.  Michelle let Sara lead while she kept vigil with her rifle.  Before she descended the trail, she dropped some snack bars at the spot where they had eaten lunch.

For several minutes, nothing moved on the rock.

Then a disheveled, emaciated figure emerged from the boulders.  His filthy feet carried him lightly across the rock.  He grabbed the bars and scurried back to cover.  His eyes darted about as he tore open the wrappers and stuffed the food into his mouth.

A dark beard could not hide his hollow cheeks and anyone could count his ribs because no shirt covered them.  Jeans, which may have fit at one time, stayed up only because a length of rope held them in place.

He licked the inside of each wrapper and studied the spot where Michelle and the children had disappeared.  Finally, he followed.