| Understand the whole world seemed surreal at the time. None of us had ever encountered a situation where the entire sky was blocked out by ash and smoke. Later it would be noted that the blocked out sky stretched out at least as far as eastern Missouri. So anyways I left the quick stop with a full tank of gas and the little ones had full stomachs. About forty-five minutes later I was pulling down a dirt road off a gravel road. I figured we were about as lost as I could get. Standing outside my SUV, the little ones did some hollering out across the landscape. They hollered for about fifteen minutes and then took my hand and gave me the squeeze that meant to wait. Then they sat down and played back and forth with each other. Looking at them I guessed they must have been from the same birth. If not then they were not true siblings since they almost certainly were born at the same time or near the same time. There was a commotion in the trees which I checked out and saw nothing. I turned to Burt and Earnie to see what they might have seen and they were gone. It was over that quickly. I never even got to see one of them but I am certain they were there. I found a print. I couldn’t bring myself to leave until I was certain an adult was available to care for them. I will likely never know what becomes of the two but I will always be amazed at how well-behaved they were especially after having endured such awful circumstance. After finding the big footprint I headed back over to my SUV. My mission was complete. The End back to AtSafeDistance.com |  |