| Aside the crackling of the fire, there were plenty of noises which had me wondering if that was going to be the last night of my life? After all, I had no way of knowing for certain how the translation from my language to theirs; was being received? I mean if I could have had such a range as to thinking they were either going to eat me, or my cigars, then it was no leap of the imagination to think they might have had the same range of possibilities of what I was trying to say to them. In fact the idea crossed my mind that what if what was being played to them came across as a challenge? A threat. Take a drink from the stream and you will be killed! I began to get more and more uneasy as the night matured. I began to feel like something, most likely them, was right behind me in the darkness. I found myself keeping the fire to my back so my front was facing out toward the darkness so that at least I wouldn’t be hit from behind. Things even reached a point where I was picking up pieces of the campfire which were burning, and holding them out in front of me as protection and as a way to ward off any potential attacks. On top of everything else, I was very aware that although my vehicle wasn’t a terribly far distance, that I would stand the risk of becoming lost in the darkness if I tried to make a break for the security of my Honda Pilot. There was no moon that night, at least not up to that point. What I discovered was that I had rushed out into the wilderness armed only with a translation app which would then be announcing to any creatures within hearing distance that they should not drink the water out of the stream. Whether that was being taken as a warning, a suggestion, or a threat, was unknown to me? When the fire began to die away, I knew that I was losing any sort of protection which I had enjoyed. Sun up was hours away. The fire would not last the distance. I spoke into the translation app. Next I announced to whatever might be waiting in the darkness just feet from where I was waiting for a response that I had come out there risking myself in order to try and protect them from the toxic mistakes my kind had imposed upon their kind. I tried very hard to make it clear I did not have to come out there. When you feel like what you are saying might be the last things you ever have the chance to say in your behalf, you tend to go on. I explained how I had invented the app in hopes our two species could communicate but that I realized our two species were still too far apart for communication to be a practical tool. That I had decided to never bother them again but then the toxic spill happened and that I knew they were near the spill. I explained how that I thought their way was better but that was not shared by others of my species. Finally I said I was going to leave the location because I had accomplished my goal. I also included how I hoped they appreciated that I had faced down my very real fears and had forced myself to come out there so they could be warned. All the noise that had been surrounding me the entire night seemed to stop at once. How they were able to get the insects to also stop will always be a big point of the night that I will remember. It was truly surreal. Things stopped so suddenly and so completely that I first waited for a rush of an attack. When that didn’t happen, I got brave and translated on last thing to them. I said I would appreciate some sort of sign that it was safe for me to leave the location. Almost immediately I got a response but it wasn’t translated to me. It didn’t need to be. Out of the darkness, and I swear I could tell by the force of it hitting me that the little pebble was just slightly pitched toward my direction with no more effort than a flick of the wrist. One pebble. It struck me dead center in the chest. It landed so lightly I was able to catch it with my hands before it fell away from my body toward the ground. I still have that pebble to this day and it is among my most valued collections. Naturally I will never know for certain if I made a difference or not, but I can say there were no dead bigfoot found in the area. That is all the closure I will ever get concerning the tainted stream. If this were the movies I am sure there would have been an exciting ending. In fact I imagine if this were a movie then the translation would have worked much better, although it wasn’t the app which caused me to shelf the project. It was the translating parties. next page |  |