WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.279 --> 00:00:05.440 The first time Ray Haskins noticed something was wrong with 2 00:00:05.480 --> 00:00:09.560 the orchard, it was a good kind of wrong. From 3 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:13.880 his kitchen window, the rose swept down the hill in 4 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:20.239 a neat green stripe, each tree heavy with fruit. It 5 00:00:20.399 --> 00:00:25.079 was picking season, the kind of crisp blue sky morning 6 00:00:25.719 --> 00:00:28.839 that made his knees ache before he even stood up. 7 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:33.560 He poured his coffee, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, 8 00:00:34.159 --> 00:00:38.320 and glanced out like he did every morning, and paused. 9 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.000 The sunrise painted the tops of the trees in gold. 10 00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:47.799 But it wasn't the light that froze him. It was 11 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:52.479 the pattern. On the right side of the orchard, closer 12 00:00:52.520 --> 00:00:56.880 to the house, the branches hung heavy, just like they should, 13 00:00:57.479 --> 00:01:01.640 red and yellow apples dotting the lee like ornaments on 14 00:01:01.679 --> 00:01:06.359 a Christmas tree. On the left side, farther down the 15 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:13.359 tree line, the branches were bare, not empty exactly, but thinned, 16 00:01:14.159 --> 00:01:16.840 as if someone had gone through and done a careful, 17 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:22.680 selective harvest. Thing was Ray hadn't sent anyone out there yet. 18 00:01:24.359 --> 00:01:27.840 He grabbed his coat and his old cap, half finished 19 00:01:27.879 --> 00:01:33.120 coffee in hand, and headed out, gravel crunching under his boots. 20 00:01:33.560 --> 00:01:37.000 The air smelled like dew and soil, and the faint 21 00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:42.280 tang of apple skins, birds chattered in the hedge, grow normal, 22 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:47.519 Everything normal until he crossed into the left side rose. 23 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:51.920 At first glance, it looked like a crew had already 24 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:56.879 come through, picking only the best fruit. The branches that 25 00:01:57.079 --> 00:02:04.040 yesterday bowed with ripeness now held scattered remnants, misshapen, too small, 26 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:11.319 still green or bird pecked. The rest were gone, cleanly plucked. 27 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:19.159 No bruised piles underfoot, no broken branches, no fruit on 28 00:02:19.240 --> 00:02:24.840 the ground at all. Ray stopped scanning the grass. Nothing. 29 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:29.000 He straightened and squinted toward the far edge of the orchard, 30 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:33.439 where the trees thinned and the forest began, a darker 31 00:02:33.479 --> 00:02:37.840 wall of oaks and pines, the boundary where his planted 32 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:42.439 world stopped and the wild one started. At the base 33 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:46.719 of the treeline, something caught the light, a smudge of 34 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:51.080 color that didn't belong. He walked down between the rows, 35 00:02:51.520 --> 00:02:54.960 boots soft in the grass now, and the closer he 36 00:02:55.039 --> 00:02:59.159 came to the woods, the more the smell hit him. Strong, 37 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:04.919 sweet thick apple flesh and sugar, and the faint edge 38 00:03:05.319 --> 00:03:12.080 of fermentation. They were piled there, hundreds of apples, maybe more, 39 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:16.520 nestled in a heap a few feet from the first 40 00:03:16.599 --> 00:03:21.319 line of trees, stacked like something had gathered them with 41 00:03:21.520 --> 00:03:26.000 care and gently laid them down. They were the good ones, 42 00:03:26.680 --> 00:03:31.120 the best ones, the ripest from those rows, perfect color, 43 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:36.599 no blemishes, each one that distinctive. Haskins red He'd spent 44 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:41.719 decades grafting and nurturing like children. Every apple in that 45 00:03:41.919 --> 00:03:44.960 pile was one he would have picked for his highest 46 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:49.400 priced bins at the market. He felt a pressure in 47 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:54.879 his chest, something cold sliding down his ribs. Ray looked 48 00:03:54.919 --> 00:03:58.879 over his shoulder out of the orchard, then turned back 49 00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:06.759 to the pile. Who the hell, he muttered, Teenagers, Maybe 50 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:11.159 some kids from town playing a prank. But what kind 51 00:04:11.240 --> 00:04:15.680 of prank involved picking like professional farm hands and stacking 52 00:04:15.719 --> 00:04:19.199 fruit in the woods instead of throwing it or smashing it. 53 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:24.439 He moved closer to the tree line, scanning for footprints, 54 00:04:24.839 --> 00:04:31.680 tire tracks, beer cans, candy wrappers, any sign of human stupidity. 55 00:04:32.519 --> 00:04:36.439 The ground was disturbed, but not in the way he expected. 56 00:04:37.279 --> 00:04:43.040 No bootprints, no tread marks, just flattened grass and a 57 00:04:43.079 --> 00:04:47.560 faint trail leading into the shadow of the trees, the 58 00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:50.439 kind of pressed down line that might be made by 59 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:55.240 something very heavy, moving the same way over and over. 60 00:04:56.720 --> 00:04:59.800 He followed it just two steps before the woods wh 61 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:03.920 spirted him in that particular way he'd learned to respect 62 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:08.519 over the years, a gust of cold air, the hush 63 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:13.319 of leaves, the sense not a thought, more like a 64 00:05:13.360 --> 00:05:17.279 feeling that he wasn't supposed to cross that boundary. He 65 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:22.279 stopped toe at the edge, At the edge of the 66 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:27.759 shade behind him, his orchard glowed in the morning light. 67 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:35.319 Before him, the forest watched, quiet and patient. Slowly he 68 00:05:35.399 --> 00:05:42.839 backed away. By noon, he'd done the math twenty acres. 69 00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:48.720 The left half of the orchard represented about ten of them. 70 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:52.759 Of those ten, at least a quarter of his premium 71 00:05:52.839 --> 00:05:59.680 fruit had been removed, not dropped, not damaged, not partially eaten. 72 00:05:59.720 --> 00:06:04.240 By year, removed and carried to one spot at the 73 00:06:04.279 --> 00:06:09.519 tree line, twenty five percent of that side, which came 74 00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:13.199 out to about twenty five percent of his overall profits. 75 00:06:14.040 --> 00:06:17.920 Ray sat at the kitchen table, PaperWorks spread in front 76 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:25.160 of him. Yield estimates, buy her contracts, fuel costs, pencil tapping, 77 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:33.560 jaw working. Somebody's stealing from us, he said. His wife, Helen, 78 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:38.040 turned from the sink. She wiped her hands on a 79 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:42.480 dish towel, then leaned on the counter, staring at him 80 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:48.920 over the rims of her glasses. Kids, she asked. He hesitated, 81 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:55.279 That's what I thought. But no, no, no, she tilted 82 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:59.879 her head. He thought about the pile, the careful stack, 83 00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:06.600 the selective picking, the faint, oddly wide trail in the grass, 84 00:07:08.160 --> 00:07:11.439 the way the branches weren't broken, just empty of the 85 00:07:11.439 --> 00:07:18.560 best fruit. It's too tidy, he said finally. She watched 86 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:24.199 him for a long moment, expression unreadable. Then she looked 87 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:28.079 past him to the window, out toward the orchard, where 88 00:07:28.600 --> 00:07:34.519 the left rose looked thinner, sparser. It's not like we 89 00:07:34.680 --> 00:07:42.040 haven't had strange things happen before, she murmured. He didn't respond. 90 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:47.720 He didn't need her to list them. They lived on 91 00:07:47.839 --> 00:07:54.079 the land. The land kept score, the uprooted peach trees, 92 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:57.920 roots torn from the earth like some one had yanked 93 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:03.240 it straight up and tossed it aside. The twisted metal 94 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:07.439 trash cans that once we used for dog food, lid 95 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:13.439 ripped off sides, crumpled like a soda can, forty pounds 96 00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:19.240 of kibble gone. The feed bags dragged off, the heavy 97 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:25.879 ones he himself groan to carry sometimes they'd find shreds 98 00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:31.160 of sacks half a mile into the woods, the missing chickens, 99 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:36.840 dozens in a single night, with no feathers, no blood, 100 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:41.879 no trail, just a silent, empty coop and a low, 101 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:48.080 uneasy clucking from the survivors. And that one evening years back, 102 00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:53.240 when they turned on to their long dirt driveway, just 103 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:57.440 as soon as something had crossed it. Ray hadn't meant 104 00:08:57.440 --> 00:09:00.519 to slow down. His foot had done it on its own, 105 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:04.279 easing off the gas as the thing moved through the 106 00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:08.679 beams of his headlights. Too big to be deer, too 107 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:13.440 upright to be bare, too fluid to be anything he'd 108 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:18.240 ever seen. It had taken three strides to cross the 109 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:24.159 width of the road, shadow blotting out the dust, a 110 00:09:24.200 --> 00:09:28.759 brief flash of matted hair, and something like an arm swinging. 111 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:34.399 Then it was gone into the tall grass. He'd glanced 112 00:09:34.440 --> 00:09:39.600 at Helen. She'd been sitting very still, hands folded tight 113 00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:45.320 in her lap, eyes wide and focused straight ahead. They 114 00:09:45.480 --> 00:09:52.320 drive the rest of the way in silence, parked, gone inside, 115 00:09:52.480 --> 00:09:56.840 and never not once spoken of it. That had been 116 00:09:56.919 --> 00:10:00.879 their quiet agreement. There were some things you didn't give 117 00:10:00.960 --> 00:10:07.080 shape to with words until now, apparently, it's just apples, 118 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:12.759 he said, forcing a shrug. Probably a bear or I 119 00:10:12.759 --> 00:10:17.000 don't know, maybe kids. After all, I'm gonna put up 120 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:23.240 some cameras. See what's what. Helen's lips pressed into a 121 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:29.240 thin line, but she nodded. Just be careful, ray careful, 122 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:35.399 he snorted. I'm just looking for idiots stealing apples, but 123 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:39.879 the words felt thin in his mouth, like paper trying 124 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:44.159 to stand up in a wind. The cameras didn't work. 125 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:49.840 He bought four motion activated trail cameras from the farm 126 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:55.159 supply store, the kind hunters used, and mounted them on 127 00:10:55.440 --> 00:11:00.440 posts overlooking the left side rose and the tree line. 128 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:03.679 It took him half a day to get them all 129 00:11:03.720 --> 00:11:08.600 positioned right. He walked back to the house feeling something 130 00:11:08.879 --> 00:11:14.279 he hadn't felt in a long time, satisfaction. Let's see 131 00:11:14.279 --> 00:11:19.799 a hide now, he muttered. That night, the wind came up. 132 00:11:21.080 --> 00:11:24.559 He lay awake, listening to it combed through the branches, 133 00:11:25.200 --> 00:11:30.080 hearing the familiar creaks of the house shifting, the occasional 134 00:11:30.600 --> 00:11:34.919 faint thud of an apple dropping. He imagined teens and 135 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:43.080 hoodies slipping between the rows, stuffing their backpacks, giggling. At 136 00:11:43.080 --> 00:11:45.840 three in the morning, when the old grandfather clock in 137 00:11:45.919 --> 00:11:50.759 the hall chimed. He thought he heard something else, a low, 138 00:11:51.159 --> 00:11:56.360 steady rustle, almost like someone wading through tall grass. But 139 00:11:56.639 --> 00:11:59.320 by the time he got out of bed and patted 140 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:03.720 to the window, there was nothing, just darkness and the 141 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:08.360 faint sheen of moonlight brushing the tops of the trees. 142 00:12:10.039 --> 00:12:14.559 In the morning, the batteries and all four cameras were dead, 143 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:23.120 not low dead. Ray unscrewed one, popped it open and frowned. 144 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:28.080 The batteries weren't cheap ones. He'd put them in fresh. 145 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:32.679 They should have lasted weeks. He chewed the inside of 146 00:12:32.679 --> 00:12:38.720 his cheek. Well that's just great, he muttered. The orchard 147 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:42.919 looked different again. More of the left half had been 148 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:49.960 selectively picked perfectly. Ripe apples were missing, leaving only the rejects. 149 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:54.360 At the tree line. There were now two piles of 150 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:59.879 fruit side by side, like someone had drawn invisible lines 151 00:13:00.039 --> 00:13:04.720 in the grass and sorted the apples accordingly. Ray stood 152 00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:10.159 between them, hands on his hips. Who would steal that 153 00:13:10.399 --> 00:13:15.440 many apples and not take them? He said aloud. The 154 00:13:15.559 --> 00:13:20.559 question sounded absurd even as it left his mouth. It 155 00:13:20.679 --> 00:13:26.240 hung in the morning air, unanswered. The forest did not respond. 156 00:13:27.879 --> 00:13:32.840 He tried again with brand new batteries. This time he 157 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:37.559 added a fifth camera hidden higher in the tree instead 158 00:13:38.360 --> 00:13:41.519 of on a post. He ran a cable to an 159 00:13:41.559 --> 00:13:46.360 old car battery he'd rigged as a backup. The setup 160 00:13:46.399 --> 00:13:51.519 looked ridiculous, a spider web of wires and plastic tied 161 00:13:51.720 --> 00:13:56.440 to a living branch, but he didn't care. This was 162 00:13:56.480 --> 00:14:02.440 his land, his livelihood. At night, the wind was dead, calm, 163 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:08.799 no creaks, no thuds, just a kind of waiting silence 164 00:14:08.840 --> 00:14:14.080 that made the house feel smaller. Around two in the morning, 165 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:19.279 he woke up suddenly, heart tapping a little faster than usual. 166 00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:23.679 The room was dim, the red glow of the alarm 167 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:30.039 clock numbers floating in the dark to fourteen. Something had 168 00:14:30.039 --> 00:14:37.039 woken him. He listened. At first he heard nothing, then 169 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:43.639 very faintly, almost below, hearing a sound like fabric sliding 170 00:14:43.639 --> 00:14:50.480 over bark, a soft rhythmic huff, branches shifting, not in 171 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:55.639 a chaotic wind tossed way, but in a measured pattern, 172 00:14:57.039 --> 00:15:03.320 like someone moving very careful among the trees. He slipped 173 00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:08.360 out of bed, wincing at the complaint in his knees, 174 00:15:09.080 --> 00:15:13.960 and moved to the window that overlooked the orchard. The 175 00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:18.240 moon was half full, washing the rose in a cold, 176 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:23.559 uneven light. He squinted, trying to make sense of the 177 00:15:23.639 --> 00:15:31.080 shapes tree trunks, shadows, the pale gleam of fruit. Half 178 00:15:31.120 --> 00:15:36.919 Way down the slope, something big shifted. It wasn't much, 179 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:42.240 a darker shape inside the darkness. Stepping from one row 180 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:48.200 to the next. The motion was smooth, almost lazy. An 181 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:52.559 arm he thought it was an arm, reached up and 182 00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:58.000 a branch dipped, then another. Each time there was a 183 00:15:58.039 --> 00:16:02.159 faint rustle, a saw thump that might have been an 184 00:16:02.200 --> 00:16:07.200 apple landing in a large, waiting hand. He realized his 185 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:12.600 own breath was shallow, his finger tips pressed whitening against 186 00:16:12.600 --> 00:16:19.879 the glass. The thing wasn't rushing, It wasn't panicked or 187 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:25.080 sneaky in the human sense. It moved like someone doing 188 00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:32.080 a job they've done for years, calm, efficient, confidently, unseen. 189 00:16:33.960 --> 00:16:38.240 As Ray watched, it worked down the row, always on 190 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:42.919 the left side of the orchard, never crossing the invisible 191 00:16:43.000 --> 00:16:47.639 line toward the right, only plucking from the branches that 192 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:53.799 shone with ripe fruit, never touching the green, the misshapen, 193 00:16:54.559 --> 00:17:01.279 or the ones with dark spots. Selective, deliberate. The absurdity 194 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:05.759 rose in him like a wave. Who the hell are you? 195 00:17:06.039 --> 00:17:11.079 He whispered, as if it had heard him. The shadow paused, 196 00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:17.519 turned for a second. He'd had the dizzy impression that 197 00:17:17.799 --> 00:17:23.440 something tall and broad upturned its face, looking toward the house. 198 00:17:24.680 --> 00:17:29.599 The moon caught just enough of a glint, something like eyeshine, 199 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:36.279 a wet reflection, and then just as fast it turned 200 00:17:36.279 --> 00:17:41.720 away and continued its work, moving toward the tree line. 201 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:46.000 He stood there long after it disappeared into the woods, 202 00:17:47.079 --> 00:17:51.880 The orchard once again a still painting. He didn't go 203 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:58.200 back to sleep the next morning. Ray didn't even check 204 00:17:58.440 --> 00:18:02.359 the cameras. Right away, he went straight to the piles. 205 00:18:02.920 --> 00:18:08.119 There were three now The fruit was sordid. One piled 206 00:18:09.359 --> 00:18:15.480 up and held the most perfect of red apples, uniform size, 207 00:18:15.720 --> 00:18:22.480 textbook examples. Another held slightly smaller ones, still good, but 208 00:18:22.599 --> 00:18:27.880 not premium. The third pile mixed a few golden varieties 209 00:18:27.880 --> 00:18:32.680 with red, as if some one had gotten creative. He 210 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:37.119 stared the air, heavy with that sweet, almost rotting scent. 211 00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:43.680 Bees floated lazily over the heaps behind him. The orchard 212 00:18:43.720 --> 00:18:49.920 stretched up the hill, half picked, half untouched. Only the left, 213 00:18:50.599 --> 00:18:55.880 always the left. He tried to imagine teenagers doing this, 214 00:18:56.880 --> 00:19:01.000 teens who cared enough to pick by ripeness and sort 215 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:06.880 by quality and then leave the lute. He couldn't teenagers, 216 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:11.839 he knew, broke things. They didn't curate them. He went 217 00:19:11.880 --> 00:19:19.079 to the first camera, opened, the casing dead, the next dead, 218 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:26.079 all five dead. The car battery he'd wired to the 219 00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:32.039 fifth camera was warm, drained. He sat down on the grass, 220 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:39.240 knee bent, hands dangling between them, and laughed once, a dry, 221 00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:46.559 humorless laugh, a humorless sound. This is insane, he said 222 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:51.880 to no one. Something about saying it out loud made 223 00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:56.880 it feel more true. And yet the proof sat all 224 00:19:56.960 --> 00:20:03.960 around him in mounds. He of stolen unwonted fruit. Who 225 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:07.920 would steal so many apples and then just give them 226 00:20:08.000 --> 00:20:12.880 back to the edge of the woods. The losses kept 227 00:20:12.920 --> 00:20:17.559 adding up. Over the next two weeks. The left half 228 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:23.920 of the orchard became a strange, living ledger of the theft. 229 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:29.680 Every night, more of the best fruit vanished. Every morning, 230 00:20:30.359 --> 00:20:36.960 new piles appeared at the tree line, sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller, 231 00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:45.279 sometimes arranged in odd patterns like arcs and broken circles. 232 00:20:45.319 --> 00:20:51.920 His spreadsheets began to look like obituaries. Helen watched him 233 00:20:51.960 --> 00:20:58.240 grow quieter, shoulders tight as he paced the row, ran 234 00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:03.920 his hands over empty brandes, recalculated in his head. You 235 00:21:04.039 --> 00:21:07.000 talk to anyone about it, she asked one evening, as 236 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:10.799 they sat on the porch, the sky turning pink behind 237 00:21:10.839 --> 00:21:14.359 the hills. And who am I supposed to talk to? 238 00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:20.960 He replied, sheriff tell him some phantom fruit pickers stealing 239 00:21:20.960 --> 00:21:24.079 a quarter of my income and leaving in the woods. 240 00:21:24.160 --> 00:21:30.559 Like an offering. She didn't answer. The cicadas rasped in 241 00:21:30.640 --> 00:21:36.240 their slow course. Somewhere down the slope, something cracked a branch. 242 00:21:37.599 --> 00:21:42.200 You remember that that thing we saw, he asked. Suddenly 243 00:21:43.960 --> 00:21:49.839 she stiffened beside him. He'd broken the rull, the unspoken pact. 244 00:21:51.400 --> 00:21:56.519 After a long pause, she said softly on the road. 245 00:21:57.079 --> 00:22:01.119 He nodded. He didn't trust himself to describe it further. 246 00:22:02.440 --> 00:22:07.599 I remember, she said. What if it never left? He asked. 247 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:13.480 She looked out at the orchard, the left side in shadow, now, 248 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:18.359 the right still catching the last light. What if it 249 00:22:18.440 --> 00:22:25.640 were here before us? She murmured. The ideas settled between them, 250 00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:32.000 familiar and unwelcome, like an old relative who never quite 251 00:22:32.119 --> 00:22:42.039 moved out. The third week, he found tracks not clear ones. No, 252 00:22:43.119 --> 00:22:50.319 not perfect textbook prints, but impressions, depressions. When the grass 253 00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:54.799 folded under the weight of something that walked on two legs, 254 00:22:55.680 --> 00:23:03.039 not four. They were broad, longer than his boots, spaced 255 00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:07.160 too far apart for a man his height to manage comfortably. 256 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:13.759 Each step a quiet, heavy punctuation mark leading from the 257 00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:19.079 middle rows straight toward the trees. He followed them in 258 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:24.039 the tree line, heart thudding. The piles that day were 259 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:27.960 arranged in a half moon. The central one was taller, 260 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:33.559 almost waist high, a mound of crimson and gold domes. 261 00:23:33.599 --> 00:23:39.000 He stood there, breathing in the sickeningly rich scent. Bees 262 00:23:39.079 --> 00:23:43.799 buzzed thick around the edges. Somewhere deeper in the woods, 263 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:50.200 a branch snapped, This is my land, he said, louder 264 00:23:50.279 --> 00:23:55.880 than he meant to. His voice sounded thin in the open. 265 00:23:57.680 --> 00:24:03.920 Another branch cracked, closer this time than nothing. It occurred 266 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:10.079 to him slowly that maybe it wasn't theft, Maybe it 267 00:24:10.119 --> 00:24:15.000 was a kind of bargain, one he'd never known. He'd 268 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:20.119 agreed to. He thought of the uprooted trees, the bent 269 00:24:20.200 --> 00:24:26.000 trash can, the stolen feed, the missing chickens, the horse 270 00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:29.640 that had neatly broken its neck, trying to get away 271 00:24:29.799 --> 00:24:37.720 from something. Only it hadn't seen the shadow in the headlights, 272 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:44.240 And now this new weird harvest on only half his orchard, 273 00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:49.599 half for him, half for something else. What if that 274 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:54.319 was the only reason the orchard had never been hit worse? 275 00:24:55.960 --> 00:25:03.319 No barn torn apart, no cattle shredded, no house windows smashed. 276 00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:08.680 Maybe just maybe the apples, or some kind of attacks. 277 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:15.400 But why so many, why so precise? Why only the ripest, 278 00:25:15.599 --> 00:25:21.319 the most marketable. He imagined a massive, unseen shape in 279 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:26.799 the woods, sitting cross legged beside the piles, hands huge 280 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:31.920 and gentle, picking up apple after apple. Maybe it took 281 00:25:31.920 --> 00:25:36.240 a bite from each, Maybe it ate only a fraction 282 00:25:36.839 --> 00:25:42.319 and left the rest to rot. Maybe it was feeding others, family, 283 00:25:43.079 --> 00:25:50.720 young ones. He imagined, small shadows, waiting, eyes, bright hands reaching. 284 00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:57.160 The image should have comforted him. It didn't. It felt 285 00:25:57.319 --> 00:26:01.400 too human and not human enough at the same time. 286 00:26:02.920 --> 00:26:09.000 Who steals that many apples? He shouted suddenly, voice crackling, 287 00:26:10.519 --> 00:26:14.799 Why why do you take so many? What do you 288 00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:20.519 do with them? The woods swallowed his words. A crow 289 00:26:20.640 --> 00:26:25.839 cawed from somewhere high and unseen, the sound harsh and amused, 290 00:26:27.160 --> 00:26:30.799 he turned and walked back up the hill, leaving the 291 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:37.240 piles behind like small, colorful graves. On the last night 292 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:43.119 of harvest, the sky was low and gray, clouds hanging 293 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:47.759 like wet wool over the hills. He brought in everything 294 00:26:48.119 --> 00:26:51.720 he could from the right side of the orchard. The 295 00:26:51.839 --> 00:26:57.559 left haft looked ragged, now picked over, the work already 296 00:26:57.599 --> 00:27:04.559 done by invisible hands. He slept poorly un Near dawn. 297 00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:10.440 A sound woke him, different from the rest. Not a rustle, 298 00:27:11.279 --> 00:27:17.480 not a thud, something sharper, A single heavy slap, like 299 00:27:17.559 --> 00:27:24.839 a giant palm hitting siding. The house shuddered. Helen sat 300 00:27:24.960 --> 00:27:33.119 bolt upright. What was another slap closer? The wall behind 301 00:27:33.160 --> 00:27:39.559 their bed trembled. Ray's head pounded so hard he felt 302 00:27:40.319 --> 00:27:43.519 it in his throat. He swung his legs out of 303 00:27:43.559 --> 00:27:47.240 bed and grabbed the old flashlight from the night stand, 304 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:53.200 though he doubted it would make any difference. Stay here, 305 00:27:53.319 --> 00:27:57.319 he whispered, though he had no real hope she would. 306 00:27:59.079 --> 00:28:02.799 He crept down the hall, the boards creaking under his weight. 307 00:28:03.599 --> 00:28:06.000 At the end of the hall was a small window 308 00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:09.279 that looked out along the side of the house, down 309 00:28:09.319 --> 00:28:14.119 toward the orchard. The pre dawn light smeared everything in 310 00:28:14.240 --> 00:28:19.960 vague blue gray shapes melted together. He reached the window 311 00:28:20.440 --> 00:28:24.200 and dared to lift one corner of the curtain. For 312 00:28:24.279 --> 00:28:29.400 a moment, he saw nothing. Then out of the corner 313 00:28:29.559 --> 00:28:34.519 of his eye, something moved. A shape loomed out of 314 00:28:34.559 --> 00:28:39.799 the murk, impossibly tall, close enough that he could see 315 00:28:40.119 --> 00:28:44.759 the way its shoulder brushed against the clapboard siding as 316 00:28:44.799 --> 00:28:48.799 it walked along the side of the house. Dark hair 317 00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:54.279 matted along its arms, its back broad enough to shadow 318 00:28:54.359 --> 00:29:00.640 the window. An arm swung long and heavy, the hand 319 00:29:01.079 --> 00:29:05.599 bigger than the lid of his own trash can. It stopped, 320 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:12.400 turned slightly. He couldn't see its face, not fully, just 321 00:29:12.599 --> 00:29:16.960 the outline of a head too high for the window frame, 322 00:29:18.359 --> 00:29:23.720 the suggestion of a jutting brow, and beneath it darkness 323 00:29:24.039 --> 00:29:29.880 or eyes should be. The hand came up. For a second, 324 00:29:29.960 --> 00:29:33.319 he thought it might smash the glass, reaching in and 325 00:29:33.400 --> 00:29:40.720 dragging him through. Instead, it pressed its palm against the wall. Slap. 326 00:29:42.119 --> 00:29:48.079 The sound vibrated through the wood into his chest. Another 327 00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:55.680 mark of ownership, he thought wildly, another tally in some ledger. 328 00:29:57.079 --> 00:30:03.160 Only it understood creature. He could no longer bring himself 329 00:30:03.240 --> 00:30:09.559 to call at anything else. Stood there for several heart beats. 330 00:30:10.039 --> 00:30:16.559 Then it lowered its arm, turned and moved away, its 331 00:30:16.599 --> 00:30:22.480 gait smooth and deliberate. It strode down the slope toward 332 00:30:22.519 --> 00:30:27.960 the left side of the orchard, passing effortlessly through from 333 00:30:28.039 --> 00:30:32.480 house to tree, from the human world to its own. 334 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:38.680 Ray realized his breath was coming in short, shallow bursts. 335 00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:44.799 His knees felt hollow. Behind him, he heard Helen's voice, 336 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:51.119 thin and shaking. Did you see it? He nodded, unable 337 00:30:51.160 --> 00:30:55.720 to pull his eyes from the window. Ray. She whispered, 338 00:30:56.480 --> 00:31:03.279 you're bleeding. He blinked and looked down his hand, still 339 00:31:03.319 --> 00:31:08.440 clutching the flashlight, shook. A thin line of red ran 340 00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:13.240 across the back of where he'd scraped the window without noticing. 341 00:31:15.359 --> 00:31:20.359 Just apples, he thought, just fruit. So why did it 342 00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:23.799 feel like his entire life was being weighed on some 343 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:31.119 invisible scale. The next morning, when the sun finally tore 344 00:31:31.240 --> 00:31:33.880 through the clouds and lit up the orchard in its 345 00:31:33.960 --> 00:31:39.119 usual warm gold, he walked down the slope in a 346 00:31:39.200 --> 00:31:45.400 kind of numb trance. He knew before he reached it 347 00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:48.920 that there would be another pile. He could feel it 348 00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:55.240 the way you feel a storm before it arrives. There 349 00:31:55.400 --> 00:31:59.680 was it sat at the tree line, larger than any 350 00:31:59.799 --> 00:32:05.640 of the others, a mound of apples almost as tall 351 00:32:05.720 --> 00:32:11.279 as his chest, glistening with dew. The smell was overwhelming, 352 00:32:12.079 --> 00:32:15.200 but there was something else on top of it. This 353 00:32:15.319 --> 00:32:23.599 time he stepped closer, squinting, Nestling among the apples. On 354 00:32:23.720 --> 00:32:28.960 the very peak of the pile lay a single, intact 355 00:32:29.480 --> 00:32:37.240 hen's egg, perfectly white, not cracked, not dirty, just sitting there, 356 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:44.960 improbable and delicate. Beside it, half buried in fruit, was 357 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:50.359 a strip of torn burlap, the same kind he used 358 00:32:50.519 --> 00:32:57.279 for his feed sacks. It was neatly folded. An exchange, 359 00:32:57.359 --> 00:33:02.480 he thought, or a receipt, or a joke, a gift. 360 00:33:03.799 --> 00:33:08.720 Ray Helen's voice drifted down from the porch, carried onto 361 00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:13.119 the breeze. You all right, He stared at the egg, 362 00:33:14.039 --> 00:33:18.759 at the apple mounds that represented a quarter of his profits, 363 00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.480 vanished from his books, but here accounted for in some 364 00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:29.799 other way. He felt eyes on him from the woods, 365 00:33:30.839 --> 00:33:37.599 real or imagined. He no longer cared to decide. Yeah, 366 00:33:37.640 --> 00:33:41.640 he called back, his voice oddly, steady, I'm all right. 367 00:33:43.279 --> 00:33:46.559 He reached out slowly and picked up the egg. It 368 00:33:46.680 --> 00:33:50.240 was warm, warmer than it should have been on a 369 00:33:50.279 --> 00:33:54.960 cool morning. He held it in his palm, feeling its 370 00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:58.880 tiny weight, and for the first time since the apples 371 00:33:58.880 --> 00:34:04.240 had started disappearing, he laughed, a low, strange sound that 372 00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:12.519 was half hysteria, half surrender. Who would steal so many apples? 373 00:34:12.559 --> 00:34:17.920 Something that didn't think it was stealing at all, something 374 00:34:18.320 --> 00:34:22.199 that had decided this half was theirs and the other 375 00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:25.480 half was his, and that was as far as a 376 00:34:25.519 --> 00:34:32.079 deal in any world that rarely offered fairness. He put 377 00:34:32.440 --> 00:34:36.000 the egg gently back on top of the pile. I 378 00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:39.559 see you, he said quietly to the tree line, and 379 00:34:39.679 --> 00:34:43.480 I get it, but we're not going to have to 380 00:34:43.559 --> 00:34:50.599 renegotiate next season. The woods didn't answer, but as he 381 00:34:50.719 --> 00:34:54.519 turned to walk back up the hill, a low gust 382 00:34:54.559 --> 00:34:58.159 of wind moved through the trees for the first time 383 00:34:58.239 --> 00:35:02.119 that morning, russ the leaves in a way that sounded 384 00:35:02.159 --> 00:35:08.039 almost like a reply. Almost behind him, the piles of 385 00:35:08.440 --> 00:35:12.119 perfect fruit sat at the edge of the forest, waiting 386 00:35:12.159 --> 00:35:17.079 for whatever hand had claimed them in the night, And 387 00:35:17.320 --> 00:35:21.480 somewhere not too far away, something that walked like a 388 00:35:21.519 --> 00:35:26.159 man and wasn't a man at all picked another apple 389 00:35:27.079 --> 00:35:31.760 raised it to its mouth and bit down, sweet juice 390 00:35:32.039 --> 00:35:53.679 running over teeth that had never known a name. Thanks 391 00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:56.760 for listening to the orchard keeper. Out Here among the 392 00:35:56.800 --> 00:36:01.519 apple trees, the shadows grow long, and some things prefer 393 00:36:01.679 --> 00:36:05.320 to stay hidden. If you enjoyed the story, be sure 394 00:36:05.320 --> 00:36:10.159 to follow Bigfoot's Wilderness podcast for more encounters, mysteries, and 395 00:36:10.239 --> 00:36:14.960 brushes with the unknown. Until next time, keep your eyes open, 396 00:36:15.679 --> 00:36:18.480 your light's on, and watch the tree line.