Sasquatch Watch
Dear Rextraterrestrial,
Which of these vertebrates do you think is more likely to be proven real: Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster? I feel we are very close on both.
Signed,
Anomalous Creatures Exist
Dear ACE,
The imagination is a marvelous device! Capable of summoning all manner of strange beasts or frightful spectres.
We can concoct any concepts or detailed scenarios.
However, these fantasies are no match for the wonders of real life:
Elephants and earthquakes! Lightning bugs and platypuses and towering tidal waves! Meteorites and planets and far-away distant stars!
Do you understand what I am saying?
“The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.” - Oscar Wilde.
There is nothing wrong, of course, in considering the whims of the fantastic. They are the stuff of dreams!
Giving equal credence, at the least, to the real world all around you.
Although this is not the answer you were seeking, correct? You expected a literal answer regarding this quandary.
If I must choose, I’ll select: the Yeti! They’re hidden away in snowy mountains. Far from human eyes? Who can say what lives deep in the Himalayas?
You are quite welcome to agree with my choice, of course, but then again I won’t blame you if you find it abominable.
Counterpoint commentary by …
Shandoleesa, Mistress of the Trapeze
Growing up in Brazil, my siblings and I agreed on one thing: The Chupacabra.
It was the common fear that united us in the dark.
We knew it was out there. Creeping in the fields. Feasting on livestock. On goats and chickens and sheep. And maybe even, occasionally, a missing boy or girl.
For the Chupacabra … they were not of normal life.
Prowling on two legs. Sharp spines of spikes and fur. Teeth long and dripping blood.
We would discuss endlessly such tales of horror. Always laced with the closeness of death. Aware that a looming finality lurked somewhere and could arrive instantly.
People seem to need such things. Such terrors. Creatures to unsettle, to upset, to unravel reality.
A boogeyman, if you will, existing in a pure fear of death.
I grew older, grew up, and realized there were no mythological beasts. No unknown monsters roaming the lands.
But along the way, something funny happened.
A transformation that I did not expect.
Now I am the Chupacabra.
I am that reminder of death.
For my trapeze act carries explicit risk. The disaster of a violent fall.
And since I refuse to use a net? One slip means my extinction.
People watch me with wonder, I believe, but also with that fatal thought along the periphery.
Viewing a sight that unsettles them. Some peeking through hands. Wondering if death will reveal itself, finally, in its barest form.
I create the sound of hushed unease.
I unleash unnerving, discomforting energy.
For I am not of normal life.
The Chupacabra and I, you might glimpse us but once. You may not even believe we’re real.
But rest assured, we’ll linger long in your mind just the same.
