While Hal was taking me to the gym this morning, I noticed some activity in a park that we pass by. When I looked, I saw a group of fairies playing keep away from something else. It looked like a small child, but definitely wasn't. I was tempted to ask Hal if he saw it too, but I didn't want to distract him from driving, and I realized I was probably hallucinating it. Then I noticed there were runners passing through the park as well, and no one else seemed to see the fairies. So I'll mark this down as a hallucination, just to start keeping a record of them like I do my dizzy spells.
Work went well, if unremarkable. It was afterward that Hal picked me up again and brought me to his place. There we got the soup started while we waited for Max and Sam to show up. They brought the stuff for grilled cheese, and it turned out well. It's funny, I've had grilled cheese before at Max's when we were growing up. And I've had tomato soup countless times, usually used as a base for something else. But I've never had them together. I can see now why Max refers to them as a comfort food.
As for our conspiracy talk, Hal started since he's been keeping an eye on Melia Floros. He mentioned that the interviews she'd been conducting were all showing up on her site. Interesting as far as finding out people's opinions on the tree, but not very informative.
Max mentioned #fairysign and brought to our attention the more interesting finds. And while there were a lot of neat things, again nothing substantial. Instead, she brought to our attention that on Thursday about half the people who'd disappeared in Albany earlier this month showed back up. Investigators in the town were surprised to find a young man walking up the road from the little laramie river. He was one of the missing persons, and he lead those in town back down to the river where they found a group of people who'd made a makeshift camp. Those who are still missing were reported to have been out either searching for food, or anything else they could find. A group had gone looking for help a week ago and hadn't come back yet. Those who were out looking for food and stuff had only left moments before, but now they can't be found. To the distress of those who were found. Mostly kids and young adults, a few adults. So we're still missing about half the town.
The thing is, reading over their accounts, it's very similar to Hal's. They didn't wake to find themselves in their own beds, or even in their town. They'd looked around hoping to find out where they were and had started maping the area. Their maps don't correspond to anything in that area. So they started making their own camp near the river for fresh water, and being this time of year they struggled. Almost everyone was underfed, there were more than a few cases of frostbite, but they were all alive. And then that morning, the young man who was found wandering up the road had literally stumbled upon it and followed it into town. They were missing longer than Hal was, but how they got where they were, where they were, and how they managed to be found not far from where they'd gone missing... Even Hal mentioned how eerily it matches his own experiences.
After mulling that over for a while Sam apologized that he didn't have anything to bring to the table, he's just been so busy on his commission. But he's been making progress and finally had some pictures to share. I'm still not sure what it is he's making, but it's impressive. It did remind me though that I wanted to get pictures of everyone for Efe. So we spent some time taking some fun photos, and now I have a bunch I can send his way.
We did talk about The Stag and how much he's been in the news recently. His feat of strength in pushing the car was by far what we found most interesting. And of course Hal spent a lot of time speculating on what that might mean. He thinks The Stag is probably in contact with the fae somehow and they've granted him magical strength. Hal did say it's also possible that The Stag isn't human, that the mask may not be a mask. But if he wasn't human, Hal's pretty sure he wouldn't have helped the bus passengers the other night.
When it came around to me, I just let everyone know about the operation I'll be having and my leave of absence to take things easy. They were sympathetic and supportive. Max even suggested that we take advantage of my leave next weekend and do something. Hal mentioned that Black Panther was out and suggested we go see it, maybe make a whole day of it or something. Sam said he wouldn't be able to do a whole day, but we could grab Candace for the day and he could join us for the movie that evening. If she wanted to go of course.
Having made plans for next week though, there wasn't a whole lot more to talk about. Max and Sam headed out early. Though as they were heading out the door, Max asked Hal if he liked my present. Which lead to a hurried explanation that he'd surprised me and I forgot to grab it. Of course, there was no mention of what "it" was, so Hal's still in the dark. But now he's all sorts of curious, and Max isn't helping, she flat out stated I wouldn't be getting out of it.
After they left, Hal spent some time grilling me on his present. I said nothing, I resisted. He's earned it. I'll just have to find a good time.
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