Matt McPhee

Maisel’s Neighbourhood Watch Log: September 17^th, 2023 – 11:15 AM – Maisel’s House

Operation Locate Pocket

Author: Maisel Montgomery (Recordkeeper for Operation Locate Pocket)

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written in here, so I’ll fill in the gaps quickly. It has been nearly 11 months since Pocket went missing. He told us he was going to catch frogs in Spotter’s Ravine, and never returned. We later found a badge from his jacket in the Great Bay Forest, aka the Haunted Forest. (What was he doing in that forest? He certainly wasn’t catching frogs. Everyone knows the frogs in the Haunted Forest are small and smelly. They’re nothing like the fat, goofy ones you can catch in the ravine.)

Everyone, including my mom, thinks that he is gone forever, but that doesn’t make any sense. He’s Pocket. Pocket always manages to get out of a dangerous situation. Like that one time we thought the Creature in the Bay swallowed him, but it turned out that he was hiding under the monster’s tongue, so he was able to crawl out when it was sleeping. (See the aptly named The Creature in the Bay from March 3^rd, 2022.)

We had to be missing something. Maybe Pocket was bitten by a vampire and was living as that vampire’s thrall in some cave, or maybe he fell into a portal that took him to another dimension. In every scenario I could think of, he needed the Neighbourhood Watch to rescue him.

Unfortunately, the Neighbourhood Watch disbanded a few months after Pocket disappeared. There were a few reasons for this, but the biggest was that after Pocket vanished, so too did all the supernatural and paranormal occurrences that had been happening around Harrington. When Pocket was still around, we’d run into something paranormal or supernatural every few days, but it had been months of… absolutely nothing. There was only one instance of something supernatural happening between the date he disappeared and today, which we all agreed was a one-off occurrence. (See the Red Cedar Incident from August 19^th, 2023.) We think it was a one-off, because it seems like that supernatural monster existed before Pocket disappeared and was just sort of lurking in the forest.

Anyways, when supernatural events stopped happening, Sasheen and Murlocke thought we should disband the club. Ever since then, I only seemed to see them at school. We were barely even friends anymore.

Before we disbanded, I got the two of them to sign this agreement that if the supernatural returned, we would all regroup and take it on. So, all I needed to do was prove that something supernatural was at play, and then the club would be forced to get back together.

I had a pretty fowl-proof or fool-proof plan. (I could never remember which was correct. One of them means baby cow, I know that much for sure.)

I was going to use my dad’s old VHF equipment to create a radio that would allow me to track supernatural energy. I wasn’t sure exactly how to do that, but I created this plan:

1. Get radio
2. Write “Pocket-Talk-it” on the radio
3. Alter the radio so it could track supernatural energy
4. Follow the energy to wherever Pocket is

As you can see, I was already halfway through my list. PRETTY GOOD if I don’t say so myself.

I was sitting at the dining room table fiddling with my Pocket-Talk-It. I was about to get started on item #3 from my list when my mom called from the kitchen.

We had been talking about my not-so-great grades in school, but I thought that conversation was over.

I guess I was wrong.

I noticed that she liked to have these sorts of conversations while doing something else. I looked up from the radio and could see her back as she worked away at the dishes. Our house wasn’t particularly big; it was only one floor and a basement, but now that only my mom and I lived here, it felt massive. It’s the only house I’ve ever lived in, and for a long time it felt like the safest place in Harrington, but recently it felt… different.

As soon as I found Pocket, I would be able to go back to focusing on school. He would be doing the same for me if I were lost. I was going to respond to my mom when something caught my eye. A teal butterfly fluttered outside the kitchen window.

I watched the butterfly flutter only a few inches outside the kitchen window. If it weren’t for the glass, I would be able to reach out and touch it.

Suddenly, I blinked, and another butterfly appeared—

RIGHT. BESIDE. THE. OTHER. ONE!

I was so shocked that I fell backwards off my chair.

In my surprise, I let go of the radio and it went flying. The radio hit the ground with a smack and let out this horrible squeal. It made an—

—sound. I looked back at the window, and sure enough, there were still two butterflies! I was too stunned to say anything. I didn’t know for sure, but I had a feeling this was a supernatural event.

She rushed over to me and immediately started checking for cuts and scrapes.

She let out a sigh of relief. Then, as if noticing the radio for the first time, she picked it up and switched off that awful screeching noise.

She closed her eyes for a second. As an expert in this field, I can tell you, this was not a good sign; she was getting awfully close to saying, “You’re so smart, Maisel… Why do you have to spend your time making things up?”

What did I tell you? Do I know her, or what?

I looked around the room for my backpack. If this was something supernatural, and it certainly seemed like it was, I had to tell Sasheen and Murlocke immediately. We would have to reform the Neighbourhood Watch.

I spotted my bag by the front door and rushed over to it.

I checked my backpack for the usual supplies: my journal (obviously), a camera, granola bars and… A dozen eggs What were those doing in there? Oh well, I must have had a good reason. I zipped up the backpack and ran back to my mom— I needed to get out of the house before she came to her senses and grounded me for taking Dad’s radio without asking.

I held out my hand for the radio.

She looked down at the radio, thinking. For a second, I thought she wasn’t going to give it to me, but she held it out.

I took the radio, gave her a kiss on the cheek and rushed towards the door.

– Maisel