by D. K. Davis
* * *
Morgan
Uncle Charlie and I fed and watered the older deer in the super-sized pen by Big Red. We would be working in there later and Uncle Charlie wanted the deer to have a chance to eat and drink before that. When we got back to the house, voices of elated conversations came from the back door.
“Sounds like the gang made it.” Uncle Charlie opened the door for me. “Go on in, and Becka will introduce you.”
Rowan stood inside the door, stopping me. My insides went into a flutter storm. Uncle Charlie patted my shoulder and walked around us.
“Hey.” Rowan’s eyes widened and he half-smiled as if testing my mood. “I wanted a chance to apologize to you.” When I didn’t say anything, he touched my face, and I let him. “Whatever I said yesterday that upset you, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” His gaze rested on mine. The sunlight reached through the screen door and melted his eye colors together into a soft hazel. His warm breath touched my face. My gaze refused to disconnect from his. His face moved closer, my breath caught.
“Morgan, there you are,” Aunt Becka said, her voice exuded enthusiasm.
I jumped, bumping open the screen door, and it slammed behind me. Aunt Becka let out a bellow of laughter, and everyone in the kitchen stared at me. I moved past Rowan. My nose betrayed me, itching like a mad-dog, but I never touched it. Not with all eyes on me.
Aunt Becka held her arm out for me, so I stopped next to her. She draped an arm over my shoulder. “This is my niece, Morgan. She’s going to be my assistant. Would you mind introducing yourselves and give us your age so that we can determine where we’ll start you?
A shapely petite girl with short, dark hair said, “Hi, I’m Gracie. I’m sixteen. This will be my second summer here.”
Aunt Becka gasped and then smiled. “Gracie, I didn’t recognize you with your hair all cut off.”
Her spiked hair had that messy look. She wore an opened zipper hoodie sweatshirt, which she’d be peeling off close to lunch time. Beneath it, a V-neck T-shirt showed a bit of cleavage. Skin-tight shorts and low styled hiking boots finished her refuge outfit. She looked the part, only really pretty. She smiled at Rowan.
“I’m thirteen, and my name’s Easton. This is my first summer here.” He stood tall, his body lanky. He stumbled against the table in his attempt to move back and knocked his small wire-rimmed glasses askew when his arms wind-milled. He blushed, from his neck to the top of his head, and his red skin showed through his light blond hair.
“Hey, I’m Caleb. Seventeen. This is my second summer here.” He smiled and flashed Aunt Becka two thumbs up. Aunt Becka laughed loud, and everyone giggled. Caleb’s baggy jean shorts came below his knees. He wore a baseball cap backward and a sleeveless sweatshirt. When our gazes met, he winked.
“Hi everyone, I’m Addison. I think you all know me, except you, Morgan. I’m fifteen, and this is my third summer.” She appeared well prepared with jean shorts, a sweatshirt, and hiking boots. She wore her red hair in one long braid down the middle of her back, reminding me of how Aunt Becka wore her hair.
“I’m Riley, fifteen, and this is my second summer here. Nice to meet you, Morgan. Good to be back, Mrs. Connors.” His appearance was about the same as Addison’s, with the jean shorts, sweatshirt, and hiking boots. He also wore a ball cap; the bill turned forward.
Rowan strode over and high-fived Caleb and Riley. “Hey, good to see everyone again, outside the van.” Rowan looked around the room, acknowledging everyone with a nod and a smile. He focused on Easton. “Nice to meet you, Easton. You’re going to love it here. Oh, yeah, I’m Rowan, eighteen, the van driver who dumped you all off, right here. This is my…ummm…”
“It’s your sixth year with us.” Aunt Becka helped him out.
“Yeah, my sixth year. Every year just gets better.” He looked straight at me, performing the ‘sparkling smile’ face.
I’ve read books explaining electric waves being sent and received between two people from across a crowded room. Well, now I experienced my perception of electricity. My breath caught for the second time because of Rowan. What was that about?
“It’s great to have so many of you returning,” Aunt Becka said. “I’m happy to have a first year in this group. Easton, you’ll be in good hands here. If you have questions, everyone here should be able to answer them.”
Easton’s face turned crimson. He dropped his spoon off from his plate and into the bowl of scrambled eggs. He’s going to be fun to watch.
“I see some of you are helping yourselves to the breakfast buffet on the counter. The rest of you need to load up because we begin our day as soon as you’re finished.”
I picked up a plate and made my way through the short line. Everyone camped out on chairs at the table or out on the porch. Aunt Becka, Gracie, and Caleb sat out on the porch. Addison sat beside Riley on one side of the table, which left Easton on his own on the other side.
Rowan stood with his full plate, watching me. I sat next to Easton. Rowan sat beside me. He bumped against my arm and grinned. “Oops, sorry.”
“No biggy.” I looked at Easton. “Aunt Becka makes the best food.” I checked out his plate. “Oh, you need to try one of her famous fry-cakes. They look like a flat tire, but they taste like those elephant ears you can buy at fairs.”
Rowan bumped against me again.
I looked at him. “What are you doing?”
“Just makin’ sure it’s all good between us.” Rowan displayed that sparkling smile and then leaned forward so he could see Easton. “Sorry Easton. I have some heartache to repair here.”
“Stop with the apologies.” I took a deep breath, and it came out like a sigh. “It’s all good. We can talk about it later.”
“Okay.” He nodded at Easton. “We’re good to go. Eat away, Easton.” Rowan shoved half of a fry-cake into his mouth. With his mouth still full, he said, “Easton, she’s right, you gotta try the fry-cake. Go get one before they’re gone.” Crumbs from his lips blew across the table.
Easton got up and walked over to get one.
Rowan pulled my face toward his. He swallowed hard and grinned. “Whew!” He looked animated.
I giggled, but only for a second.
Rowan pressed his lips hard against mine. My breath stopped, my heart paused, my lips responded. Then, it was over.
Rowan pulled away and stuffed the other half of the fry-cake into his mouth.
I remained in position, wondering what just happened.
Easton sat back down with a mouth full of fry-cake.
“What is it with guys and these fry-cakes?” I asked.
Addison spoke up from across the table, “I know exactly what you’re talking about.” She pointed at Riley.
I looked, and his mouth appeared bloated as he chewed, powdered sugar speckled his lips. He stopped chewing long enough to smile around the huge bite.
Addison and I laughed so hard, tears gathered. At that moment it became clear to me, I’d laughed more in the last two and a half days than I had for my entire life.
“Let’s get going everyone.” Aunt Becka walked through the front screen door and over to the sink. “Everyone, scrape your dishes here.” She pointed to a garbage can. “Then stack them on the counter. I’ll stay and clean up.”
“I can do that for you,” I said, preferring to stay away from the crowd for as long as I could.
“I’ll help Morgan,” Rowan and Addison said at the same time. They both looked at each other and chuckled.
“Addison and Morgan, thanks for volunteering. It would be nice if you two cleaned up a bit. I’ll see you both out to the fawns pen when you’re finished.”
Addison looked at Rowan and stuck her tongue out.
“This isn’t going to happen again soon,” Rowan spouted, and followed the group out the back door.
Aunt Becka left a huge roll of saran wrap on the counter. I tore off enough to cover the bowl of scrambled eggs, a plate of bacon, and the small amount left of
the fry-cakes. Addison carried the covered dishes either to the refrigerator or left them on the counter. We worked quickly and quietly together, stacking dishes into the dishwasher. Anything that didn’t fit, we washed and dried by hand.
We hung the towels to dry and headed out the back door as soon as we finished. Even though we didn’t talk, there was something comfortable about being around Addison, maybe because she was a couple years younger than me.
“Are you guys coming back tomorrow?” I asked her.
“We come every Tuesday and Thursday, so our next class will be Tuesday next week. I can’t believe Mrs. Connor’s didn’t tell you.” She stopped. “Oh, look. There go Thelma and Louise!” She pointed at the two turkeys skittering across the path in front of us.
“So, they were here last year when you had your classes?”
“Those two came in later than our classes. I stop in whenever I can grab a ride here. Sometimes, I hitch a ride with Rowan. He comes here pretty much every day.” She picked up her pace toward the barn. “I like to help out, and it seems like Mr. and Mrs. Connor can always use an extra hand.”
“Yeah, I’ve only been here a couple of days and have to wonder how they manage everything on their own. There’s so much. You weren’t here on Tuesday when I arrived.”
“Yea, your aunt called it off on Tuesday this week because you were coming.” She took a breath, hesitated, and then added, “If you’re their niece, how come we’ve never seen you here before?”
“Not sure. Something I’m in the process of figuring out myself.” As I said the words to her, they rang clear inside my head. I did need to figure it out. We entered the barn together, but no one was inside. We heard their voices from the fawn pens, so headed in that direction.
“Here are the girls,” Aunt Becka announced. “We waited for you, Morgan. I wanted you to show everyone the twins.” She handed me two full bottles of formula.
All eyes turned toward me. My nose itched, and my mouth went dry. Ignoring both, I bent onto my knees, tucked both bottles under an arm, and pulled the wire door open. Faline and Bambi bounded over to me, hungry as usual. They didn’t seem to mind everyone crowding around the doorway. The twins nosed my legs; a tiny tongue touched my skin.
“This is Faline.” I brought the bottle close to her mouth. She latched on to it, suckling and drooling only a bit. “This one is Bambi.” I showed him the bottle, and he latched on, dribbling formula everywhere. He spattered my shirt with it. “Notice what a glutton the boy is?” That sort of popped out, and everyone giggled.
“Sweet. Chosen names from the Walt Disney story,” Addison said. “I forgot Faline was Bambi’s girlfriend.”
Chapter Ten
Morgan
“The next job is going to be a dirty one.” Aunt Becka’s brows rose, and she took a moment to make eye-contact with each one of us. “Mr. Connor is beside Big Red, in the bigger deer pen. He’d like some help cleaning out the bedding, setting up a new area for feeding and watering, and finishing the new shelter. I’d like you to grab a rake, hoe, or wheel barrow from inside Big Red. There’s also a cart filled with hay, some bales of straw, and a bag of deer feed to wheel over.”
“You got it. Let’s go find Charlie, I mean, Mr. Connor.” Rowan led the group out of the pen, back through the barn entrance toward the path leading to the bigger barn.
Addison stayed back with me.
“I’m going to make sure they find everything. Go ahead and finish up, then head over to the big pen. Is that okay?” Aunt Becka asked.
“Sure,” I answered, then added, “Addison you don’t have to hang out here if you want to go with Aunt Becka, I mean Mrs. Connor.”
“I’d like to stay if you don’t mind.”
“Okay, I’ll see you girls in a few.” Before walking away, Aunt Becka left the bottle carrier next to the twins’ enclosure door.
The discomfort of someone who wanted to stay with me made my nose itch. I didn’t know how to respond. Guess it was similar to Rowan acting like he wanted to be around me. There was always an ulterior motive. I hadn’t realized Rowan’s yet, and now Addison was playing the game. I hated this game.
Mom’s great at it, shoveling people off her plate whenever she’s full of them. I’ve never had people on my plate, not even a visitor. That is until Kara, and she broke my plate…into tiny little glass shards.
After I deposited the empty bottles into the wash basin, Addison and I walked to Big Red. We grabbed a couple of rakes hanging on the inside barn wall.
“So, where’d you come from?” Addison asked.
“Grand Rapids.”
“You’re only a couple hours away from here.”
“Yeah.” This conversation headed into a non-discussion place. Why did she want to talk?
“I still can’t believe I’ve never seen you here, or that I’ve never even seen a picture of you.”
I rubbed my nose. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not talk about it. I’m here for punishment, nothing more.” From my peripheral, her mouth dropped open. I stopped. “Look, I’m sorry.” No reaction from Addison, so I continued, “Not used to making conversation. Guess I’m from a fairly protected lifestyle. The only person I know well in my family is my mom. I don’t even get to visit with my grandparents, and I don’t have a father.”
“You’re here for punishment?”
Of all the things that rushed out of my mouth like a raging waterfall, she’d only heard punishment?
“Yeah.” I walked inside the pen, leaving Miss Interrogation standing outside the gate with her mouth open, again.
“Hey, what took you so long?” Rowan grabbed my shoulders from behind. His fingertips squeezed with barely any pressure, but it created a bolt of current that shot clean through me. “What’d you do with Addison?”
I spun around and saw her walking in through the gate. “She’s over there, looking for conversation. Go talk to her.”
“Funny,” Rowan shot, then followed me over to where Uncle Charlie worked, digging a post hole.
“Where should I go?” I asked.
Before Uncle Charlie answered me, his focus lifted to Aunt Becka running toward us, her face flushed.
“I have to take a look at our website. Denise just called the cell phone and told me there’s a group of kids interested in joining the class.” She sounded breathless with excitement. “These kids are a little distance from here, so I’ll need to arrange for them to stay at Jason’s Kid Kamp. It might take me a bit. Will you be okay without me for a while?”
“We’ll be fine.” Uncle Charlie tucked a few strands of hair behind my aunt’s ear. “Go do what you got to do.”
Aunt Becka rushed off like a cheetah on steroids.
Uncle Charlie looked around and then answered my question, “Ahhh, I’m going to be relocating that drinking tub. Would you mind emptying it and scrubbing it out? There’s a bucket of mild soapy water next to it. Make sure you get all the soap out of the tub and rinsed off the ground.”
“How fast do I need to be? It looks pretty dirty.”
“I have a new water tub over there. This one will be for playtime, but we still need to move it. Take your time, so you get all the scum scrubbed away and the soap dissipated with water.”
“Okay. Here’s a rake if anyone needs it.” I handed him the rake.
Rowan took over digging the hole for Uncle Charlie. I went right to work on the tub.
All the deer stayed to the far side of the pen. We all had instructions to move slowly and to keep the noise level as low as possible. Everyone knew how to act around the animals, except Easton. Then, I didn’t know all that much either.
I emptied the water from the tub using an extra bucket Caleb had carried out earlier, dumping the water outside the fence, so it didn’t get too muddy inside. I noticed Addison picked up a sponge on my last trip back from the fence. She’d scrubbed halfway around the inside of the tub, marking it with a yucky green wall of lather.
“Thanks.” I set the
empty bucket down and grabbed another sponge from the cleaning bucket. “Wow, this is a stinky mess.” I lathered my side good and then shook the sponge, hard.
Addison jumped back, sucking in her breath.
I glanced at her. Ewwwe. Green soapy bubbles from my sponge stuck all over her face.
She swiped her hand across her cheek and stared at the green on her palm, and then looked at me.
I waited for her to explode.
Instead, she scrunched up her face, relaxed it, and scrunched it up again, moving the suds around on her face. Yuck!
I closed my eyes in disgust for only a second. Something wet and slimy hit my nose and cheek, spreading over my entire face. Addison’s sponge lay on the ground by my feet. She must have squeezed it behind her back before flinging it in my direction.
Wiping the crap away from my eyes, I grabbed her sponge and mine. Addison studied me as I loaded the sponges with green bubbles from the inside of the tub.
“So, you’re going to wash the tub all by yourself?” She scoffed.
I stood up and launched one then the other at her. Both connected, one stuck to the front of her sweatshirt, the other careened off her hair and an eruption of bubbles flew through the air.
She ran toward the tub, filling her hands full of green grossness and launching the stuff like a fan blade.
Then, the whole front side of my body wore it.
“How does that feel?” She grinned, staring at me.
I stared right back. And then, the strangest thing, we both started laughing, hard, and we continued throwing the slimy bubbles at each other. Oblivious to anything else, we kept up the smarmy war game until the last bubble flew.
Addison ran at me, and I ran at her. We laughed so hard; we sounded looney, and maybe we were. We caught each other, looping arms. I swung her around in a circle, still laughing like crazy people.
A tap on my shoulder reined us in, and we stopped. Uncle Charlie said, “If you girls are done scaring the crap out of the deer and the rest of us, I think it’s time you go clean yourselves up.” He wiped some soap away from my eye. Everyone stared. Rowan’s eyes widened, and his mouth dropped open. They’d all stopped and formed a semi-circle around us.