Wyoming Nights

by Gaines, Olivia

  “Are you planning to paint any of this wood?” she asked with her nose upturned.

  “No, it has a stain on it to protect it, and I really love the natural wood,” he said to her.

  “Oh,” was her only response. As he thought about it, that was also her last response to him. She said nothing else the entire time she was there.

  This time around, he was smarter. He spent nearly six months talking to Darlene Patterson. He knew her name. He knew her work. He knew she loved the land. Daniel couldn’t wait to meet her. It was at his suggestion that she was bringing along a friend on this visit. Before, when the other two ladies had come out to inspect him as a potential husband, he sent for one of his sisters to come for a stay as well, that way, the ladies did not feel unsafe being alone in the middle of nowhere with him.

  Darlene would arrive tomorrow and he was anxious. He had elk steaks marinating, potatoes and he even secured some early peas to balance out the meal. A final walk through was done to the house to make certain everything was where and as it should be.

  Sheila D walked along beside him. “I’m just making sure everything looks good. We want this one to stay ole’ girl,” he told the dog as he patted her head. “Speaking of that, you need a bath and a trim to make sure you’re presentable,” he said as he looked in the mirror. He could use the same himself.

  Daniel woke Friday morning full of energy. He shaved, scrubbed himself, the dog, and bathroom until everything looked shiny like a fresh new penny. Sheila D didn’t like that he was leaving and not taking her with him. The drive to Laramie was an hour and a half. Darlene had mentioned she would rent a car to drive to his place, but he insisted upon picking them up. For him it was important to gauge her reaction to being driven out to the middle of nowhere, plus it would give the weekend a head start.

  He arrived at the airport in his best jeans, nicest shirt and brightest smile. It did not take long to spot the two black women. Daniel threw up his hand and waved to them.

  “Gurl, I told you that man was all kind of yummy,” Krysten said. “Look at those broad shoulders, tight hips, kissable lips and that perfectly trimmed beard for mustache rides,” she said.

  Daniel stood still as he stared at the woman. “You know I can hear you, right?” He asked Krysten.

  She only leaned in to Darlene, attempting this time to whisper, “...and he has good hearing too Gurl.”

  “You’re funny,” he said to Krysten as he smiled. He turned his attention to the second traveler, “You must be Darlene. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

  “Please excuse my friend. I think she has been touched by Satan,” Darlene said as she accepted his warm hand for a shake.

  “We have a bit of a ride back to my place, so we should get moving. Is this all of your luggage?” He asked as he looked at the two carry-ons.

  Luggage secured, Daniel helped the ladies into his Jeep Cherokee as they drove back. Instead of taking I-80 back to Saratoga, he opted instead to take Hwy 130 through Medicine Bow State Park.

  “Ladies, this is where I work,” he told them as he pulled over to the side of the road. He made a point of showing them the sagebrush flats. “My ranger station is closer to the house in Saratoga, but these are the lands in which the legislation you fought to enact, protects,” he told Darlene.

  A huge smile covered her face when he said, “There are lots of hiking trails, fishing, and gaming in these areas now.”

  “It’s beautiful here,” she said softly.

  “There is so much more to show you,” he said. “Ladies, let’s continue.”

  Darlene had a million questions as they rode into Saratoga. Her breath was stolen as he pulled up in front of the cabin. She wasn’t certain if she should be looking at the house or the gorgeous backdrop of natural beauty which surrounded it.

  “Come on inside ladies,” he said as the dog bounded off the porch to greet him.

  “This,” he said as he held the dog’s collar. “Is Sheila D,” he told them. “I couldn’t use the E. since it is a registered trademark.” He clucked his tongue and she took off running around to the back.

  Daniel opened the front door to let them inside of the home. “I am still working on the place. It needs rugs, drapes, matching dishes...you know, those intimate touches, but I do have three plates, and I will get the grill going and make us some dinner,” he said. “But before I can feed you ladies, I have to feed my other two women. The bathroom is down the hall, the room where you will be staying is to the left. Get comfortable, I will be back inside in a few.”

  They watched him scoop chow from a bin for the dog as he took it out onto the back porch. Minutes later, he came back inside to grab a can of milk off the shelf, and a large baby bottle that he mixed the milk in with water and a shot of what looked like a vitamin and headed out the back door.

  Krysten watched him closely. “Gurl, you think he has a baby Sasquatch back there or something?”

  Darlene’s heart melted when he walked to the makeshift pen and the fawn came up to him. He sat on the ground as the animal climbed into this lap and nursed greedily on the bottle.

  “You like this one don’t you?” Krysten asked.

  Darlene’s eyes never left Daniel as he finished his task, started the grill and played with the two animals while he waited for the fire to get hot enough to cook the meat.

  “Yeah, there is something about him,” she said softly.

  Chapter Six – Dead of Night

  The one thing Daniel had hoped would not happen during Darlene’s visit, happened 55 minutes into her arrival at the cabin. It never failed, each time he fired up the grill, his neighbor, and local raccoon aficionado, would show up. Regardless if he fired up the grill at six am or if he fired it up in the dead of night, Cassandra always made her way over. She lived only five miles west of him, but he wished that she lived more downwind. He could smell her before her physical body arrived. It had become habit for him that once a month when he would grill out, he would always cook a steak for her. Between Sheila D. and Cassandra, those were the only two people to talk to outside of lost hikers and campers.

  “Hey there Park Ranger,” she said as she sidled around the corner of the cabin.

  “How are you Cassandra?”

  “Oh, fair to middlin’ Daniel. I was planning on coming this way today anyhow...then I smelled the smoke and coals...,” Cassandra told him.

  Inside the house before Daniel went out to feed the animals, Darlene had asked if there was anything she could do to help with dinner, and she had begun to work on the peas and potatoes. Krysten came around the corner with another one of her cheap bottles of wine that she brought in her carry-on bag.

  “Who is he talking to?” She asked Darlene.

  “Is he talking to someone...I was in my own world over here,” she said as she pulled potatoes out of the handmade hopper. She eyed the craftsmanship of the bin.

  “He is definitely talking to someone,” Krysten said as she walked over to the window and peered out. Her eyebrows shot up. “He is talking to some woman with a raccoon on her head.”

  Darlene didn’t believe her friend so she looked for herself out of the side window. “That is not a raccoon, that is a coon skin cap,” she said trying to correct her friend.

  “Well her cap just blinked its eyes and moved,” Krysten said.

  Cassandra had moved closer to Daniel and was beginning to plead her case. As she reached upwards to scratch her head, she felt Roscoe, her favorite coon.

  “There you are fella, I was looking for you,” she said as she rubbed the back end of her favorite pet.

  Her eyes then went to Daniel. “You know...Daniel. I have been meaning to speak on an idea I have had for some time now...about me and you...us getting together...so the nights won’t be so long...and lonely...I mean, I have my coons and all...,” she babbled.

  In the kitchen, Krysten was listening closely to what the woman was saying. She could not believe her ears. That raccoon headed woman was coming
on to their Daniel!

  “Gurl, she is hitting on our man! You need to get out there and put that dingy woman in her place,” Krysten said with panic in her voice.

  Darlene moved quickly, dropping the vegetable peeler and heading out the back door. Instinct alone pushed her to his side as she gave the coon headed woman a smile. A smile that quickly faded as the smell of the woman walked up to her nose and socked her in it. Daniel must have been immune to her stench because his face showed no sign of discomfort.

  “Daniel, honey, you didn’t tell me we had company,” she said. As she reached his side, she slipped her arms around his waist. The man was solid. Solid muscle. Just to make sure, she allowed her left hand to rub across his abdomen.

  Yep. All muscle.

  In response, he lifted his left arm to encircle her shoulder. “Darlene, this is Cassandra. She is our nearest neighbor. Her place is about five miles west of us. She runs a sanctuary to rehab animals, mostly raccoons.”

  “I see she brought one with her,” Darlene said as she clenched his shirt in her fist.

  The surprise at seeing Darlene with her arms wrapped around Daniel was almost more that Cassandra could handle. “Daniel, when did you take a woman? I didn’t know you were planning to take yourself a woman! I thought maybe when I went over to Laramie and got myself a good set of teeth, that maybe yous and me, would you know...”

  This speech was more than Krysten could process. How dare this woman wander up and hit on their Daniel! She flew out of the back door and stood beside her friend. “Did she say get a good set of teeth? Did I hear that correctly?”

  Cassandra’s eyes were now locked onto Krysten, but her words were for Daniel. “You have two womens Daniel? Are you having some kind of sexy party? I could run up to the hot spring and soak and come back and play too!”

  “What is she talking about? And what is the smell? It smells like old hot dog water, death and anger!” Krysten said.

  Daniel’s lips were pressed tightly together trying to stave off the laughter that was about to choke the life from him. “No, this is Krysten. She is a friend of Darlene’s,” he said through gritted teeth.

  At this point, Cassandra was staring very closely at Krysten and she took two steps forward. Krysten held up her hand trying to hold back the woman and the smell that were both assaulting her senses. Cassandra moved closer.

  “What? What are you doing?” Krysten asked.

  Through squinted eyes, Cassandra asked, “you are one of them gals that like to party with other gals ain’t cha?”

  Krysten’s eyebrows narrowed as she tried to discern what the smelly woman was trying to deduce. “And you are a woman who traveled here with a raccoon on your head, but I’m not calling you out,” she told her.

  “I ain’t never been with no woman,” Cassandra said. “But how I’m feeling right now, I am willing to give it a go!”

  “No! No! And Hell No!” Krysten said.

  “Why you being all hostile? I said I was going to run up to the springs and soak away some of the yuck. I mean unless, you want it like it is?” Her eyes were lazily hooded when she said that latter part.

  “I can smell you from here,” Krysten told her.

  “Yeah, that means that it’s ready!” This was said with a black, missing tooth grin as Cassandra wiggled her hips suggestively.

  “I can’t. I can’t and I refuse to continue this conversation any further,” Krysten said.

  Daniel still, was trying his best not to laugh. “Cassandra, I have your steak ready. I hope you brought your plate.”

  As if she suddenly remembered them standing there, she turned to look at Daniel. She opened her lightweight jacket and pulled out a metal plate. The raccoon on her head still had not budged. “Let me go and rinse this off before you put my dinner on it,” she said to Daniel.

  “Daniel, what is she doing?” Darlene whispered.

  Krysten was outdone. She asked, “The better question is why does she have a metal plate stuck in her shirt like a piece of body armor?”

  They all watched with interest as Cassandra attempted to perform a sensual walk over to the river that ran behind his house. She bent over towards the water, her butt stuck up in the air, as she attempted to look over her shoulder at Krysten. Suddenly she did a wiggle that was supposed to incite the onlookers, but it only scared the hell out the raccoon that started scampering down her back. This catapulted Cassandra into the river, soaking the top half of her body. Daniel took off at a run to help her and Darlene, started to laugh.

  She laughed loudly.

  She laughed hard.

  She laughed so hard that her feet came out from under her as she dropped like a sack of potatoes on the porch.

  “Somebody grab me a towel,” Daniel yelled as he brought Cassandra back over to the porch.

  Krysten ran into the house, down the hall and came back with a white towel which did not stay white for long. As Daniel patted down Cassandra’s head, she grabbed the end of the towel and wiped her face. Each time she wiped, it showed more pink skin.

  “Holy shit! She is a white woman?” Krysten yelled out loud.

  That did it for Daniel who started to laugh. His stomach cramped, his sides ached and he fell over on the porch next to Darlene. Eventually, he was able to upright himself as he sat up, wiping tears from his eyes. “I have not laughed this hard in years,” he admitted.

  The laughter didn’t stop especially after Cassandra removed her wet jacket and shirt, sitting braless in a wife-beater. Something she was trying desperately to show to Krysten. This was summarily another thing that Krysten had no desire to see.

  “Whether or not you decide if I am the husband for you, you two are welcomed to come back and visit any time you want,” he told her. “I am thoroughly enjoying your company. I can’t wait until we sit down to dinner so we can have a whole conversation.”

  “And if I decide to marry you...” Darlene asked.

  He placed his hand upon hers. “Then tomorrow, I began to show you how we can build a life together here.”

  “Then I guess I need to go and get those potatoes and peas ready for our first dinner together,” she said as she leaned into him.

  “Then I guess you should do that,” he said to her with a coy smile.

  Chapter Seven – Dark Hours

  Dinner was quite possibly one of the surrealist moments in Darlene’s life. During her career, she’d dined separately with three sitting American Presidents, two dictators, four members of the United Nations and numerous heads of state on matters of environmental laws and policies. The dinner conversations had been stimulating and energizing banter of ways to protect the natural resources of the planet. Until now, she never realized how truly empty those conversations had actually been.

  Krysten had barely touched her food because one she found out the steaks were not beef but elk, and in her head that animal was a distant cousin of Rudolph, so she had no intention of eating it. Secondly, she could not focus on the meal for watching Cassandra through the screen door with Roscoe the raccoon. The animal sat across from the dirty woman with both his paws fisted and full. One little paw held a chunk of potato while the other held a chunk of elk steak. Every now and then, a small gust of wind would blow and the scent of the raccoon queen would waft through the door, which was also the third reason she’d lost her appetite.

  “I mean, Daniel, why is she sitting on the back porch, like she is having dinner with an honored guest,” Krysten asked.

  “She is...,” he said as he sliced through the tenderized meat. “...she is my guest for dinner. Normally, when it is only us two, I eat on the back porch with her.”

  This interested Darlene. “Why aren’t you eating out there with her tonight?”

  The look he gave her sent a shiver up her left leg. He spoke gently, “Because you are in here.”

  A fleeting moment happened as they locked eyes with each other, speaking, saying nothing, but explaining a great deal. The look was lost on Krysten.
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  “Yes, but the smell is coming through the back door and seriously upending a sister. I don’t know how you can stomach the stench,” she whispered.

  “I heard that,” Cassandra yelled as she cut Roscoe another piece of potato. “If it weren’t for you two and your fancy ways, Daniel and I would be discussing the new tenants I got in this week and my release plan for the animals.”

  “What fancy ways?” Krysten asked. “Are you talking about eating at the table...?”

  Darlene reached over and touched her friend’s hand silently asking her to shut the hell up. Next she addressed Cassandra, “Can you tell us about the animals you are caring for at your...habitat?”

  Her face lit up as she began to talk about the beaver that nearly drowned when his dam broke. The smaller beavers were struggling to live as well as some prairie dogs. “Roscoe here, I raised from a wee babe, and he was one of the first animals I took in, but he got too civilized and I couldn’t take him back into the wild. Daniel here even came over and made me a coon door for him to go in and out of to do his business.”

  She was still animated as she told them, “As soon as he was old enough, that young man had the nerve to bring a lady friend up in my house. I told this little scamp, if I ain’t getting any in my own house, he sure as fire wasn’t going to get any either!”

  Darlene clamped her lips together. Krysten should have done the same but she didn’t.

  “How can you expect to get any smelling like one of those animals?” These words actually offended Daniel.

  “Krysten, I am pretty certain, although I have never met the woman that Jane Goodall probably smells a great deal like her apes when she lived among them,” he told her as he sat down his knife.

  “It takes a great deal of self-sacrifice and commitment to rear, raise or take care of injured or sick animals. I have found that out first hand with that fawn back there. I am hoping once her leg heals that I can locate her mother and reunite them, if not, I will have to turn the animal over to Cassandra to release back into the wild,” he said.