“Yes.” She nodded dramatically, arching her eyebrows like she was proud of the fact. She pulled a flask from her pocket and handed it to me. “Want some?”
I can’t say that I honestly knew anyone who drank liquor out of a flask, certainly not a five-foot-four, small-boned woman, but I was intrigued. Following her toward the cabin, I unscrewed the flask and took a large gulp. Having not drank except for a few times in college and high school, the liquor made me gag a little but then it went down smooth, giving my throat a warm sensation. “We’ll need more. Let’s get more,” she said, pointing to the flask as she ran up the stairs to her cabin.
I stood outside on the porch until she came back out with a square Jack Daniels bottle.
“This will do,” she said.
“Where are we going?”
Following behind her, holding the bottle in one hand and flask in the other, I wondered for a second if there was actually a legitimate reason why people told me to stay away from her. We approached a second cabin on the other side of the main house. I could see Caleb through the bedroom window.
“Be quiet,” she said. “Don’t make a sound. Look.” She pointed toward a metal cage, one you might use as a dog crate. It was in shadow under the eaves of the cabin, but there was no mistaking what was inside. Even in the darkness I could see the white above the raccoon’s eyes and on his nose.
“Did you catch that?”
“Yes, it was easy.” She smiled so gleefully.
“I’m not sure raccoons make for very good pets.”
“He’s not a pet, silly.”
She stood on her tippy-toes and peeked into Caleb’s cabin. “Okay, it’s almost time.” We could hear the shower in the bathroom go on. “Here.” She handed me a pair of leather work gloves. “I need your help carrying the cage inside. We’re going to leave Caleb a little present.”
Finally, I understood. I found it hard to keep a straight face. “You’re a sneaky little girl, aren’t you?”
“I’ve never done anything like this but I take it Caleb wasn’t very nice to you, and well, you know, he wasn’t very nice to me either. I figured it was time to teach him a lesson.”
“Are you avenging my pride, sweetheart?” I winked and she smiled back.
“That’s what us country girls do.”
“God, I’ve been missing out on so much.”
We picked up the cage while the raccoon scratched and hissed at us.
“Oh shit,” I yelped.
“Don’t touch him, he’s a mean little bastard.”
“But he looks so cute.”
“He’s probably rabid. I hope he bites Caleb.”
“Ava, you’ve got a real mean streak,” I teased.
Caleb’s cabin door was open. Ava opened the cage and poked the animal from the other side, encouraging him to run out. We left him there to scurry around the front room and then we ran down the steps outside and hid in the shadows, spying through the cabin’s window.
We waited, watching until Caleb came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel from the waist down. He stood stock-still in the hallway. From our vantage point, we had a front-row seat to the show. Caleb screamed like a girl and threw his sizable arms in the air, inadvertently dropping his towel before running back into the bathroom. The giant man was scared of raccoons.
Ava and I both slid to the ground, holding our stomachs and laughing so hard but trying not to make a sound.
“Oh my god, did you see his face?” she said. “He was terrified.”
“That was classic—I’ll never forget it. I wonder what’s gonna happen to the raccoon?”
“I don’t think Caleb will ever come out of that bathroom. Maybe we should open the front door.”
“Nah. He’ll figure it out. I can’t imagine that he’s the type of guy to ask for help, even when he needs it.”
“Now who has the mean streak?” she teased. “But you were right about one thing.” We had finally controlled our hysterics and were seated with our backs against the cabin.
“What’s that?”
“He definitely has a small . . . you know what.” Even in the dark I could see her wide grin.
“Yes, he most definitely has little-dick syndrome,” I said in a pseudo-serious doctor voice.
“Did you learn that in medical school?”
“It’s weird. For once in my life I don’t want to think about medical school, or being a doctor or surgery or hospitals. This is nice. Sitting here with you. I’ve never seen this many stars.”
She looked up. “Yes, they dulled for me after I lost Jake.” She looked up at me. “Do you know what I mean?”
I nodded.
“But they seem a bit brighter tonight.”
She was finally talking with ease about Jake and I didn’t want her to stop. “Was he a lot of fun?”
“Yeah. Jake had a real hardworking serious side to him, but he could be funny and silly, too. He wasn’t an educated guy; he had a rough childhood and a sensitive ego.”