“Oh, all right.”
Betty turned toward Cat. “Gonna pester that old man again? You must be getting to him. Some of my customers said that he’s been complaining about a girl that won’t mind her own business and keeps bothering him.”
“If he’s talking about me, maybe it’s working.”
“What kind of doughnut you want this morning?
“The maple cream.”
“Okay, I will put it in a bag for you, and you can stop at the diner and pick it up.”
“Thanks, Mom.”
Mike was getting used to the doughnut being on the bench. One day when Cat was running late, Mike stayed by the store until she put the doughnut on the bench.
As Cat was walking out of the library, Judge Bean stopped her.
“How’s the plan of softening up Mike coming along?”
“I really don’t know for sure.”
“Well, you didn’t hear it from me, but he does enjoy those doughnuts he finds on his bench. He also likes his name on the bench even if he won’t admit it.”
“How do you know?”
“’Cause he bitches about it every time he sees me.”
Cat laughed. “I guess it’s time for phase 2.”
“Phase 2? Never mind, probably be better I didn’t know.”
“Probably not.”
“I’m sure he’ll tell me about it.”
*****
For no longer than Cat had lived down here, she knew the backwoods pretty well. There were old logging roads as well as abandoned mines. Her first mission would be to get Widow Johnson some venison. Then she would work on phase 2 of getting to know Mike.
One evening, as Cat was leaving with her .410 shotgun, her mom asked, “Where you going at this time of the evening?”
“I thought I would do a little exploring. No school tomorrow, teachers’ conference.”
“I take it you plan on staying all night in the woods.”
“Planned on it, I was going to let you know after I got my backpack packed.”
“Yeah, your dad and I have given up on you asking.”
“Mom, you know that if you tell me to stay home, I will. I always let you know where I’m going.”
“Yeah, the woods.”
“I have my cell phone that you make me take with me.”
“I just worry about you.”
“Mom, I’ll be fine.”
Cat kissed her mom and went out the back door. Betty was having a hard time getting used to the fact that her baby was growing up.
*****
Cat had found a trail that was overgrown with brush and vines. It was not too far from their property line that bordered on state ground. She had found it off an old logging road while she was hunting. It went down to a valley, which had plenty of grass for deer. This was what she called the back way into the valley. It was also accessible from a logging road that ran on the other side. She set up camp in a small cave, then she hiked over to the other side of the valley to a patch of pine trees that had been planted by the mining company.
She sat down by a big rock that was in between two tall pine trees. This will be great. The deer will come down this trail. This was the first time that she had taken a deer out of season or at night, convincing herself that just because it was illegal didn’t mean that it was wrong. After all, Widow Johnson’s family did need the meat. Surely, she was not the only one that had done this. It was also getting exciting for her. Would she be able pull this off? How great it would have been to live 150 years earlier. No game laws—very few laws, period—and to find a piece of ground and build a cabin. Live off the land. Of course, there were a lot of things that were taken for granted in modern times that wasn’t around back then. Then again, you can’t miss anything you’ve never had.
This was not the first time she had sat in this valley in the moonlight. There was always activity at night, coyotes howling and raccoons wandering around. It was very peaceful with the moon casting shadows in the valley from the tall pine trees. Her thoughts were interrupted when a buck walked out into the moonlight. He was huge. His antlers were so large it looked as if he had trees on his head. The moon reflected its light off of them. Cat’s heart was racing. She had never seen anything that big. He walked with pride. He looked toward Cat, raised his head, and sniffed the air. Cat knew he had spotted her. For what seemed like an hour, they just stared at each other. Time seemed to stand still. She wanted to get a better look at him. She brought her shotgun up to her shoulder and looked through the scope. “Wow!”
Cat was after meat. This was not the time to be thinking of a wall hanger. Taking him at night would not be right. He should be taken in season during legal shooting hours. Still, she was in awe of how he just stood there. It was as though they were communicating with each other.
“I am going to call you the monster. You’re safe tonight. Another time, another place it may be different.” He looked at her for another minute, then nodded, as if saying, “Thank you.” Then he walked away.
Within a couple minutes, a yearling walked in sight. Could it be? Cat raised her shotgun, lined the crosshairs up on the heart-lung area, and squeezed the trigger. The deer ran twenty yards and fell over. She took her gun apart put it in her carrying case and set the case by the tree. Taking her knife and backpack, she walked up to the deer. It was nice size, not too big. Then she carefully skinned the deer and cut the meat off the bone. The temperature was in the lower fifties. It would have been better if it were colder, but there was nothing she could do about that. She wrapped the meat in some old bedsheets that her mother had thrown away. Then she placed it in large plastic bags and put it in her backpack.
Cat put the backpack on, walked over, picked up her gun, and walked back to the cave. She left her gun in the cave with her other stuff and headed up the trail to Widow Johnson’s house. This is going to be more of a workout than I expected. I hope I don’t scare Widow Johnson when I show up at this time of the night.
As Cat walked up to Widow Johnson’s house, she noticed a light on. She knocked on the door.
Widow Johnson answered, “Who is it?”
“It’s Cat.”
Widow Johnson opened the door. “My land girl, what are you doing here at this time of night?”
As Cat walked in, “I brought you something.” She set her backpack on the kitchen floor and started putting the bags of meat on the table.
“Bless your heart, you’re gonna get yourself in trouble, girl.”
“I’ll be okay.”
Widow Johnson got some freezer bags and a cutting board and laid them on the table. “The kids are going to enjoy this.”
“It’s not as cold as I would like, but it should be all right. I’ll help you cut it up and get it in the freezer.”
“Bless your heart. What does your mother think, you being out this late?”
“I’m camping tonight, no school tomorrow.”
They cut the meat up into steaks, a few roasts, and the rest into stew meat. After it was all put in the freezer, Cat said, “That should last you a little while. I had better get going.”
“Okay, thank you. Leave those sheets here, and I’ll wash them for you.”
“Thanks, I’ll see you later.”
Cat