Next of Twin by L.A. Boruff & Lorraine Cooke

Author:L.A. Boruff & Lorraine Cooke [Boruff, L.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub

11

LELA

“We gotta go if we’re going to have enough time to talk to this guy.” I swallowed the last bit of chili dog and gave the skunk some of the bun. He’d already had two hot dogs, complete with all the fixins’, as Bertha had called them, but still, the little imp begged for more. “You’re going to get fat,” I whispered as I slipped him another tater tot.

“Take me home along the way,” Bertha said. “I’ll start working on clearing the smell out of my place.”

Mae and I exchanged a look. “You could just stay here,” she suggested to our elderly aunt. “At least there’s air.”

Bertha scoffed. “I ain’t never lived with an air conditioner. My sister went soft after she married Thomas Myers. Even had a washing machine, of all things.” She waved her hand, causing Mae and me to exchange another look.

Bertha didn’t have a washing machine? “Do you use a laundry mat?” I asked.

The older woman rose—slowly—to her feet. “Never. The sink is just fine for me, and when we were little, we used the crik.”

Creek, Mae mouthed to me, but I heard it as if she’d said it out loud.

Okay, what?

“Come on, you two. Pick up this trash, and let’s get going.” Bertha stomped toward the front door as Mae, and I scrambled to scoop up all the garbage. “Don’t leave that trash; bring it along and throw it away in a dumpster in town. Them dang bears will break into a car faster than lickety split to get after food garbage.”

We’d read about bears. “In theory, I could stop them,” I said as we bagged the rest of our wrappers and hurried to the car.

Bertha got into the back of the car and rolled her eyes. “You’re as bad as a tourist.”

As we buckled, I turned and looked at her inquisitively. “Why?”

“Tourists don’t realize how persistent bears can be around here. They get in the garbage, break into cars, anything to get easy food. And then there’s the darn fools who try to pet them. The black bears around here aren’t mean, scary beasts like grizzlies, but they aren’t pets or entertainment. They need to be left alone and not fed. Fed is dead.” She crossed her arms and harrumphed.

I hadn’t realized we’d touched on such a sensitive subject. “We will be careful.” I was listening but only glancing occasionally at her in the mirror as I navigated the winding driveway.

“Good.” Bertha’s features softened a bit in my rearview. “See you do. I don’t mean to be harsh about it, if you have this discussion with anyone local, you’ll get the same response. We’re tired of seeing our bears put down, thanks to ignorance.”

I saluted our aunt and pulled out onto Wears Valley Road toward her place. As soon as she was out of the car, Mae set our GPS, and off we went.

As it turned out, the lawyer was just down the road from our motel on the main thoroughfare of Townsend in a little strip mall.

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