Danny
Danny hoped that the voice in his head was right. It hadn’t told him who was out there in the woods who would be able to help him. It hadn’t said anything else to him since he started to follow the deer. Hopefully the voice would lead him to the sheriff—Lester would have to believe Danny now.
But if the voice in his head was wrong, and there was no one out there, Danny knew he would get lost. And, if he got lost, he sure was worried that Mrs. Bennett wouldn’t get the help she needed. So many people had been hurt and worse.
The deputy was a bad man. Kinda like his Uncle Brett, but a whole lot worse. Maybe Uncle Brett would drink too much and hit Danny when he was a little kid, but Danny knew that Uncle Brett was just real sad about losing his brother and having to take care of him. Uncle Brett used to blame Danny for him not being able to marry a young woman and told him as much. Uncle Brett used to blame Danny for lots of things, like having to spend too much money on him for food and clothes and visits to Doc Pete—money he didn’t have, he told Danny. Maybe if Danny wasn’t around, Uncle Brett would have gotten married and finally been happy. Maybe, just maybe. That’s why after Uncle Brett went away to heaven, Danny knew he should live on his own and take care of himself. If he wasn’t anybody else’s problem, then he couldn’t make anybody else sad or mad and he couldn’t get anyone hurt again.
He watched the three-legged deer hopping ahead of him. He had been following her for a while now, but she never let him get too close. Danny guessed that he scared her a little. Especially now with his face looking like some kind of monster’s face and the fact that he was carrying a gun. Hunters carry guns and bows and arrows. A hunter is who hurt her and made her walk funny.
Maybe he should drop the gun in the snow and bury it so it couldn’t hurt no one else. All guns did was hurt folks.
Keep the gun, Danny.
He looked toward the doe. She was standing still and staring back at him with big black eyes.
Keep the gun for a little while longer.
Danny nodded and kept walking toward her. The doe stayed put where she was and watched him approach. He got real close to her. Could see the deer breathing and the crystals of snow frozen around her mouth. If he reached out, he would be able to touch her soft fur now and pet the doe like a dog. He didn’t do that, though.
The doe stuck her nose close to the snow and sniffed around for something. It was gonna be dark soon, so Danny didn’t understand why they were staying put.
“I’m hungry, too, but I think we should keep going.”
The doe looked up from the ground. Her nose was wet and had a clump of snow stuck to the end of it.
It’s almost time.
Her ears twitched, then snapped straight up in the air. She looked forward and stared into the forest ahead of them. Danny stared in the same direction. He saw something move between the trees. Something big. And it was moving straight toward them.
The three-legged deer kept her watch and waited, and Danny stood beside the doe and waited right along with her.
