Mara had been awakened three nights
in a row by the rustling of some creatures outside her window. Whatever it was
overturned the oil drums she had serving as garbage cans she had out back,
chained to the porch. It had to be a pretty big beast to do that. Whatever it
was had to pull 1/2 inch chain out of sheet steel, no easy feat.
This part of
the state had always been the home of some larger predators, who stayed for the
many small furry animals that scampered about in the forests nearby.
She figured it had to be at least a big old raccoon, and maybe bigger. She
dozed, fully clothed in boots and jeans and a work shirt, waiting for the beast
to return.
After the crashing of the garbage cans woke her up, Mara listened
to the creature snuffle about outside, likely rooting around in the spilled
garbage for a morsel.
She grabbed up her rifle and headed out the door. She
noticed on the way that Davy's light was on, and made a mental note to check
that out when she returned.
The beast had heard her coming, and bolted. All
of it that Mara could see was a flash of gray-brown fur as the creature made
tracks.
Mara squatted there in the dust after the beast had made good its
escape, and examined the tracks the animal had left behind. She didn't recognize
the pawprint at all. It looked something like a little hand, with pudgy fingers
and quite long claws on each foot, to judge by the length of the impressions
they left in the dirt of Mara's driveway.
Out of breath from the brief exertion, Mara headed back into the house,
toggling the switch for the outside lights a couple of times to make sure that
they operated.
Davy's door was open.
"Davy?" called Mara. "What're you up to honey?"
"I saw it, ma, I saw it. Snooping around in the backyard. It looked back at
me, I saw its face." Davy covered his face with his hands. "I never saw anything
like that. It was mean and hungry, like the face of a rat that was a boy too,
but worse."
Entering his room, Mara crossed quickly and sat on the edge of the bed. She
put her arm around Davy's shoulders. "You saw that thing that has been turning
over the garbage? What was it, a badger or something?"
Davy shook his unruly locks back and forth. "No, not a badger. Like a weasel,
sort of, but fatter, and with hands like a raccoon, and a little ugly face with
big teeth in it, and red little eyes. It hissed at me.
Got its weird old back
humped up like a cat, looked at me right in the eye, bared those big yellow
teeth in that little ugly yellow face, and hissed at me like a crazy teapot.
Ugliest thing I ever saw."
"Wow, that's quite a story." Mara patted him on the shoulder she had hold of.
"I'm going to have Steve set out some traps for it when he gets home in the
morning. That'll be the last of that thing." She smiled, and let out a cartoon
supervillain laugh.
Davy smiled back, his smile somehow finding room amid the freckles.
"Now, get some sleep." Mara left the room, closed the door.
She made her
way to the kitchen, where she went about fixing a cup of tea. On an impulse, she
grabbed a big yellow legal pad from on top of the fridge and plopped it down on
the kitchen table, for notes.
Mara sipped at the hot liquid while scribbling
notes to herself derived from her mumblings while she considered the question of
the beast in the backyard. That pawprint bothered her enough that she made a
sidetrip out to the driveway to draw a picture of them, and returned into the
house, picking up her tea and carrying it into Steve's office, where she booted
up the computer.
After logging on to her seldom-used internet account, Mara spent a good hour
clicking through the sites of various zoos and museums of natural history,
trying to find a creature that matched the characteristics of the garbage
picker. Unfortunately there wasn't anything that matched exactly. The closest
was the yellow marten, which had been known to grow to the size of a large cat,
and had an evil yellow face in the picture she saw. But it wasn't quite enough
to justify Davy's fear, which she had felt as she held him. Davy wouldn't act
that way over some big weasel.
She was asleep again when Steve came home and read her note. After putting
away his things, he read Mara's account of the recent events, found the legal
pad with the drawings and notes on it, and went out back to the shed.
There
were a variety of traps in there for troublesome local predators.
That would be the end of this business, Steve decided, and smiled grimly to
himself as he baited and set the trap, a simple dropped-door contraption.
He busied himself for a while tidying the kitchen, then headed for a hot
shower and some sleep.
