you told me. You said, ‘So what if I did?’ ”
He looked like he’d like to take a baseball bat to me.
The sheriff said, “Let’s take a quick look around. We’ll be out of your way in no time. Gentlemen, come with me.” He and another officer walked toward the back of the house.
“I don’t even live here,” Hyena Man said. “I’ve got to go.”
Another officer blocked Hyena Man’s exit. Tattoo looked like he might run into the woods.
When a third cruiser parked on the road, I knew this was no routine animal removal.
An officer told us to go ahead and get into my truck. “What’s going on?” I asked Helen.
“When I gave Stan the address, he said he’d been waiting for a reason to get on this property.”
“What do you think? Drugs?”
Apparently. After about ten minutes, the sheriff leaned into my truck window. “You did that donkey and me a huge favor today. Go on and get out of here before the news trucks arrive.” He winked and slapped my truck door.
WHEN THE DONKEY WALKED OFF THE TRAILER AT MY FARM, she raised those hand-puppet ears and heaved a sigh that sounded like relief.
Both Biscuit and Moonshot came to their paddock fences to whinny at this newcomer. The donkey brayed—a sound like brakes squealing before an inevitable crash.
Biscuit, although he was five times the donkey’s size, trembled.
Moonshot stood, eyes wide, ears forward, every inch of him asking, What the hell was that?
Muriel poked her head around a corner of the barn.
The donkey brayed again, and they all bolted.
We gave the donkey some grass hay. She stood eating as Helen and I sat on upside-down buckets on either side of her (she was so short!). We gently curried the mud from her coarse, uneven coat, uncovering the black stripes of fur that intersected at her withers, draping a cross down her shoulders and along her spine. She had several swollen places but nothing I thought warranted an X-ray. I looked in her eyes and in those miraculous ears—fluffy white inside, lined and tipped with black. Her thick brow tapered into a muzzle that eventually went white, with a perfect heart of black velvet tipping her nostrils and extending its point to her top lip.
I washed the cut over the donkey’s right eye—a cut that could’ve used some stitches—then fetched a stethoscope and listened to her heart. Sound and fit.
I felt the donkey’s belly. What was up with those skinny ribs but this big tummy? I couldn’t imagine that Pete Early would have been very diligent about worming, but it didn’t look like a worm belly.
I filled Helen in on the Zuzu trauma the day before.
Helen’s eyes were bright. As she listened, she pushed her tongue into that gap between her teeth. “So you think Zayna’s leaving him?”
“Yep.” I moved my stethoscope to listen to the donkey’s belly.
“Are you going to tell him?” Helen asked.
“Not my place. Not my problem.”
Healthy gut sounds, all good . . . and something odd—a sensation that pushed my stethoscope away. The donkey lost patience with me and stepped sideways, pushing me off my bucket. I laughed and got up, brushing straw off my butt.
“I thought I’d feel gleeful.” I situated the donkey again. “I wanted her to break his heart. But honestly? It feels sort of pitiful.”
I leaned over, laying hands on the donkey’s belly. There . . . no . . . there it was. A nudge against my open palm. I gasped. “It kicked me!”
Helen looked confused. “The donkey kicked you? When?”
“No,” I said. “Her baby did.”
Helen’s mouth made a pleased, surprised O. “She’s pregnant?”
There it was again, as unmistakable as Gabby’s own kicks inside my belly once upon a time. “She is.”
The donkey folded her knees and lay down with a soft grunt. Even with us standing there, she stretched out on her side. Helen crooned, “No wonder you’re tired. Poor thing.”
We both sat down in the straw and watched her. “A baby miniature donkey,” I said. “I’ve never handled one of those before!”
Helen cocked her head at me. “I imagine there’s not much you can’t handle, my friend.”
I liked that thought, but then Moonshot whinnied outside. The month was about up. Ms. Porn Star would be coming for him soon.
Chapter Thirty-Five
ON MONDAY MORNING, AURORA EXAMINED ZUZU’S SPLINT and the X-rays. “You did great, Cami.” She shook her head, her nose diamond twinkling. “Damn. I can’t imagine pulling that off by myself. Or rather, I can’t imagine pulling that off with my