in the fading light.
“What if that guy had demanded a hundred dollars?” Shannon said.
“What?”
“For Fluffy.”
“Then I’m afraid poor Fluff would have been out of luck.”
“No,” she said softly. “You’d have given it to him.”
“I didn’t have a hundred bucks on me.”
“You’d have gotten it.”
“Unlikely. I hear that ATM at the savings and loan is pretty unreliable.”
“Thank you for saving him,” Shannon said.
“You’ve saved a whole lot more of them than I have,” Luke said. “Or ever will.”
“But what if we find another Fluffy and we’re full up?”
“We’ve had a lot of adoptions lately. We’re not anywhere near full up.”
“Not now. But what about the future?” When you’re not here?
“You’ll find a way.”
“No. There’s a limit. We could reach it someday. Too many animals, not enough money. And even when everything’s done that absolutely has to be done, I start thinking, there are more out there. So there’s really no end to it, is there?”
“The more stressed out you get, the less effective you are. Take it easy, and things will turn out fine.”
She nodded, knowing he was right even though it was difficult for her. “I know you think I’m just a workaholic. That work is more important to me than a personal life. But it’s more than that. They haunt me, Luke. Seriously. Helpless animals I can’t save. I could put it in the back of my mind while I was in Houston, but the moment I came back here…” She sighed softly, looking off into the distance. “I had a dream one night the whole town was full of them. They were hurt and starving, looking at me with pleading eyes, and there was nothing I could do. There were just too many of them. And every time I blinked, I saw even more.”
“You can’t save them all,” Luke said quietly. “I know you think if you only do more, work another few hours, push harder than you’ve ever pushed before, you can finally right all the wrongs. But you can’t. You just can’t.”
“So I stop trying?”
“No. Never stop trying. Just give yourself a break. Sometimes you need to turn off your brain. Find a little peace and quiet. Just for a little while.”
“Easier said than done.”
“No, not really. Come with me.”
Luke put Fluffy into the quarantine cage, and then he led Shannon up the path to his truck. She started to ask where they were going, but he put his finger to his lips before she could even get the words out of her mouth. Finally she just put on her seat belt and went along for the ride.
Luke left the shelter property and turned onto the highway. After a few minutes, he made a left onto a dirt and gravel road that didn’t even look like a road. They wound through the trees, the truck’s headlights cutting through the night. Soon the road became just dirt. Then it was barely a road at all.
Finally they reached a point where the road ended and they could go no farther. As Luke grabbed a flashlight from his glove compartment, Shannon got out of the truck. It was official. They were definitely in the middle of nowhere.
Luke took her hand and they wove through the trees. Just when she was sure the overgrown brush was going to keep them from going farther, the trees parted, and Shannon couldn’t believe what she saw.
They were on the edge of a cliff. A full moon had risen, huge and yellow, floating over the valley. Shannon swept her gaze from left to right, taking in the most spectacular panorama of moonlit splendor she’d ever seen.
She put her hand to her chest. “My God. It’s beautiful.”
“Listen,” he said.
“I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly. Soft breeze in the trees. A few crickets. That’s about it.”
He took her to a nearby fallen log, and they sat down. Luke flipped off the flashlight, and then it was only the moonlight between them. Now she remembered. She remembered how it had felt when they were teenagers, to be inches from him and wanting to touch him so badly she trembled with the feeling.
“I used to come here when I was a kid,” he said. “I was the only one who knew about this place. Nobody bothered me here. Nobody waiting for me to screw up. No sheriff hanging over my shoulder. No father…” His voice trailed off.
Shannon nodded. “I wish I’d known about this place. It might have made things easier for me, too.”
“What things?”
“When I was a kid, everything