Scavengers (3 page)

I revved the engine, far from conservatively, and declared, “Hang on, Earl!"

With that, she held her cup of tea in midair. The next leg of our mission kicked up its heel.

Soon, any semblance of city disappeared, and Rural, America, had its way with us. The roads became narrower. Trees became closer. The farm fields were dotted with tractors tilling the soil, making ready for the induction of seed.

"Cows,” I remarked, pointing to a grazing herd to the left of us.

"Quick, go ask them if they know Zeus."

Eventually, the meandering road led us to an enormous wooden sign that read:Mill Lake State Park. I turned in the drive to find a large deserted parking lot. At the far end of the lot was a small toll booth-looking structure with the silhouette of someone inside. I slowly approached, lowering the window as I went. A large sign hung onto the side of the structure with a long list of Don'ts. Not “Do come in.” Not “Do have a good time.” Just don'ts. I hated don'ts. “Don't camp without a permit. Don't fish without a permit. Don't leave the trails. Don't interact with the wildlife. Don't disturb the flora. Don't bring firewood from more than 25 miles away.”What?

I paid the woman six dollars for a piece of paper that was to be wedged between the dashboard and the windshield. If the tag was not visible, we were told, we would get a stiff fine.

I drove slowly forward and told Claudia to call out the directions contained in the clue. After the correct combination of turns, a small blue shed sat before us.Fishing Equipment Rental: this sign read.

"I do believe we got it!” I declared.

"And what exactly isit?" she countered. “Are we supposed to bring back the whole place? Take a picture of it? What?"

"Well, how about we see what our competition does,” I said, pointing to Susan and Maggie who meandered the shoreline of Monarch Lagoon.

We watched them for several minutes as I stealthily tried to park the car. It was obvious they knew no more than we did. They were aimless.

"Look at the clue again, Claudia. What are we missing?"

"State ... cow. Do we have a state cow?"

"I wouldn't doubt it. Maybe we have a state nymph, too.” Then a light seemed to go on in my head with a brightness that blinded. “We do have a state flower, though. Grab the map from the glovebox, and see what it says."

She slid her legs long toward the footboard and splayed the glovebox. She foraged until her persistent hands liberated the map. As she worked to unfold the Rubik's cube-like thing, I looked up to see whether Maggie and Susan appeared to be in the midst of an epiphany, but movement in the rearview mirror caught my attention instead. I glanced to see Laura and Holly parking and then swiftly exiting their vehicle. In unison with the slamming of doors, feet pounded the ground in a mad dash.

"Shit, Claudia! Laura and Holly know the answer. Follow them! Follow them like we know, too!"

Before I had even finished my directive, both of our doors flew open and we were in hot pursuit.

Laura and Holly ran toward the lagoon, startling Maggie and Susan, who seemed to have the same idea: pretend to know.

Suddenly Laura stopped in her tracks, turned around, and stretched her arms wide. “We were here first,” she roared. “Holly, go get it. I'll keep these goons at bay."

"Not fair,” I screeched back at her. “We have every right to—” I shot Claudia a pleading look.A right to do what, Claudia?

As if a mind-reader, Laura yelled, “A right to do what, Kate? Tell me what you have a right to do, and maybe then I'll let you pass."

"We have a right to do whatever you're doing,” Claudia defended.Oh, that was brilliant.

With a quick left and then a quicker right, I faked out Laura's moves, ran past her, and headed to where Holly had stopped. Before her was a neatly fenced-in area that held hundreds and hundreds of small purple flowers. Several butterflies, still groggy from the morning chill, flitted clumsily from flower to flower.

"Oh, aren't they beautiful? Just beautiful!” Holly gushed, holding a palm to each cheek.

"Yes, they are!” I exaggerated, trying to keep her enthralled and off task. “Beautiful! Very beautiful, Holly. What are they called again?"

Instead of responding, she pointed to a small white wooden sign stuck into the earth.Bird's-Foot Violet: that sign read.

"The state flower,” Claudia added, rather defeatedly, suddenly aware of what the quick glance at the state map had proffered. “One more minute and I would have had it!"

"Ah, but we have it now,” I told her, but as I prepared to belly flop over the fence, the mounting energy within me came to a jolting halt as Claudia grabbed hold of my shirt.

"What the hell are you doing?” I yelled at her, but as I did so, I saw the seemingly slow-motion lunge of Maggie over the fence. She landed in the midst of the flowers, plucked a handful, and let out a triumphant “Got it!"

I moved anew to clear the fence, and yet again, I was held in place. “Why the hell are you stopping me?” I screamed. “Don't you want to win this thing?"

"You can't pick them! It's against the law. You can't pick them,” she bellowed like a cow/woman.

“Didn't you read the sign when we came in?"

"Oh, screw that! Maggie's got one!” As I said that, I meant to look at Maggie to bolster my case, but instead, all I saw was a blur as she and Susan hauled ass back to the parking lot.

I twisted my body to force myself from Claudia's grip, but she held me with a vengeance. Laura and Holly seemed to have forgotten the task at hand, and rather, they stood there watching the battle of wills.

"'Take it correctly or a foot in each shackle,’ you goof! You can't pick them! It's against the law.

Pick it and go to jail!” she wailed with self-righteousness.

"Well, what in blazes does ‘take it correctly’ mean?” I demanded, still trying to wriggle free.

"It means this,” Holly said, aiming her camera at the plot of violets and the two agitated butterflies.

I glared at them in a way that seemed literally to burn my eyes. They laughed and immediately began a quick sprint to the parking lot. Then my scowl turned. Claudia let go of me, smiled sheepishly, and tried to smooth out the bunch in my shirt where her fist had attached itself.

Coldly, I asked, “Do you have the goddamn camera?"

"It's in the car. I'll go get it,” she uttered, and before I could arrange the crude mix of words in my mouth, she ran full force.

Her absence was short, but it gave me enough time to plant myself on the earth and breathe deeply a few times. She snapped the necessary picture, and then as if willing to take her life in her hands, she turned the camera on me. She snapped a picture of my crumpled, defeated being.

She reached out her hand to me, smiled, and said, “Come on, my little shrinking violet."

We sped back to the city. One might guess that Claudia would have exercised enough restraint to forego pointing out speed limit signs, but the lover of rules did so anyway.

By the time we reached Kris and Ginny's, Laura was strutting around like some freaking egomaniac peacock, Holly was stroking Muse, and Maggie and Susan were arguing that they had won even though they had killed a plant and broken the law. Eventually, Susan put the poor, little plant in the front yard and took a picture of it.

"Time of death,” our cheeky detective pronounced, “eleven fifty-three AM."

I was still grousing as Kris and Ginny approached us. Claudia removed the memory card from the camera and offered it in an outstretched hand.

"Good job, ladies,” Kris said. She took the little blue card from Claudia and then jotted down our time on the clipboard.

"Yeah, and thanks for not killing anything ... or each other,” Ginny noted as her eyes went back and forth between the two of us and then stopped on me.

I took advantage of her focus. “Okay, ruthless one,” I said, grabbing Ginny by the front of her shirt. “What the hell does the cow/woman have to do with this?"

"Ah, you weren't paying attention in my class, huh?” she challenged. “Zeus turned her into a heifer, which was admittedly cruel, but he also did one loving thing for her. Do you remember now?"

My stare assured her that I did not know.

"Okay, then, I'll refresh your memory” she said, happy to drill it into me once more. “Zeus put her in a never-ending field of violets—a delicacy to cows. So although he banished her, she still knew that he loved her. Sometimes you have to look at what isn't so obvious when you feel as though you've been banished."

She waited for a response from me, but Kris seized the opportunity to push her way between us, envelope in hand. “Here's your next clue, guys. Another one hundred points. Now go,” she said, handing the envelope to Claudia. “You'd do better to keep moving."

[Back to Table of Contents]

Once again, we were back where we had started—in the car. I felt beaten, but certainly not defeated. I think what honestly bothered me the most was that it felt as if Claudia and I had been on opposing teams. She played by the rules. My thought was “screw the rules,” but had I done so, and had she given in, we would have lost. So, in essence, it was her playing by the rules that had saved us. I was wrong, but not one cell of me wanted to apologize, especially since I was expecting her to gloat. As soon as the doors closed, I waited for it.

"You sure weren't off base when you said those two we're going to mess with us,” she began. “It feels like we scaled Mount Olympus only to get shoved back down."

I still waited.

"So are you ready for the next one?” she prodded—cautiously.

"Why, so I can screw up again?” The words accused and did not question.

"For Christ sake, Kate, it's just a game! We actually didn't do that bad. So what if Laura and Holly beat us? We beat Maggie and Susan. Plus, there are seven more to go."

"The only reason we beat Maggie and Susan—and weren't standing next to them taking autopsy pictures in the front yard—is because you stopped me from doing the same thing they did. That's theonly reason."

"So you're pissed off at me for stopping you from doing the wrong thing? Does that even make sense?"

"Oh, and does it make sense that I'm holding you last night and you bust into tears? Then walk away, avoid me? Does that make sense?"

"This has nothing to do with that!” she yelled, slamming the palms of her hands on the steering wheel.

"No? I think it does. Today you're so quick to stop me from doing the wrong thing, but then at times, like last night, I beg you to tell me what I'm doing wrong, and you won't even look at me."

"Please, Kate, can we not do this? Please?"

"Well, what should we do instead then, Claudia? It's always ‘Can we not do this?’ or ‘Words don't seem to cut it.’ It's always something. There's always something that stops us from getting out of this muck that we're in."

"Do you want out?” she asked, so point-blank that I could see the bullet traveling at me.

"Out of this muck? Yes."

"Out of this relationship?"

I'm a weird creature that way. Sometimes I ask for things and then totally freak out when I get what I asked for. I asked her to talk; she talked. Maybe I just didn't want her to cut to the quick that way. A little verbal foreplay, maybe, and then thebam.

"Do you want out of this relationship?"

"Honestly?"

"Yes, Kate, honestly. Lay it on me. I can take it."

"Then honestly...” My voice splintered. “Honestly, I think I'd rather die."

Dead silence. The point-blank bullet had ricocheted and hit her right between the eyes. Even so, I felt injured by its impact. I swallowed hard against the force of the guttural scream that was rising within me. Now what was I to do?

I waited.

Finally, from the edge of my vision I saw her turn toward me. I knew that it would take all the guts I had ever had to let my eyes meet hers. I had sent the bullet back at her. Had it again ricocheted? Had she reloaded? This time it would be mortal.

"Kate,” she whispered. “Kate, look at me. Please."

Damn!Do or die. Or maybe do and die. Fearing, dreading, I turned.

I suddenly remembered, recognized the woman who was looking back at me. Her features were soft. Tears pooled in her eyes, but yet the sparkle I saw came from a different place—that soul-place inside that gave life beyond mere animation. I remembered her. I remembered her! I remembered her good soul and how it used to be a place where I felt welcome and at home.

Home. I was not afraid, and so I looked deeply into her eyes, as if I was boring myself into that soul-place, scrubbing its walls clean, carving my name again.

"Kate,” she said again. “I honestly think I would rather die, too. Maybe that's what I'm afraid of."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. I'm not sure I even want to know at this moment in time, but I will find out. I will.

I promise,” she reassured, and this I needed to hear. “And then we'll find a way out of this muck.

Because with all I don't know, I do know that this is not your fault. You're not doing anything wrong. I'm the one who changed the rules."

"Okay. Promise noted.” I could breathe again, but damn, I needed to cry.

"Now, partner, we are on the same team, and we have this ridiculous scavenger hunt to win.

Open that envelope!"

"You sure? You okay? Do you want to get something to eat first? I thought the messin'-with-us chicks would have at least fed us."

"Yeah, I kind of did, too. I guess they put their maternal instincts on hold."

"Yeah, and brought out the infernal instincts."

We both laughed. It seemed to release the incredible hoard of emotion. We could move.

"Okay, so let's see what hell they're putting us through this time."

She handed me the envelope, and I knew that by day's end the ripping open of it would be a metaphor for something.

"Okay, here we go."

I held out the sheet, and we read.

Zeus turned Io into a heifer. The cad!

At this, she must have been really, really mad.

But this clue's not the violet bed at her feet—

Greek to French—this time it's a bed ofpommes frites.