Page 10 of Dove
Josie hesitated. “I don’t know…”
Gareth nudged her arm, slipping his hand down to grasp at her hand. The sight brought a happy pang to my chest. I’d never seen my dad act so tender.
“She’ll be fine,” he reassured her. “Josh will make sure she knows where you are.”
Josie sighed, glancing back to Dove in the car, who kept her head down, refusing to look in our direction. “All right. I don’t want to push her.” She turned her gaze to me, voice a little firmer. “But if she seems upset, please come get me.”
I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
My dad clasped my shoulder and gave it a grateful squeeze. My dad wasn’t a very affectionate man. I knew that gesture meant he was pleased with me, and I hated that I wanted to chase that feeling the second his hand left.
Josie thanked me before letting Gareth lead her away and up the porch steps, holding the screen door open for her so she could enter. It banged shut behind them, and then it was just us; me standing in the middle of our driveway watching as Dove steadfastly ignored me from the safety of the backseat.
It felt a little creepy, just standing there waiting. I didn’t want to open the door or initiate anything until she was ready. I had the advantage of being in familiar territory, but the same couldn’t be said for her. I didn’t want to invade the safe haven she’d created for herself in her mother’s car.
Instead, I tossed ideas around in my head, trying to think of ways to lure her out, something that would minimize her nerves.
A pitiful meow sounded behind me.
One of the barn kittens had wandered away from its mother. I’d recently introduced them to wet food, since their mother’s milk was drying up, and they followed me around like ducklings whenever they could.
A lightbulb went off in my head as I scooped up the tiny black kitten. “You just gave me a brilliant idea.” I placed a kiss to the top of its little head, and it mewled in demand.
“Yeah, yeah,” I murmured, peeking over my shoulder. Dove’s hair swished as she turned away abruptly, clearly not wanting to be caught staring. Hope bloomed inside me. I’d sparked her interest, at least for a moment. “I’ll feed you.”
The chorus of eight hungry kittens’ cries was shrill as I made my way back over to the front of the house. I nearly tripped twice, catching myself from stomping on their tiny tails with my giant boots. At thirteen, I was growing taller so quickly that I oftentripped over my own unsteady, long legs. I didn’t need to add tiny kittens in the mix.
“Watch out,” I laughed. Their beady eyes kept glancing up at me so much that they weren’t paying attention to where they walked. The smaller black one that had sought me out jumped onto my pant leg and attempted to climb, its sharp little claws pricking my skin.
“Ow,” I hissed, shifting the bundle in my arms so I could grab the kitten and place it on my shoulder. “Now stay there. God, y’all act like I didn’t feed you just this morning. You know this isn’t your normal feeding time, right?” I informed them as they continued to excitedly waddle along. “You better be thankful to Dove for this early meal you’re receiving.”
I turned the corner of the garage, and the sun glinted off the white car. Dove was still inside, sitting in the same spot, her head down. I wondered what she was doing, if she was reading or listening to music, or just stewing in her worry. I prayed she wasn’t crying.
If she was, hopefully I’d change that in a moment.
I led them to the grass right in front of the porch, setting down the kitten on my shoulder before dumping my bundle. Shallow, metal bowls clanged to the ground followed by a few cans and a spoon. I arranged their food bowls with enough distance between each other so they wouldn’t be fighting for room to eat and cracked open the wet food tin.
Their mewls increased as I dished some out into the first bowl. As usual, none of them were patient, attacking the bowl at once with miniature ferocity. Their little heads banged together, and one kitten jumped atop another. I grabbed it, placing it on the ground by the second bowl.
“More’s coming,” I chastised. “Hold your horses!”
I peeled back the lid of the second tin and upended it into the next dish, watching as a few more of the kittens descended uponit. I did the same with the third bowl, rearranging the kittens afterward so there was enough room at the bowls for them all to eat comfortably.
The sound of their greedy gobbles amused me. They always ate like they’d never seen food before. I gathered up the empty cans as they happily ate, placing them in the trash by the side of the house. The sound of an opening and closing car door had me grinning triumphantly, but I reined it in by the time I rounded the house.
Dove hovered by the hood of the car, her focus on the ravenous kittens. I’d only managed a few strides before I came to a stop. It was clear she was uncomfortable, because she froze, watching me out of the corner of her eye, hiding behind a curtain of dark hair.
“Hi,” I called softly, and her head ducked further.
I frowned. Shy was an understatement.
“Do you want to hold one?” I asked as I took a few hesitant steps forward, nearly to the front of the car on the other side of her. “They’re friendly, I promise,” I added, in case she’d never held a kitten before. “Just watch out for their little claws.”
Most of the kittens had finished their meal, only a few stragglers were left lapping at the scraps, and they started to wander. Usually, they kept to the shed that was beyond the barn, where they slept and I normally fed them, but as they’d grown so had their curiosity. They roamed as they pleased, now. Mama cat had started to leave them for longer periods of time, but she still came back to sleep curled around them at night.
We had plenty of adult cats that ran through the property. A lot of them were drop-offs from locals who, for some unfathomable reason, refused to take them to a shelter. She’d been one such stray, having either wandered onto the farm or been tossed there, already pregnant. Typically, if we noticed a new cat around, we liked to get them spayed if we could, but itwas too late for her. We had plans to adopt out the kittens and take her as soon as we could, because my dad hated when too many cats ran underfoot, but it was par for the course on a farm.
Unlike my dad, I enjoyed them and liked the company they provided. We were in the middle of summer, which meant school was out and there was more farm work. It could get kind of lonely here, just the two of us. They could be annoying little shits, but they were entertaining, at the very least.
