Page 14 of Grown-Up Second Chance

“I’ve missed you,” he said. “You were the only one who could dish it out like that.”

“Like what?” I said innocently. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Liar. You used to get me into all kinds of trouble in class.”

“It was the other way around,” I said. “You’d make some comment about what the teacher was saying and make it so I had no choice but to respond.”

“You always had choices,” he said.

“Not when you said something funny.”

“Oh, so now you admit I was funny. You didn’t like my limerick before.”

“You should stick to things that don’t rhyme.”

“But rhymes add a zing … a little like bling!”

I shook my head and took a sip from the glass I’d been clutching since I rescued it from myself.

“How long are you here?” I asked.

“About three more weeks. You?”

“About the same.” I smiled. He’d be a fun companion when I needed to get away from my sisters.

“We’ll have to do some things together then. Like old times.”

Yes. Like old times. We could keep it light and friendly, just like we had when we were younger, never discussing anything more serious than whether we should take the left or right fork of the trail.

Chapter Five

“I can drive,” I told Liz as we prepared to leave early the next morning for Yellowstone. We’d been warned about the summer crowds by numerous people in the park.

“They’ve been worse since the pandemic,” one of the park’s employees had said. “It’s like they think being outdoors in the park will save them from ever catching a virus.” He shook his head. “I’ve been working here for the last ten years, and I’ve never seen it so bad. It’s like people have lost their minds. They think the animals are pets. And that it would be fun to take a swim in the ‘hot springs.’”

“No cure for stupid,” Kathleen had replied.

“You got that right,” he’d said before driving off in his maintenance cart.

We got our lunch cooler in the car and took our places with Liz riding shotgun, to make sure I treated her Jeep with loving care, and Kathleen sat in the back. The senior park pass I’d purchased as soon as I’d turned sixty-two sat in a cup holder, ready for entry.

There was already a buildup of traffic at the entrance gate, but it wasn’t as bad as I’d heard it would be later. And that didn’t count the visitors who were already in the park, camping or staying at one of the hotels.

After about fifteen minutes we were through and driving eastward toward the road that looped through the park. The magic of Yellowstone began to seep into my bones. No matter how many people overran the terrain, there was no place like it on earth. Even Disney couldn’t compete in my mind.

“An eagle!” Liz said as she pointed.

“Two,” I said as I spotted the white heads high in the branches of a lodgepole pine. As we drove by, one of the pair pushed off from the branch, soared for a moment before diving across the road in front of us and reaching toward the earth with its powerful talons.

Like every other human in the park, I slowed down to watch, earning a glare from a driver who sped around us. I pulled onto the shoulder.

Beside us the eagle twisted this way and that, before delivering the final blow with his sharp beak. A moment later he rose, the massive wings straining to achieve liftoff, a limp rabbit in his talons. We watched him land on a tree where he secured the carcass in the fork of two branches before preceding to eat.

“It’s kind of brutal,” I said.

“It’s just nature,” Kathleen said. “Like gutting a deer.”

While I’d never developed a love for hunting, for years my sister had gone out and gotten her deer for the freezer. She’d also gotten into the habit of spending a few days a month fishing during the season. Her rods and gear were packed into a storage compartment in the RV.

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