Long Snows Moon (7 page)

“How was it?” Devon asked.

Moon gave her a kiss, jumped on the bed, and
burrowed under the covers.

“Don’t tell me you like it here,” Devon
laughed. She splashed the last of the bourbon into her coffee.
“This is just a pit stop. I really want to see if that tepee store
is still there.”

Moon gave her a muffled bark from under the
covers.

“We can stay one more night, I suppose. I
wouldn’t mind unwinding here in the middle of nowhere but I need to
find a store to get a few things.”

She gulped down her spiked coffee and noticed
Moon peering at her from under the covers.

“You stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I
can. I’m going to find my way into whatever town we’re in and get a
few things we need.”

Moon moaned, her way of telling Devon she
knew she was after more whisky.

“Try not to make any noise,” Devon warned,
“In fact you better hide in the bathroom until I get back. Go
on.”

Moon went into the bathroom and flopped down
on the floor.

“Thank you,” Devon said. “Now even if you
hear something outside this door, try not to bark or yowl or talk
or utter any of your adorable sounds. If they know I have you in
here they will throw us out. Got it?”

Moon barked once.

“Very good I’ll be right back.”

Their room was on the second level with a
bleak view of the parking lot and the highway. Devon left the room
disappointed it had begun to flurry. She wasn’t good at driving in
snow, worse yet in ice or flurries. She put out the ‘do not
disturb’ sign. She raced to her car, jumped in and cranked up the
heater.

“I hate cold,” she mumbled. “Maybe I should
have gone south instead. The Florida Keys are about eighty degrees
right now. That sounds like heaven. Maybe my quest for the west can
wait until after winter.”

When she put her car in drive, she noticed
the raven on the hood of her Range Rover, peering at her through
the windshield.

Devon jumped in her seat and punched the
brakes. The car’s sudden movement didn't disturb the raven. It
inspected her through the windshield. Devon put the car in park and
leaned forward, intrigued. The raven leaned in for a closer look at
her. It hopped forward and tapped the windshield with its beak.
Devon felt a chill that wasn’t from the cold weather when she
thought she heard it speak.

Keep going west. That is where your destiny
awaits.

“What?” Devon recoiled. “Did you say
something? Did you speak?”

Fly high and you can see more clearly.

“This isn’t real,” Devon, breathed. “I mean I
know some birds can talk, but…”

The West will offer many gifts. Keep going
and you will find your heart.

“This is what I get for drinking in the
morning,” Devon moaned.

The snow covered the windshield in a matter
of seconds. She hit the wipers and watched the raven fly away and
land on the second story railing in front of her room.

Her purse was on the seat beside her, a
bountiful bag filled with everything from feminine necessities to a
little twenty five-caliber pistol she owned but never fired. She
plucked the book from her purse and re-read what she’d learned
earlier about the raven.

“Change of consciousness, courage,
knowledge,” she smiled. “Shape-shifting and magic. That sounds like
fun.”

She read, “Raven black with eyes so cold,
does bring secrets yet untold, mysteries dark and magic old, fly
high and knowledge is bestowed.”

She shut the book and put it on the seat.

“I’ll fly but I’m going to need a little Wild
Turkey to help me.”

* * * *

It never would have happened if Devon had
been there. Moon usually had more self-control. Without Devon to
stop her Moon could not resist.

“Nice doggy,” the housekeeper begged, as a
stream of urine flowed down her thigh. “You sit, okay? Sit!”

Moon had her pinned against the wall, her
head bowed in battle pose. Devon always told her she should not
bark. The growl came from deep inside, a feeling dark and foreign.
The woman had something she wanted and it brought out a wild need.
Moon was aware that her lips spread back and exposed her teeth. She
observed, with contempt, as the woman slid against the wall. Her
skirt hiked up, exposing her soiled panties. Moon realized the
woman was untrained, but also understood fear made her lose her
bladder.

Yes, the woman feared her. Moon smelled it
over her urine and flowery perfume and cigarettes. Moon felt shame
she instilled this terror but her urge was feral and unstoppable.
She had something Moon tasted once and remembered the punishment.
Even that could not stop her. Moon plunged ahead lead by her
instincts.

* * * *

Devon heard the screams from the parking lot.
She rushed up the slick stairs to the room to find Moon lounging on
the bed with a Snickers bar between her front paws attempting to
peel back the wrapper.

The housekeeper screamed as if Satan had
rammed a trident up her ass.

“It attacked me! It tried to kill me!” the
woman wailed as she backed out of the room. “It attacked me!”

“She just wanted your chocolate,” Devon
replied, plucking the candy bar from Moon. She tossed it into the
trash.

“You know better than that,” Devon scolded
Moon. “Chocolate can kill you.”

Moon slunk off the bed and into the bathroom
where she huddled between the toilet and the tub, shaking.

“I’m telling my manager you have a wild
animal in the room,” the woman warned, adjusting her uniform. “You
can go to jail, you know. I can call animal control.”

“Don’t bother, we’re checking out now,” Devon
stated as she tossed her suitcase on the bed. “So much for the do
not disturb sign.” She ushered the housekeeper out, closed the
door, and didn’t waste any time packing.

“You don’t even care your dog tried to bite
me. You’re as mean as she is, mean and cold,” the housekeeper
called through the door. “You’re heartless.”

“So I’ve heard,” Devon sighed, zipping her
suitcase. “Let’s go, Moon, now!”

She shouldered her bag and put Moon on a
short tether. Devon fished a hundred dollar bill out of her wallet
and slapped it on the nightstand. When she opened the door, the
housekeeper blocked the door with her hand on her hips.

“I left you a tip that will more than
compensate for the loss of your candy bar as well as the loss of
your bladder.” Devon forced a smile. “Step aside, please.”

“I should call the cops, you know,” the
housekeeper responded hedging around Devon to get back into the
room, eyeing her ample tip. “I still might.”

“I’ll bet you a hundred bucks you won’t.”

As she loaded Moon and her bags into the car,
the housekeeper called down to her, “Have a nice day!” She waved
the hundred. “Thanks, lady!”

“You’re welcome,” Devon called back. She
rolled her eyes and muttered, “Now that was one expensive candy
bar.”

Moon sat on the seat beside her and barked
once.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Devon snapped “You
know chocolate is bad for you. We have been through this before.”
She was an expert as she poured whiskey from a new bottle into her
can of cola. “Not to mention you scared the hell out of that lady.
What if she had a heart condition? You could have scared her to
death.”

Moon hopped into the back seat of the Range
Rover. She slumped down and sighed. The scuttle over the candy bar
had not been worth it. She disliked it when Devon was upset with
her. It made her stomach boil and her eyes wet and nothing was any
good at all. No treat, no run in the woods, no car ride, nothing
was any good when Devon was mad. Moon closed her eyes, let the car
ride lull her to sleep, and dreamed a disturbing dream.

In her dream, Moon was running in the snow,
chasing a jackrabbit, not for prey, but for sport. The rabbit
disappeared behind a tree, Moon stopped to track it. Behind her,
she heard the voices of men. Her hair bristled and her ears went
back. The voices were loud and angry. They were getting closer. The
jackrabbit appeared from behind the tree. Moon heard gunshots.

Run, my brother, they are here to hunt
you.

The voices became loud and boastful. In the
distance, a woman screamed.

It is not me they are hunting, my sister. It
is you.

The snow became stained red, the world
started to go dim and hazy. Her legs gave way and Moon fell into
the cold snow. The voices, though close now, grew distant.

Do not fear, my sister, I will see you
through to the other side.

The stereo blared and Moon woke with a
start. She sat up and looked at the countryside eerily similar to
that in her dream. She thought she saw the rabbit wink at her from
behind a tree but the car was moving too fast to be sure.

Devon sang with the music. She changed as
she did when she drank the dirty water during the day. She became
loud, sometimes she fell down, and sometimes she would sleep the
sleep of death. At these times, Moon stayed close by, ever
conscious of her master’s breath and the rise and fall of her
chest. Most of the time when she drank the dirty water, Devon
cried. She was different when she drank at night.

Moon pressed her window button, pleased to
see Devon had
forgotten to lock it. It had begun to snow
again and Moon stood with her head out of the window and let the
cold wind dash her face. Tiny flurries tickled her eyes. Bad
thoughts and bad dreams disappeared at seventy miles an hour and
Moon had a difficult time keeping her eyes open against the wind.
Her lips flapped and fluttered and Moon knew if she had the
capacity to laugh this is how it would feel.

The music got louder and the car went
faster. The snow fell harder and a truck raced past her.

“Speed much, asshole?” Devon yelled. “This is
treacherous driving, you dimwit!”

They were high up on Elk’s Pass Bridge. The
trees below looked like tiny twigs on a vast white plain. Moon felt
like she was really flying now as they raced across the bridge. She
thought she saw a rabbit in the snow below. She remembered her
dream of the gunshots and the blood-filled snow. She leaned out of
the window for a better look. At that moment, the Range Rover
slammed into the bridge with enough force to eject Moon and send
her sailing over the railing.

Moon felt like she was flying now. Her body
was weightless and the sound of the car screaming at the railing
grew faint. She felt the icy wind tear at her coat as she rushed
toward the white blanket below. She heard the jackrabbit from her
dreams as she braced herself for impact.

Do not fear, my sister.

Chapter Nine

“
Damn, sorry about
the bumpy ride,” Devon announced. She turned off the stereo with a
trembling hand. She pulled over as soon as she reached the end of
the bridge. Her heart pounded and the smell of bourbon filled the
car. Her soda can had spilled and stained her new leather seats not
to mention the seat of her pants. She put it in park and killed the
engine, not relishing the task of assessing the damage to the right
side of the car.

“It’s okay, just a bit of a crash landing,
that’s all.”

Devon unlatched her seat belt and turned
around. “Come on scardy cat!” she called, but froze in her pose
when she realized the right rear window was down. Panic gripped her
and she scampered into the back seat not able to comprehend it was
empty. She jumped into the hatch area, her eyes wild.

“Moon! Where are you?” She stared out of the
back glass and began to tremble. “Moon!”

She climbed into the backseat and got out. In
her haste, she landed on her back. The fall knocked the wind out of
her and left her gasping for air. An ugly ache scaled her spine
from her tailbone up to her neck. Snow fell down upon her oblivious
to her presence on the ground, piling upon her as if she were
nothing more than a rock or a divot in the road. The snow didn’t
care about her. It fell into her mouth as she moaned. The road
trembled beneath her. Devon found the fortitude to roll out of the
way just as a car sped by, not seeing her at all, a mere bump in
the road. She crawled to the metal railing, pulled herself up. It
was at least a seventy-foot fall from where she stood onto a
landscape peppered with trees. Nothing could survive that fall.

“Moon,” she called down the vast expanse.
“Moon!” she screamed, as she pummeled the railing with her fists.
“Moon!” she wailed until her throat was as wrecked as the side of
the Range Rover.

The sun dunked into the landscape like a
donut into coffee. She sobbed she watched it sink out of sight
taking with it Devon’s hopes of finding Moon.

A bird called from beyond the trees, a bird
so black it blended with the night sky. Devon awakened with a
start. She assessed her surroundings, distraught to realize she was
at the bottom of the embankment in a small clearing. Her forehead
oozed blood and she had lost one of her shoes.

She remembered she managed to get up off the
icy road, slipped and stumbled back to her Range Rover. She put on
her ski jacket and shoved her gloves in her pocket. She abandoned
her vehicle with the keys still in the ignition. She left her purse
on the floorboard with its contents scattered. The spiked coke can
was left neglected on her seat. Trivial things. However, she did
take her flask. Her head was muddy from the liquor and her back
screamed from her fall.

She hadn’t been at all graceful on the slick
shoulder when she attempted to mount the railing. She’d lost her
footing on the other side and banged her crotch against the metal
barrier. She tried to hold onto the rail but reeled from the
disturbing pain between her legs. To make matters worse, the
railing was slick from the snow. She toppled over and began to
slide down the steep embankment. On her way down, she had grabbed
at a small tree, missed, ripped a few nails, and lost one of her
shoes. Somehow, she had ended up going down the rest of the way,
face down, and head first, where she collided with a tree at the
base of the embankment.