Upstate Uproar (6 page)

Brandon walked in with a fresh pot of coffee
and confirmed what she’d said. “My buddy Steve runs the program,
and even though you’re not likely to adopt a dog, he’ll still let
you take a dog, or four, for a day. It’s good for them.”

“I miss my dudes,” Wendy said. “Let’s do it.
Shelter dogs need some fun.”

Vivian missed her dog, Cooper. He had come to
her rescue when an ex-boyfriend went extra-crazy. Plus, he was an
all-around awesome pup. “Great idea. I’m ready to go as soon as I
get my tennies on.”

Tracy appeared in the doorway. “I’ll pack a
picnic lunch for you if you’d like. Same sandwich stuff from last
night, if that’s okay with you girls?”

“That would be great,” Kate said. “Could you
make me a BLT, with extra B and hold the L and T?”

Tracy laughed. “Sure.”

“Where’s a good hiking trail?” Lucy asked
Tracy.

“This time of year it’s hard to find a bad
one.” She left and returned quickly with a foldout map of the area.
“This marks the most popular trails.”

Vivian started to get up from the table but
Mitzie stopped her. “Can you please step out on the back porch with
me? I wanted to talk to you for a minute.”

“Sure,” Vivian responded and told the girls,
“Y’all go ahead, I’ll be up in a few minutes.”

The girls left the table and Vivian followed
Mitzie outside.

Mitzie stood with arms crossed at the edge of
the porch, looking out at the lake. She turned to face Vivian.
“Ummm, you seem nice and I really don’t talk to my girlfriends
about this kind of thing, so I hope you don’t mind.”

Vivian smiled, her curiosity piqued.
“Okay.”

Mitzie turned bright red, took a deep breath
and started in, talking faster and faster the more she said. “I
don’t really have a lot of experience with… you know, and Wendell
is wanting some things and I don’t know what I’m doing and I could
use some advice about s-e-x.” She wrung her hands and then crossed
her arms again.

Vivian covered her mouth and coughed to hide
a laugh. “You’re talking to a s-e-x-m-a-n-i-a-c, so let’s sit down
and have a chat.”

Mitzie’s shoulders relaxed as she and Vivian
sat in rockers. After their talk, Vivian joined the girls upstairs
in their room. Kate, Lucy and Wendy were pouring over a map spread
out on the bed.

Kate looked up as Vivian opened the door.
“What’d Mitzie want to talk to you about?”

Vivian didn’t want to betray Mitzie’s
confidence, but it was too funny not to share a little bit. “Sex
stuff. I gave her some pointers.”

Lucy rolled her eyes. “Your favorite topic.
We’ve about decided on a trail about five miles outside of town.
You sure you’re up for it Kate?

“I’m good, let’s go.” Kate gave a thumbs
up.

The girls geared up, grabbed their lunch from
Tracy and got directions to the animal shelter from Brandon.

At the shelter, they met Steve and told him
about staying at Turlington Farms and wanting to volunteer to take
a dog for the day. “Would you like to take more than one dog?”

“I think one is all we can handle for the
day,” Wendy said.

Steve smiled at her and said, “I’ve got just
the boy for you. He’s been here a week and is about to go stir
crazy. I’d take him out myself, but I’ve got a wife who’s a lot
farther along than you,” he nodded to Kate, “and she wants me close
by.”

Steve led them to a mostly empty row of
kennels. The few dogs they passed stood at attention, waiting for
someone to take them home.

It broke Vivian’s heart.

Steve stopped in front of a red golden
retriever, opened the kennel and let the dog out without a leash.
“This is Austin, well mannered, well trained. The family who turned
him in was down on their luck. The dad lost his job and they had to
make budget cuts. They just couldn’t afford to feed him, keep up
his shots, you know.”

“Aw, that’s sad,” Lucy said.

Vivian let Austin sniff her hand, then she
pet his head. He looked up at her with big brown eyes and smiled a
doggy grin. Her heart melted. “You want to go on a hike with these
crazy girls? You going to be a good boy?”

Austin panted, swished his tail and licked
her hand.
Affirmative!

C
ome on, buddy.”
Steve gave the dog’s chin a scratch, then walked toward the front
of the shelter and got out a clipboard. Wendy filled out the
pertinent info while the other three girls played with the dog.

Business out of the way, they loaded Austin
into the SUV and Kate got into the driver’s seat. “Which way?”

Lucy sat up front with Kate and consulted the
map Tracy had given them. She gave Kate directions and they soon
pulled into a parking lot alongside Highway 86. There was one other
car in the lot but no one within sight. Vivian clipped a leash to
Austin’s collar and let him out of the car. He pranced around and
turned in circles before homing in on the trail.

“This boy is ready to go,” Wendy said, taking
the leash from Vivian. “Y’all?”

Lucy looked at the posted trail map as she
marched in place. Occasionally she bent over to touch her toes and
stretched side to side. “I’m ready. I see our first blue dot.”

Vivian looked up at the clear sky and let out
a breath she’d been holding, then followed the girls and Austin
down the path of fallen leaves.

They hiked along the clearly marked trail for
about a mile before crossing a small stream. Vivian’s ballet
training came in handy and she easily leapt across it. The mud
squished a little underfoot when she landed, but she quickly gained
traction on firmer ground. Austin splashed through the mud, tongue
and tail wagging.

Lucy hiked ahead for a ways, then did
jumping-jacks as the girls caught up. She offered them the spout of
her CamelBak. “Thirsty?”

Kate took a long drink of water, then sat on
a fallen log. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I could
use a snack.”

Wendy put her hand on Kate’s shoulder. “You
can say that any time. You’re building a person inside you, for
goodness sake! That takes calories.”

Lucy reached in her backpack for an energy
bar and handed it to Kate. While she ate, the other three girls
played fetch with Austin.

“Wow, this guy has been caged up for too
long,” Vivian said. “I think my arm will fall off before he’s tired
of playing.”

Lucy wrestled the stick out of his mouth and
threw it as far as she could. “I have to say that although the
scenery is pretty, this trail isn’t nearly as challenging as the
ones in Colorado. I’m a little disappointed.”

Austin came racing back with his prize,
dropping it at Wendy’s feet. She threw it for him, then said,
“You’re Ms. Fitness. I’m huffing a little!”

“I’m sweating.” Vivian pointed to a trickle
making its way down her face.

“These mountains are a lot different from the
Rockies,” Wendy noted. “Not nearly the elevation.”

Kate stood and stretched, and the girls set
off again, quickly catching up with the dog. A few minutes down the
trail, the hairs on Austin’s neck raised and he slowed down. As
they rounded a curve, Vivian saw what had the dog upset. A
porcupine ambled along the base of a tree, just off the trail. He
didn’t pay them any mind and Austin didn’t bark, but it made
Vivian’s heart race anyway. After her last hike in Vail, she didn’t
much like surprises along the trail.

A short distance up the path from the
porcupine, the ground started to incline and the leaves got thicker
on the ground.

Lucy stopped and glanced around. “Have y’all
seen a blue dot in a while?”

Vivian turned in a circle, looking for the
trail marker. “No,” she said after carefully looking on every tree
around for the blue dot.

Kate also turned in a circle but looked at
the ground. “It would seem the path goes this way,” she said,
pointing toward the northwest, “but with all of the leaves it’s
hard to tell.”

Wendy looked at Lucy. “What does the map
say?”

Lucy dug it out of her backpack but the image
wasn’t detailed enough to tell. She studied the terrain and trees a
bit more. “It’s this way. There’s a half-dot on that maple
tree.”

Sure enough, once Lucy pointed it out, Vivian
could see the partial blue dot. “That dot is so faded it almost
looks gray and blends in with the tree. Maybe they should’ve gone
with bright orange.”

The girls continued as the path gained in
elevation. Kate had to stop to catch her breath a few times. Vivian
and Wendy both had to stop once.

“I’m not even pregnant,” Wendy said. “This is
ridiculous. That’s it, no more chocolate. No wait, I can’t give
that up. No more queso at Chuy’s.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Lucy said as
she did a few lunges. “The air is thinner up here. You have to get
used to it.”

They kept going, managing to find the blue
dots, and soon reached a bigger, swifter-moving stream than the one
earlier in the day.

Lucy walked back and forth on the bank and
tested a few of the rocks before saying, “We’ll have to pull up our
pants legs, but this is the best place to cross.” She looked at
Kate. “You up for this, momma?”

Kate took a minute to study the stream, then
said, “Yep, and I want to have lunch right over there.” She pointed
to a big rock across the way.

“You got it,” Lucy said, then helped Kate
across.

Vivian and Wendy splashed in and then joined
Kate on her rock. Lucy set the CamelBak and the backpack on the
ground and started pulling out an assortment of goodies. Trail mix,
Kashi bars, Tracy’s sandwiches. Austin rushed to her, wagging his
tail. Lucy broke off a piece of her sandwich and fed it to him. He
then ran to Vivian and she did the same.

He ran back to Lucy, wanting more. “I just
gave you some,” she laughed and threw a stick for him to fetch
instead. “Maybe that’ll distract him while we eat,” Lucy said.
“Such a beggar. Bad dog.”

“Brandon sure made a big deal out of Tracy
breaking that platter this morning,” Kate said between bites of her
turkey, ham and Swiss cheese sandwich. “He sounded like a bully
from what I could overhear.”

“I heard them arguing but couldn’t make out
the details over the crunch from my bacon,” Vivian said and then
took a sip of water.

Lucy juggled a handful of trail mix. “I
couldn’t hear what he was saying, either, but he sounded pissed
off. He shouldn’t have been too upset, though, that platter is
replaceable and not terribly expensive. It’s not antique.”

“He said it was from Grandma Turlington,”
Wendy said. “That’s the name of the farm. I bet that was a gift
from his first wedding.”

Kate swallowed a big bite. “That would
explain it.”

Vivian finished her sandwich and started
playing fetch with Austin. She tossed the stick across the stream
and Austin splashed through it with enthusiasm. He trotted back and
shook off close enough to Vivian that she got a few drops. She
threw the stick uphill as far as she could, then said to Kate, “So
tell us more about your pregnancy. Any concerns?”

“None, everything really does look good.”
Kate handed Lucy her trash. “The first time I heard the heartbeat,
I couldn’t stop smiling. It made it real, this was happening! I’ve
been in a nesting phase ever since.”

“Wow! That’s a long time to nest,” Vivian
said. “You still have four months to go.”

“I want to be prepared, and there’s so much
to know. Are there any foods I should avoid while I’m pregnant and
nursing, what kind of diapers are best, first foods, day care,
schools, college savings?”

Vivian laughed. “Don’t get too far ahead of
yourself. All they do at first is eat, sleep and poop. You’ll have
time to figure it all out.”

Wendy stood up from her perch on the rock and
called Austin. Turning to the girls, she said, “Doesn’t it seem
like he’s been gone a bit too long? I hope we didn’t lose him.”

Vivian looked in the direction she last threw
the stick. “No kidding, we should go look for him.”

Lucy zipped up her backpack. “I don’t think
we need to get off the trail. The blue dots are too hard to see to
be wandering around loose out here.”

Vivian called Austin, and a moment later, he
came racing through the trees with a stick in his mouth, kicking up
a flurry of leaves. He held his head high as he approached and
offered his stick to Vivian but didn’t drop it.

“We thought we lost you, silly boy!” Vivian
scratched behind his ear. “What did you do to that stick?” It
protruded from his mouth and wrapped around his nose.

Austin ran in a circle around Vivian, then
circled Lucy before stopping in front of her, looking proud. Lucy
reached for the stick, but he pranced over to Wendy and offered her
his prize instead.

Wendy held her hand out and shook with
Austin. “Oh, all right. I’ll play with you as we hike.” She tried
to grab the stick out of his mouth but he held it tight. She tried
again but he wouldn’t let go. “I can’t throw it unless you let go,
goofy dog.”

Austin loped back to Vivian. She finally
relented and reached for the stick, and this time he was willing to
give it up. She started to throw it, but a glint caught her eye and
she stopped mid-toss.

“What the heck?” she said, looking at the
object in her hand. Then it registered what she was holding. “Ew ew
ew! Gross! He brought me a bone.” Vivian tossed it on the ground,
then jumped up and down, trying to shake the germs and the
heebie-jeebies from her hands.

Wendy leaned over and looked at it. “He sure
did. Nasty, it’s got teeth.”

“Is it from a bear?” Lucy asked from a safe
distance.

Kate crouched down and poked at it with a
real stick. “I don’t think so.” The sun glinted again off the jaw.
She stood up slowly and took two steps back. “I don’t know of too
many wild animals that get silver fillings.”