Pungent Part II
+2 Bonus
Four hours later, she and Kaylee were pulling up to the place where the sanctuary directed her while Kaylee sobbed continuously over the barely breathing thing in the box on her lap.
“Mom, he’s going to die.”
“Maybe they can fix him?”
“Nana threw him like a lacrosse ball with the broom.” She accused her grandmother who refused to accompany them. The child’s face was mottled, streaked with snot and tears and her bottom lip was still trembling.
“Nana was only trying to protect us from possible rabies.” January didn’t dare not defend her mother or she was sure the broom which threw the skunk might be connecting with her own backside.
They got out of the car and immediately January gulped big deep breaths of fresh air as her lungs felt polluted with what she could only describe as burning rubber, wrapped in cannabis and melted in a pot of rotten eggs. 1/7
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Pungent Part II
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A woman was coming out of the building and drew up short a few feet away making wide eyes. “You said he sprayed, you weren’t kidding.”
“No. I wasn’t.” she looked at Kaylee, encouraging her to put the box down. “We could put the box down, back away from the driveway and take our odor home and leave him to you?”
“No Mom! I love him. He’s scared and he’s hurt and if he’s going to die he needs someone to hold his hand.”
January looked at the sky and wondered why she was being punished as thoroughly as she was. The refuge worker made wide eyes at January and then gave a shake of her head.
“Well, we have a visiting veterinarian here today. We were doing some fundraising recently and we did an auction, and his services were put up and one of the girls bid on him and won. He came and brought along one of his friends who has deep pockets to help.”
“He really smells,” January apologized to the woman.
at happened a few times,” she shrugged but January2:30
Pungent Part II
+2 Bonus
noted she didn’t make any effort to collect the box from Kaylee and they were bringing them around the back way.
A few minutes later they were in a care room while Kaylee was patting the barely breathing thing in a box sniffling sadly while January continued rubbing her daughter’s back with as much comfort as she could.
“Hi!” a man pushed into the room with a cheery disposition. His eyes were a warm brown, his hair a tousled mess and then his wide smile fell off as the smell hit him square in the face. “Oh, what do we have here?”
“My daughter rescued a skunk from our woodpile. It apparently is injured.”
“And then my nana flung him across the porch and out of the kitchen,” Kaylee sobbed as she patted it pitifully. “Poor Henry.”
“Henry huh?” the doctor leaned over the box and wound stethoscope around his neck as he struggled not to gag. “He’s pungent isn’t he?”
“Does pungent mean dying?” Kaylee huffed a shaky sob 3/7
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Pungent Part II
into her lungs.
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“No. It means he really stinks,” the doctor grinned. “My name is Doctor Ford Miles.”
January felt her stomach plummet to her toes at the name. She knew the name. She’d spent too many years of her life trying to forget every single detail of her short eight months with Gulliver Crane, including the name of the very few people he introduced her to.
Ford Miles was one of them. He was the best friend she only ever spoke to on the phone. They’d never met in person. She’d never even seen him in a face–time call. Yet, she knew who he was. The man who defied his family of renowned surgeons to become a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in New York State was now standing in front of her, examining a barely breathing skunk.
And she’d thought the skunk in her house was going to be the worst part of her day.
“What is your name, sweetheart?” Ford asked Kaylee with
a smile.
My name is Kaylee Fulton. I’m seven. I just turned seven
Pungent Part II
two weeks ago.”
“Grade two then?”
“Yes!” she nodded.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
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“I thought a veterinarian but on the way here, my mom told me that veterinarians go to school almost as long as real doctors. I hate school. I’m not staying in school that long.”
January would’ve laughed out loud at the backhanded insult but at the moment she was desperately trying to find a way to make sure her daughter did not mention her name at all. In all the world there wasn’t a lot of women with the name January. She’d been born on New Year’s Eve and when they were talking about changing names she’d been glad to be able to keep hers. For the first time she was wishing she hadn’t because if Kaylee mentioned. her name to this man, it was entirely possible he would tell his old buddy Gulliver.
“I’m a real doctor,” he gave Kaylee a grin, “unless you ask
lymom who would tell you I’m not a real doctor.” 12:30
Pungent Part II
“I think your mom is right.” Kaylee shrugged.
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“I don’t know,” Ford smirked, “I mean, you brought your little friend here to get help from a doctor and here I am.”
“I guess if I was an animal I’d think you were a doctor.” Kaylee patronized him, “but I don’t think I’d want a veterinarian if I got a cut like I did last summer when I split my head open.”
“You split your head open?”
“Yeah. My mom was freaking out. I got five stitches,” she pulled her hair back off her face and looked right at Ford, “right here.”
As the man looked the child straight in the face, her hair pulled back, her forehead exposed and the full features of her face on display, something must have clicked with him because he suddenly he was staring into Kaylee’s eyes curiously.
“Your Dad must have been terrified.”
“I don’t have a dad. Just my mom and my grandparents.” 6/7
