didn't know for sure if that
was true of Montana. Flapjack Pete might have been pulling her leg
like he was often known to do, but it sure was a fact in this town,
she'd seen that rats were thick.
She squinted, getting her eyes used
to the shadows so she could see if it was safe to enter the alley.
Rats didn't worry her much as long as she was fast enough to stay
out of their way. She was used to them competing with her for
food.
No humans lurking around as far as
she could tell. Now that purely was the good thing. She didn't ever
want to be cornered in one of these dark alleys by some galoot that
thought she would be willing to bed down with him for a spell. It
surely was as plain as plain to her that she might not live to tell
about something like that.
Cowboy Girl Annie studied the red
dumpsters lined up by the hotel and then the green dumpsters by
Smokey Joe's BBQ diner.
If she had her choice between the la
te da fancy vittles from the hotel dumpster and the common barbecue
vittles from the diner, she'd just as soon eat common good old
barbecue.
Maybe this morning she'd be lucky
enough to be the first one to search the two bins lined up along
Smokey Joe's BBQ diner wall.
Again growls rolled through her
stomach, louder this time. The repeated rumbles sounded like two,
fierce, old tomcats fighting in a dark alley in the middle of the
night. She'd heard those squalling fights often enough to recognize
disagreeable tom cats. Now her stomach protesting that loud was
what she called hungry.
She thanked God that she inherited
being tall from her daddy's side of the family. That height helped
her to stand on tiptoes and be able to see inside once she raised
the heavy, dumpster lid. Well, the three inch heels on her cowboy
boots did help some, too.
The trick was being strong enough to
hold that lid up with one hand while she rifled around in the
garbage with her other hand.
After a quick peek, she made a
lemonade face as she let the lid down as easily as she could so it
didn't bang. Annie didn't want that loud, tinny sound echoing
through the alley.
She sure didn't want to create a
racket that would cause someone to look out of the diner's back
door. Worse yet, some fancy dressed hombre might come running from
that ritzy hotel's side door and tell her to move on. Be her luck,
one or the other guy would be mad as an old wet hem. They just
might call the cops before they yelled at her.
Disgusting clean trash! That was all
she'd seen in that bin. If there was a bright side to recycling,
she reckoned it was that she didn’t have to waste her time
rummaging through all the washed, plastic jugs and flattened
cardboard boxes in that dumpster.
Looking in those dumpsters was just
a waste of her time. It was plain as the nose on her face that she
wasn't going to find any scraps of food to eat in a recycling bin
or discover any tradeable items in there either.
After Annie took a second to ponder
about it, she decided there was a bright side to recycling bins.
The large, cardboard box, with refrigerator written on it, she
swiped from the appliance store dumpster to sleep under last winter
was clean.
At least, the box didn’t smell like
rotten meat. The boxes she used to get over the years out of dirty
trash behind the grocery store smelled rancid.
She surely didn't miss the winters
she slept under those stinky boxes. She attracted plenty of dogs
back then. She'd hear them sniff around the box and paw it, trying
to figure out how to get inside to lunch on the rotten meat they
thought it held.
Annie didn't mind the mutts nosing
around. She drew the line when they lifted a leg and marked their
territory on her box. She'd hear the spritzing sound, and the box
would fill up with a caustic smell. That's when she boiled out the
end she could unfold and threw her boot at the dogs to run them
off. The odor of dog pee didn't fade away very quickly even after
the box dried.
The next dumpster, Annie found more
to her liking the minute
was true of Montana. Flapjack Pete might have been pulling her leg
like he was often known to do, but it sure was a fact in this town,
she'd seen that rats were thick.
She squinted, getting her eyes used
to the shadows so she could see if it was safe to enter the alley.
Rats didn't worry her much as long as she was fast enough to stay
out of their way. She was used to them competing with her for
food.
No humans lurking around as far as
she could tell. Now that purely was the good thing. She didn't ever
want to be cornered in one of these dark alleys by some galoot that
thought she would be willing to bed down with him for a spell. It
surely was as plain as plain to her that she might not live to tell
about something like that.
Cowboy Girl Annie studied the red
dumpsters lined up by the hotel and then the green dumpsters by
Smokey Joe's BBQ diner.
If she had her choice between the la
te da fancy vittles from the hotel dumpster and the common barbecue
vittles from the diner, she'd just as soon eat common good old
barbecue.
Maybe this morning she'd be lucky
enough to be the first one to search the two bins lined up along
Smokey Joe's BBQ diner wall.
Again growls rolled through her
stomach, louder this time. The repeated rumbles sounded like two,
fierce, old tomcats fighting in a dark alley in the middle of the
night. She'd heard those squalling fights often enough to recognize
disagreeable tom cats. Now her stomach protesting that loud was
what she called hungry.
She thanked God that she inherited
being tall from her daddy's side of the family. That height helped
her to stand on tiptoes and be able to see inside once she raised
the heavy, dumpster lid. Well, the three inch heels on her cowboy
boots did help some, too.
The trick was being strong enough to
hold that lid up with one hand while she rifled around in the
garbage with her other hand.
After a quick peek, she made a
lemonade face as she let the lid down as easily as she could so it
didn't bang. Annie didn't want that loud, tinny sound echoing
through the alley.
She sure didn't want to create a
racket that would cause someone to look out of the diner's back
door. Worse yet, some fancy dressed hombre might come running from
that ritzy hotel's side door and tell her to move on. Be her luck,
one or the other guy would be mad as an old wet hem. They just
might call the cops before they yelled at her.
Disgusting clean trash! That was all
she'd seen in that bin. If there was a bright side to recycling,
she reckoned it was that she didn’t have to waste her time
rummaging through all the washed, plastic jugs and flattened
cardboard boxes in that dumpster.
Looking in those dumpsters was just
a waste of her time. It was plain as the nose on her face that she
wasn't going to find any scraps of food to eat in a recycling bin
or discover any tradeable items in there either.
After Annie took a second to ponder
about it, she decided there was a bright side to recycling bins.
The large, cardboard box, with refrigerator written on it, she
swiped from the appliance store dumpster to sleep under last winter
was clean.
At least, the box didn’t smell like
rotten meat. The boxes she used to get over the years out of dirty
trash behind the grocery store smelled rancid.
She surely didn't miss the winters
she slept under those stinky boxes. She attracted plenty of dogs
back then. She'd hear them sniff around the box and paw it, trying
to figure out how to get inside to lunch on the rotten meat they
thought it held.
Annie didn't mind the mutts nosing
around. She drew the line when they lifted a leg and marked their
territory on her box. She'd hear the spritzing sound, and the box
would fill up with a caustic smell. That's when she boiled out the
end she could unfold and threw her boot at the dogs to run them
off. The odor of dog pee didn't fade away very quickly even after
the box dried.
The next dumpster, Annie found more
to her liking the minute
Similar Books
