you doing? This is probably just the eyeââ
He turned around, looking down at her. âI know itâs the eye. Iâll be right back in. Take Jason and go back inside.â
âWhatâ?â
âHurry, please. Dammit, will you do as I say?â
He was implacable and cold and his hands came to her shoulders like talons, firmly turning her around and shoving her toward the door.
âMikeââ she began, trying to wrench away. And then she broke off, because at the side of the houseâright next to the concrete porchâthere was a pair of squirrels. Cute little fluffy brown squirrels. Mating.
It was difficult to tell where one squirrel began and the other ended, so engrossed were they in one another. Squirrels were not usually passionate animals, but these squirrels were definitely passionate. Sheâd never seen creatures go at the act with such absolute abandon ever in her life.
âMan, are they going at it!â Jason laughed from the doorway.
âOh!â Katrina gasped. âJason, get back in the house! Now, this minute! I mean it!â
âReally, Mom, Iâm almost nine! Donât make a federal case about a bunch of squirrels!â
Bunch of â¦? She turned around. Mike, hands on his hips, eyes angry, was staring at her. And beyond her, the small clearing in front of her house was full of the creaturesâall blindly enjoying the nature of their sexes.
âCaptain Taylor!â she thundered. âYou pervert! Iâll have yourââ She cut herself off just in time. âIâllâIâllâI will see that youâre court-martialed for this! Drawn and quartered and hung out to wash!â
âJust go back inside,â he told her rigidly.
She did, shoving Jason in before her. Then, in a high pitch of fury, she swung around and locked the bolt on the door.
âMom, what are you doing?â
âHe deserves to stay out there!â she snapped.
âMom, come on, Iâm old enough, I know that babies donât come from storks! If youâre mad at him because of meââ
âIâm mad at him because he should be shot!â
âYou canât leave him out in a storm!â
No, she couldnât. But she wanted to. She wanted to very badly. Why? Because the squirrels had embarrassed her?
No, dammit! Because sheâd had a dose of the same damn stuff the squirrels had received! How the hell had she acted? Sheâd fallen asleep, passed out. But sheâd awakened with her bathing suit on the floor next to the bunk and â¦
Blank. Dead end. She didnât want to know any more. All she wanted to do was wring his neck andâ
âKatrina! Open the damned door!â
âMom!â
Her back was to it, and she couldnât seem to force herself to move. She felt frozen, in time, in eternity. She had to keep him out. If he got back through the door againââ
âDammit! Iâm not about to while away the hours of a hurricane with a bunch of palm trees.â
She didnât move, but suddenly the door did. His fist slammed against it and the wood reverberated, cracking. She swallowed, miserably aware that he had the raw strength to break it down; sheâd be left without a doorâand with a very irate man on her hands.
âStop it!â she shrilled out, and motioned for Jason to open the door.
When he opened it, Katrina noticed that the wind was already picking up againâfrom the opposite direction. It was definitely only the eye that had passed them.
Mike caught the open door before it could be swept by the wind; he closed it, bolted it, then leaned against it, staring at her as if she were a snake.
âThat was stupid. Utterly stupidâand lethal!â he told her, heedless of Jason, the words bitten off and hoarse as he spoke them.
She retaliated with the only words that came to her mind.
âSquirrel murderer! Those poor creatures! Now
SJD Peterson, S.A. McAuley
K. P. Hilton
Anita Amirrezvani
Scarlet Hyacinth
Charlotte Anne
Mary Alice Monroe
Philip K. Dick
Sydney Logan
J.B. Garner
Jeffrey Shapiro