I jerked open the car door.
“Nolan, what are you-”
I cut off my mother’s words when I shut the door behind me. I quickly scanned for traffic, but the country road was dead to the world. I trotted up to the poor corpse and tried to quell the nausea that went through my belly at the gruesome sight. I’d never been allowed to have pets as a kid, but I’d always had a soft spot for animals. So when my eyes fell on the baby raccoon trying to shrink away from me as it curled against the dead raccoon’s body, my heart broke for the poor little thing. I swiveled my head to see if I could see any other raccoons around, but the forest around me was silent. Cold air seeped through the thin material of my jacket, reminding me that I really needed to go shopping for winter clothes soon.
Another bout of nausea hit me, but this time it had nothing to do with the poor dead animal at my feet or its orphaned offspring.
I debated what to do, since there was no way I could leave the baby sitting in the middle of the road or it would end up just like its mother. I quickly stripped off my jacket and used it to carefully scoop up the baby, which hissed at me pathetically a few times and struggled in my hold. I jogged to the shoulder and stepped into the heavy brush before putting the baby down. When I went back to the road, I waited so I could watch the small animal wander off into the woods. I had no clue if the raccoon was old enough to survive on its own, but I figured it would hook up with some other raccoons or something. When the animal didn’t move, I turned to walk back to the car, assuming my presence was probably making it nervous. But when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw the little animal scurry across the road and right back to its mother’s body.
I let out a huff and debated what to do. I knew it was just nature’s way, but I couldn’t leave the animal there to die. I hurried back to the raccoons and again bundled the baby in my jacket. This time it didn’t make as much of a fuss, so I took that as a sign from above that I was doing the right thing. I hurried back to the car.
“Nolan,” my mother chided as she worked to reorganize her purse. “Was that really necessary?”
I kept the bundled-up raccoon on my lap and got my seatbelt buckled. “Sorry,” I murmured. “I couldn’t just leave it there.”
“Leave what there?” she asked. Her eyes bugged out when she saw the baby raccoon. “Nolan, get that filthy thing out of my car!”
I wasn’t someone who often went against my parents’ orders, even at the ripe old age of twenty-eight, but there wasn’t even an ounce of hesitation when I said, “No.”
I’d been forced to return to a living hell, but I’d be damned if I was going to consign the poor creature to a certain death. It was a small battle, but I was fighting a big-ass war and I needed this win. I’d save the little thing if it damn well killed me.
Okay, yeah, I was being overly dramatic, but I needed this.
“I want that thing out-”
“Is old Doc Cleary still in business?” I asked.
“What?”
“Doc Cleary,” I said. “The vet over on Mulberry Street. People used to always bring him baby birds and stuff, right?”
My mother looked at me like I’d grown a second head. “Yes,” she finally answered. “But he’s in Florida visiting his daughter this week.”
“Damn.”
“Nolan, language!”
I barely managed not to roll my eyes as I pulled up the browser on my phone.
“What are you doing? Mrs. Kellogg is going to charge-”
“For another hour. I know, Mom. I’ll pay for it, okay?”
“Don’t take that tone with me, young man,” she snapped. “People might talk to their mothers in Hollywood like that…”
I tuned out the rest of her words. It was scary how easily I was able to fall back into that particular habit.
It didn’t take long to find what I was looking for. It turned out there was a wildlife rescue center just outside town. I tried calling, but the call went to voicemail. The raccoon had gone really quiet on my lap, which had me worried, so I hung up the phone. I’d just have to risk that someone would be at the center, so I put the car in gear and got us back on the road.
My mother was still ranting at me, but it wasn’t until I pulled off the main road we were on that she finally fell silent. After a few beats, she picked up her knitting and I swore I heard her mutter something about Californians disrespecting their mothers under her breath.