I tap the brakes and just miss it.
The four-legged creature is in the middle of the road.
It’s covered in snow and it’s not moving.
“Shit, what is that?” Violet says.
“Somebody lose a camel?” I grunt huskily, cursing every interruption so far this evening.
“It’s so small, it has gotta be missing its mother,” Mary says. “What’s it doing in the middle of town? We have to help it.”
“I love you for wanting to help, but baby, we got a brand new infant in this truck. Animals wreak havoc. Germs and shit.”
Liz speaks up from the back seat. “You get that baby camel in this truck right now or I’m walking baby Mary-Violet the rest of the way to the hospital.”
My weather girl grips her heart. “You named her Mary-Violet?” Her voice is cracking. “That is so sweet!”
“I may be sweet, but listen, I was raised on a farm and I spent most of my childhood in a barn with baby goats. We are not scared of baby camel germs,” Liz says.
I look over at Mary. She’s pouting.
How can I say no to a brand new mother who’s just given birth, or to my weather girl?
“Guess you’re outnumbered,” Mary says with a shrug.
“Shit,” I mutter. “I was outnumbered the second I put you in my truck.”
She starts to pull on her coat. “It might get a little rough out there, so I’m gonna help you. Violet, you mind getting in the back so we can at least keep the camel away from the baby?”
Chapter 11
Mary
Almost as soon as we approach the trembling little camel calf, we notice she’s wearing a tiny bridle, and her reins are hanging loose.
The calf is frightened; too frightened to come with us on her own motivation. She’s lost and confused.
And then, out of the blinding snow, comes another figure. It looks like a man. Dressed in…a bathrobe?
The strange man approaches, and I have to yell to be heard over the noise of the pounding wind.
“My camel,” is all he says.
“Get in the truck!” Bear shouts over the din.
Moments later, the man in the robes is sitting next to me, with a baby camel on his lap.
Violet is in back, tucked in next to the baby and the family.
And where does that leave me?
Nowhere left to sit but on Bear’s lap.
Yep.
When we’re all settled in, into the weirdest assembly of passengers known to man on Christmas Eve night, I have to ask. I’m dying to know what’s going on here.
“So, spill it. What are you doing out here in a bathrobe with a baby camel?” I ask.