The Hunt

            by Kate Donahue

 

The kids gathered around fighting over baskets and already scanning the nearby bushes for the colored, plastic eggs.

“On your mark, get set,” Tommy and Gillian rushed off before “go!”

“Hey that’s not fair,” Kerry started to complain, but the adults had retreated to their lawn chairs and beers and everyone else was already in the pear trees following bright pink and purple spots. He left the clarifications of rules for later and ran to join the others as the first call of success caught in their ears. Moxie had found the first egg; a yellow one sandwiched between two balls on the bocci court across the gravel road. The parents, whose attention had been momentarily held by the first find, quickly turned back to their own conversation under the big shady tree with the swing.

Gillian found the second behind the bench with white peeling paint at the end of the bocci court. Then Fern and Kerry spotted the same purple one at once and started arguing over whose it was while Tommy grabbed another purple one at the base of the tree by Fern’s left ankle. Samantha found one stuck in the wooden fence partially covered in vines  that separated the parents from the gravel road and Moxie found another in the fence. The six baskets began to fill with eggs as the landscape was emptied of them and the excitement and rush began to slow. Now they were looking instead of spotting and the group began to disperse as the search became more widespread. Samantha searched under the cars parked by the big tree and found one behind a tire and Tommy looked in the hammocks in front of the house and found none at all. Fern and Gillian looked in the bushes by the living room window and then crossed the open lawn to look in the bird bath without luck. Kerry was already giving up.

When the victory whoops had long since left the air they began to band together in small groups wandering further from the parents. Gillian, Tommy, and Fern—who was still mad at Kerry for taking that purple egg—broke off to explore the barn up the gravel road. They quickly got distracted by a beetle trying to get out of a puddle. Samantha and Kerry headed toward the fountain and the back patio then split up after a fight over one Samantha found by the guest house door . Moxie went upstairs to check the roof deck because she wasn’t sure if it counted as outside or not. They were all scattered across the property like Easter eggs themselves, but after a time the group reformed to compare their loot on the small lawn.

“Did you get them all?” Gillian’s mother asked as the last three returned from the barn, their footsteps crackling on the grey gravel road.

“How many did you get?” The question was passed around the group until Fern was found to have the most: six.

“That’s not fair, she shouldn’t be allowed to have so many.” Samantha lobbied for even distribution as the whole crowd began to crack open their plastic surprises.

“Four, Six, Eight, Ten…”

Jelly Beans, chocolate eggs, and plastics rings fell out into the baskets.

“…16, 18, 20…”

Fern and Tommy were trading. Her jelly beans for his panda bear stickers.

“…22, 24—hey Jane weren’t there 25 of these things?” Gillian’s mother asked.

“Yea, 25. They didn’t get ‘em all?”

Kerry looked up, suddenly alert.

Jane counted. 24.

“There should be one more somewhere around here.”

Kerry was off  past the bocci court before the others could figure out what was going on but soon returned to the group as they strolled through the rows of pear trees, hopping over fallen fruit.

“There’s probably one by the pond!”

“No, too far.”

“I’m checking by the guest house!”

“We already looked there!”

They were all going deeper into orchard, even climbing up in trees to find that what they thought was an egg was actually a pear.

“Lets not go this way we’re not gonna find anything this far out.” said Kerry. “Come on, lets go back.”

“Yea, they wouldn’t of hid it this far off.” Fern agreed but the group continued into the orchard. Kerry stopped walking. “Lets go back.” But finally he gave in and jogged to catch up.

It was after they crossed the grassy path that ran from the stable to the pond that Samantha spotted it.

“Skunk!”

They all ran, some hid behind trees and others hopped up into them peering down to see the black shape with the distinctive white stripe lying at the base of a crooked pear tree.

It was a skunk, but when it did not advance on any of them, or move at all, Moxie jumped from her tree and inched a bit closer. She was two trees away when Tommy threw a pear at it and she jumped back. The pear bounced to a stop by the skunks feared backside. Tommy threw another pear. Then they were all dropping from trees and all except Kerry inched forward to get a better look. The skunk had not moved.

Now they were less than four feet away. Gillian had found a stick and he was in the front of the group when he poked the skunk. It was a quick sharp jab and they all scattered again to the trees but were already coming back.

“It’s dead,” Samantha decided.

They moved in a clump closer, too close. Gillian poked it again and Tommy tried to take his stick. While they argued Moxie looked into the skunk’s face. It was definitely dead. Its mouth was parted slightly as if to taste the air it no longer breathed and its black eyes were wide and staring. Moxie quickly avoided their gaze.

“I wonder how it died,” Fern said.

Tommy had half of the now broken stick and poked the skunk’s stripe with satisfaction.

“Probably got hit by a falling pear,” he said, “right in the skull.”

Samantha looked up into the tree that must have let the pear fall and killed the skunk.

“Gets ya in just the right place and your dead,” Tommy continued, following Samantha’s gaze. They heard a pear fall in the distance and Kerry flinched.

“Maybe we should go back,” Kerry said taking a few steps away from the skunk and the shelter of the group. He looked around their faces nervously. Samantha was following him in agreement but they were quickly stopped by Gillian.

“No, let’s not.”

“Well then I’m going back anyway,” Kerry said.

“Me too,” Samantha said.

“You can’t, cause then they’ll wanna know where the last egg is,” Tommy took Gillian’s side.

“Well, we’ll just say you’re still looking for it,” Samantha reasoned.

“You won’t, you’ll tell.”

“I’m not a tattle tale!” shouted Kerry.

Tommy picked up a pear and threw it into the pear tree behind Kerry and Samantha. Three pears fell from the tree. “You are a tattle tale and you’re a chicken too.”

“Stop it Tommy,” Fern said.

“Fine, we’re staying,” Kerry said. Samantha followed him back into the group.

“Hey Gil, I dare you to touch it,” Tommy said.

“I will if you do.”

“You first.”

Gillian looked around into all of their faces before bending over and touching the skunk’s tail. He pulled away quickly then grinned at Tommy who imitated the motion.

“Ew, you just touched a dead thing,” said Samantha.

Tommy pushed his finger toward Samantha. “Watch out, I’ll brush death on you!” he shouted and she yelped away. Then everyone was running and Tommy and Gillian were chasing, each with their right pointer finger outstretched as if making an accusation.

The group finally reformed laughing and panting in front of the skunk.

“Hey, let’s flip it over.”

It was Fern’s idea and she and Tommy and Gillian pushed it over onto it’s back using pears. It had a white diamond on its chest which surprised them and they all gazed down upon its small body until Samantha broke the silence.

“Where’s Kerry?”

Five heads looked up simultaneously and carefully scanned the group. Those crouched over the skunk rose and let their eyes trace out a larger radius.

“I knew it. He went back to tattle just like I said,” Tommy concluded.

“Well, lets just go back and find him before he rats us out,” Samantha said.

The group began the trek back, empty-handed, but nobody was thinking about the last egg as they all took a last glance at the skunk. Kerry watched the five children disappear from the windows in the pear trees before jumping from his.

He was only three trees away but nobody had thought to look up. Kerry approached the skunk. Glancing down at it’s black and white fur moving in the slight breeze, he could almost imagine it breathing again. He looked all around him—even up in the trees—before bending down and gingerly picking up the skunk’s body. It was heavier than he expected and its weight made it seem more alive. The grassy path was only a few feet away and he took it with long, somber strides, in the direction of the pond. He tried not to look at the skunk while he walked, just feel its fur against his skin—soft but also wiry. The sun was now lower in the sky and the light flashed like a strobe light through the evenly spaced pear trees making him feel like he was moving in slow motion. He imagined that he had known the skunk well.

The grass had turned to dry dirt and the pear trees had fallen away leaving only blackberry bushes to border the path. Kerry knew he didn’t have much time. There was the wooden dock on the left, nestled in reeds. As he walked down the pirate ship’s plank, his footsteps echoed across the lake.  On the other bank he saw a heron bending its neck towards the water. The raft anchored in the middle of the pond swayed. Now he looked at the skunk again, thinking of a living, breathing skunk, and lowered it into the water. He watched its white stripe sink below the surface, into the murk where it would be safe.