Page 22 of Half Blind

“No, her actual name is Mae Lun, and she’s a nail tech who works at a salon over on Muldoon down by the campus,” she said. “Officer Nasty went for the low hanging fruit, and all of those baby Mamas came over, ready to welcome me into the fold of his sister wives hive. It was like I was at the epicenter of Old McDonald's Breeding Farm, here a bitch, there a bitch, everywhere a bitch, bitch.”

Jared tried not to laugh. “He actually asked you to be a part of his growing family?”

“Yes. He intentionally brought me to the park to meet his hoard,” she said. “The joker actually had the audacity to say to me, you andme'llmake pretty babies. They'd be smart too, and we can raise all of the kids in our big family on your farm.”

It made Jared laugh. “He had a set on him.”

“A set I nearly broke. I called me an Uber and went home, leaving him and the Shady Bunch at the jungle gym,” she told “I blocked him from calling me, but he would put on his uniform and show up at my job. I had to call the Sheriff on that fool to stop his stalking.”

“So, he stopped?”

“He's an asshole with a badge, so no he didn't,” she said, “I stopped him.”

“Should I ask?”

“A bit of Larry's spit in his coffee slowed him down,” Lemon added. “Ingesting venom is not deadly, but in the right amount, it can make the person seem intoxicated. He ran off the road, hit another car, and totaled the squad car. The Sheriff transferred him to Cleveland.”

“And now the Sheriff is enamored of you,” he stated.

“No. What they see is an independent bird flying free with property and a job title,” she told him. “The temptation is to capture the bird, cage it, and make it behave. Next, they will take over all the bird’s possessions, say it's theirs, and clip the wings. Once the bird can no longer fly and sits in the cage molting, they find another bird and tell it lies about love, all the while creating a second prison for the other bird.”

“Harsh.”

“Truth.”

“And you? Are you the bird hunter or the collector of pretty things?”

“I am the cage,” Jared said, watching her face.

“Oh, you're the prison guard for the bird?”

“No ma’am. I am the protective housing,” he said. “A cage can be considered a prison, or it can be protection from prey. True, you can't get out immediately, but nothing big can ease in to get you. It wouldn't take much effort for the pretty bird to use its beak to flip the latch or even a talon to raise the hasp. Depends on how you look at a situation.”

“Hmmph,” Lemon replied.

“Doc Myrtle, was there some reason you came to the barn to see me?” He asked, looking over her shoulder as the Sheriff's car circled back once more. It made him uncomfortable, the constant surveillance, as well as her failure to react to the hunter stalking the bird.

“Yes; a cold snap is coming through tonight, and the temp will drop to a negative. Grab your things and shower inside,” Lemon said. “Tonight, you're on the couch.”

Jared arched an eyebrow. “So, the mutt gets to come inside and warm himself by the fire?”

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