Page 21 of Hanging Horseshoes

“Somehow you make badassery seem like taking the kids to soccer practice. You know not all of us grew up in the wild, Donnie!” Hally retorts. Piper gasps loudly and glares at Halle.

“Take that back, witch!” Piper yells, placing her hands on her hips.

“Nope.” Halle pops the P, crossing her arms, and pointing her nose in the air.

“You promised you wouldn't call me that! Take. It. Back.”

“Am I missing something?” I whisper to Jade, who is standing beside me. She just rolls her eyes before leaning close and whispering.

“Did you ever see the cartoon' The Wild Thornberrys?”

When I shake my head, not mentioning we didn't own a TV or anything like that. She continues.

“Well, there was this cartoon we grew up watching. It was a family who traveled around the world in this sick ass RV. They were filmmakers and animal activists or something. Anyway, Piper grew up in the wild.”

“I did not grow up in the wild!” Pipe exclaims lousy. Sunny just raises a brow at her, “Ok mostly, I was mostly raised on the land… but that's not the wild.”

“Anyway, there was a character named Donnie, who was raised by apes or bears or something. Some real jungle book shit, or maybe that’s Piper.” Jade snickers.

“Don't start your shit too, Jade. I’ll kick all you bitches' asses.” Piper glares our way. Izzy is hiding her smile behind her hand, trying, but failing to hide her laughter.

“Anyway, Halle got drunk and ‘realization hit’ as Halle likes to put it, that Devin, Piper's dad, really wanted a little boy. One just like Donnie, but got Piper. So, Halle calls her Donnie anytime Piper tries to wrangler Halle in. It got to out of hand and the guys told them to settle their shit or they would keep us all apart.”

“Like that could ever happen,” Izzy growls. I stare in shock at Izzy’s anger. She’s the most kindhearted, easy-going, lovable one here. That must have been a doozy.

“They came to an agreement. Halle never uses the cursed name.” Jade finishes.

“And if she uses it?” I ask, looking at Piper when I hear a chuckle from her.

“If she uses it, I get to take one souvenir from Halle’s' murder wall.” Piper says smugly as Halle gasps.

“You bitch! I agreed to that after a few shots!” Halle screeches.

“Murder wall?” I ask, feeling more confused than when this conversation first started.

“That's a conversation for another time. Piper, we’ll talk about your prize after. Ladies, we need to get a move on so we can get to all the cages before it's too dark. We decided to all stay together. The last thing we want is someone getting lost and us having to call the guys to find us. Defeats the purpose. We all go as one. Piper is in charge. You have questions. You see her,” Piper rolls her eyes at Halles' dramatics, but we all can't help but chuckle at her serious face. “You all ready?” We all nod our heads.

“FREE THE ANIMALS!!!!” She battle cries and all as a group we whisper yell, “Shhh….”

****

Five traps down and three more to go.

“My feet are killing me.” Sunny says softly, and I smile weakly at her. I know how she feels. I’m dead on my feet, but there's only three more. I have to keep pushing.

“Do we need to turn back? It’s ok if we do. We’ve saved five raccoons and two possums already. We can count that as our win,” Piper says. The ladies all look at me and Sunny as we’ve been dragging the group. Heck, even Izzy, who is legally blind, is keeping up amazingly. I feel like a failure, but I shake my head and look at Sunny. She gets the same determined look in her eyes before nodding once at me.

“We only have three more to go. We can make it.” I say, lifting my chin in the air. Piper looks at us closely before nodding and walking further ahead.

“The next trap is right around that big tree.” She tells us and we continue on. As we approach, there's a small cry coming from the cage, well it's more like little whimpers. We all rush around and look in the cage, crying out when we see the smallest baby raccoon stuck between the bars.

“Oh no, what is it?” Izzy whispers, bending down and feeling around the cage.

“Careful Iz, it's a baby racoon, but he’s stuck between the cage bars. Don't get yourself bit,” Jade warns.

Izzy doesn't seem to care, though. I see the pain on her face as she feels around softly, trying to find the animal. She coo’s softly to it before she speaks.

“Horrible ugly cage. No one deserves to be locked in a cage, especially someone as young and sweet as you, huh? You should be out hunting for some good food. Getting big and strong. Not all caught up and in pain.” I can tell by her voice and her words; Izzy knows what it's like to be held against your will as well. She has been locked in a cage before, too.

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