Read Online Still Life with Elephant by Judy Reene Singer - Free Book Online Page B

grunt or call broke the silence. The only humans to be seen were a handful ofvolunteers, who were now busy cleaning out the barns or filling water tubs.
    Richie parked the truck in front of a large pen, and I followed him out of the cab, carefully trying to avoid the deep, slick mud. He threw several squares of hay over the fence, and a herd of imperious-looking camels walked over and began eating. We got back into the truck, and he drove up to a grassy enclosure where two old lions were batting a basketball back and forth. They were the happy recipients of the raw chicken legs. A grizzly bear sat contentedly in the middle of a pond next door and watched Richie fling two or three fish at him before he was motivated enough to wade over and check out his lunch. We drove on to still another fenced field, where we got out of the truck again so Richie could toss more hay over the fence.
    â€œI’ll call the girls,” he said, then whistled through his fingers. Two sorrel draft horses trotted up to us. They were carefully groomed, but their ribs and spines stood out in bas-relief, and their hip bones looked like coat hangers.
    â€œWow,” I said. “Thin.”
    â€œBelieve it or not, they’ve put on about two hundred pounds apiece,” Richie said. “You had to see them when they came in.”
    Richie watched them snuffle the cookies from my hand for a few minutes. I was just starting to relax about his request when he brightened. “Oh, hey,” he said, “did you bring the syringes?”
    â€œOh no!” I gasped, doing an Oscar-worthy performance of embarrassed incompetence. “I totally forgot!” But I felt very guilty about the infected lion.
    He nodded, not looking very surprised. “That’s okay. I’ll ask Jackie to stop by Matt’s office. I can boil the ones I have until she picks up new ones.”
    â€œI’m really sorry,” I said, relieved he was able to come up with a solution, but not able to look him in the eye. I fed a few more cookies to the horses, wondering how to bring up the subject of Matt’s traveling off to somewhere dangerous without sounding like I was prying. As Matt’s wife, I really shouldn’t have had to ask where he was going.
    Richie watched me quietly. The horses finished the box of cookies. I gave them a final pat.
    â€œSo what’s going on, Neelie?” Richie asked. “Matt looks like hell, and, frankly, so do you. He hasn’t said anything, but I can tell something’s very wrong.”
    â€œMaybe I need some time at a sanctuary,” I joked. “You got any room here?” The two horses were pushing each other out of the way to beg for more cookies.
    â€œYou didn’t come to feed the horses,” Richie said.
    I looked down at the mud oozing over my shoes. “No.”
    â€œSo—what’s the deal?”
    I stared out at the fields. Seven hundred and fifty acres of generosity Of kindness. They even had a hippo somewhere back there, and bison, and a big monkey house with an outdoor pen where rescued lab chimps lived in comfort.
    â€œCome on,” Richie said. “Spill.”
    â€œI’ll tell you a secret if you tell me a secret,” I finally said.
    â€œDeal,” said Richie.
    I took a deep breath. “Matt and I are divorcing.”
    â€œShit,” said Richie. “Jackie and I kind of suspected as much. But why? I thought you two guys really had a good thing.”
    â€œDr. Holly-Slutkins is having Matt’s baby.”
    His head snapped back with surprise. “Double shit!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t know that. ”
    â€œNot one of his proudest moments,” I said. “Now it’s your turn. Why does Matt need a passport?”
    Richie looked around quickly, as though the draft-horse girls were planning to spy on us. He didn’t answer for a moment, then he spoke, his voice both hushed and straining with excitement.