Marlee

Marlee stopped on the sidewalk at the bottom of the porch steps. Her head was lowered, though not bowed. Her jaw was set in an unfamiliar manner. She was not sliding her lips like she normally did when perplexed or pensive. She blinked away tears and sniffed snot to clear her sinuses. Without looking up, she climbed the steps onto the porch. She did not reach out to brace herself with the porch post like she usually did, like most people did; she just walked straight up the steps. Without pausing at the top, Marlee walked to a rocker on the opposite end of the porch and plopped down in it. She immediately leaned back to start the chair’s rocking motion. She rocked steadily without comment. Chester nodded and smiled at Staci who hesitantly approached the porch. Chester was afraid to recognize the teenager verbally. He did not want to disrupt Marlee’s thoughts or her mission. Staci realized his intent and returned his smile. She ascended the steps, paused to consider which chair to use. Finally, she walked across the porch and sat in a rocker on the other side of Marlee. Chester considered that to be the right choice; she did not put herself between Marlee and him. The three rocked for several minutes without sound, other than the rhythmic creaking of the chairs. A bluebird male was chasing insects through the air, occasionally taking one all the way to the ground before subduing it. The wrens kept up a steady series of flits and flights around the yard in and out of the mock orange and the forsythia bushes. Cardinal males challenged one another and flew to various tree limbs to shout their displeasure or whistle a call of courtship to nearby females. Insects were being consumed at a rapid rate. The birds were undisturbed by the silent humans on the porch. Squirrels bounced and scratched near the base of trees in Chester’s yard. The cats were nowhere in sight for the moment. Marlee sniffed again. Chester checked her with his peripheral vision and waited. Marlee’s rocker stopped its steady sway. Chester did not change his rocker’s pace. He waited for her first words. She did not speak right away. Instead, she pushed herself from the rocker and stood in front of it. Marlee stood in that spot for what seemed like a long time, though it was less than two minutes. All the while, she stared across the street toward her house. Finally, Marlee turned and slowly walked to the rocker beside Chester’s. She sat in the chair but did not start rocking it. Chester waited quietly. The silence was killing him but he knew it had to be. A rustle in the wooded lot next to his caused Chester to break concentration on Marlee. A doe limped from the brushy cover. The animal appeared barely able to move. It made a short bleat and limped a few more steps. Startlingly, unexpectedly, a coyote came out of the brush, crouched low and intently focused on the crippled doe. The predator, normally satisfied to feast on carrion, was an adept killer when the target was practical. The canine stopped and watched the doe. It remained motionless while the doe struggled to remain on her feet. Chester’s eyes danced back and forth between the coyote and the doe. He looked for signs of injury on the doe - fresh blood, ripped hide - but he saw nothing to indicate the cause of her predicament. He watched in awe at the stealth of the coyote. The doe wobbled weakly, precariously balanced on legs that seemed barely able to hold her upright. She dragged her left rear leg as she tried to move toward the street. Neither the doe nor the coyote seemed to be aware of the six spellbound human eyes that watched breathlessly. Chester felt his heart pounding in his chest. He assumed the two girls were experiencing the same thing. They were witnessing something normally only seen in the wild. His initial thought was to leap from his chair and chase the predator away from the doe, but he considered the facts of life. If the doe was crippled as badly as she appeared to be, she was doomed and suffering severe pain. The lack of visible external injuries caused him to theorize that she had been struck by an automobile. He gulped against the dryness in his throat and watched, awestruck like the two girls sitting with him. The coyote slinked closer to the doe. The doe seemed to barely notice the stalker’s approaching presence. Her head drooped and she continued to stagger. The coyote was in a position to strike. The predator’s legs were poised to propel its body forward at lightning speed. It instinctively knew where to grab the deer to inflict the most damage and to avoid the razor sharp hooves that could easily turn the tables on the hunter. With an abrupt burst of speed, the coyote sprang from its pose and launched itself toward the crippled doe. It knew that it was about to feast. It had not thought about the fact that its prey would be slain in the midst of human activity, at the edge of a street. It had not considered that those humans would probably chase it away from its kill before it could eat its fill. Chester and the two girls jerked back in surprise when the coyote exploded into action. Just as explosively, the doe planted both of her hind legs firmly on the ground and leapt into the air to avoid the coyote’s charge. When she hit the ground, she kicked grass and dirt behind her as she catapulted herself into the middle of the street. The doe bounced twice more before she stopped near a bush in the Sanger’s yard and drooped again.