28

DANNY,S PARENTS

When they reached Danny’s house, instead of dropping him at the curb as she always had before, Wendy went to the front door with him.

“Mom!” Danny called, “Wendy’s here to see you.”

Mrs. Ryan came to the door and invited Wendy inside. Butch, who was watching television, mumbled hello, but didn’t get up from the sofa. He continued to watch a stock car race on TV while Wendy explained about the release form.

“The training Danny will get at Red River Ranch should make it easier for him to get a job in another couple of years,” Wendy told Mrs. Ryan, although that wasn’t entirely true. It would make it easy for Danny to get volunteer work with animals, like what she herself did. But to get a paying job working with animals, a person usually needed a college degree in something like biology or veterinary medicine.

Mrs. Ryan stared suspiciously at the form, then looked across the room at her husband. “Butch?”

He shrugged. “Sure, why not? Boy don’t lift a finger around the house. Just messes with them cans he collects for recycling.”

Wendy didn’t say anything. She knew that from years of collecting and recycling aluminum cans that Danny had over $2000 in his savings account. But maybe they did not know that.

“Reckon he works some out at your place,” Butch commented. “Says he does, anyway.” He gave Wendy a sidelong look. “Where do you live exactly? South of town, I know. But where?”

Wendy felt it was reasonable for Danny’s parents to want to know where she lived. However, Danny had been coming out to her place for three years, and not once had his either of them bothered to find out where she lived or even ask for the phone number. It seemed odd that Butch was suddenly asking where exactly she lived. Something else made her suspicious, too. It was the worried way Mrs. Ryan looked at her husband then back at Wendy, almost as if she was hoping she wouldn’t answer.

Wendy mumbled, “Just, you know, a couple miles out past the interstate.”

Danny shot her a quick look, which Wendy understood. “Out past the interstate” wasn’t exactly an address, and the farm was more like ten miles out.

Just then there was a five-car pileup in the race Butch was watching on TV, and he didn’t seem to notice that Wendy hadn’t given him a clear answer. Mrs. Ryan scribbled her name on the release statement without bothering to read it, and handed it back to Wendy.

“Thanks, Mrs. Ryan,” Wendy said, and hurriedly left.

Danny followed her back to the car. Once there, she handed him the release form, which he tucked away safely in his jacket pocket.

“Thanks,” he said, and added happily, “I never had such a good birthday before.”

“It was fun,” Wendy agreed. “And you know there is some leftover birthday cake. You want me to save it for the llamas?”

Danny grinned. “Half of it,” he said. “The other half I’m going to take to the zebra at Red River Ranch.”

“Okay,” Wendy said. “But you be careful around those zebras. They’re bad about kicking.”

“Then maybe you better get a couple,” Danny grinned. “That way, if anybody comes out to Wildtrax to mess with you, the zebras can kick him while the llamas are spitting on him.”

“Danny, Danny!” Wendy shook her head, laughing. “You have some very twisted fantasies about animals!”