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“Want to check out the bison?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said with an enthusiastic nod as we moved back outside.
Raff was already standing at the fence holding sets of binoculars. “Cool shit,” he declared as Vienna took a set of binoculars and looked across the field.
I should have been looking too. Instead, I found myself watching Vienna for some reason I was choosing not to analyze.
We moved around for the better part of half an hour, checking out other areas, trying to get even better views.
It was on the way back to the car that Vienna let out a squealing noise that had every cell in my body tensing, terrified we’d screwed something up, that she was going to have a panic attack or refuse to get back in the car with us.
But then she was rushing forward toward an overflowing garbage can near the RV parking lot.
“It’s okay,” she cooed, making Raff and I share a look before following behind her. Until she threw up an arm, a silent demand to stay back.
“Oh, oh, it’s okay,” she whispered, dropping down to the ground, and practically crawling toward the trash can. “Psstpsstpsst,” she said, making me realize just a second before she gathered the ball of fur into her arms that she’d clearly found a kitten.
Except it wasn’t a kitten at all. It was a full-grown cat in a white and orange-brown fur pattern that I’d never seen before, with big blue-gray eyes.
“Looks like we got another road trip friend,” Raff said as Vienna petted the cat’s head as he just let himself be held, like he’d been waiting for her to come and save him. “We can’t make her leave it.”
“No,” I agreed. “But now we gotta find another town and find some supplies. Fuck, I hope it doesn’t have fleas,” I said as Vienna kept snuggling it.
“Someone left him,” Vienna said as I approached, gesturing toward the empty RV parking lot. “How can you leave your pet?” she asked.
“People suck,” I said, reaching toward the cat who stiffened until she cooed at it. “I just want to check him for fleas,” I said, shoving my fingers into its unusually thick coat, spreading it at the roots, and looking around random spots, its ears, under the tail. “He looks good. It’s a boy, by the way,” I told her.
“We can’t leave him,” Vienna said, looking up at me with these big, round, wounded eyes. I swear I’d have given her the fucking moon if she asked for it.
“No, we will take him with us,” I assured her, petting the cat’s head. He clearly just barely tolerated my touch, but he was happy to be in Vienna’s arms as I moved away. “We have to keep an eye out for a town, though. We need some sort of big box store, or pet store, even a feed store might have what we need for him.”
“Riff,” she called when I started to turn, ready to head back to the car.
“Yeah?” I asked, half turning back.
“Thank you,” she said, eyes all watery.
“You don’t have to thank me,” I told her.
We made our way back to the car where the cat happily accepted some water from a camping cup we found in the trunk then settled on Vienna’s lap while she read and absentmindedly petted him like he’d been doing it for his whole life, letting out long rumbles of purring and massaging her with his paws.
A few towns away, when we stopped for fuel, we found a feed store where we managed to get cat bowls, litter box, litter, food, toys, and even a leash and harness, so she didn’t lose him if we took him out of the car at rest stops.
Everything was going fine for the next two hours after that.
Until the weather started to take a turn.
The snow started out as lazy flakes. But as we kept driving into the storm, it quickly became a whiteout, and then a full-on blizzard that had us desperately trying to find a motel to hunker down into for the night before we found ourselves stranded on the side of the road.
“It’s pretty,” Vienna said, her voice soft, as we made our way through a small one-lane town, mind on the little motel at the far end.
“Let’s say a prayer there are openings,” Raff said, pulling his jacket on before climbing out of the warm car, making a gust of snow flutter inside before he slammed it.
“Do you think it’s going to be a lot of snow?” Vienna asked, her body doing a little shiver at the cold air Raff had let in.
“It’s looking like it might be. Wyoming in November is weird. You could get a dusting or feet, depending on the area.”
And it was cold as fuck, though I decided not to tell her that part, since she was already struggling with two sweaters and three blankets on and the heat on full tilt.
