Escape

Sherri-Belle surveyed her handywork. Reverend Cal was chained to the post by a collar and his hands tightly bound to the ring in the floor. His pants and underpants were down around his ankles and he was all ready to go to stud.

"You might want to start praying, Reverend, that Daddy comes to let you free before you miss too many meals. And also that he doesn't figure out what you been doing."

She opened up the shotgun and took out the firing pin, tossing it into the piss bucket. That would slow Daddy down if he came out too soon; you don't put a piss-wet firing pin into a gun if you want to do any shooting with it.

Finally she shifted the bar out of place and opened the side door of the barn.

When she glanced up at the house she saw Mama looking up from her vegetable garden.

Mama shouted, "Sherri-Belle what are you doing? Get your self back in that barn this instant!"

Sherri-Belle ran.

She crossed the field and jumped the fence into the pasture. It didn't seem to tire her none at all. Maybe there was something good about this being a dog thing after all. She'd been headed straight to where the flock and the other dogs were gathered, two Shetlands and three border collies, then realized that was none too bright. She turned off partway there and headed for the woods. The dogs knew not to go near the woods except to stop the sheep from wandering in and hurting themselves. As she reached the tree line she heard the distinctive cough and grumble of Daddy's range truck starting.

Sherri-Belle didn't wait; she plunged into the woods and ran willy-nilly through the brush. Once she'd left a trail the dogs would have trouble leading a human down, she slowed and looked for a path. The folks from the surrounding farms used these trails when they didn't have a car, so it was mostly the kids, but they went to lots of interesting places. She chose the one she wanted most.

She paused at the picnic shanty and pulled out some of the jerky mutton stored there. She hadn't really liked the stuff before, but to her dog taste buds it was absolutely delicious. Hunger taken care of, she took the most familiar of the branching paths.

About 20 yards from the swimming hole Sherri-Belle stopped. She could hear two people, Anna-Lee Hocker and Chester Groen from the sounds of them, doing something that involved a lot of grunting and gasping. The smell told her they were playing Adam and Eve go forth and multiply. She crept forward, unsure whether she was more interested in what they were doing or whether she could sneak away with Anna-Lee's clothes. It didn't matter either way.

"Chet? You hear something?"

"Only your moans, girl. You think an animal's watching? If so, maybe they can learn a thing or two."

"Chet! Unnh, no, I mean it! What if somebody found out our secret?"

Some secret, thought Sherri-Belle, everybody knowed that about mid-morning Anna-Lee and Chester would come out of the woods on conspicuously different paths. You didn't need no college-trained biologist to figure out what they was doing. Sherri-Belle decided it was in for a pint, in for a gallon.

"Ever body knows what your secret is, Anna-Lee. Just let Chet finish studding you and we can talk. I'll stay out of sight and keep quiet."

"I ain't gonna - oh! Ooh! Chet, what you doing?"

"Like Sherri-Belle said. Don't worry, she cain't see us."

"She can still - ohh - hear us!"

"Yeah, don't it just make you frisky?"

"No, it - it - no - ahh - ahh - I guess you're right Chet. Ahh! Harder! Ooh! Faster! Eeyah! Make me your Bathsheba!"

Sherri-Belle's sensitive ears could actually hear their bodies wrestling on the grass, and her nose picked up every nuanced bit of aroma. It was kind of like Reverend Cal, but no, this was more right. It was young and eager and only the slightest touch of fear. She closed up her mouth and started rubbing along with the sounds. The moan of her pleasure spasm was mostly, but not entirely, drowned out by Anna-Lee's.

"Sherri-Belle, was you just tickling your fancy? You come out here right now!"

"Sure'n I was, Anna-Lee, but you're one to talk. Now I'm gonna come out in a moment, but I gotta tell you two something first."

Chester asked, "What is it, Sherri-Belle?"

"You know that virus they was talking about on the radio? I got it."

Anna-Lee sounded scared. "Don't you make us sick!"

"I ain't gonna make you sick. Bob Dixon said it only transmitted from animals to humans, and the humans wasn't contagious."

She stepped out onto the verge of the pond where she could see Anna-Lee lying half-underneath Chester, both of them damp all round their nethers and naked as the day they was born.