that was its Name

Warm rays of sun dappled down between the leaves of the old maples, in the occasional puff of a breeze, and it pleased her. She had never thought of herself as the sharpest knife in the drawer, but she knew if one was moving slower and slower down the road, one sure as hell better learn to enjoy the ride.

She'd buried a husband and a son, so she treasured all the more a woman who'd once been her own little girl - the good wife and mom, who still found time to her daughter once in a while. Patsy had been coming to camp this lake since she was in diapers.

"Now I'm the one in diapers" Barbara thought to herself, coughing a laugh as she turned onto the path leading back their site. She heard the murmur of a little girl's voice and stopped instinctively. Hearing it again, she turned stepping slowly for the source.

A little girl in ribbon braids and dungarees was murmuring to the fawn while it looked up at her and down to the dripping spoon of milk. One tentative lick and then two. Birds twittered in the branches and Barbara lingered, leaning forward on her cane to watch as the trembling creature drank its fill and then slowly tip-toed away.

"You have a lovely little friend" she called out and the girl turned her head. Squinting into the shade, she replied "Hunters took its Mama, I think... seemed pretty hungry".

"Good for you!" Barbara replied with conviction and turned to leave, calling back "What do you call her?" With a hunching of shoulders and a sigh of weltschmerz, the girl called back "venison".