Chapter Text
“Jack, this isn’t fair!”
“I’m not here to be fair, Beth, this is a zoo, we can’t keep feral raccoons in here forever. They nearly shut us down.”
“But they,” Beth sniffled sadly. She hated crying in front of her boss. “They love each other.”
“I’m sorry,” Jack said, “I really am. But my hands are tied.”
Beth watched Adam that night. He was back up on his box, but he wasn’t looking at the stars anymore. He perched up on his hind legs, sniffing at the newly reinforced plexiglass of his window. She could see one large paw held behind it, and Adam’s smaller one pressed to the barrier between them. Then, slowly, the paw slipped away and Adam curled into a sad, tiny ball.
Nigel didn’t return the next night, or the one after. Adam began to worry a small bald patch of fur on his tummy, overgrooming himself from stress. He snapped at the keepers when they tried to feed him, and barely ate. She tried adding new toys, changing his diet, but nothing helped.
She was walking to her car after a long and especially exhausting day when she heard a noisy chittering sound. There, in the car park, was Nigel. He sat up on his hind legs, staring straight at her, and chirped again.
“Nigel?” she said in disbelief.
He held out one large paw. Clenched in it was a badly dented flower. She took it gingerly from him.
“Is this for Adam?”
Nigel twitched his nose once, eyes wide, and ran away.
Beth gave Adam the flower the next day. He sniffed and poked at it listlessly, then carried it back to his corner, curling back up into a knot. Beth sighed. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
That evening, Nigel met her at the gate with another flower. He was there again the next night. And the next. Every night, for weeks, and Beth gave Adam each one the next morning. She watched helplessly as Adam piled the flowers next to where he slept, staring at them with big sad eyes.
“He’s not happy here,” she told Jack.
“He’s never been happy,” Jack replied, then held up a palm in warning, “don’t bring Nigel back into this, Beth, I don’t need a lawsuit on my hands just because one raccoon is… sad.”
“I’m not asking you to bring him back,” Beth said quietly, “I’m asking you to let Adam go.”
Jack barked out a laugh. “What, just let him out into the wild? You saw what happened when they escaped, he won’t last a day.”
“I know that. But I have another idea.”
She slipped a brochure across the table toward him.
Graham Wildlife Rescue
Wolf Trap, Virginia
-x-
“We mostly specialize in wounded deer, feral dogs. I gotta be honest,” the owner said over the phone, “I don’t have a lot of experience taking care of raccoons.”
“They’ll take care of each other,” Beth told him, “I promise. Please,” she added softly, “Adam’s just so sad without him.”
The owner heaved a sympathetic sigh. “Bring ‘em in,” he replied. “I’ll see what I can do.”
It took three people to maneuver Adam into a carrier, his hackles raised and hissing. Once he was inside he began to throw himself against the walls of the cage, squealing noisily.
“Adam!” Beth cried. “Stop that!” She stopped to look at Adam through the slats. He was shivering, teeth bared. “We’re going to see Nigel.”
Adam cocked his head at that, his nose twitching. He stopped moving.
She had waited until sunset to make the move, and when she left the gates Nigel was perched up on his hind legs waiting for her as usual. When he saw the carrier she saw his little dark eyes light up. He jumped and began running in circles around it, yelping in glee. Adam chittered back, thumping at the sides of the cage so forcefully that Beth almost dropped him.
“Hold on guys,” she laughed, “let’s get in the car first.”
She secured Adam into the back seat, then held the door open. Nigel sat on the tarmac, sniffing curiously at the car’s interior.
“Well,” she asked brightly, “are you coming?”
Adam pushed one skinny paw through the slats of the carrier. Nigel jumped in.
They held hands the whole way there.
When they got to Graham Wildlife Rescue, she found the owner waiting, sitting on his porch next to a refined older gentleman in a bespoke three-piece suit. Not the kind of man she’d expected to see at an animal sanctuary in the middle of nowhere. A donor, perhaps.
The owner jogged to the car to help Beth out, laughing as Nigel hopped out of the backseat and waited patiently for them to unload Adam.
“He has good manners,” the suited gentleman noted.
Beth nodded in agreement. “And he’s the feral one.”
The two men shared a private smile between each other. “Sometimes that’s how it goes,” the owner said softly.
Beth was shown round to a large enclosure behind the house. They ushered Nigel in and then opened the door to Adam’s carrier. He raced out at an alarming speed and bowled Nigel over. They squeaked and chattered loudly, rolling in circles. Both men laughed at the sight.
“I don’t know how it works,” Beth marveled, “but they just love each other, see?”
The raccoons had ceased their gamboling, and Nigel was now sitting patiently as Adam groomed his whiskers. The owner took the suited man’s hand and twined their fingers.
“Yeah,” he said, “I see.”