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Mimi just stared, too stunned to do more than gape at the scene taking place in front of her.
Zeke aimed a flashlight at the large metal box that housed the air-conditioning unit and on the two armadillos that were oblivious to anyone or anything except themselves (and what they were doing). They were joined together but every once in a while, the female would try to take off with the male still on top of her. She’d walk a few steps and…
Thump! Thump!
…bang into the side of the metal unit.
“Oh my God,” Mimi whispered.
Zeke shook his head. “Yeah. Your home invader is nothing more than a couple of amorous armadillos.”
“Are they…what the…is this normal?” she gasped.
“Who’s to say what’s normal? As long as they’re both over age and have given their consent.”
Mimi covered her face with her hands and began to laugh. Zeke joined her. Soon, the two of them were laughing so hard that Joanie Klingman, their next door neighbor stuck her head out her window. “Hey! Keep it down out there. Between you two laughing and those armadillos no one’s getting any sleep tonight!”
Mimi swiped a tear from her cheek. “Sorry, Joanie!” she called out. She turned to Zeke. “Oh…I just don’t think I’m ever going to stop laughing.”
“Me either,” he said, still smiling.
“It’s chilly. Let’s go laugh inside,” she said.
Zeke flashed his light on the armadillos one last time. “Get a room, you two.”
They walked back into the house and Mimi offered him some coffee.
“No thanks,” Zeke said, “It’s two in the morning. I’d like to get a few more hours of sleep if I can.”
“What happened here tonight? I mean, I called police headquarters and before I knew it, Ellie had practically initiated a state wide disaster code!”
“She’s been training for this all her life,” Zeke said good-naturedly. “No, really,” he said seeing the look on Mimi’s face. “For all she knew you were about to become the victim of a home invasion. She did the right thing.” He shrugged. “Besides, this will make a good story for years to come.”
“And…she called you?”
“Of course she called me.”
“Well, thanks. And please, thank everyone who came out here so quickly.”
“Will do.”
Thump! Thump!
Toby began barking again. Zeke walked over and affectionately scratched him behind the ears. “You did a good job tonight, Toby. You’re all right in my book.” Toby’s eyes got that glazed dog look in them. He stopped barking and did what Toby did best. A long stream of drool dripped its way onto Mimi’s clean kitchen floor.
Mimi sighed. “At least we know he can bark if he needs to.” Now that all the excitement had died down, the kitchen suddenly seemed deathly quiet.
“I guess I should get going,” Zeke said.
“Or…you could stay,” Mimi heard herself say. “It’s crazy late, and Rusty’s cousin’s cabin is like ten miles away, and I mean, this is your home.”
“How do you know how far Rusty’s cousin’s cabin is from here?”
The mood had now shifted from deathly quiet to deathly tense. Thick with something in the air that Mimi’s lungs couldn’t quite breathe in.
“I…looked it up on a Facebook map,” she admitted. He didn’t say anything, so she felt the need to clarify. “I guess…I just wanted to know where you were at night.”
He stared at her.
