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Her heart started pounding, even though she knew thattoaddid not necessarily mean western Blake toad. She and Tucker slowly headed toward him, watching their step, as Craig nearly broke into a run. “Easy!” she said to Craig, who ignored her. His pack boots thumped the ground until he came to a skidding halt beside Martin.
“You scared him off!” Martin said.
“No stripe!” Craig said. He cursed.
Wynona reached them. “Are you sure?” She scanned the ground. She couldn’t see anything.
Martin pointed into the darkness. “He went over there. I haven’t heard him move since. I think he’s still there.”
“Was there a stripe?” Wynona said.
“I don’t think so,” Martin said.
“Then why did you yell?” Craig said, his tone dripping with vitriol. “Who cares if you saw a toad?”
“I got excited! It was my first toad of the night!”
Tucker chuckled and wandered off into the darkness.
Wynona wasn’t willing to give up. She scooched down and crept toward the shadows where Martin had pointed. She held her breath, listening. She believed him that there hadn’t been a stripe, but she wanted to see it with her own eyes.
But it was no use. She couldn’t figure out where he had gone. She ran her hands through the leaves, hoping the rustling would startle him, but there was no movement and no sounds. She straightened and turned back toward the light to see Sundance sitting there staring at her with one foot raised. It was a little eerie. Was he pointing at her or the toad? She looked for Tucker, but didn’t see him. “Tucker?”
In the distance, “Yeah?”
“Does it mean something if your dog is pointing at me?”
“It probably means he thinks you’re a grouse.”
Really?
“Just kidding.” Tucker’s voice grew closer. “It probably means he has found an actual grouse.” Tucker came into the light and called his dog back.
“I wish we could teach him to point at toads.”
“We do this long enough, he might do it on his own.” He turned to the east. “See that?”
She turned too. “See what?”
“Twilight.”
She could not see twilight. It looked just as dark as it had ever looked.
“Is the western Blake toad crepuscular or nocturnal?” he asked.
She was certain that he knew the answer to this, but she couldn’t blame him for being hopeful. “The information we have suggests nocturnal, but hey, maybe they’ve evolved.”
“Maybe.”
She stepped closer to him and had the absurd thought of how much warmer it would be if she could back all the way into him and let him wrap his arms around her. The thought startled her so much that she stepped away. Where hadthatcome from? She had to get some sleep.
And so they stood ten feet apart with Sundance sitting between them. All three of them faced east and watched the promise of life-giving light filter through the trees.
