Snakes Among Sweet Flowers (6 page)

He’d done the one thing he’d always heard not to do. He had come to the grocery store while hungry, and he was struck in that moment with what a bad decision he’d made. His stomach growled loudly. Making a detour from the usual path shoppers were encouraged to take, he headed straight for the cereal aisle, never even slowing as he grabbed a box of Cap’n Crunch and kept walking. He was munching from the open box as he went back to the starting spot in the store, not sure he knew how to shop if he didn’t follow the right path.

Several employees frowned as they passed, seeing him also opening a pint of milk to wash down his cereal, and finally a young lady in the store’s uniform approached. Her name tag identified her as Gladys, a rather old-timey name for someone her age.

“Excuse me, sir. You’ll need to pay for those items.”

“Don’t I have to pay for all of it, Gladys?” Cam asked sarcastically, but Gladys didn’t seem to catch that.

“Well, yes, but….” Her words stumbled to a stop.

“Now that we have that settled, I need you to show me where I can get something cheap for a cat I know who has fleas or whatever bugs live on a cat.”

She seemed to struggle with the need to continue the prior conversation but finally nodded and led him off through the store to the aisle with all the pet supplies. She stopped about halfway down and searched through her options, then pulled a small box down with a picture of a cat on the front, wearing a white collar around its neck.

“A flea collar is what you want.” She pushed the box at Cam, who took it and considered.

“I don’t think he’d like this,” Cam said after a moment, shoving the box back into her hand.

“What? Lots of pets wear them. After a while, they forget they’re on.”

“But he’s not really a pet. See, he’s more just a friend and um….” Cam pulled at the collar of his T-shirt, just imagining wearing the thing. “H-he doesn’t like feeling fenced in, you know?”

Gladys narrowed her eyes, surely wondering if Cam was all there in the head. “Okay, well…. Your other options are more expensive. Like this one….” She pulled down a package with a small dropper bottle inside and showed Cam how to apply it and explained how often.

“That. He’ll like that better.” Cam glanced up and down the aisle for a moment, then back to Gladys. “And what kind of food would he like? I mean, if he comes to visit.”

“There’s wet food and dry food.” She walked farther down and pointed out the different brands, told him what she knew about them. “You know, if you found some stray, you need to get him wormed too, right?”

“Worms?” Cam exclaimed more loudly than he had intended.

“Yeah, you should take him to the vet.” She paused, then added, “Even if he’s just a friend, you know? He’ll appreciate it and they can give him a flea treatment there. Hog Mountain Animal Clinic is in the same parking lot as this store and Dr. Moore is good. He’s my dog’s vet.”

“How the hell am I gonna get him there? I’m pretty sure Tom isn’t going to be up for a car ride. We aren’t on those kinda terms yet.”

Gladys took back the flea treatment and pulled down a small animal carrier.

Cam shied away from it as if it were the plague. “Oh no, not using that thing.”

Now she looked at him as if he was completely crazy. “It’s just for the ride, and it’s to keep him safe. I always give my dog treats for having to go in the carrier.” She pulled down a few bags of cat treats and handed those to Cam too.

By the time Cam was done shopping, his cart was overflowing, both with food for himself and purchases for his non-pet. He stood in line, still munching from his box of cereal, behind an older couple with their own full cart.

After a moment or two of waiting, the woman patted her husband on the arm and pointed toward a bench at the front of the store. He hobbled over and slumped down, looking worn-out from the shopping trip.

Once she made sure he was safely seated, the woman turned to Cam with a smile. “He has COPD,” she confided, as if Cam had wanted to know.

He nodded and pushed another handful of cereal in his mouth. He didn’t feel like getting into a conversation with the woman, but she didn’t seem to care one way or the other.

“He worked hard all his life,” she continued as she unloaded her buggy onto the conveyor belt, “and now that he’s retired, he’s just too sick to do all the things we dreamed of doing. Even the little things like shopping for groceries.”

Cam nodded absently and chewed. He hoped the woman got the message that he wasn’t in the mood to chat, but she still seemed oblivious.

“Are you new in town? I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Ida Evans, and that is Charles. We’ve lived here all our lives.”

He considered not answering, but then a miraculous thing happened. Mrs. Ida Evans became the most interesting person in the world when she pulled her wallet from her purse and opened it wide, displaying an impressive stack of cash as she counted out the amount owed to the cashier.

Cam spoke up after quickly swallowing his mouthful of Cap’n Crunch. “Camden Sanders, and I’m new to town, ma’am. Bought the garage and fillin’ station over on Sullivan a few weeks back. Started working on cars, living in the old house out behind it.” He wiped his hand on his pant leg, then offered it to her. “Do you need help out to the car? I hate to see you and Mr. Evans having to do all that by yourself.”

She reached back, shook his hand, and then patted Cam’s arm. “You are a sweet boy. That would be right nice of you.”

Cam smiled and turned to the clerk. “Can you ring these things up while I take their bags out?”

The clerk nodded, but Cam’s attention was on Mrs. Evans as she haphazardly placed her wallet in her purse, where it wobbled as if it would fall out at any moment. Cam helped Mr. Evans off the bench and together they walked out to a big boat of a car parked in the handicapped space in front of the store. He had to wonder how either of the old couple could see over the steering wheel, but at least they lived in a small town where everyone knew to get out of their way.

After Cam planted Mr. Evans in the passenger seat and popped the trunk, he loaded the groceries as Mrs. Evans watched with a smile. When he was done, she shook his hand and tucked a dollar bill into his fist. “Bless you for helping.”

Cam’s return smile was syrupy sweet, and he took her arm, leading her around to the driver’s side door. As she leaned to get in the huge land yacht, her wallet finally made the plunge from her purse and Cam placed his size-ten foot over it as he closed the door and watched her drive away, waving to the pair and chuckling to himself at the dollar in his hand.

Obviously, from the wads of cash in the woman’s wallet, the pair was loaded. She probably wouldn’t miss it at all, Cam told himself as he scooped up the wallet and shoved it into the back of his pants before strolling back into the store.

WHEN CAM
pulled up in front of the old farmhouse, he caught sight of Tom lazing in the shade of the porch. He immediately felt guilty about the pet carrier in the back of the truck and decided to leave it for last when unloading.

He piled his arms full of grocery bags before heading up the stairs to the front door, then curled around his load to keep it steady as he fought with the key and lock. Tom’s gaze followed him each time he made a trip out to the truck and back into the house, but the big orange cat never moved from his spot, even when Cam paused to grab his empty water bowl, then brought it back filled on the next trip.

Cam unloaded the groceries once he had them all in the kitchen, tripping over the plastic bags as he tried to find places for all of it. It wasn’t that the cabinets were full but more that he just wasn’t sure what was a reasonable spot for any of it to go. He’d bought a tiny frying pan he’d seen in one of the aisles, and decided to hang it on a nail that was already sticking out above the stove.

Mostly he’d bought sandwich fixings and ready-made items, but he could make a mean grilled cheese or fried egg sandwich. Maybe someday he could expand his culinary repertoire.

He dug into the last bag and came up with the prized possession he’d gained from this trip. A supersized bottle of Hershey’s chocolate syrup. Cam’s mouth watered just looking at it. He turned to the counter and pulled down a glass from the cabinet, then the milk from the fridge.

Oh yeah! That’s the stuff!
he thought as he stirred the mixture, then licked the spoon.

He washed out the glass once he’d downed the entire thing, then pulled the wallet from out of the back of his pants and flipped open the snap. He counted the wad of cash with the deftness of a bank teller, fifteen hundred dollars. Why would anyone carry that much cash around with them? Old and nutty, he guessed.

He flipped through the various pockets in the wallet and found nothing else he wanted, but as he went to toss it on the counter, he noticed the fabric covering was a pattern of blue flowers, roses.
Shit.

He jerked open the back door and threw the wallet as far as he could, as if it were covered in some plague germs or something, then took the cash to the back bedroom to stash away.

When that was taken care of, he took a deep breath, readying himself for the task of loading up Tom for a trip to the vet’s office. Cam scooped up a package of treats and headed out the door, locking it behind him.

“Listen,” he said to the cat. “I gotta do this and you aren’t going to like it.” He jumped down the stairs and grabbed the carrier, turning with it in his hand. Tom still watched him with no overt concern. “But nobody wants worms, right?”

Cam sat the carrier down a few feet from Tom, then ripped open the package of snacks and tossed a few inside. The cat seemed more interested and sniffed the air before climbing to his feet and wandering toward the open cage door. Even after Cam had closed the door behind him, Tom simply lay down and ate the snacks scattered around him.

“Huh. I really saw this going much differently,” Cam confided. “Okay, let’s go.”

BACK IN
the same parking lot as Gordon’s Market, Cam pulled up in front of Hog Mountain Animal Clinic at the other end of the strip mall. On the glass door, written in white letters under the stylized name of the business, was
Dr. Grant Moore DVM
.

Camden shut down the engine but made no move to exit the truck. He glanced over at Tom, who was watching him from his spot on the other side of the barred door of the carrier. “You ready for this? I’m not sure what they do for worms, but I’m pretty sure I never want anyone to do it to me.” He paused and considered. “I mean, I guess I would if I had worms, but… yeah. Just rather not, you know?”

Tom didn’t answer so Cam stuck a finger through the bars to scratch Tom’s head, and after a few more minutes of sitting in a quickly warming truck cab, he opened the door and decided to go inside.

The bell jingled as he opened the door, and the receptionist looked up from her spot behind a high counter. “Hi. Can I help you?”

“Yeah. Well, not me. I mean….” Cam placed the carrier on the counter. “This is Tom and he has bugs and maybe some worms. You know what to do for that?”

She peeked into the carrier and smiled. “Hi, Tom. I’m Regina, and we’ll get you all fixed up.” She handed some forms to Cam along with a pen and a clipboard, then directed him to the waiting-room chairs while she popped into the back, he assumed to tell the doctor they had a patient.

While filling out the form, he could hear whispering coming from the back, and once or twice when he looked up, Regina was peeking around the doorframe but pulled back as soon as she saw him looking. Cam frowned and wondered if he’d done something wrong and they had called for the vet police to come get him. Maybe he would be charged for illegal capture of an endangered local species or something.

About the time he finished filling in all the information they needed on the form, Regina came back and called out, “Tom?”

Cam glanced over at the cat in the cage, then to Regina in confusion. “Want me to come back with him?”

“Of course,” she said on a laugh.

“Good, ’cause I’m not sure how he’d do on his own.” Cam followed as she waved him down a hall and into a small exam room, where she closed the door and left them alone again. Cam sat in the chair beside a table, on which he’d set the carrier, and tapped his fingers on his thighs as he waited, finally standing and pacing back and forth in the almost claustrophobically small space.

After a few minutes, an extremely attractive man in a white coat entered the room with Regina following behind. Cam knew immediately that Dr. Moore was gay. There was no doubt in his mind. It wasn’t that the man was obvious in his mannerisms, but the tell came from the way the doctor’s gaze swept over Cam from head to toe, pausing dramatically at the crotch.

“Camden Sanders?” the doctor asked, then turned to the carrier on the table. “And this must be Mister Tom.”

When Dr. Moore met his eyes, Cam lifted a brow to let the doctor know he was reading him loud and clear. “You can call me Cam and him Tom.”

“Regina, I think we’ve got it in here. You can man the front desk for me.” Dr. Moore never glanced away from Cam as he spoke.

Once Regina had left the room and closed the door, Dr. Moore busied himself getting Tom out of the cage and placing him on the table. “I’m Grant,” he introduced, “and what is going on with Tom here?”

Cam stepped up next to the doctor and looked down at Tom where Grant held him down. “I think he has fleas and maybe worms.” Cam noticed what looked like a wedding ring on the doctor’s finger and wondered if the little town of Hog Mountain was up to handling a gay married couple in their midst.

Grant nodded and began searching through the cat’s fur, looking in his mouth, and generally feeling him up. “How long have you had Tom as a pet?”

“Well, he ain’t my pet. He umm… hangs around and toms it up out behind my place. I leave water out for him and sometimes food.”

“If you feed him, he’s yours,” Grant said with a chuckle, then stopped short, froze, and cut his gaze over to Cam.