“Aw. Cute,” I said.
“Thanks,” Seth responded.
I smiled at him. “I was talking to the rabbits.”
Rachel waved. “Hi, I’m Rachel.”
She didn’t know my name, I realized. “I’m Maddie.”
“And I’m Seth.”
I shook my head and Rachel laughed.
The smell of the pigpens was strong this morning, and I knew the pens needed a good hose down. I’d start there so we didn’t have to smell it all morning.
“You have your camera back. I take it you’re un-grounded,” I said to Seth as I walked past him toward the barn.
He held it up. “I got to choose between my camera and my phone.”
“And you chose your camera?”
He smiled big. “Of course. How else would I film my killer rabbit thriller?” He pointed to the rabbits that surrounded Rachel’s feet. “But don’t worry, I get my phone back at the end of the week for those people who need to be in constant contact with me.” He winked.
My cheeks went hot. “Oh, I wasn’t … I didn’t … That’s good.”
Rachel squealed and lifted one foot. “They’re tickling me. Hurry and get your shot before Carol comes to check on us.”
“Okay, look scared,” Seth said, pointing the camera at her again.
As I slid open the door to the barn, the smell of manure was even stronger. I coughed and covered my nose with the back of my hand, then hooked up the hose.
My plan had been to tell Seth about my lottery win. Outside of my immediate family, I’d decided to only tell my friends. And I considered Seth a friend. But I hadn’t counted on Rachel working with us this morning. The news would have to wait.
I worked for thirty minutes on the pens, spraying the dirt into the drains. Across the way, at the goats, Seth had a shovel and was working, too. Rachel was leaning up against the fence near him, a scraper and bucket in her hand. She said something that made him laugh, then flipped her bucket over and stood on top, her arms moving in big gestures. I hadn’t realized how animated Rachel was before. She was similar to Seth in that way. I wondered if that’s why they got along well.
Seth noticed me watching and I quickly looked down.
“Maddie!” he called out.
I released the handle of the nozzle and the water stopped. “Yeah?”
“Rachel once found a rat in the goat enclosure. What’s the worst thing that you’ve found in the Farm?”
“In the Farm?”
“Or in the whole zoo for that matter. Let’s expand our criteria.”
“Umm … ” I couldn’t think of anything. “Animal poop?”
He laughed and Rachel jumped off her bucket.
I herded the pig behind one of the gates in his pen. He snorted at me as if he objected to this treatment. I knew he just really wanted to play in the water I was spraying. I opened the gate and he came charging into my side and straight into a puddle, using his nose to splash water in the air. I patted his head, then exited his cage, and walked back through the barn and to the outside with Seth and Rachel.
“Okay, my find beats both of yours,” Seth said as the three of us moved on to the duck enclosure. “One time I found dentures.”
“That’s really disgusting,” Rachel said.
“You’d think it would be, but the dirt and hay had dried them out so they seemed more like Halloween teeth.”
“How do you lose dentures?” I asked, grabbing a scrub brush and scraping at some algae on the side of the small duck pool. “I mean, once they fall out, don’t you search for them? I don’t think those things are cheap.”
“I’m guessing it was someone in a wheelchair, sleeping while her grandkids played,” Seth said. “They fell out without anyone noticing and then Grandma got wheeled away. When she woke up and noticed them gone, it was too late; there were too many places to search.”
“That sounds like your next film. The Case of the Missing Dentures.”
He laughed. “What are you trying to say? That’s not the first thing you thought of?”
“That’s the only story that makes sense now.”
“I agree,” Rachel said.
“Speaking of stories, thanks for my awesome birthday poem written on my window,” I said.
He put his hand on his chest. “You’re welcome, although maybe we shouldn’t insult actual poets by calling it a poem.”
“Okay, how about note?”
“Note is better.”
“How did your Lord of the Rings marathon with your brother go?” I asked.
“It was great. I can’t decide if that’s because it was the first, and only, time my mom has let me watch television in a week, or if I really do think those movies are the best things ever created.”
“Probably the first.”
“I love those movies,” Rachel said. “You should’ve invited me to your marathon.”
“You’re right. I should’ve made a party out of it. But I’m grounded.”
Rachel was using the tool in her hand to scrape a piece of chewed-up gum off the railing while Seth shoveled white bird droppings into a bucket.
I looked at the algae-tinted brush I held. “Forget about the worst thing we’ve found at the zoo. That’s an easy topic. What is the best thing you’ve ever found in here?”
Rachel scrunched her lips in thought and Seth dumped another shovelful into the bucket.
“Five pennies,” Seth said.
“Five pennies? How is that good?” I asked.
“It was one right after the other and they were all head-side up.”
“Ah,” I said. “So five times the good luck?”
“Yep. It was my luckiest day ever.”
You should’ve played the lottery, I almost said. But I didn’t say anything, just concentrated on my task.
“Has anything good ever happened to either of you in here?” Seth asked. “I mean, not as good as my five pennies story, obviously, but a close second?”
“I get to see an anteater and her baby nearly every day,” I said. “Nothing tops that.”
“You like the anteater?” Rachel asked.
“She’s my favorite.”
“The anteater isn’t anyone’s favorite,” she said. “Have you seen the thing?”
“See,” Seth said. “Rachel agrees.”
I flicked my dirty brush at both of them. “Don’t try to change me.”
Seth laughed.
Rachel held up a scraper full of gum. “This is my top moment for sure.” She smiled at Seth and he smiled back with his Seth smile. The one he gave to everyone apparently.
I was glad that Rachel had worked with us today. It opened my eyes to a couple things—one, that I didn’t need to tell Seth about my lottery win. We weren’t as close as I thought we were. Two, I had let myself develop a small crush on Seth over the months. Thank goodness it was small because it was easily squashed. A crush was the last thing I needed right now, especially when it was obviously unreciprocated. I had enough craziness going on in my life right now, and I needed to focus back on school.
“And now on to my next favorite thing—cow duty,” I said, leaving the two of them behind in the duck enclosure.
“You all brought socks, right?” Blaire asked as she drove us to the bowling alley in her mom’s minivan. She hated squeezing into the backseat of our “tiny cars” (her words) so she often drove when we went out. And she kind of looked like a mom sitting there behind the wheel in her neat bun and collared shirt. “You don’t want to wear bowling shoes sock-less.”
“We all brought socks,” Elise said with a sigh she only used on her mother … and Blaire. “How many rounds of bowling are we going to play, anyway?” Elise blew a big bubble with her gum and it popped all over her face. She smiled big as she picked stray strands off her nose and mouth.
“As many as Maddie wants to,” Blaire said. “This is her new official birthday celebration, after all.”
“We will play until I get a strike!” I said, putting my fist in the air at my declaration.