“Keep that barrel pointed towards the ground!” Uncle D commanded. “And pick it up! I don’t want to be trekking out here all day just trying to get to the stand.”
I nodded my head, vigorously, not wanting to speak and spook any deer that might be hiding in the bushes. He’d warned me on the drive here that if I talked too much, he’d leave me in the middle of the woods, squawking my head off. I believed him.
My cousin, Jared, laughed heartily from a few steps behind me. “Dad, she’s already skittish as a squirrel! You keep on like this and she’s liable to shoot at anything.”
I would not! I silently defended myself. Ooo, sometimes, I just want smack that cousin of mine, he’s so cocky! Then again, he’s probably just trying to get his dad to go easy on me—I never know with Jared, just like I never know with Uncle D.
“Oh, hush!” Uncle D. chided, interrupting my thoughts. “And step quiet now! Do you want to scare all the bucks away from this place?”
We continued silently up the path until we reached the field where Uncle D. and Jared had set up some tree stands a couple of days ago. It was the same field where Grandpa had taught Uncle D. to hunt. I was so excited I nearly climbed up the wrong tree.
“Hold it there!” Uncle place a hand to prevent me from following Jared up the trunk. “We set up a stand just for you on the other side. See that little house there?”
I glanced at the green shed nailed to the side of an oak with a ladder leading up to the door. “Um, yeah.”
“Well, that’s just for you. It’s got a space heater and everything.” Uncle D. climbed up to take the perch next to his son, leaving me on the ground gazing up after him. “Don’t want a girl falling out of a tree on my watch.”
I was about to argue against the arrangement, then thought better of it. The situation was settled in Uncle’s D.’s mind. Reluctantly, I turned to take my position on the other side of the field.
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