Deaths of Jocasta by J. M. Redmann

but not knowing how to both have her and not take advantage of a warm spring night and good champagne.
    “Don’t worry,” she continued. “I’ve done this before. Don’t take me seriously. I said I was going to get drunk tonight and I’ve succeeded.” This time she did physically pull away.
    “I do…” I began, but was interrupted. Rudely.
    A cry for help somewhere across the lawn. A guest has seen a garter snake, I thought disgustedly.
    “Shit,” I cursed.
    The cry for help was repeated. I toyed with leaving it to Rosie, then remembered that she might be even more entangled than I was. At least I still had my clothes on.
    “Duty calls, I gather,” Cordelia said.
    “Duty annoys,” I replied, incensed at duty’s timing. But Emma wouldn’t appreciate it if someone were really in trouble and I didn’t bother to check it out. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ll find you later,” I called as I ran down the gazebo steps. “Sorry,” I repeated. I was sorry. We had almost…I didn’t even know.
    “It’s okay,” her voice drifted after me. “Some people are born to be wild, some are born to run, and some of us are born to be discreet.”
    I started running across the lawn, thinking more about what was behind me than what was in front.

Chapter 5

    The cries were coming from somewhere around the main cluster of cottages. Probably just a damn garter snake or a toad on someone’s pillow, I snorted. I couldn’t imagine anything seriously wrong out here.
    I trotted over to the group of people clumped outside the yellow cottage. “What’s going on here?” I asked, acting calm and official. After all, I was the only person who knew I was wet between the legs.
    “Some animal’s in there,” the upset woman exclaimed.
    “It looked like a porcupine,” someone else said. “I got a glimpse of it.”
    Everyone looked at me, then at the door behind which this vicious creature lurked. How had I gotten into this, I wondered, not particularly wishing to entangle myself with an enraged pin cushion.
    With extreme bravery, I marched up to the door. That’s as far as bravery got me. I cautiously opened it and poked my head in. Nothing in the living room that I could see. I entered, watching intently for any quivering quills. No movement, nothing. I looked in the kitchenette. Nothing pounced from the cupboards. Taking a broom with me, I started for the bedrooms. At least this cabin only had two.
    The first one was animal-less. I even poked the broom handle under the bed to make sure.
    “You need help?” Joanne called, entering the cabin.
    “You look dressed for a porcupine hunt,” I responded.
    “Is that what this is?”
    “Maybe. Maybe someone’s imagination.”
    I went into the second bedroom. I didn’t want Joanne to see a big butch like me hesitating in the doorway, scared of a little porcupine. I couldn’t see anything. With the disgusted feeling that I was definitely on a wild porcupine hunt, I knelt down and took a quick look under the bed.
    Two animal eyes stared out at me, then winked out. I heard the soft skitter of clawed feet across the wooden floor heading for…
    I jumped back, of course, crashing into Joanne’s legs. Some big butch.
    “In a hurry?” she asked, looking down at me.
    “There’s a porcupine coming after us,” I rationalized.
    “That’s not a porcupine, that’s a possum,” she said, looking at the creature that had fled out from the opposite side of the bed. “I don’t know who’s more scared, it or you.”
    “Easy for you to say,” I answered, getting up. “I was between you and whatever it is.”
    “Right.”
    “Stay there, in the door,” I replied, regaining my composure. “I’ll open the window and chase Ms. Opossum through it.”
    “What an ingenious plan.”
    I ignored her and shoved the window open. Then, with my trusty broom at my side, I went on an opossum roundup. Ms. Opossum, evidently unaware of how close at hand freedom was, went back under the