‘Shit!’ She panicked and ended the call.
*
The weather had taken an unfortunate turn from the wall-to-wall sunshine Dixie had been enjoying and was tipping it down with rain and blowing a gale when she returned to Elsie. She’d been back a few hours before she had realized the note she’d left had gone from the windscreen. What she didn’t know was whether it had blown away or someone had removed it. She’d dashed out of the van to check if it was on the ground nearby and was quickly soaked to the skin. But the note was nowhere to be found.
Dixie spent another lonely evening in the van. Her damp clothes hung over the front seats, making thewindows steam up. She’d made herself a sandwich, which was now her main food source, and tucked herself up in bed, trying hard not to feel sorry for herself. The sound of the almost tropical rainstorm outside was a bit creepy but she had no choice other than to stick it out.
She thought of Nora. Nora hated storms. That was all the motivation she needed to ring her.
‘Hiya, Dixie,’ said Nora. ‘Is everything OK?’
Dixie was so happy to hear her friend’s voice. ‘Sorry it’s late but I know you hate storms so I thought I’d give you a call and check you’re OK.’
‘Is it raining much where you are?’ asked Nora.
‘Yeah, it’s torrential,’ said Dixie, although that was a bit of an exaggeration because now she was peering behind the threadbare curtains it didn’t actually seem that bad. Perhaps the sound was magnified by the van.
‘It’s raining a little but it’s still pretty warm here,’ said Nora. ‘Are you OK?’
‘I might be a tiny bit homesick but I’ll be fine.’ Dixie swallowed hard to stop getting overemotional.
‘I’ll cheer you up,’ said Nora. ‘You’ll never guess what I’ve just done to Liam.’
The next morning Dixie was woken by birdsong. Outside the window the sun was shining and the sky a flawless blue. It was as if the storm had never happened. Chatting to Nora had cheered her up. She’d made Dixie laugh about accidentally flashing one of her exes, which made Dixie feel better about things. Frequently she feltshe was the silly one in any given group of people. The person most likely to say or do the wrong thing. It was always reassuring when someone considered to be the sensible one messed up. Dixie was still smiling to herself as she checked her Instagram. Her followers had been increasing steadily. They definitely seemed to be liking the nature posts, but for some reason the post of the angry note had got some serious engagement, and she had to blink hard to take in how many followers she now had. A lump formed in her throat. Almost five thousand people were now following her Instagram account and countless more had liked the post, with many commenting with support and solidarity and quite a lot of swearing too, which she thought Renee would approve of.
Outside the window something moved quickly and it caught Dixie’s attention. She pulled back the curtain to have a closer look. It was a squirrel. She had no idea if it was the same one from the other day. They all looked the same to her, although now she watched it happily bounding about and scratching at the ground, she noticed that its head was more of a reddish colour than its grey body and the end of its tail was blunt. She pulled out her phone and started filming. This was the sort of content her followers loved. And now she had so many, there was pressure to keep them entertained.
The squirrel obliged and hopped gymnastically about before digging something up and eating it. Its front paws were like little hands– it was adorably cute. Dixiedecided that she would take something out for the squirrel to eat. She checked her food supplies. It was unlikely that squirrels ate sourdough crackers or tapenade so she settled on a couple of grapes.
Dixie opened the sliding door slowly in an attempt to keep the noise to a minimum. Previously she’d not really paid too much attention to the sound the door made but now that she wanted it to be quiet it sounded like a small train trundling along a track. Opening it just enough to squeeze herself through the gap, she crept around the side of the van but the squirrel was nowhere to be seen. She locked up and decided to see if she could track down the squirrel and give it the grapes. Perhaps she could even tame it. That would look great on social media and was the sort of thing that regularly went viral.
As she tiptoed through the wood she saw plenty of birds but no sign of the squirrel. She stopped skulking about and strolled on, keeping an eye out for any cute woodland creatures she could befriend. She’d not gone far when she felt the plop of raindrops on her skin. Not a drizzle, it was proper big sploshes and she knew she needed to head for cover. It was time to turn around and leg it back towards Elsie. She could see the van and was almost at the stump when the squirrel appeared. Even though it wasn’t great timing Dixie wasn’t going to miss a chance to get good quality footage. She pulled out her phone as the rain got heavier. The squirrel scampered across a large tree trunk then sat on the stump to study Dixie. Dixie zoomed in and it looked great. Maybe shecould get closer. She crept towards it and the squirrel’s tail twitched. Then it started making a horrid screeching noise in ear-splitting bursts. This wasn’t the cosy content she was after.
Perhaps if she tried to coax it she might be able to give it a grape. ‘Psst, psst, psst,’ said Dixie, trying to sound friendly. The squirrel seemed startled and leapt towards her. ‘Argh!’ screamed Dixie and she backed away and stopped filming. She daren’t turn and run in case it attacked her from behind. She reversed away until she backed herself up against a tree. The squirrel hopped a little closer and screeched at her in between wagging its tail. It was not the cuddly encounter she’d been hoping for and now she was feeling trapped.
‘Hey!’ shouted someone, making Dixie look up. It was like a scene from a film as a gorgeous man strode through the woodland, pushing branches out of his way and stepping over fallen logs. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked, when he was still a few feet away. ‘Was it you I heard screaming?’
‘It was just the one scream,’ said Dixie. ‘But yes. I was being attacked.’
Her rescuer looked concerned so she hastily clarified.
‘Notattackedexactly. But this squirrel is rather tetchy.’ She pointed to where the squirrel was staring her down. Its tail still twitching violently.
The man started to laugh. ‘Oh, right. Don’t worry, squirrels are harmless.’ He clapped his hands as he approached.
The squirrel jumped but instead of running off it turned to glare at the intruder. Perhaps it felt threatened between the two humans, Dixie didn’t know, but even though it was only small, the squirrel wasn’t going to be intimidated. It charged at the new person and ran up his trousers like they were a tree.
‘Argh!’ shouted the man. Dixie saw her chance and fled towards the van without looking back.
Fumbling with the key but eventually unlocking it she whipped the door open and dived inside. She was about to shut it behind her when the man dashed in after her and shut it for her.
‘Hey!’ she said. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
He held up his palms. ‘Sorry!’ he said. ‘But that thing is aggressive.’
The van seemed to halve in size with him in it. What had once seemed like a homely space was now cramped and a little claustrophobic. They both peered out of the window but there was no sign of the squirrel. ‘Do you think it’s got some mental disorder, or rabies perhaps?’ asked Dixie.
‘Not rabies but it’s certainly pissed off.’ The man looked cautiously in all directions.
