“Yeah. Hey, Nora,” Ryan says, throwing her a head nod.
“Oh. H-Hey, Ryan. Good to see you,” she replies, readjusting her hat.
“Stevie, you want to walk around some more? I’ve got my eye on some deep-fried Oreos,” Ryan says, already starting to backpedal toward the exit.
“Uh, sure,” I reply. “Just a sec.” I hang back with Nora for a moment, noticing her shoulders sagging slightly.
“Are… you okay?” I ask her.
“Yeah,” she says quickly, her cheeks pulling up into a smile, but it drops just as fast.
“You sure?” I ask again, and this time, she meets my eyes. There’s a look in them that for some reason makes me not want to leave her here all alone.
“I’m sure.” She scratches the cow’s neck as she plops down into her chair.
“Stevie, you coming?” Ryan calls from halfway down the barn.
“Okay, well, maybe we can hang out soon? You’ll call me?” I ask as I take a step past Nora.
“Yeah, totally,” she replies, crossing her legs and turning away from me.
A few minutes later, as Ryan snacks on his paper boat of deep-fried Oreos and I eat all of the crushed peanuts and caramel off the outside of my Granny Smith apple, he tells me about the rides he went on. I try to listen, to stay present, but my mind keeps wandering back to Nora and why she seemed so… down.
“Hey, there’s nothing going on between you two, right?” I ask Ryan.
“Who? Me andNora?” He snorts out a laugh. “What gave us away? Our lustful greeting? Our palpable chemistry?” he asks sarcastically. “I barely know her.”
I don’t get it, then.… Why did she seem so upset just now? What could—
Oh. It hits me as we’re walking past a burger stand.
“It’s the cow!” I stop, slapping Ryan in the chest, and he looks at me like I just told him I want to buy tickets for the gun raffle. “Nora. She seemed really down and I couldn’t figure out why, but it’s because she’s vegan.”
“I mean, I know living a vegan lifestyle probably isn’t themostenjoyable, but…”
“No. I mean, she’s selling tickets to raffle off the cow that’s just been lying at her feet all day. She’s probably bummed about having to kill the cow for meat,” I tell him, proud of myself for solving this very inconsequential case. “She did save my life. I wish I could help her save the cow.”
Ryan pops another Oreo into his mouth.
“You could try to win it. And then it can just live on her family’s farm?” he suggests casually, trying to talk over his mouthful of food.
“Would that work? Like you think they could keep it and not kill it?” I ask.
He shrugs. “They have like a million acres, I’m sure there’s space for it.”
“Wait, that might actually be a good idea,” I reply, my eyes lighting up as I put the plastic back over my apple and pull my cash out of my pocket. “I’ve got thirty-three dollars.”
“I’ve got…” He empties his wallet. “Twenty-seven.”
“You don’t have to spend your own money on this, Ryan.”
He shrugs. “It supports the fire hall, right?”
“Are we really about to spend sixty bucks on achanceto win a cow for a girl neither of us really knows?” I ask, but the answer is already clear based on the mischievous look on his face, the one I’m sure is plastered on my own, too.
When we make it back to the animal barn, Nora is gone. In her place is a young Amish guy with a short beard and a straw hat, the short sleeves of his button-down cuffed at the ends. I hand him the money and he hands us a string of tickets so long that it drags against the dusty barn floor. I give Ryan half and we get to work writing my name and phone number on each one.
After we drop them into the bucket, we head outside through the open doors, both of us shaking out our right hands.
