I peek out from under the blanket for just a second — it’s pure chaos. Like the coward I am, I slip back under. After a minute or two, it quiets down. Baxter stops barking, and so does Abby.
“What’s happening now?”
“He’s gone back into his hiding spot,” Jacob tells me as he jumps off the bed. “I need a cup, and something flat, like a newspaper or something.”
He sets out to search for a paper.
I finally escape the bed in a quest to help him out. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to trap him in the cup, and release him outside.”
“A newspaper won’t do,” I tell him and rummage through the kitchen drawers until I find what I’m looking for. I hand him the drink cup and a steel spatula.
“Perfect!”
I follow him into the bedroom as he carefully stands on the bed and approaches the bat. He pulls gently at the curtain and slides in the spatula. My heart is beating frantically as I watch eagerly. He’s swift and accurate when he presses the cup against the wall, and slides in the spatula. “I’ve got him.”
He’s holding the cup carefully against the spatula when he jumps off the bed. “Open the front patio door.”
I hurry to the door and slide it open. He steps outside and releases Woodstock.
It’s cold and dark out, and I hug myself as I watch him. At first, Woodstock just sits there, wings still folded, confused. “Go, fly away,” Jacob urges. “Go be with your little bat friends.”
“He most likely won’t go until we leave,” I tell him. “He’s probably scared to death by our presence.”
“You’re probably right.”
We decide to leave him alone and go back in. “How do you think it got in here?”
“Well, last time we were here, there was one trapped in the wood stove,” Jacob tells me. “It died.”
My heart sinks. “It died?”
He nods, and then smiles. “Well, we saved this one.”
“Yeah, thanks. Thanks for helping me out. Now I can finally get back to sleep. ”
He’s standing close again when he asks, “What would you do without me?”
I smile, at a loss for words. That’s exactly what I’m trying really hard to figure out at the moment. “Well, goodnight. I’m going back to bed.”
I wave at him as I head back to my bedroom.
A few steps later, I feel him trailing me. “What?” he says. “You don’t want your back rub? A deal is a deal.”
