Big Yellow Taxi

Another 50 Thousand

Daniel finally let go of Rowan as she leaned into the car, giving her puppy one last hug and kiss goodbye.  She would miss all her babies, but she was glad her puppy was going to a good home. The cruiser had King County Sheriff's Department printed on the side and the boy inside was begging his dad to turn on the sirens and the lights.  His mother reminded him that the noise might scare his new dog. This quieted the boy down in a hurry and he climbed into the backseat to wrap his arms around the giant slobbery puppy.  

Before the boy’s father climbed in, he handed Rowan an envelope.  From the width, Daniel assumed it contained a large stack of money.  He wondered how much the woman got for each dog but felt uncomfortable asking.  Luckily Andy broached the subject.

"We agreed on $1800, right?," he asked.  It was more than he would normally have been willing to pay for a dog but he had agreed because he knew the money was for a charitable cause.  Andy and Rowan had spoken about that in the emails they exchanged. Rowan nodded and smiled a huge grin at Andy that showed off the one crooked tooth she had that stuck out a little further than the rest on one side.

"Right," she announced, "Once I sell the rest of my puppies we will be halfway to building our wildlife bridge."  Andy smiled and stuck his hand out for Rowan to shake. She grabbed it, but instead of shaking it properly she gripped it lightly and gave the same funny like courtsey she and Ayla had given Daniel and Marv back at the farmer's market.  "Blessed be to you and your beautiful family," she said. Andy shuffled his feet awkwardly and Daniel was happy to see he wasn't the only one that had been unsure of what the proper response to Rowan's unique statement was. 

"To you as well," Andy finally said with a smile and a nod of his head, "and good luck with the bridge.  We've had far too many wildlife related crashes out there. When you ladies get that bridge built you'll be saving more lives than just the animals."  

Daniel wasn't sure what bridge Andy was talking about, but his words seemed to have an emotional effect on Rowan.  She leaned in and offered the man a chaste kiss on the cheek before she stepped back and waved goodbye to the boy and the puppy in the backseat.  

After the cruiser pulled out and disappeared around the bend in the gravel road, Daniel and Rowan headed back towards the festival area.  They walked slowly, enjoying the night and each other’s company. Daniel asked her about the bridge and she explained what she and Andy had been talking about.  Rowan’s community owned a lot of land. Most of it was undeveloped. They did have a few cabins out near one of the lakes, but most of the land they intentionally left as nature intended.  That was until the state came in and built an interstate highway right smack through the middle of it. They had gone to council meetings. Fought the construction every step of the way with paperwork and protests.  But eventually they had lost and the highway had been built. Rowan got very emotional just talking about it. And seeing her upset made Daniel feel angry in a new way he hadn't felt before. Anger at whoever had made such a gentle woman feel so bad.  He didn't often feel emotion at the idea of social injustices, seeing them as just another expected part of his already crappy life.

All the animals' natural migration patterns had been disrupted.  They were dying by the dozen out in the highway traffic. So Rowan's mother came up with the idea to build a wildlife crossing across the top of the highway.  They found a construction company that was willing to build the bridge for them at a reduced cost. But no one was going to build something that extensive for free.  So Rowan's community and several of the neighboring communities were currently raising money to pay for the bridge.

"I think I know the place you mean," Daniel said, "Up a little ways north of here, closer to the mountains?"  Rowan nodded. "I useta go huntin’ up there a lot," Daniel announced. The words were out of his mouth before he realized he had just admitted to not only hunting and killing the cute little animals that Rowan was ready to cry her eyes out over, but he had also announced that he had been poaching on her land.  His eyes got wide and he started to stammer, trying to think up some way to take the statement back. Rowan stopped and rested her hand on his arm, her touch radiating calm vibes through his body.

"It's okay," she assured him, "My dad hunts.  And while we may own the land, no one owns the mother's creatures.  They are here for the benefit of all." Seeing that her words had visibly relaxed the man at her side, Rowan smiled at him.  "My dad built a hunting cabin up that way. You can use it next time you go up there if you want to," Rowan offered with another beaming smile.  

Daniel wasn't sure what to say.  He already felt like Rowan was a little too good to be true.  That was before he saw her interact with her dogs. And now she had some sort of family hunting cabin that she was offering up for him to use anytime he felt like it.  It didn't feel real and Daniel brought his hand up to scrub at his face, expecting any moment to wake up from the dream he was having. He felt a bit like a hungry child that had finally gotten a piece of candy in his hands and was afraid that at any moment someone else might swoop in and take it away.

"This is my place," Rowan told him as she gestured to the large building behind her, "I just need to put this money away and then we can go back to the festival."  

Daniel followed her down a brick lined path.  There were attractive beds full of flowers on either side that Rowan pointed out to him.  One was a medicinal herb garden. Another was full of plants that they made tea out of. That one was Rowan's to take care of.  She explained that was why it had more weeds in it than the other gardens. Near the doorway the large black dog Daniel had met out at the field was laying on the brick path.  The sound of Rowan’s voice woke the beast from his nap and he stood up, approaching and nudging the woman with his snout until she stroked her hand over the top of his head. Rowan swung the unlocked door of the building open wide so her large dog had room to charge inside. Daniel expected he would wait outside but Rowan paused in the doorway, making it obvious that she intended for him to follow her inside.  

Once Daniel got inside it became obvious to him that a lot of other people lived inside the building besides Rowan and her mother.  They walked through a communal lounging area. There were old mismatched comfy looking couches, one bookcase full of books and another full of board games.  A large table held a puzzle that was laid out on it, looking about halfway finished. Another area that was covered in an old rag rug with bean bag chairs scattered around on it.  One section appeared to be set up for children. There was an old plastic playhouse and a bin full of dolls and toys near a smaller table and chairs to match.  

After passing through the lounge, Rowan led Daniel down a wide hallway.  She pointed out which room belonged to her friend Ayla and which one was her mother's.  And then she stopped in the doorway of her own room. Tank was already making himself at home on her unmade bed.  The room was painted in a light minty green on two of the walls that Daniel could see and the third was covered in a mural of painted flowers.  But what was surprising was that there were a lot of native american decorative touches. A woven indian blanket covered part of the large queen sized bed.  A dreamcatcher hung from the wooden headboard. A white buckskin fringed dress was hanging, displayed like it was more for looking at than wearing.  

Daniel could tell just from looking at the items that they were authentic and not the w*********h gift shop style crap that the people he knew hung up in their trailers.  As he looked at it, still hovering in the doorway because he didn't feel right just charging into Rowan's bedroom, one tiny piece of the puzzle that was Rowan fell into place.  She had to be at least half native american. That would explain her wide high set cheekbones and her long silky black hair. And not only that. Daniel now knew that the tiny touch of an accent she had was likely because she also spoke some variation of a native language.  

"You can come in," Rowan offered, since Daniel was standing awkwardly in the doorway.  She crossed the room and shoved the envelope of cash into a sewing basket that was sitting on top of an antique wooden dresser.  Daniel took one small step inside the room, still hovering close to the doorway. "Sorry about the mess," Rowan added in an offhand way like she really wasn't sorry at all for making a mess in her own room.  "When I turned 25 my mom started refusing to clean my room for me," Rowan added with a giggle. Her mom still cleaned her room and changed her sheets once in a while but she liked to pretend she didn't.  

Daniel snorted out a laugh, secretly grateful that he now had some idea how old Rowan was.  He had been guessing she was a lot younger than 25 and was happy to know she was closer to him in age than he had guessed.  Not to get it confused. She was still way too young for him, but at least she wasn't jail bait young.  

"How much money do you have left to raise for your bridge?," Daniel asked, trying to make some sort of conversation as he leaned forward over Rowan's bed to get a closer look at her dreamcatcher.  It was intricately woven with little stones stung onto the net. They were tiger's eyes, the same as the one that Rowan had on a chain around her neck. Dangling down from it were long strings of buckskin that had beads and turkey feathers attached to the bottoms of them.  He lifted one feather, enjoying the silky texture of the feather before he let it slip from his fingers.

"Another 50 thousand," Rowan announced.  Daniel choked on his own spit, coughing and sputtering.  He cleared his throat.

"You raised 50 thousand dollars already?," he asked, not sure if he would believe her even if she said yes.  Rowan giggled and shook her head, letting the lid of her sewing box snap closed.

"I raised around ten," she corrected, "or it will be ten once I sell my last puppy."  Daniel glanced nervously at the sewing box on her dresser, the image of Marv robbing that woman he slept with earlier that morning suddenly fresh in his mind.  Rowan had almost ten grand in a little purple and white flowered box on her dresser. The door to her room had been hanging open too, and the building was unlocked.  They were having a big party too. Rowan was so innocent in the ways of the world. It made him feel protective of both the woman and her stash of carefully saved charity money.  

"You should start lockin' yer door," Daniel told her.  Rowan smiled. It was sweet of Daniel to worry about her.  But she knew no one would take her money. People sometimes borrowed things without asking, but she had never had anything deliberately stolen from her before.  Plus no one in her community had any need for a large sum of money. Everyone she knew considered money to be a necessary evil. There were some things they weren't able to grow themselves, like rice and bananas.  So they needed money to buy those things. But money made people greedy for more food than they could eat and more clothes than they could wear and giant rooms in giant houses that sat empty because they didn't have enough friends and family to fill them.  

Rowan moved closer and turned her attention to her dreamcatcher, eager to change the subject.  "My father shot that turkey last summer for the feast that comes at the end of sundance festival," Rowan explained, "He gave me the tail feathers to bring me good fortune."  She liked watching Daniel touch her dreamcatcher. Dreamcatchers protected the person sleeping under them from nightmares. Because of that they were considered to be a very personal item.  Most people she knew wouldn't have touched hers without asking first. But she liked that Daniel did. Watching the feathers slip through his fingers made Rowan aware that more than anything she wanted to sleep with Daniel under the watchful eye of not just any dreamcatcher, but the one her father made for her.  The web would catch their bad dreams and dissolve them once the light of day streamed in through the window, only allowing the good dreams to flow down through the feathers and into their unconscious minds. Rowan had a feeling that Daniel had a lot of bad dreams. And she wanted to be the one to chase them away for him.