Free One Foot in the Grove by Kelly Lane Page B

meal and serve guests in just a few hours.
Obviously impossible
. My stomach churned. Maybe I could pick up some donuts and coffee at Duke’s Donut Shoppe.
    The full moon peeked through fast-moving clouds, then disappeared.
    â€œI sure hope they like donuts, Dolly.”
    I’d tout the donuts as a local delicacy. An Abundance tradition. Maybe I could order some take-out eggs and bacon at Carter’s Country Corner Store.
    Daphne would just die
.
    â€œI’ll call Earlene Azalea and beg her to take Daphne shopping for the day,” I said to Dolly. “Daphne’d never have to know about the donuts.”
    The moon peeked through the clouds. Dolly made alittle circle and wagged her tail. Her eyes twinkled in the moonlight, and she panted with excitement. She jumped up on my knee and made another circle.
    â€œYes, yes. I know.
You
like donuts! Okay, Dolly. We’ll go for a quick run.”
    I figured the deep-woods trail would still have decent footing despite the rain. I’d be back in bed in less than an hour. I crossed the lawn behind the cottage, jogged past the gazebo and pond, and headed toward the hardwoods. I’d make a big loop through the longleaf pine forest before heading back home.
    Dolly jumped excitedly in the air and gave a little yip before trotting past me on the trail. Shrouded by foggy darkness, I heard the little dog sniffing and skittering across the sodden, muddy ground as I started out, jogging slowly behind her. After a minute or two, I picked up my pace and started to find my running rhythm—one foot in front of the other—with regular long breaths.
    Admittedly, bringing along a flashlight, or my phone with flashlight app, would’ve been prudent. Still, trying to run by the light of a flashlight as the beam jiggles with each step is just plain annoying. I could never see past the beam, anyway. Besides, I was taking a break from my phone.
    It wasn’t long before we were on the other side of the pond and running through an ancient forest of longleaf pines. The trees whispered and howled in a confused wind. Towering straight and tall, many of the trees were more than three hundred years old, stretching as high as one hundred feet. On other Abundance properties these majestic pines would be felled for use as telephone poles. However, at our place they remained safe in conservation. I remembered playing hide-and-seek in the forest as a girl. And as a teenager, I’d walked many nights under the tall trees, hand in hand with Buck Tanner.
    â€œLet’s pick up the pace, Dolly.”
    Deeper in the darkened forest it felt almost cool. An eerie mist rose up from dank blackness and twisted aroundmy calves. I sensed something—or someone. Stopping to listen, I heard nothing but rustling trees and the loud
shicka-shicka-shickaing
and tweeting of night creatures.
    I pressed on. Clouds blew over the moon, shrouding the woods in inky shadows. We ran though blackness across a slick, spongy carpet of pine needles and itchy wire grass that grew past my thighs. When clouds opened up, shafts of moonlight highlighted little dots of purple, blue, pink, red, yellow, and white wildflowers that looked like Christmas tree lights scattered in the wire grass under the trees. The air here was uncomfortably muggy. My breathing was getting heavier. My nose tickled with the smell of decay and musty dirt mixed with minty pine.
    Dolly trotted through the night as fireflies flashed and bats fluttered, dove, and squeaked overhead. I turned right at the first fork, then right again. Slivers of moonlight hit the trail, and a bat flew swiftly and silently toward me. I ducked. It shot up abruptly and over my head. Clouds covered the moon, and it was dark again. Suddenly, Dolly sat down, put her nose to the ground, and whined.
    â€œDon’t worry, Dolly. We’ll be out of the woods soon. It won’t be so scary, I promise.”
    I had to admit, even for an experienced night