Richard, the Trapper

"This is not a skunk" to take a riff from Rene Magritte.

"Guess what I found in my trap?", Richard said. "I bought the trap to catch rabbits and I haven't caught a single one.  They are in our garden every night and it is a matter of survival for us, to stop them if we are going to be the ones to eat out of our garden.  All I have caught is squirrels.  And now look what I have."

"What did you use for bait?", I asked.

"My famous weekend crepes," he said.  "It looks like they really worked even though they were two days old."

During the evening, everyone came out on the lawn to look:  Amir, Derek, Nicola and even Wyona, Zoe and Charise when they came over later.

I didn't want Zoe to go quite as close to the skunk as she was going.

"Leave her alone," said Wyona.  "She has been very sad all summer since she didn't see a bear when there was one on the property.  Now that there is a skunk, she is going to have to get close, no matter what happens."

When Zoe came back to the rest of the group hovering far back in the yard by the wire fence, Wyona asked her, "What did you see."

"I saw its eyes," said Zoe.

I guess that was enough.

Arta