saw the patrol car now behind hers. apparently, the officer had been satisfied with what he’d seen and no longer needed the deer’s body. i grabbed my identification, and followed the woman back to her car. her husband had also arrived, and the three of us stood around making small talk while the officer sat in his cruiser and worked on a computer. it was an unfortunate way to meet the neighbors (they lived just a couple of miles up the road from us), but i enjoyed getting to know them.
while we were talking, our oldest son came out to the road to see what was going on. he told 