Flytrap Read Free Page B

comfortable.”
    Brian put together a bed for the Lamb. Mona tried to set the animal down in it, but he bleated sadly. “Okay, for now,” she said, sitting on the bed holding him. “But you'll soon have to learn how to sleep by yourself.”
    He lay his head against her breast and slept.
    “We'll have to get milk for him,” she told Brian as she held the lamb. “And see about making a splint for his leg so he can walk.”
    “Cow's milk won't do,” Brian said. “Sheep need sheep's milk. There have been foundlings, and they always died, because nobody can milk a sheep.”
    “Well, we'll have to try. We can't just let him starve.”
    He shrugged, not knowing what to do.
    Mona held the Lamb, and nodded off to sleep herself. She was awakened by a bleat outside. She understood immediately. “The Ewe returned!”
    She got up, still holding the Lamb, and carried him to the door. There was the Ewe, stolidly standing. Mona went to her, kneeled, and braced the Lamb beneath her so he could nurse. He did so with enthusiasm. However long they had slept, it had been enough for the Lamb to get hungry again, and for the Ewe to refill her udder.
    Was this the way it was to be? The Ewe going out to graze and recharge, while Mona babysat the Lamb? This was not the kind of interaction with the sheep Mona had had in mind.
    After the Lamb had been suckled, the Ewe did something odd: she made a kind of stiff-legged bow to Mona. Then she departed. Mona watched her go, puzzled. Then she took the Lamb back inside. She tried again to set him in the box, and again he protested. But this time the Vulture and Python followed her in. They looked sternly at the lamb. He halted his protest and accepted his bed. The Python curled around it while the Vulture perched nearby.
    “They gave him the word,” Brian said. “They serve the sheep. They're babysitting. You have a break.”
    “I need it,” Mona said, not questioning the reliability of the animals. She went to the toilet, heedless of Brian's gaze, then washed and dressed for the first time that day. Then she saw about breakfast, which had been blotted out by the event of the morning.
    Refreshed, she looked at Brian, silently offering him sex. He shook his head, now having the confidence to know that it would be there for him when he needed it.
    “Did you see what the Ewe did?” she asked Brian.
    “I saw. I don't know what it means.”
    The Lamb woke. She picked him up, kissing his little ear. “You need a name,” she said. “How about Ram Bunctious? Or maybe Lamb Bunctious.”
    Brian shook his head, bemused.
    “Let's go out for a walk,” Mona said. “We'll show you off to the neighbors.” Because it was clear that the Lamb was staying.
    They took a walk through the village: Brian, Mona, Vulture, Python, and the Lamb in Mona's arms. They didn't need to say anything; this was merely the public announcement. All the villagers knew she was adopting a little sheep. They might doubt that it would survive long, but they were now aware of the event. Just as they were aware of the Vulture and Python, and tolerated them in their midst. It was the will of the sheep.
    “The village elder,” Brian said. “Maybe he would know. About the bow.”
    “Oh, yes,” she said, remembering. “Take us there.”
    He led her to a central house. The elder sat on his deck chair in front. He stood when Mona approached. “Salutation, madam,” he said formally.
    “I am Mona, of Earth,” she said, though he surely knew. “Holding the fort for Elen Elf during her stay on Earth. The sheep brought me this Lamb. I'll handle it. But I am perplexed about one thing: his mother, the Ewe, made a sort of bow to me. What does it mean?”
    “She did that,” he said, amazed. “I heard of something similar, maybe thirty years ago. A ewe made it to the village elder of the time. Then he designated the sheep a protected species, never to be hunted or molested. It was as though she recognized him for it, before it