Mother and Fawn
A Short Story about Love

 Four worried legs
  Cannot stay
  Cannot go
Nearby, Mother
  is calling

I took another step back. Then one more. The little fawn was very confused. Hesitant by nature and now caught separated from her mother, this human blocking her path, indecision seized her legs and she moved one step forward, one step back, and then again, and again, all the while looking at me and then looking over towards her mother whom she could no longer see waiting, calling, the far side of the high hedge edging the road.

Alone in the world and facing danger.

I had come upon mother and child exiting a short forest path onto the road for, I assume, greener pastures. I had just passed this narrow outlet as mother darted out onto the road behind me, assuming child would follow.

I noticed this movement and turned. Mother saw me turn and trotted away in the direction I had come from. Then she stopped, realizing her child had not followed suit.

For the fawn, behind mother, had seen me turn and froze. Could not follow mother. Seized by fear she had remained on the path, then retreated for safety, to now find it impossible to go on.

This human in the way.

This dangerous being in the way.

This unapproachable monster in the way.

It was a precarious situation. I noticed the mother deer, stock still, regarding me, unsure herself of what to do. She said something in Deer which I assumed was to let child know that she was there. Neither could see the other since the mother had to round that hedge to get away from me so it was now shielding her from the child.

The fawn said something in Deer which I assumed was either “Help” or “What do I do?” or “Come back, Mother.”

They both saw me as harmful.

I took another step back, to make it safer for the fawn to proceed and follow mother. Still too close.

Since I did not yet speak Deer, I could tell neither mother nor child that I meant them no harm, just the opposite, I wished them both peace, strength, and joy in their deer lives, but I had no way of telling them.

No verbal way.

I took another step back. Still not enough. The fawn watching; I guess judging what might constitute safe distance.

I took another step back. Sill not enough.

And seeing them both, especially fawn’s bewilderment and panic, from I am not sure where I filled with love. And I filled with love. And I radiated love. And the fawn, caught in this gentle shower, suddenly looked at me with bemused interest. And the mother, caught, too, in this gentle shower, also looked at me with bemused interest.

The fawn, assured now that she was safe trotted the rest of the path and past me and up on the road and over to her mother, where she turned and looked back at me.

Mother and child, side by side, regarding me with bemused interest.

And I loved them like I had never loved before.

And they knew it. The fawn even took a few steps in my direction, before mother said, in a clear, soft deer voice, “Perhaps best not to overdo it, Honey.”

“Don’t worry,” I said in Deer, “I will not harm her in any way.”

“I know,” said the mother, “but we had better be off.”

“Okay,” I said.

And I loved them like I had never loved before.

::

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