Page 159 of Liberating Lily

She spotted the large barn and decided to head that way. It was far more likely that Clem was in the barn than anywhere else.

As she moved toward it, a rooster started squawking.

Wow, that was loud. She gazed up at the roof of the barn and saw the rooster glaring down at her. Well, that was how it felt, anyway.

Could a rooster glare? Probably not.

She stepped into the barn and looked around. There wasn’t much in here other than some hay.

Hmm. Maybe Clem wasn’t even here. Perhaps she should just wait out by the car for her. She didn’t want her sister to think she’d been nosing around or anything.

She stepped out of the barn, and that’s when she saw him, the biggest cow she’d ever seen in her life. This thing was enormous.

“Hey there, cow,” she said with a tremulous note in her voice.

He turned to look at her. And that’s when he lowered his head and started to charge.

Lily let out a squeak of fear. What was happening? Oh my God, why was there a cow running toward her? Turning, she took off running.

But there was nowhere to hide. Moving faster than she ever had in her life, she raced toward the barn. She saw a ladder leaning against the side and scrambled up it.

Then she found herself clinging to the roof and staring down at the angry beast. Which was now eating grass with its tail swishing back and forth. If she saw it in a paddock, she’d think it was cute.

Unfortunately, it seemed to be completely deranged.

“Why don’t you just go away? Nice cow. Come on, leave. Leave me alone, cow.”

Movement beside her had her scrambling away with a scream, and she very nearly fell off the roof. Then she saw it was the rooster. He puffed up his chest. Oh my God, had she just run from one animal only to get attacked by another?

It let out a huge squawk as if to let her know that she was in its space. “Look, I know, rooster, but I can’t go down there because the cow was trying to eat me.”

Another strange noise came from the rooster. Was that a noise that roosters could even make?

Lily glanced down again and saw that the cow had left. Where had it gone?

She moved slowly across the roof so she could look down the other side and then toward the back. There she saw some more animals. There were sheep, llamas, and another cow. And a camel?

No way.

What was going on here? Maybe she was delirious and had just overreacted. That was it; she was just getting sick or something. She put the back of her hand over her forehead. Nope. She was fine.

This was actually happening. Oh my God.

What was she going to do if Clem didn’t come back for hours? It was hot up here, and there was nothing to drink.

“Great. This is just great.”

The rooster made that warning noise again. She really had to get off this roof. If the cow was occupied, maybe she could make a run for her car.

It was her only hope.

So she headed back toward the ladder. A camel. Pfft. Maybe she should get her eyes tested.

Yep, turned out she definitely needed her eyes tested, because when she moved back to the side of the barn, where she was certain the ladder had been . . . the ladder was gone.

Now, there was the possibility it had just slid over, right? Only it wasn’t lying on the ground either.

There was no ladder. There was no way she’d managed to get on the roof of the barn without a ladder. So where was it?