Chapters

The Meeting

Bing and I did not have to wait long.

A woman pulled her old red, Subaru wagon into the parking space next to my truck. It was covered with mud leaving only hints of its true color. We did not have to question if this was the right person we were supposed to meet. She had wild hair that combated the wind, which made me think that it matched the voice over the phone. She marched directly towards us like she was approaching a mustang horse. Direct and full of intimidation. Bing sat up attentively.

At that point Bing was about three years old. He had the stature of a massive Rottweiler but looked more like the Black Lab side of his genes. Even though it gave him a serious look, he was a puppy in a big dog's body. There wasn't a threatening bone in him. He had found me about a year ago and ended up as part of the family. At first I kept my emotional distance from him worried his real owner would somehow appear. As time went on, I became very attached to him and now he was the one who I relied for support since Sealy was in retirement.

I have to say, at the time, I was not full of confidence. I had just lost what I'd considered my life and it left me with an enormous feeling of being off balance. Mix that in with the fact that I was far from my element in the city on the coast, where I knew my place. I was comfortable with that life. Now, I was hundreds of miles inland, in a new place not knowing the people, or the terrain and basically I was trying my best to keep my head above water emotionally. I could not have picked a more opposite lifestyle from what I'd been used to and a challenging place to end up.

I rolled down my window and met her stare. I could tell she was sizing me up to see if I could work.

I said "Hello." At first there was silence and just her intimidation.

She squinted her eyes, leery of my intentions, looking at me sideways and not muttering a word. I got out of the truck, closing Bing in the cab behind me and took a step back.

I stuck out my hand and tried again. "Hello."

She surprisingly took my hand and with the grip of a man said hello back. "My name is Cheryl, I have a boy" She said while nodding towards the small blonde child in the car. "His name is Adam, he's three years old."

I looked over to the little boy. He smiled at me and raised his hand as if to gave a small wave. I waved back.

"We live a ways out of town on mountain. I sell livestock to support us, but I need help with chores and taking care of him."

I drew a breath and met her stare again. "I haven't done much physical work for a while, but I ..."

"I didn't ask you what you COULDN'T do - Can you work or not?" She cut me off.

"Sure, I can work, I was just trying to explain ..."

"Well, you can stop your excuses now. I need someone who is strong and if you can't do the work then I don't need ya."

Caught off guard I stammered "I can do the work." I was not very convincing though, I was looking at me feet at this point and was having a hard time looking her back in the eye.

After a moment she said "Well, I don't have much choice. I need someone now and yer the only one who's called."

I swallowed hard and raised my head. "Thank you."

"Follow me and I show you the place. Can you start tomorrow?"

"Yes." I replied.

"Good." And with a turn she was back in her car before I could get back into mine.

I hopped back into the cab telling Bing we had a job. I watched her as she motored out of the parking lot all the while trying to coax the Ford to start. Frowning I turned off the key, pumped the gas pedal several times and tried again. It was a normal thing for the truck not to start right up, but the urgency of the situation made me feel like I was going to get in trouble if I didn't hurry up. I had my head down resting on my left arm that was curled over the steer wheel, and turning the key with my right, all the while pumping the gas pedal and outwardly begging it to start, I didn't see her until she was right at my window.

I jumped, made a faint sound and stopped.

Swallowing hard I said "It won't start."

"No shit! Have you looked under the hood?"

To tell you the truth it had not occurred to me. Now, I know that sounds absurd, but I used to hire people to look under the hood. I knew nothing about cars.I looked down again. "No, I..."

"Well, what are you waiting for? God! Pop the hood."

I moved my head to try to see where the lever was to unhook the hood. Finding it I reached down and pulled hard. I pulled again, but nothing. Like I said, I never looked at the engine before.

"What ARE you doing?" came the grouchy voice from the front of the truck.

"I, um, I can't get the lever to work."

"Oh for God's sake!" She came over to the door.

I didn't have to wait for her to demand it to be opened. She looked inside, grabbed hold of the lever and gave a strong, sharp yank. The hood clicked open. Straightening up and giving me a you're pathetic look, she turned back and walked toward the engine.

She did something and said "Try it now."

The engine cranked over and started up. Slamming down the hood she came around to the door again.

"Now try to follow me, see if you can do that."

I looked at Bing who seem to be thinking the same things I was. "What in the world was her problem?"

We followed going to the opposite part of town that my cabin was in and continued for about thirty five miles. I was nervous and worried that I might not be able to do whatever work she needed done, but given the choice of earning money I was determined to give my best shot.

We turned onto a dirt road and followed it for a fair ways until we came to the end of it. At this point the road turned into her driveway. She parked her car at the bottom and motioned for me to get out.

"Can I bring my dog?" I asked thinking that was being polite.

She looked at me "Whatever, or you could leave him in there for the rest his life as far as I care."

"Come on Bing, we've got a grumpy ole woman to tend to." He jumped out and started running around and sniffing. I did not see any farm only a little road winding up of sight.

"We can't make it up there right now. There's too much mud." She said as she unhooked Adam.

Adam jumped from the car and immediately ran over to me. He was saying things in a little person language. I had never had children of my own and did not understand what it was he was saying. I smiled at him and nodded yes. He laughed. I patted him on the head and turned to follow Cheryl who, was amazingly, half way up the hill.

Looking down at Adam I said, "We'd better get going".

I began walking quickly with him trotting behind me. When he was able to get next to me he grabbed my hand. Startled I stopped and looked down at him. He just stood there smiling back up at me.

I looked up to where Cheryl had disappeared. "Well, I guess we'll catch up to her when we do." And, still holding his hand, we began trying to maneuver up the road.

The mud here was unlike the mud up at my cabin. It was made of clay, deep boot sucking mud that came up past your shins making movement extremely difficult. You may not know this, but there are six seasons here, not four. Winter, spring, spring-mud (made from rain/melting snow), summer, fall, fall-mud (made from rain/melting snow) and winter. Mud as it turns out is the worse part of the year. Deep snow is bad enough, but you'll get stuck in mud faster than snow any day.

We made as far as the bend when I saw her coming back towards us. I looked down at Adam and then back up to her. She didn't say anything just reached us, turned and matched our pace. It seemed as though she had an attitude talk with herself and was now trying to behave.

We crossed a fast flowing stream via a rickety bridge. I wondered silently if she actually drove on this bridge.

"I can't drive on the bridge until the mud dries up a bit." She said reading my mind.

"It supports a car?"

"Hell, it supports my truck and trailer with horses in it!"

I took a second look at the bridge and thought her crazy.

The house was in view now. Horses wandered in half built pens. There were cows, sheep, chickens, five dogs and a cat. Bing charged up the hill to meet the dogs, while we kept our pace as we trudged through the mud.

"Don't pay any attention to that dead horse over there."

"What???" I said in shock.

"Yeah, it died the other day and I haven't been able to move the body. I tried to burn it and am going to try again today."

I looked at the large mound covered in wood and could see legs.

I quickly looked away and down at Adam, who seemed to think it normal. I was without words and secretly wondering if this was going to be one of my tasks.

Then as we approached the stairs to the porch she said "And don't mind the smell of the dead chicken under the house either."

"A dead chicken?" I asked weakly.

"Yeah, my wolf dog got it and took it under there."

I was getting the feeling that this was not like the farm I grew up on. We had a dairy farm with five head of horses. We had pigs and chickens too. Of course there were the dogs and cats and a pet raccoon that had survived when his mother was killed. I did not recall having dead animals stick around for long much less, under the house and in the yard.