Texas Homecoming

by Carolyn Brown

  “Something smells good,” Cody said when he came through the door.

  “He speaks,” Stevie said. “We’re having soup and hoecakes. You might know them as campfire biscuits. I had to cook it right on the top of the stove, but I did clean it as best I could.”

  “You used all the rest of the bacon drippings?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes, I did, but if you don’t want to eat the hoecake, that’s fine by me. I’ll put some of that jelly in the refrigerator on what’s left over and call it dessert,” she told him.

  “You’re awfully prickly.” Cody asked.

  “After the way you’ve been acting all morning, the answer would be ‘hell yeah, cowboy, I’m prickly,’” she answered as she flipped the round of bread over so it could brown on the other side.

  * * *

  Cody deserved that from her. No doubt about it, but it still stung.

  “We’ll be eating out of our coffee mugs,” she said. “Those plates won’t work.”

  “Hot soup and bread to dip in it.” He managed a smile. “Doesn’t get any better than that.”

  “Oh, yeah it does,” she argued, “but it’s the best we can do today, and I’m just grateful to figure out that we could make bread. It won’t be as light as Mama’s biscuits, but it will soak up the soup pretty good. You ready to tell me what put you in a funk this morning?”

  He removed his coat and hung it on a nail beside the door. “That dream took me back to a place where I don’t want to go or be.”

  “I got that much from what you were mumbling about when you were still asleep,” Stevie said. “Have you ever talked to anyone about Dineo? Who was he?”

  “How did you know that name?” Cody asked.

  “You called out his name and then said, ‘Hang on, son.’ He must’ve been someone young and also a close friend,” Stevie answered.

  “I lost a little boy that day, and he was like a son to me. His father had become my best friend.” Cody’s eyes went all misty, but he blinked back the tears.

  “I guess the sound of the tree limbs breaking sounded like gunfire and triggered the nightmare. What can I do to help with lunch?” he asked.

  “Don’t change the subject,” Stevie said. “Tell me about this little boy. Evidently he meant a lot to you.”

  “He did,” Cody said, and nodded, “but I…”

  Stevie shook her head. “Soup and bread are done. All you have to do is dip up a mug full of soup and break off a chunk of bread. I’m a good listener, so tell me more about the child.”

  Cody filled one mug and used his knife to cut a piece of bread, handed it to Stevie, and said, “You cooked. I can serve.”

  “Thank you,” she said, and nodded as she took her dinner to the sofa and sat down.

  Cody fixed his food and sat down beside her.

  “So tell me about that little boy,” Stevie said gently.

  Cody felt like he owed her an explanation, even if it was a short one. “He adopted me when I was in a little village outside of Botswana. He had a perpetual smile and was always around the hospital tent wanting to help me. He said that when he grew up, he was going to be a doctor.”

  “How old was he?” Stevie asked.

  “About nine or ten. His mama was dead, and his daddy thought he had been born ten summers before. Dineo was always underfoot”—Cody smiled at the memory—“kind of like those kittens over there.”

  “Did you hate to tell him goodbye?” Stevie asked.

  “Two weeks before I left the village of Bere, the guerrillas came in their trucks and…” Cody closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them slowly and went on. “They destroyed our hospital tent and fired their weapons into the air. They were gathering up all the children they could find and taking them away to train them to…”

  “That’s for real?” Stevie asked. “I thought it was just stuff you see on television.”

  “It’s very real,” Cody could still feel the ache he had felt in his heart that day. “Dineo’s daddy, Bodi, fought with them when they tried to take his son from him, and one of them shot him. The bullet went through Bodi and into Dineo, so he wasn’t any good to them anymore. They only wanted healthy kids. They would have kidnapped me if they realized I was a doctor. I grabbed the boy up and took him to a hiding place. I’d only been there a little less than six months, but Bodi and Dineo had become more than just friends. They were family. Then the noise, the gunfire, the yelling, the sound of the trucks moving away with crying children all stopped. I felt so helpless and heartsick when I realized they were both dead.”

  He stopped and swallowed several times. “Silence as thick as a dense fog filled the village for a few minutes, and a new haunting sound filled the air as people began to weep over their stolen children. I tried to save Dineo, but he probably died instantly, and the doctors and nurses were taken out of the country the next day to be reassigned. Bodi was the only one who had resisted, but there were two deaths that day. He and Dineo both died, and I didn’t even get to attend their funerals.”

  “I’m so sorry. You were still reeling from that death when you got the news of your father. Man, that had to be tough,” Stevie said.

  “It was rough, and I didn’t want to tell you because you’ve got enough on your plate, dealing with your own grief.”

  “Ever think that maybe, by sharing in each other’s sorrow, it’s helping us deal with the pain?” she asked. “Did you talk to counselors or therapists about Dineo?”

  Cody shook his head. “I was sent to London and Dad needed me. I’m a doctor, for God’s sake.” He stood up and took his empty mug to the bathroom to wash it. “I lost patients before Dineo and probably will again. I shouldn’t need therapy every time I lose someone.”

  “No, but this was a special little boy to you,” Stevie said. “Sometimes, like with that little guy and with my mama, we don’t bounce back like we want to.”

  “When did you get so smart?” Cody asked.

  “Always been smart,” Stevie said. “You just didn’t recognize it.”

  “I deserved that smart-ass remark,” Cody said.

  “Yes, you did,” Stevie said. “Would you have ever believed that the two of us would be stranded together like this?”

  “Nope,” Cody answered.

  “Me either.” Her grin got even bigger. “Yet, here we are, and with just a little help, we might even learn to be friends.”

  “Now wouldn’t that be a miracle,” Cody said.

  Cody hadn’t had time for friends in college, and he’d been moved so often that he hadn’t bonded with many folks—not like he did with Bodi and Dineo. He wasn’t sorry for his decision to put his own personal wants aside to give back to others. Pearl and Sonny had been amazing parents, but there had always been the idea in the back of his mind that he owed a debt to society for all that he’d been given. He had to do something to help others, and from the time he had seen a documentary on television about Doctors Without Borders, he had set his mind to devote his life to that.

  Chapter Six

  The next morning Stevie took stock of the food they had left. She had a can of tuna fish in one hand, and a can of chicken in the other, trying to figure out what to do with either of them for breakfast.

  Mama, you got any recipes that only use what I can rustle up from almost nothing?

  A reflection of light bounced off the can of tuna.

  “I get the message. Start with that, right?” Then she realized sun rays were coming through the single window. Sun meant she and Cody might get rescued before too many more days. “Cody! Open your eyes!” she yelled across the room.

  Cody sat up with a jerk. “What? What’s happening?”

  Stevie pointed across the room. “The sun is shining. Look!”

  He tilted his head to one side and frowned, then got up, put on his boots and coat, and headed out into the barn. “Do you hear that? Am I imagining things?”

  “What?” She followed him to the door. “Is that what I think
it is?”

  “It’s equipment of some kind,” Cody said, and nodded. “And it’s getting louder. I’m hoping it’s Jesse in one of the ranch tractors.”

  “What makes you think it’s Jesse?” she asked.

  “Because the folks at the ranch are the only ones who know where we are. It could be the county workers trying to clear some of the roads, so we can’t get too excited,” he said.

  Stevie heard what he said, but the words had little effect on her hope. They had been stranded since sometime Wednesday, and this was Saturday. She wanted to go home to her own bed, eat some chocolate, drink real coffee first thing in the morning—enjoy all the luxuries she had taken for granted in the past.

  She rushed across the room, righted the sofa, and shoved everything into her go bag together. “We need to get a box ready for the cats, just in case. We can’t leave them behind. What do we do with the water to keep the pipes from freezing? Should we leave the fire burning in the stove?”

  “Slow down, Stevie.” Cody removed his coat and hung it back on a nail. “We’ll take care of all that when we figure out if it’s really Jesse.”

  “But we should be ready,” she said.

  “All right, then.” He glanced around the room. “We haven’t cooked yet, so everything is in place. Skillet back where we found it. Dishes on the workbench, which is fine. I’ll turn the water to the sink and toilet off at the wall and then drain the pipes. Since the well is under the barn, the pipes should be fine. And if it is Jesse, I can put out the fire with what water is in the coffeepot. Satisfied now?”

  “I do feel better,” she admitted and went to the window. “Cody, it is a tractor. I can see the sunlight bouncing off the windshield. It’s coming down the lane, so it’s got to be more than just a county vehicle. They wouldn’t plow anything but the roads.”

  “You’re sure eager to get out of here,” Cody said.

  “Aren’t you?” she asked.

  “I’ve learned to make the best of whatever situation I’m in,” he answered. “Truth is, I’ve kind of enjoyed being stranded. No technology. Living on what we can find.”

  “Weren’t you bored at times?” Stevie asked.

  “Sure, but life isn’t all happy times. You got to have some rain before you can fully appreciate the rainbow,” he said with a grin.

  “Well, I’ve survived the rain, even if it was frozen, and now I’m ready for the rainbow, which in my mind is shampoo, a long bath, a candy bar, something other than tuna fish for breakfast, and my own bed with real pillows,” she told him.

  Cody peeked out the window and then crossed the room to the bathroom. “Looks like your rainbow will be here in about five minutes. That’s a Sunflower Ranch tractor and that’s Jesse in the driver’s seat. I’ll take care of the water, and we can dump the cat food into a bucket and use that box for the cats.”

  Stevie sucked in a lungful of air and let it out in a whoosh. When she heard the barn doors open over the top of the noise of the tractor’s engine, she was busy making sure Dolly and the kittens were all accounted for.

  “Hey, anybody home?” Jesse slung open the tack room door. “Y’all both alive or did one of you kill the other?”

  Cody met him in one of those man hugs that ended with both of them patting each other on the back. Jesse was a little taller than Cody, and his jet-black hair glistened in the sunlight coming through the window above the stove. His green eyes sparkled with humor when he said, “Well, I guess that answers my question. You’ve survived being stranded together for several days and no murder has been committed.”

  “It’s a miracle,” Stevie told him. “Thank you, thank you for coming to our rescue.” She patted his brother on the back several times.

  “Yep, it is,” Cody agreed. “But now we’re ready to go home.”

  “I saw Stevie’s van. I can tow it and y’all to the ranch, but you”—Jesse took a step back and nodded toward Stevie—“will be staying at the ranch for a while. Trees are down between us and town, and we’re just as stranded as you have been. I had to take a couple of dirt roads to get here, and what should have taken an hour took more than two.”

  “What about my truck?” Cody asked.

  “I saw it in the ditch, but, brother, there’s a tree lying across the hood right now. It’ll be a few days before we can get to it. I think it’s totaled anyway, so it won’t matter if it sits right there?” Jesse asked.

  “Even if it wasn’t,” Cody said, “it’s more important that we get Stevie’s van to the ranch anyway. Her supplies are in it.”

  “What can I do to help y’all get ready to go?” Jesse asked.

  “We’ve got to…” Stevie started to say and then shook her head. “If you’re going to tow my van, I can put the cria and the cats in it. They’ll be far happier if they’re together.”

  “Cats?” Jesse asked.

  “Long story,” Cody chuckled. “I’ll tell you on the way home,” he said, and then focused on Stevie. “I guess your rainbow isn’t so bright, but there is coffee and chocolate in the bunkhouse, and you can have my room for privacy. It’s got a big bed and a bathroom with a tub.”

  “Thank you.” Stevie was a bit disappointed, but hey, like Cody had said earlier, she would make the best of the situation. She practically drooled at the idea of a cup of coffee waiting on the other end of the trip to the ranch.

  They loaded the cats and Dixie into the van. Stevie tossed her go bag into the front seat and made sure all the doors were closed. Then Jesse and Cody hooked the vehicle up to the back of the tractor and Jesse pulled it out of the barn.

  “You ready?” Cody asked Stevie.

  “For a cup of coffee, I’d walk from here to the ranch,” she said as she climbed up into the cab of the tractor.

  “I wasn’t talking about getting out of here.” Cody followed right behind her. “I meant, are you ready to share the seat with me? This tractor only has two seats.” He picked her up and set her in his lap. “Unless you want me to sit in your lap, this is where you’ll be for the next two hours.”

  “You did say there was chocolate at the end of the road, right?” Stevie wasn’t quite ready for the sizzle the contact with his thighs made her feel, but she was determined not to let him know that he affected her so much.

  “Yep, and about five miles down the road, we will probably have cell service. Mama and Addy are putting supplies in the bunkhouse for you—girl stuff,” Jesse said. “She said that if you think of anything special, to call her.” He drove the tractor slowly down the lane. “She and Addy were making cookies and talking about what to fix for lunch when I left. I reckon there’ll be a hot meal waiting for y’all.”

  “That is so sweet of them.” Stevie’s voice cracked.

  “Now, tell me about this cat thing. Why are we taking a mama cat and kittens to Sunflower Ranch?” Jesse said.

  Cody explained how Dixie had adopted the cats, and ended the short story with “I’ll take them back when the cria adapts to her new family on the ranch.”

  Jessie stopped at the end of the lane and pointed to his right. “See what I’m talking about?”

  Stevie and Cody both turned their heads at the same time. The entire cab and hood of Cody’s truck was covered with snow, and all that they could see of the back end was the tailgate. A huge tree was lying over the top and spread out all the way to the other side of the road.

  “I guess I’ll be looking for a new truck when this thaws out,” Cody said. “What’s the weatherman saying?”

  Jesse shifted the tractor into gear and pulled out onto the road. “We’ve got sunny days until the first of next week, but the temperature isn’t going to be above freezing. Dad thinks it will be the end of next week before the roads are clear into town. And we got news about Max. He had a heart attack, and he’s still in the hospital, but he’s not going back to his ranch when he gets out of the hospital. He’s going to live with his son in Oklahoma.”

  Stevie heard what they were saying about Max, but it
was like words coming through a staticky phone line. The last time she’d felt such a rush of emotions had been when she and Cody were dating back in high school. So much for being completely over him and moving on with her life the past twenty years.

  * * *

  Cody felt like a little boy at Christmas when Jesse made a turn down the lane onto the Sunflower Ranch. Even with snowdrifts as high as the porch, the house was a welcome sight, but then Jesse drove right past it, toward the barn.

  “What are you doing?” Cody asked. “You could let us out at the house.”

  When Jesse was close to the barn, he drove the tractor off the plowed path and turned it around so he could back into the barn. “Somebody—that would be you, brother—has to get out and open the barn doors and help me get Stevie’s van unhitched.”

  “And then we can have coffee?” Stevie groaned.

  Jesse kept an eye on the rearview as he slowly backed up to the barn doors. “You haven’t had coffee for four days, for real?”

  “We had coffee one morning,” Cody answered.

  “That wasn’t coffee,” Stevie protested. “That was something between road tar and mud from the bottom of the Red River.”

  When he braked, Cody slid Stevie off his lap, got out of the tractor, and opened the barn doors. Once both tractor and van were inside, he closed the door and went around the tractor to help Stevie, but she was already headed for the van. He had liked having her so close to him on the trip home. She had been a beautiful girl, but she’d grown into an even more lovely woman—so warm and kind and funny that he was already wishing that they were back in the tack room with just Dixie and the cats to keep them company.

  Jesse was right behind her. “There’s a mama alpaca in one of the stalls. She gave birth a couple of days ago. Hopefully, she’ll adopt your cria and raise it with hers.”

  “If the hembra won’t take on another baby, then we can put Dixie in a separate stall, and I’ll come feed her every four hours,” Stevie said. “Hopefully, the cats will bed down with her once they check out the place.”