by K. C. Crowne
She stared at the road in front of us, seemingly lost in thought. She opened her mouth to speak and then shut it again, obviously at a loss for words to prove her point.
“See? I told you. I get stuck with all the shitty tasks,” I said. “No one thinks I have what it takes to be a fireman.”
“That's not true,” she said. “You're the only one who thinks like that.”
I gripped the steering wheel firmly, feeling every muscle in my body tighten up. There was no way she'd see what it was like to be in my shoes. Austin treated her better than the rest. Even Luke got the short end of the stick when Sarah was involved. He seemed to favor her, above everybody else.
“Come on, Sarah,” I said, my voice raising higher than intended. “Even you have your doubts.”
“No, I don't, actually,” she said. “The only thing I doubt is your ability to not get someone killed because you're too damn stubborn for your own good sometimes. Honestly though, I think if you get past that, you'll be just fine. I think you have what it takes to be a solid firefighter.”
Her assessment surprised me. I looked over at her, reading her face to see if she was being serious, or if she was about to deliver the punchline. No one had ever believed in me before. Then again, it wasn't exactly a shining endorsement, either. It was just another case of someone blaming me for not being taken seriously, when I'd never been given the chance to prove myself.
“Easy for you to say, since Austin adores you, and thinks you walk on water,” I said.
“Don't talk about Austin and me.”
Her tone was sharp as a knife. I'd quite obviously hit a sore spot, which piqued my curiosity. More than a little – and being who I was, I just had to dig deeper.
“Oh? Is there something going on between the two of you?” The words were bitter coming out of my mouth.
“Nothing I want to talk about,” she said, slinking down in her seat.
The GPS alerted me that we were close. Sarah just stared out the window, no longer talking to me as I turned down a road that was supposed to lead to the Bucknell Ranch. A sign greeted us as we drove along, signaling that we were in the right place. Sarah sat up again as we approached the property. The sky around us was thick with smoke, a red flickering glow behind that curtain of darkness. It was a vision straight out of the Apocalypse. I shut it all out and continued on down the road.
I had to admit I'd been raised well, but the house, along with the land was impressive even to me. Being from California, I knew it was rare to have acreage, especially that close to San Diego. The ranch, however, had been around forever – long before California had become part of the United States, Sarah informed me. The main house was large and built in a traditional Mexican style. A large open-air porch wrapped around the house. Several smaller outbuildings were scattered around. People could rent out lodges, and of course, there were the stables. It was nice getaway away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
It also appeared mostly empty, minus a couple horses in the field.
Sarah had already pulled out her phone, and she was dialing.
“Jacklyn? We're here. Where are you?” she asked.
I parked the truck, and the front door of the main house opened. A petite woman with long, strawberry blonde hair rushed over to us, her face tight with fear. Instantly, I knew she was Sarah's sister. The two looked so much alike, it was scary. Except Jacklyn was even smaller than Sarah, as impossible as that seemed. She was still in decent shape, but had more lean muscle to her body, and was about three inches shorter than the already short Sarah.
Sarah jumped from the truck and wrapped her arms around her sister. I had to admit, seeing it made my heart swell a bit, but it also made me sad. It made me yearn for a family I never had. I kicked a rock and stared down at the ground, letting the two women catch up without my interference.
“This is Owen,” Sarah said after a few minutes, pulling me into the conversation. “He offered to help out.”
Jacklyn took me in, appraising me with her steely gaze before smiling. She reached her hand out and gave me a soft smile.
“Nice to meet you, Owen,” she said. “I'm Jacklyn, Sarah's little sister.”
“The resemblance is uncanny,” I said.
“You think so?” Jacklyn said.
She grinned as if that was the best compliment someone could give her. Even she recognized how beautiful her sister was. I think anyone with eyes could see it though.
“Yeah, I do,” I said. “There's no denying that you two are related.”
Both women grinned from ear-to-ear, and it was hard not to smile along with them. Jacklyn's eyes suddenly grew wide, and she said, “Oh! I almost forgot. Eric is coming back by to help too. He's just had some errands to run.”
“Eric?” I asked.
Sarah sighed and rolled her eyes, but Jacklyn couldn't contain the excitement. “He's one of the lodgers.”
“And my sister has a thing for him, apparently,” Sarah said dryly.
“And that's a bad thing, why?” I asked.
“Because –” Sarah stopped herself. “Never mind. Let's just drop it. I'm happy to meet him if he stops by.”
Jacklyn laughed, playfully punching her sister in the arm. “Don't scare him off, okay, sis? I mean it.”
“I'll try not to,” Sarah said.
Jacklyn turned back to me. “She's a bit overprotective of me. Both my sisters are.”
“It must be nice,” I said, which prompted both girls to look at me, a puzzled expression on their faces. “I mean, to have someone care about you enough to look out for you. That's nice.”
Jacklyn rolled her eyes. “It's nice that she cares, but it's annoying too. I'm a grown-ass woman.”
“You're twenty-four, Jackie,” Sarah said.
“Yeah, legally an adult,” Jacklyn said, her tone taking a sharp turn. “Not a baby anymore.”
You could cut the sudden tension between them with a knife. Admittedly, I'm typically not someone to break up catfights or arguments. I'm usually the one in the middle of the drama, whether I wanted to be or not. This was entirely new to me, and I decided it might be good to diffuse the situation, given what we were dealing with at the moment.
“So we need to get the horses out of here?” I asked.
Jacklyn nodded, Sarah sighed.
“Yes, I'm not leaving them here to die. If things get bad enough for me to leave, they come too,” she said.
“Alright, do you have a truck? A trailer? We should get moving,” I said,suddenly, finding myself taking charge of the situation. Surprisingly, Sarah seemed content to let me, so I just went with it. “And there's one in labor, correct?”
“Yes, Silver. She's been in labor for hours now and won't budge,” Jacklyn said. “I tried to call the vets, but all the local ones have already evacuated or are preparing to leave. Nobody's coming to help.”
“Can I see her?” I asked.
Jacklyn looked surprised but said, “Sure. Follow me.”
I walked behind Jacklyn, Sarah coming up behind me. We walked over to the first stable, the one closest to the main house, and before entering, I heard the familiar sound of a horse whinnying, obviously in pain and discomfort. I pushed my way past Jacklyn and found the horse, a gray mare, in distress.
“Sweet girl,” I whispered, stroking her face.
Sarah stood back, watching me as if I'd grown an extra head as I comforted the creature. The horse calmed down at my touch, and with Jacklyn's help. The mare's eyes were wide, and I could see the fear filling them, but she calmed down enough for me to do what I needed to do.
“Who knew you were such an animal lover, Owen,” Sarah said.
“Yeah, well, there's a lot you don't know about me,” I muttered. “Did you really think I was vegan for my own health?”
“You're vegan?” Jacklyn asked, then looked over at Sarah with a smile. “He's a keeper.”
“We're not dating,” Sarah said, crossing her arms in front of her with a laugh. “
He's one of the guys in my house.”
She leaned against the stable, but her eyes softened as she looked at the horse.
“Can you keep her calm while I have a look?” I said.
Jacklyn agreed, moving to the front of the horse and stroked her, talking to her in soothing tones. I moved around to the back of the horse, stroking the silvery strands that undoubtably gave her the name she bore. She was a beautiful horse that actually reminded me of one I had as a child. The situation she was in reminded me of a time when I was a kid as well. We had a horse in distress giving birth. I remembered it was my first time seeing anything like it, but I helped our ranchhand, Martha, deliver a breeched foal in the middle of the night. I remembered the scene and was still somewhat awed by it.
Thinking back to Martha, I heard her voice in my head. She'd been so cool and collected that night and had taken charge of the situation. She reminded me to breathe, to stay calm, and to keep my emotions in check. She told me the animal can tell if you're stressed out, and that letting my emotions take hold of me would only add to their stress as well.
Silver was already freaked out and in pain, and I didn't want to make it any worse for her. I had a feeling that Silver's foal was breach – just like the horse had been when I was a child – so, I knelt down behind the mare and spoke to her in soothing tones, just as Jacklyn was doing. The mare's body was still tensed and tight, and her eyes were wide with distress. I patted her flank, then not even giving it a second thought, I reached inside of her as slowly and delicately as I could. There was no getting around the fact that was I was doing was invasive as hell, but there was no other way around it. All I could do was be as gentle as I could.
Sarah made a retching noise behind me.
“Nothing about childbirth is sexy,” I muttered.
The moment I reached in, I felt the foal's hind end. Just as I thought, a breech birth. “God dammit, this isn't going to be easy,” I said. “Keep her calm, Jacklyn. This isn't going to be a lot of fun for any of us.”
Sarah was now right behind me, kneeling beside me. “Do you need help?”
“Just keep the mare calm,” I said. “I need to get the back feet up and out, or else this foal isn't coming out without surgery. Which, given the conditions outside, and the fact that all the vets have evacuated, I'm pretty sure mean a horrible, agonizing death for both of them.”
Sarah rubbed Silver's side. The horse's tail swished back and forth, and her abdomen contracted. The poor girl was trying, but the foal wasn't budging. She whinnied weakly, but in that small sound, I heard so much pain. She was suffering. Reaching inside of her again, I knew what I had to find a way to safely remove the foal – and quickly. With the fire bearing down on us, the impetus to get this done as quickly as possible was pressing down on me.
Sliding my hand and arm, into the mare, I pushed my way past the tail of the foal, and kept going until I felt a foot. Just one foot. That was all I needed for now. I grabbed hold of that foot and pulled on it with all my might. For a long moment, it didn't budge, and Silver let out a sound that was pure agony, tearing at my heart. There was nothing else I could do, unless I wanted to see mother and baby die. So, I gritted my teeth, clenched my jaw, and pulled until the foal came out over the pelvis, and slipped into the birth canal.
“Yes, good girl,” I said. “One more foot to go.”
I reached deeper inside one more time, searching for the other leg. We were almost there. My hand fell on the second back foot and I repeated my previous action. I did what Martha taught me to do. I cupped the foot in my hands and pulled hard. I pulled until both feet were hanging out of the birth canal. Silver contracted, and I helped pull on the foal at the same time.
Suddenly the resistance was gone as the foal slipped free, spilling out onto the ground, covered in a thick membrane. Most foals were able to remove it themselves, but in this case, I needed to make sure the baby was breathing. I ripped it open, found the horse's nose and quickly began cleaning the mucus from around it off. Sarah joined me, helping wipe the foal clean. I felt the ribcage, and it was breathing. The baby was breathing.
I fell backward onto the floor, relief washing over me. I was gross, covered in fluids that would disgust most people, but I didn't care. The foal was alive and that was all that mattered.
“What do we do now?” Sarah asked.
“Leave it be. Silver will know what to do,” I said. “She'll break the umbilical cord on her own when she's ready. But, for now, we leave them be.”
“We have to get them out of here,” Sarah said, looking over at Jacklyn. “We need to get everyone out of here.”
“We need to give them twenty or thirty minutes,” I said. “Let's load up the other horses first, and we can come back for them. We have time for that, at least.”
I stood, and for the first time, I saw the look on Sarah's face. Her eyes were wide and filled with surprise as she gawked at me. It was nice to know I could still surprise people now and then – especially someone like her.
“Owen, thank you –” Jacklyn started to say.
I noticed tears welling in her eyes as she continued stroking Silver's muzzle.
“I'm just glad she's okay,” I said.
“I don't know what we'd have done without you,” Jacklyn cried.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Sarah asked.
“We'll talk about it later,” I said. “First, I need to clean up. Then, we need to get the horses loaded. The fire's coming, and we need to get out of here.”
“Of course,” Jacklyn said, giving Silver a quick kiss on the nose before standing up. “Let me show you to the bathroom. You can grab a quick shower. I'm sure one of the guys has some fresh clothes for you to wear.”
Sarah stood up too, and as we walked across the yard and toward the house, she said something I never thought I'd hear from one of my team members.
“Good job back there, Owen,” she said. “You did good. Real good.”
* * *
Milo Bucknell and I were apparently about the same size. Thanks to him, I had a new pair of jeans and a long-sleeved, flannel shirt. I just needed the cowboy hat and boots, and I'd probably fit right in at the ranch. I'd taken a very quick shower at the house, and when I finished drying off, I heard another voice in the hallway.
A male voice.
Jacklyn was laughing, but I heard no sign of Sarah. I left the bathroom and walked down the hallway to find all three of them sitting around a kitchen table. There was a guy with them. A man with dark brown hair, and very dark, almost black eyes.
The scene was almost surreal to me. Beyond the windows, I could see the flames lighting up the nighttime sky, casting a red and orange glow over the world. It looked like the end times, and yet, in there, the three of them sat around the table like nothing was going on. Like everything was normal.
The world outside looked like it was ending, but they were sitting around chit chatting. The disconnect between the two images was stunning to me.
“Owen, this is Eric,” Jacklyn said, standing up to introduce us. “Eric, this is Owen. He's the one who helped Silver deliver her foal.”
Eric stood up and walked over to me, a friendly smile on his face. When he reached me, I noticed a strong smell on him that caused me to take a step back. Sarah was watching me closely, and I couldn't figure out what was going on.
“Sorry, I need to clean up. Truck broke down on the way back here,” Eric said. “Spilled some oil on me.”
It didn't smell like oil to me. It smelled more like gasoline, tinged with the scent of smoke. Then again, he had been outside, potentially not far from the fires themselves. It was easy to understand why he might smell like it. Still, I couldn't shake the way Sarah was looking over at me. Something was up, and I wasn't getting what she was trying to tell me.
“So you're a firefighter as well?” Eric asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “I work with Jacklyn’s sister.
“What do you make of these fires lately?” he as
ked. “Crazy, huh?”
“Very crazy,” I said. “Speaking of, we should probably get the horses loaded up and get out of here, with that one coming this way.”
Sarah spoke up. “Hey, Eric, do you mind hooking the horse trailers up? Owen's right, we really ought to get going.”
“I'll help him,” Jacklyn said.
“No, Jackie,” Sarah said, patting the chair next to her. “Hang out with me for a bit, please?”
Yeah, something wasn't right. I could see it in Sarah's face and hear it in her voice. Jacklyn must have heard it too. She looked over at her sister, prepared to argue – she was every bit as ornery and stubborn as her big sister, so I jumped in, hoping to head off whatever was about to happen before it actually did. There was no time for a sisterly spat.
“Yeah, we should check on Silver anyway,” I said to Eric. “You know her better than I do. We need to make sure she's fit to travel here pretty quick.”
Jacklyn turned to me, and she nodded. I'd convinced her to stay. Sarah shot me an appreciative glance as Eric nodded at me.
“Yeah, sure,” he said. “I'm on it.”
“Great,” I replied. “I'll catch up with you in just a second.”
Eric nodded again, then turned, and headed out the door. I waited until the door banged shut, and I saw him walking across the yard toward the stables before I turned to Sarah,and gave her the “all clear” sign. Jacklyn immediately rounded on her sister, a look of anger etched upon her smooth, flawless face.
“What the hell is going on?” Jacklyn asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest, a defiant look on her face.
“Something isn't right with him, Jackie,” Sarah said. “I hate to say it, but –”
Jacklyn scoffed. “Of course you'd say that. You don't like anyone I date. You never have.”
“Not true. I've given my blessing for you to date Milo or any of the guys you work with,” she said.
“Yeah, except they're my bosses, Sarah, and that would be unprofessional,” she snapped. “You know that, and that's the only reason you gave your blessing.”
“Like this wouldn't be?” Sarah said. “He's a lodger, Jacklyn! And by the way, a guy you know next to nothing about.”
