by Ember Pierce
Sure enough, the first crack of thunder sounded just as they entered the barn. He led her toward one of the calves and asked, “So, did you have any animals around in the city?”
* * *
Bonny shrugged. “Some people kept chickens out back of our tenement, but they wouldn’t share the eggs so I never went near them. And there were stray dogs that sometimes showed up in packs, but that was it.”
* * *
“That makes sense. I imagine you had all your brothers and sisters to keep you busy, anyway.”
* * *
Bonny was quiet for a long moment, then she said, “So, Gus mentioned something about you having a brother who died. I wondered why you didn’t mention that in any of your letters.”
* * *
Kristian grew quiet, too. He had wondered when it would be the right time to mention John to her.
* * *
Their letters had been so brief, there had never seemed to be a good moment to tell her about something so important.
* * *
He told her that, then he said, “John was my best friend and my biggest supporter. When he died, I think a piece of me died, too.
* * *
“Frankly, I have not yet been comfortable talking about John or his death. I was there when he died. There was an accident with a horse.
* * *
“I must admit, I had a hard time—and I still have a hard time—dealing with life after John. I just for a while couldn’t believe that he was gone. Life just wasn’t the same.”
* * *
“I can understand. I knew people back east who lost family members. Each coped a little the same and each coped differently, too.
* * *
“That was one thing that was great about my family. We didn’t lose any members, Most families on our street, or many, lost a child before he or she hit twenty-one.
* * *
“Death was no stranger in that place,” Bonny said sadly.
* * *
“Okay, let’s don’t talk about death anymore,” Kristian announced. “Would you like me to show you Temple? I know she would be happy to meet you.”
* * *
“Yes!”
* * *
They walked into the barn and Bonny immediately saw the tall, gray gelding. She was in a stall, eating hay, and she looked toward the door when the two walked in.
* * *
Bonny thought she was beautiful. She followed Kristian as he walked toward her and patted her.
* * *
“You can pat her, too,” he assured her. “She is very gentle and she likes the attention. She also likes to gallop, not just ride.
* * *
“We can move slowly there and I can teach you to ride first. I think you two will be fine partners.”
* * *
Bonny reached out her hand tentatively. She almost touched the horse, then drew her hand back. She reached it out again very slowly.
* * *
First, she gently touched the horse with her fingertips, then pulled them back. Temple just continued munching hay, ignoring the second human in the barn.
* * *
She munched more hay as Bonny finally put her hand on Temple’s back and patted it. Then, she put her left hand on the horse.
* * *
“You see? She’s very friendly. She likes to be patted. She does like humans.”
* * *
Bonny smiled as she kept petting the horse.
* * *
“A few more pets and you will be her friend for life,” Kristian promised. “Horses are valuable out here. If a man travels out here he needs a horse—without it, he’s lost.
* * *
“We’ve had horses here for so long we sometimes forget they are not native to the West, nor to the nation.
* * *
“They were brought over by the Spanish, and I’m glad they did. Both cowboys and the Indians were be lost without their four-footed friends.”
* * *
“Really? I never knew that. I thought horses had… well, always been here.”
* * *
Kristian shook his head. “Not always. Everybody walked until the Spanish brought the first horses and, thank goodness, kept bringing them.
* * *
“The Indians, of course, like to ride bareback. I think that’s amazing, and it’s something I could not do. I need a saddle.”
* * *
“I’m sure I will, too.”
* * *
“We can get you one. Horse riding is like anything else—it takes a little getting used to, but you will be able to quickly learn.”
* * *
He moved around to another stall and stuck his hand in a barrel there. He pulled out an apple.
* * *
“Here, you can feed her. Temple will really love you then.” He walked back toward Bonny and the horse.
* * *
Temple had noticed the apple and focused her eyes on it. For a minute, she stopped eating the hay.
* * *
“Flatten your hand,” Kristian instructed. “Temple and all horses do like apples. But we have to make sure she eats the apple without also nibbling on one of your fingers.”
* * *
Bonny flattened her hand and Kristian placed the apple in the center of it. “Don’t hold it with your fingers or, in her enthusiasm, Temple may take a bite out of your hand without meaning to.
* * *
“Just keep it in the center there and move it slowly closer to her. She can gobble it down if you hold it like this.”
* * *
Bonny moved her hand toward the horse. She was surprised and almost jerked back when she saw how quick Temple moved in, pushing her mouth around the apple and chomping it.
* * *
“Horses can look slow unless you offer them an apple. Then, they move quickly,” Kristian said. “Would you like to give her another?”
* * *
“Yes,” Bonny said.
* * *
Kristian got another apple and deposited it on her flat hand. Temple again moved quickly to gobble it down, then brushed Bonny’s hand with her nose.
* * *
“She definitely likes you now. Later, I can teach you to saddle her and then we’ll go riding.
* * *
“And, unlike most pets, she doesn’t mind a bath. In fact, she rather likes it. You can do that if you like, too.”
* * *
“I would. How often do you give her a bath?”
* * *
“About once a week. She gets dusty roaming over the range and does like to clean the dust off.
* * *
“But we only bathe her in the summer and spring, occasionally in the fall depending on the temperature. In the winter, it gets too cold in this state and she would freeze. And we wouldn’t want that.”
* * *
“No, definitely not.”
* * *
They eased back from the stall and started walking toward the barn door.
* * *
“This is a wonderful ranch, Kristian. I love it. It’s perfect,” Bonny said.
* * *
He laughed. “Well, it’s not perfect, but we like it, and we hope to improve it in the future. Expand it a bit and make it a little better. You will make it better, Bonny.”
* * *
She gave a shy smile. “Thank you. I’m so sorry about your brother, and sorry you had to go through that,” Bonny added, putting her hand on his arm.
* * *
Then she said, “Gus said something else that I wanted to ask you about. I mean, he didn’t actually say anything, but he did get me wondering about something. Do you mind if I ask you?”
* * *
“You can ask me anything,” Kristian said.
* * *
Outside, the storm was still going strong with thunder crashing, rain pummeling the roof and wind buffeting the barn. There didn’t seem to be any better time to get to know eac
h other than right now.
* * *
“Are you a drinker?”
* * *
The question caught him off-guard, and he blanched. “What?” he asked.
* * *
“Are you a drinker? I just couldn’t marry a man who drinks. It would be enough for me to call this off and go back to Philadelphia, and let me tell you, that is saying a lot,” Bonny said as she turned to look straight at him.
* * *
This was a side of Bonny he hadn’t yet seen, and he found that he liked her straight-forward nature. He said, “No, of course not. I definitely do not drink.”
* * *
He felt uncomfortable as soon as he said it, though. It wasn’t exactly a lie. But he couldn’t tell her about his past, not without risking losing her.
* * *
And he definitely didn’t want to lose her. He felt like they could have a great life together.
* * *
Besides that, he was ashamed of the way he had behaved. There was no erasing that past, but he was trying to make up for it now.
* * *
He hadn’t had a drink in a few weeks, so at this moment in time, he could honestly say that he was not a drinker. She hadn’t asked him if he had been a drinker.
* * *
Surely that difference mattered. Right?
* * *
Bonny gazed at him with big, trusting eyes, and his resolve not to drink grew stronger. He wanted to do right by her, for his parents, for John.
* * *
He had a lot to prove, and he was pretty sure he could do it. With her by his side, Kristian felt like he could succeed at just about anything.
* * *
ONE WEEK LATER
* * *
BONNY
* * *
When they entered the small community church, dozens of congregants came forward to shake the hands of the Downings and be introduced to Bonny.
* * *
She heard dozens of names but knew she could not remember them all. One or two stuck in her mind.
* * *
There was a stout, laughing man with mutton chop whiskers that she thought would be impossible to forget. He often roared when talking.
* * *
His wife was also as large as he was and she, too, had a cheery personality. They were the Bensons, Stan and Gloria, and Bonny was told they were two of the first members of the church and had been loyal congregants for almost thirty years.
* * *
The only other man whose name she could be sure of was a tall, slender man named Paul Whitcomb, who had to be at least six feet four. His wife had unfortunately died from sickness the previous year but he, too, was a loyal member of the congregation.
* * *
Bonny and the Downings sat down in the third pew. The Reverend Samuel Smallwood stood at the front of the church while the hymns were sung.
* * *
Bonny thought the congregation had a fine singing voice. As she looked around, she saw that the church was 90 percent filled.
* * *
In her brief times at the church back east, she’d thought most congregants looked a bit sad, or maybe just unenthusiastic at being there. But the men and women of Reverend Smallwood’s domination looked happy to be in church.
* * *
Almost all of them had smiles on their faces and they looked enthusiastic, not sad. She smiled and thought the church was a wonderful part of the community.
* * *
Reverend Smallwood said a prayer after the singing and walked behind the pulpit. He opened his arms as if embracing the crowd.
* * *
“I want to welcome all of you to the service. I appreciate you being here, and the Lord appreciates you being here. The Bible says to assemble yourself together.
* * *
“That’s a command. The Lord knows many of you wanted to stay in bed. This is the one day of the week when you get to sleep late.”
* * *
Some laughter came from the congregation.
* * *
“But you obeyed the Lord and came, and that will be credited to your account. I’m going to talk today about a scripture that may have direct reference to incidents here in Red Desert.
* * *
“You all may recall the story of Ruth. She has her own book in the Bible, and she merits one due to her great courage and obedience.
* * *
“If you recall, Ruth’s husband died and her mother-in-law was Naomi. Naomi was a Jew and in one of the tribes of Judaism. Ruth was not.
* * *
“She could have gone home to her own people. But she loved Naomi and said, in a statement that has gone done through the ages, that, ‘Your people shall be my people and your God shall be my God.’ That was the beginning of blessings for her.”
* * *
He paused for a moment. “Sitting here at this time, we cannot understand just how dramatic that statement was, and just how jarring it sounded to Naomi.
* * *
“In those days, you stayed with your tribe. And particularly in that day, pagans did not mingle with Jews. Yet, Ruth did.
* * *
“‘Your people shall be my people,’ she said, ‘and your God shall be my God.’ That set her destiny. She trusted a God she didn’t really know and she put her life in His hands.
* * *
“That’s more faith than a lot of us have today. And she stood firm and was blessed and, at the end of her life and before, was very happy she made that commitment.
* * *
“She and her whole family were blessed because of it. And she stood by it.
* * *
“I’m sure there may have been a few times, in the beginning, when she was thinking, ‘Did I make the right choice?’ Yes, she did.
* * *
“And soon, the Lord proved to her that she made the right choice and, as I noted, her family was blessed.”
* * *
Kristian nodded his head. He knew he had made the right choice in giving up his lifestyle. He knew in his heart his family would be blessed, and his family included Bonny.
* * *
He gritted his teeth. He had to be like Ruth. He had made a commitment and he had to stand by it.
* * *
“And we have to keep that promise, no matter if fear comes against us. And it will. Do you remember after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea?
* * *
“The Lord told them to take the land that they were in. But they had sent spies out to look over the land.
* * *
“Two came back and had full confidence in the Lord and told the people they could take the land. But the other eight said no, that the people there were too powerful for them. ‘We look like grasshoppers in their sight,’ the eight said.
* * *
“Hey, how did they know how they looked in the sight of those pagans? Did they go up and ask them?
* * *
“Besides, it didn’t matter how they looked. The Lord had already told them to take the land and he would be on their side.
* * *
“The Israelites said their opponents were ten feet tall. Well, so what? Just how tall is God? If he’s on your side, that’s the only thing that counts.
* * *
“He’s not only taller than ten feet, he’s bigger and stronger than an army of ten thousand ten-foot-tall guys.
* * *
“If God is on your side, march in with confidence. And now, listen to this—this is important. Anytime you are doing the right thing, God is on your side.
