Dirk rode shotgun with Doc Nick as they travelled the dusty back roads from the vet’s house to the Saddle Up Dude Ranch. It was a totally different way of life than he was used to in the city of Seattle and its outlying suburbs. Though his internship was in a more rural location around the small town of Stanwood in northern Washington State, the landscape stayed green most of the time from the rain, and he usually drove on paved roads—at least until he reached the client’s homes.
The weather was much hotter here and the landscape much drier in the summer. Tumble-weeds frequently rolled across the roads, and “dust devils” swirled in the mown hay fields and barren land where cattle roamed.
Even the wildlife was different. One time Doc slowed down abruptly and Dirk watched a large rattlesnake slither across the road in front of them. “Do you get many of those here?” he asked the older man.
“Oh yeah, they’re quite common in places,” the vet said nonchalantly. “They like to sun themselves on the rocks.”
Dirk knew he’d need to get used to the temperature difference in the eastern half of the state too. It hadn’t cooled off the night before and though only morning, already the temperature pushed ninety degrees. Good thing he’d worn only a sleeveless T-shirt and some thin, cheap jeans under his vet’s uniform—light blue, short-sleeve coveralls. But he’d also worn his steel-toed rubber boots, not knowing whether their next call might be at a cattle ranch. He wished he could have worn sandals, or at least tennis shoes. The AC in the truck didn’t seem to work—or maybe ’ol Doc Nick was used to the heat and didn’t turn it on. Dirk rolled his window all the way down, not that it helped much. Even the breeze was hot. The road seemed to shimmer. Must be a mirage, Dirk thought as he ran a hand over his dusty face. His thoughts turned to swimming pools and beaches and a long swig of cold beer. Well, this was his home now, he’d better get used to it.
****
After a restless night in the heat, Barb wasn’t in the mood for anything else to go wrong that morning. The Pancake Club diners wouldn’t be meeting at the Memories Diner for breakfast that morning and for once, she felt glad. She didn’t think she could do “pleasant” that morning. She even snapped at her mom at breakfast, though she hastily apologized. Barb knew she needed to find a better attitude by the time she reached the Saddle Up.
A bright light seemed to jump across the sky, and startled, Barb looked up. She didn’t see anything unusual, but then she thought she heard just the faintest rumble. She rolled down the window to hear better, and felt a large drop of water splash into her eye. Her head jerked back and the Jeep headed for the shoulder of the road. As she quickly jerked the wheel to the left, a few more large drops landed on the windshield. Well, they certainly could use some rain, but if that was lightning she’d seen, it wasn’t a good sign.
As her vehicle climbed the steep road between her family home and the dude ranch, Barb tried to keep one eye on the sky for any sign of smoke. When none appeared and the storm seemed to have ended, she let herself relax and just enjoy the drive and the breath-taking beauty of the rugged secluded valley below. She supposed that living in the area all her life, she’d just taken its beauty for granted. It wasn’t until the dudes yesterday oohed and aahed over the 700 acres of rolling range and the rugged canyon, that she thought how it must look from a newcomer’s point of view.
When she pulled into her regular parking spot by the barn, Barb felt surprised to see Mrs. Taylor come hurrying out of the lodge.
“Barb!” she shouted with a worried look on her face.
Oh no. Had something happened to Mr. Taylor? Another stroke? The Taylors usually concentrated on taking care of the lodge and other activities and let Barb and Jack handle the horses and the rides. Barb could go for days without catching more than a glimpse of Mrs. Taylor, but she conferred with Mr. Taylor often. She frowned.
“We’ve been trying to reach you. I called your mother but she says you don’t have a cell phone.” The woman appeared out of breath and pushed back the hair that escaped her normally flawless “up-do.”
Seems like everyone was after her to get one of those things, and maybe she should for emergencies, but there wasn’t any reception up here and cell phones weren’t allowed at the ranch anyway, so why carry one? “What’s the matter? What’s happened? Where’s Mr. Taylor?” she responded to the woman who seemed to labor to breathe.
“He’s in the barn. He told me to have you head right there when you got here. The vets are there too.”
Vets?
When Barb reached the barn, she found Mr. Taylor and Jack, along with Doc Nick and an unfamiliar man...Doc’s replacement?
“Barb, glad you’re here.”
Barb could hear the stress in Mr. Taylor’s voice. Ever since the stroke, he seemed to get...agitated in situations that didn’t used to bother him. She didn’t want to stress him further, so she addressed her question to Jack. “What happened to Ruffles?” She nodded at the slightly swaybacked horse cross-tied in the aisle. But the man just gave her a sheepish look, so Barb turned to the vet. “Doc?”
“It looks as though she foundered,” the younger man replied.
“Looks as though?” She frowned. This guy looked way too young to be a vet, with his dark hair, smooth, clean-shaven cheeks and boyish good looks. She looked away from him and over at Doc Nick, but the older vet didn’t comment for once.
Instead, he turned to the younger man and said, “Dirk, this is Barb Sessions. She’s the head wrangler here. Barb, this is Dirk Adams.”
Barb knew her smile probably looked more like a grimace, but she wasn’t in the mood for pleasantries. One of her horses was sick and she had no time for a polite how-do-you-do. When the vet stuck out his hand, she turned to look at Jack instead. “Was he like this when you fed this morning?”
“Uh...yeah.”
There was that sheepish look again. Barb felt sure he was holding something back. She wanted to grab him and shake the truth out of him. “And?” she asked impatiently.
“Well, he wasn’t in his stall...”
“Where was he?”
“In the feed room—”
“What?” Barb couldn’t hold back any longer and took a step toward him, but suddenly a large male body blocked her path.
“Maybe you two could discuss this later? We need to take care of the horse right now, ma’am,” Dirk Adams said, and then stepped back after Jack retreated down the barn aisle.
Ma’am? No one called her that. That’s what they called her mother,” Barb thought immediately, but then realized his intervention gave her a chance to cool down. She nodded and walked over to the horse.
“Dirk, let’s get what we need from the truck,” she heard Doc Nick say and then the sound of their booted feet leaving the barn.
“Jack thinks one of the kids must have let the horse out of his stall,” Mr. Taylor said quietly.
“Huh.” Barb grunted. “Then how did the feed room door get unlocked?”
“Jack thinks the same kid, or maybe kids, opened it and then got spooked when they heard someone coming and ran off before they could close it. We always tell the kids and their parents that the barn is off-limits without one of the staff present. They probably felt guilty and took off. Anyway, that’s what Jack thinks.”
Barb wanted to ask, “What do you think?” But it didn’t matter. She had her own ideas about what happened; she just couldn’t prove them.
Chapter Three
As he pulled the vials of medicine, syringes, and instruments they’d need from the truck’s mobile veterinary clinic box, Dirk wondered if he should speak his mind. When he first visited Doc Nick’s clinic, he’d broached the subject with the older vet and hadn’t really been too surprised at the vet’s response—pretty much what he’d expected from an old-school, small town veterinarian.
“Natural medicine? Is that what they teach in the colleges these days?” Doc Nick stared at him in surprise. “What next? If that’s what this world is coming to, I retired at the
right time.” He shook his head and muttered something derogatory that sounded like, “young punks.”
Dirk didn’t bring it up again during that visit and figured he’d wait until the old vet and his wife drove off in their motor home to see the rest of the country and their grandchildren. But darn it, he knew he could help this horse. The head wrangler seemed devoted to the horses. She looked to be about his age; surely she would be interested in the benefits of modern medicine. He’d see if he could get her away from the owner and Doc and tell her his ideas.
“I’ve got what I need. Meet you at the barn?” Dirk tossed the words over his shoulder at Doc, and didn’t wait for a reply.
“May I speak with you privately for a moment?” Dirk asked in a low tone when he stepped back inside the barn. He felt relieved to see that Mr. Taylor must have left and the wrangler named Jack stood way down at the other end of the long aisle between the double row of stalls.
“Uh, yeah,” Barb Sessions answered him with a distracted look on her face. “Just a minute...Jack!” she hollered down the aisle, so loud that Dirk noticed he wasn’t the only one startled by it. Several horses popped their heads over stall doors, hay sticking out of their mouths as though they’d just grabbed a bite. But the other wrangler either didn’t hear her—not very likely—or chose to ignore her, as he didn’t look up.
Dirk decided not to wait and forged on. “I know that the conventional treatment for your horse’s founder is medicine, stall confinement and corrective shoeing...” he began rather nervously.
She turned her head and looked at him. He had her attention now.
“But there’s another, holistic approach to the care and healing of a laminitic horse—”
“A what?” she interrupted him.
“Laminitic—”
“No, not that word. I know about laminitis. I’m talking about hol...something,” she said impatiently.
“Holistic?
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“Oh. It means addressing an issue as a whole. So a healing regimen encompasses numerous basic principles, such as changing the horse’s diet, cutting out all legume hay for now, adding proper vitamins and minerals, using flax and rice bran—”
“I don’t know what the heck you’re talking about. Doc never talked this way. What does he say about all this?” She looked at him suspiciously. “Whatever Doc says is good enough for me.”
“Uh, well...” He shifted from one foot to the other. She didn’t appear to be as enlightened as he’d thought.
“Oh. I thought you’d have started the treatment, Dirk. I hope you weren’t waiting for me,” Doc Nick said. Dirk flinched at the sound of his voice. He felt as though he’d been caught throwing spitballs while the teacher was out of the classroom. How much did the older vet hear? Would the wrangler rat on him?
“No, we were just having a chat,” she answered and stopped there. Dirk waited for her to elaborate, and when she didn’t, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Bad enough that he was about to replace the town’s beloved Doc Nick, but to alienate an important client as well...Dirk sucked in a breath. He’d heard that small towns often didn’t warm up to new people, but for one unhappy customer to badmouth him before he even started, could ruin his reputation—and his business. Not only had he put every cent he could get his hands on into buying the business, he also had tremendous school loans to pay off. He decided to just shut his mouth for now.
“We were just about to start, Doc,” he said and gave Barb a grateful look.
****
When Barb got home that night, she noticed her mother wore a fancy denim skirt rather than her usual jeans while she stood at the kitchen stove. She also didn’t smell any dinner cooking.
“What’s going on tonight, Ma?” she asked as she headed to the sink to wash the dust off her hands and face. “You’re all dressed up. Gotta dinner date?” She winked and laughed.
“What’s so funny? I go out more than you do, Miss Smarty-pants. In fact, I have a regular beau, you know.”
“Okay, okay, yeah I know, Ma. Isn’t that one of your square-dancing skirts?”
“Yes. Have you forgotten? Tonight is Doc’s retirement party at the Memories Diner.”
“Oh, yeah,” Barb answered in a flat tone of voice.
“Her mother turned to look at her. “What’s wrong? I thought you were dying to meet the new vet.”
“I already have.”
“Oh, did he and Doc come to the diner this morning?” Her mother turned back to the stove.
“No, we had an emergency out at the Saddle Up.”
“Oh no! What happened?” Her mother turned back and faced Barb with a worried look in her eyes.
“Ruffles foundered.”
“Oh dear, the poor horse. How is he?” Barb and her mother often talked about the dude ranch over dinner and she knew all the horses’ names as well as their own, so Barb knew her mother wasn’t just showing an idle interest.
“He’s okay, but Ma, I think Jack is responsible for him getting into the feed room. He claims some of the guest kids must have done it, but he sure looked guilty to me. And that new vet...” She stopped.
“What, dear?” When Barb didn’t say anything more, her mother asked, “Does this mean you don’t want to go with me to Doc’s retirement party?”
“Aren’t you going with Bob?”
“No, he’s out of town.”
Barb remained silent for a moment. She knew if she didn’t go, her mother would go by herself and she’d just sit at home and worry until her mother got home safe and sound. At least if there were two of them in the truck, and a deer or steer wandered off the open range into the vehicle’s path in the pitch black night, her mother wouldn’t have to wait for help on her own. Maybe they should get one of those cell phones...Nah.
“Okay, Ma, I might as well. It’s not like I have anything else to do. Wanna be my Saturday night date?” She laughed.
Her mother frowned.
Chapter Four
Doc and Mrs. Nick invited Dirk to ride with them to town for the party, but he’d declined. Somehow, riding in the back of their SUV made him feel more like a guest than a new resident and even worse, more like a grown son than the new owner and doctor of the town’s large animal veterinarian practice. Maybe because both the older vet and his wife treated him that way? He felt pretty certain that if he’d not been a young, brand new vet, they would have spent less time trying to show him the ropes, and gone guilt-free off to their new life the minute he drove up their driveway.
Now, as he walked in the door of the Memories Diner and followed the sounds of a party to the big banquet room in the back, he thought maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to come on his own after all. If he’d walked in with the respected veterinarian and his wife, it would be a show of solidarity and the townsfolk—and his future clients—would be more likely to accept him. If he was honest with himself, he’d have to admit he felt nervous about his reception. Would the pretty wrangler have told all her friends by now that the new vet was a quack? He felt the way Daniel must have felt when he faced the lions in their den.
He took a deep breath and walked through the doorway.
****
As Barb pulled her truck up to the curb down the block from the diner, she wondered why she hadn’t told her mother more about the handsome young vet? Usually, she felt she could tell her mother—who she’d long considered her closest friend—just about anything. Sometimes she thought they were more like roommates than mother and daughter, since they shared all the house and ranch chores, as well as a love for dancing. So why hadn’t she discussed with her mother, the strange, brief conversation about Holistic medicine? Because she wanted her mother to form her own opinion about the man? She couldn’t help but wonder how her mother—or any of the other ranchers for that matter—would respond to the veterinarian’s newfangled ideas.
“Looks like there’s a good crowd, judging by all the cars on the street tonight,” Barb sai
d to her mother as they slammed the doors shut and walked toward the diner.
“Yes, and the noise.” Her mother nodded to the open door of the diner, where music and laughter drifted out. When they walked into the diner they were greeted by several friends as they headed back to the banquet room. “Where is he? Do you see him?” Barb’s mother asked, looking around.
“Who? Doc Nick? He’s over there with Dolan and Tessa.” She nodded in their direction.
“No, I mean the new vet.”
“No...” she scanned the crowded room. “Oh, there he is.”
“Where? Oh, that tall, good-looking young man talking to Chad and Kristin?”
“Yeah, that’s him.” Barb wondered if her mother noticed the lack of enthusiasm in her voice. Apparently not in all the noise in the room.
“Oh, he’s a looker,” her mother enthused, and lightly punched her arm.
Barb rolled her eyes. Leave it to her mother to notice his looks right off the bat. She felt sure her mother saw him as potential son-in-law material.
“Come on, why don’t you introduce me, since you know him?” Her mother pulled on Barb’s arm.
“I don’t know him, Ma,” Barb protested.
“You know what I mean. You’ve met him.”
“Oh, all right.” She followed her mother as she wove her way through the crowd, until they reached the new vet.
“Hi, Mrs. Sessions, Barb,” Chad greeted them. “Have you met Doctor Adams, our new vet?”
“Gosh, that sounds so strange. I guess I don’t feel like a doctor yet. Why don’t you call me Dirk?” he said before Barb or her mother could respond.
Barb’s mother held out her hand. “Nice to meet you, Dirk. I’m Bobbie Jo Sessions. You met my daughter, the head wrangler at the Saddle Up Dude Ranch, this morning.” She nodded at Barb.
The young vet stared at her for a moment as he shook her mother’s hand, probably wondering if she’d make some derogatory remark. But Barb kept her mouth shut and just gave him a small smile. He smiled back.
The Pancake Club Anthology Page 9
