The crowd moved from the fire to see what was going on. Hannah held them back with calm authority. Bird recognized her horse-trainer voice. “Please, folks! Let them do their work!”
A shriek cut through the noise. “Henry!” followed by a desperate figure pushing through the people to get to the pond.
Bird saw Hannah stop the woman before she could jump in.
“It’s Henry,” cried his mother, frantic with fear. “I thought he was with the others. I lost sight of him. He was right beside me.”
“How long ago?”
“Maybe a minute or two, not more.”
“That’s good,” comforted Hannah. “He hasn’t been under very long.”
The young woman nodded, grasping at any good news. She sobbed in Hannah’s arms, with Luke holding her legs tightly, trying to console her.
“Henry!” Luke yelled toward the pond. “Don’t give up! You’re my baby brother!”
The ice was more stubborn than Bird had at first judged, but all the bashing and chipping and smashing was succeeding in breaking through, and large cracks were forming.
Without warning, the whole surface gave way. A large piece sank, and water gushed up. The people watching gave a loud cheer, and all the workers renewed their efforts. Soon the pond looked like a patchwork quilt, with water lapping over chunks of ice as they rose and fell.
Lucky jumped in with a mighty leap. He dove and emerged, then dove again.
Bird girl, came a faint transmission. Help us now.
Cody! Where are you?
Under log, under ice.
Bird felt a cold sweat breaking out. They were trapped under a submerged log and couldn’t swim out.
Lucky! Dive deeper!
Across from her, Bird saw Fred waving to get her attention.
Alberta, I’m going in with the rope. Tell Cliff to drive when I give you the order.
You heard Cody?
Yes. When I know where they are, I’ll get them freed.
Bird rushed over to the truck to give Cliff instructions. From the corner of her eye, she saw her father throw off his coat and boots, and tie the rope around his waist, preparing to dive.
“Cliff!” Bird yelled. “Henry’s stuck under a log. Fred will give me a signal, then you drive and pull them out.”
Cliff nodded. He turned the ignition and awaited the order.
Fred intently studied the pond. He was crouched, ready to leap at the first sign of underwater movement.
All eyes were on the pond. The ice chunks and water became still as the chopping stopped. The only noise was the sound of Lucky splashing as he continued to surface, then dive again. It was seconds, but seemed a lifetime.
Fred saw bubbles. He jumped into the icy water.
Lucky began to whine and yip, louder and louder.
Lucky?
They’re coming up! Coming up!
Good dog!
The little blond head of Henry emerged. He was gagging and choking. His arms flailed spastically as he struggled to get oxygen into his lungs.
Fred surfaced behind him. A big chunk of ice, a metre square, separated them. Henry began to sink under again, and he was just out of Fred’s reach.
Lucky swam underneath the boy and pushed him to the shore. His mother and father and big brother pulled him out of the water and wrapped him in his father’s coat. They rushed the little boy to the fire for warmth, as Paul worked on him and emptied his lungs of water.
The sounds of Henry coughing and vomiting were music to Bird’s ears.
Lucky shook himself off, then ran to the fire to stay with Henry.
You’re a good dog, Lucky!
I lost him, lost him. But I found him, found him.
Fred struggled out of the pond, after finding it difficult to get purchase on the frozen algae. Several people covered him with blankets.
He transmitted to Bird. The boy’s clothes were tangled in tree roots. He couldn’t swim free.
Bravo, Dad. You saved his life. Bird shivered with emotion.
No, Cody did. He’d already chewed through the roots by the time I got there.
Where is he?
I haven’t seen him since he shoved the boy up from the bottom. Fred moved to the fire, dragging his blankets with him. He saved the child. Sorry, Alberta.
Bird couldn’t take her eyes off the pond. Cody had still not emerged. Cody? Cody?
He was frail and old, and he hadn’t recovered from being hit by the falling branch on Christmas Eve. That had been just the night before, Bird remembered, but so much had happened in the meantime that it seemed long ago. Bird feared the worst. Last night, she thought she’d lost him. She willed him to appear.
There was a slight disturbance on the surface of the pond. Bird leaned closer and held her breath.
The small grey body of an animal bobbed up limply.
Cody!
He didn’t move. Bird waited for him to take a breath. He didn’t.
Cody!
Nothing. No transmission and no movement.
Bird grabbed the rope that hung loosely from the rear of Cliff’s truck. She fashioned a lasso and flung it into the water. It didn’t reach. She reeled it back in and threw it out again, harder.
This time it encircled his head.
Cody began to sink. Bird pulled gently, and she felt the rope tug. She didn’t want to strangle him, but she needed to get the animal out of the frigid water, and the sooner the better.
She stepped too close, and her legs slid on the algae into the water. She landed on her bottom but didn’t fall in.
Bird steadily pulled him with great care, aware that she might lose him if she let the rope go slack. Parting the bobbing icy chunks as he came, Cody was finally close enough to shore for her to reach. Bird stretched her arms into the water and lifted him out.
He was lifeless.
Bird inhaled sharply. No! She wailed internally. No! Her head felt like it would explode. No! This cannot be true. Not Cody. No, no, not Cody. No.
She hung her head. Yes. Cody.
She needed to be alone with him, to have some private time to pay tribute to him in her own way, before others found out and flocked around. She kept her mind quiet.
Someone had dropped a blue blanket in all the fuss. She took it and wrapped the small coyote gently, and she held him in her arms as she sat on the ground.
There were many extraordinary animals in Bird’s life, but this one held a place of special honour. He was exceptionally clever and intuitive. Cody had served his chosen people with diligence, bravery, and intelligence. He had never been domesticated. He chose where to live and what to do. He alone decided who to assist, who to protect, and when.
Bird knew that the first person he’d chosen had been Abby Malone. She’d found him as a sick pup and nursed him to health. They’d understood each other as much as people can who aren’t able to communicate directly like Bird and Fred. Abby would be heartbroken at the news.
His last chosen person had been Mrs. Pierson. Bird smiled and wept at the same time as she thought of the little coyote curled up under Mrs. Pierson’s blanket.
She felt a presence beside her.
“Hi, Henry,” she said, without looking.
“Hi, Bird.” He was quiet for a minute. “Is that Cody?”
“Yes. It’s Cody.”
“Is he alive?”
“No, Henry. He didn’t make it.”
The little boy put his hand on the blue blanket and left it there. “He came into the water, down where I was. He got the ropey things off that were holding me down. He’s very strong.”
Bird nodded. She noticed that Henry had changed from his wet clothes and now wore Spider-Man pajamas, under what looked like an adult’s coat.
Henry continued describing what happened, te
ars streaming down his face. “I fell through the ice. I tried to get out, and I thought I was going up, but I was going down. Then Cody came, and then I don’t remember.” He sniffed and his whole body shuddered.
A woman stood behind them. She said, “Cody saved your life, Henry. He knew it might cost him his own, but he did it, anyway. That was the kind of animal he was.”
Bird turned to see who had spoken. It was Henry’s mother. The woman who had looked back at Sunny.
The young woman sat down beside them, and she put her arm firmly around Henry’s shoulders. “Bird, you don’t know me, but I admire you very much. Thank you for rescuing my son.”
“But I didn’t.”
“You raised the alarm. Cody called you, and you made the rescue happen.” Suddenly overwhelmed, the woman stopped talking. Bird knew what she was thinking. She was thinking that without Bird’s special skills, no one would have known that Henry had fallen through the ice.
“My father would’ve heard Cody soon,” said Bird.
Henry’s mother looked startled. She wiped away her tears. “Every second mattered. Henry survived without any damage. I thank you.” Her chin quivered as she spoke.
The reality of the woman’s words sank in. Without quick action, it would’ve been a very different ending. “The temperature of the water worked for us,” Bird said. “The colder the water, the longer the human body is able to live without oxygen. I read that.”
The young woman nodded. “I read the same thing, and I was sure hoping it was true.”
They sat quietly together. Henry’s big brother, Luke, joined them, then their little cousin, Drake.
“Abby will have to be told,” the woman said.
Bird nodded. “I know. She’ll be sad.”
“I’ll tell her.”
“Do you know her?”
“Yes. She rode my horse when I went away to school.”
“Which horse?” asked Bird, mildly curious.
“The sire of your Sundancer.”
Bird’s heart felt like it had stopped. “Not … Dancer?”
“Yes, Dancer. She did really well on him.”
“Yes, she did, I mean, I know, but …” Bird stared at this woman with new interest. “That means that you are …”
“I should’ve introduced myself. I’m Hilary.”
“You’re Hilary James? You’re Mousie?”
She nodded and smiled. “I’m Hilary Casey now. Luke and Henry are Laura Pierson’s great-grandnephews.”
“Mousie. I don’t believe it.” Bird stared at her.
Hilary James was a legend. She and Dancer had ridden together and competed in some of the biggest, most prestigious horse shows in the world and won. They had even gone to England to ride before Queen Elizabeth, and the Queen had asked that Dancer sire a foal with her best mare, Casandra.
Bird was amazed. Mrs. Pierson had never mentioned a family connection. “How are you related to the Piersons?”
“Laura Pierson’s maiden name is Casey. Her brother Henry was Sandy’s grandfather. We named this guy after him.” She ruffled the boy’s hair with affection.
“I’m delighted to meet you.” Bird meant it sincerely.
“We had Christmas with my mother, then when the highway opened, all the Piersons showed up to bring us here to be with Mrs. Pierson. All of us came but my grandmother, who isn’t well. We left her there with her husband, Robert, and she’s disappointed to miss this.”
Mousie’s grandmother was Joy Featherstone, and she and her husband owned The Stonewick Playhouse, which put on plays all summer. Joy was well known and loved in the community. Bird said, “I’m sorry about that. I hope she gets better soon.”
“Me, too. She means the world to me.”
While Bird and Mousie were talking, Henry had not taken his hand off the blanket. He felt it first. “He moved!”
Luke and Drake both put their hands on the blue blanket beside Henry’s. “He moved!” Luke echoed.
Faintly, Bird heard a transmission. Bird girl.
Cody? Can you stay alive?
I can fight no more. It is my time. My body is weak and ready to rest.
Do you know how much you’ll be missed? How much I will miss you?
I do.
Shall I bring you to Mrs. Pierson to say goodbye?
She knows already.
How?
The Good Man told her.
Pete?
Pete is here. Very soon, he will help me leave this earth and go to where I need to go.
Bird held him to her chest. She let out a muffled sob.
“What is it?” asked Mousie.
“Cody is dying. He is ready to go.”
Henry threw his arms around Cody. He cried, “I’m sorry, Cody! Mommy and Daddy said not to, and I walked on the ice, and, and, and now you’ll die.” The little boy sobbed. “I’m sorry!”
Tell Henry I stayed here one more day to save him. Pete needed me to do this, on this Christmas night.
I will. Bird gently took the boy’s hand. “Cody is glad that he could save you as the last thing he did, Henry. He is very old.”
Henry wrapped his little arms around the blanket. Cody’s nose wiggled out. He licked Henry’s arm very softly.
Tell him this, Bird girl. It was meant to be. Do not be sad.
Bird nodded. “Henry, Cody says not to be sad. This is how it’s meant to be.”
“How did he tell you?”
“He told you himself, by licking your arm like that.”
Henry accepted that it was true, because it was.
“Darlings,” Hilary said, “it’s a hard thing to understand, but every creature and thing that is born on the earth must one day die. Flowers die. Trees, birds, insects, animals, and people, too. We all must die.”
Luke said, “Like your father died. With cancer.”
“Yes, he did. A very long time ago. I still miss him.”
“And the dinosaurs. They all died,” Luke added. He leaned close to Bird, and confided, “Henry is very interested in dinosaurs.”
Drake had been staring up at the sky. Now he pointed straight above them. “L-ook!”
They all looked up.
The sky changed for a brief moment. A purple glow swept over the moon, then swirled, becoming a rich pink tinged with blue at the edges.
Bird felt something else. A vacuum of sorts, like an uplifting in the atmosphere. And quickly, everything was the same again, like it never happened.
Except that Cody’s life had gone from him.
From far away, she heard a deep voice with a smile in it. She recognized it. It was Pete Pierson’s. It said, “Always choose kindness. The kind thing is the right thing. It’s all about family.”
Then he was gone.
Bird looked over to the fire where Mrs. Pierson sat on a lawn chair beside the fire, surrounded by her attentive sons and their families. She was looking straight up into the sky, just where Drake had pointed. Her entire face glowed with an inner, joyful light.
As Bird watched, Mrs. Pierson lifted both her arms to the sky and reached out, with her fingers fully extended. Then she blew a two-handed kiss to the heavens, and she brought her hands together under her chin, clasped in thanks.
What Bird had seen and heard by the edge of the pond, she would never forget. And she knew that Mrs. Pierson had witnessed exactly the same thing.
Sometime during Cody’s death, Alec had come to sit with her. She didn’t know how long he’d been there. He put his arm around her back. She rested her head on his shoulder.
Bird reflected on Pete’s words. Mrs. Pierson lived by them, and she vowed that she would, as well.
Her devoted friend Cody was gone. Forever. His body was merely a shell that he’d used to contain his spirit.
Bird felt as emp
ty as that shell, but she noticed that a seed of acceptance was beginning to grow. This was how it was meant to be, as Cody had said himself.
That didn’t mean she wouldn’t miss him terribly.
10
The Circle of Life
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and heaven and nature sing.
Bird hardly slept Christmas night. By the time she’d finally gotten to bed, she was too excited to relax. When she finally did, her sleep had been disturbed by random, vivid images of Laura Pierson lying helpless on her kitchen floor, Eva’s face when she confronted Grandma Jean, and little Henry struggling under the ice. But it was Cody’s heroic rescue and the price he paid that kept her awake. The loss of the small coyote was almost unbearable.
When Boxing Day dawned Bird felt horrible, convinced she was sick with the flu. She would stay in bed all day. She would never eat again. She opened one eye. Her cellphone read 6:55 a.m. She pulled the covers over her head and decided to remain there until she died of starvation.
But she had to pee. Badly. It could not wait. Groaning, she forced herself to get out of bed. On the way back from the bathroom, she couldn’t help but hear the early chickadees singing outside her window. She put her hands over her ears to dull their cheerful sounds, but the plucky little birds reminded her of Laura Pierson and her indomitable spirit, and Bird began to feel the tiniest tinge of hopefulness.
Okay, she thought. Maybe I can live a little longer. There is some good in my life, she considered. Like Sunny. He loved to get in the ring and show off his stuff. They were already eager about next show season. And Alec. He was a really good thing in her life, and he was coming over later that afternoon for Cody’s funeral. And her mother, Eva, was another, who for the first time had openly shared her past with her family. Her father, Fred Sweetree, and her little sister, Julia, who she loved so much, and Aunt Hannah and Uncle Paul, who were now happily married, and old Mrs. Pierson — all these people were really good things in her life. A smile tugged at her lips. Actually, there was much to be thankful for. Plus, she’d promised Amigo to begin his training today. She couldn’t let the rescued horse down.
Christmas at Saddle Creek Page 11
