Clueless Cowboy

by Mary Connealy

  “Good call.” Emily started snagging the rest of them. “Eggs are cheap.”

  ❧

  Jake had rediscovered his love of farming when Stephie came running into his house one Sunday evening, shortly after Jake had come home from supper and settled in to study the Bible Emily had given him. Emily brought him the bulletin from church every week and gave him a few notes about the sermon. He spent time daily in prayer and Bible study, but on Sunday nights he made it a point to worship.

  “I can’t find Cowlick.”

  “I checked her just before I came over to your place to eat.” Jake grabbed a jacket and followed Stephie outside in the drizzle. His yard was soaked from a weekend of heavy rains. Emily had been smiling ever since the downpour started Friday night, saying a heavy rain in July made all the difference in her third cutting hay crop. Jake saw Cowlick’s tracks leaving the cow yard through that stupid, knocked-down gate. Why hadn’t he gotten it wired up more solidly?

  “I’ll go after her. You go get Emily, okay?”

  Stephie nodded and ran for her big sister. The two of them caught up with him coming back from the spot where Cowlick had gone to have her baby. “I went all the way to the edge of the pasture. She’s not there.”

  Emily looked grim. “I’d better get my pickup. No sense ruining your Jeep on this rutted field.”

  Emily was a while driving over because of the circuitous route she had to take around the creek, but she finally arrived. Jake and Stephie came out of the barn where they’d gone to avoid the rain, and climbed in. The rain had slowed to a sprinkle, but the pasture was soft.

  They swung around a five-mile stretch of land between Jake’s place and the nearest highway.

  “We’re running out of places to look.” Emily wrestled the truck over the muddy, rutted pastureland.

  Stephie screamed. “I see the calf.” She pointed to a spot right beside the wooded creek. The calf stood inches from the bank.

  Emily pulled to a stop. They jumped out and went to the calf, expecting to see Cowlick in the woods, but when Jake stepped past the first tree, the ground, mushy from rain, broke off under his feet.

  Emily grabbed him as he stumbled backward from the edge or he’d have fallen into the creek. “Why isn’t that fenced?”

  “Because cows are instinctively smart enough to stay away from the edge,” Emily answered.

  Jake’s throat went dry. “Didn’t you say dairy cattle had the instincts bred out of them?”

  Twenty

  “That calf isn’t standing here for his health.” Emily looked at the muddy bank. The calf bawled at the creek.

  Jake shook his head as he ran one hand into his damp hair.

  “I’m going to have to go down there.” Emily stood in the drizzling rain, glaring at that cold muddy bank. She thought of the hot supper she’d just slid off the stove and her clean, comfortable kitchen. But ranchers learn about hard work at a young age.

  “All right, you guys hold on to the calf. Don’t let it loose or it might fall in next.” Emily took two steps.

  Jake grabbed her arm. “I’ll do it.”

  Emily smiled. “You’re not wearing overshoes.”

  He glanced at his feet sheepishly.

  “There’s still enough light if we hurry. Let go.” She jerked her arm.

  His jaw worked, then he released her.

  Dusk gathered in the gloomy sky as Emily, clinging to passing branches, slipped and slid and ran and mostly fell to the bottom of the bank. The leaves overhead dripped with misting rain. Bending under branches, Emily slogged through the deep mud that bordered the meandering rivulet of creek water. She was ready to turn and scout the other direction when she saw an unusually smooth stretch of mud.

  Then the mud blinked.

  Emily’s stomach twisted as she realized Cowlick was lying on her side, coated with mud and sunk in until she hardly made a bump on the muddy surface. Her head was coated and her nose. She couldn’t be alive.

  Then that eye blinked again.

  Emily waded in. Mud flowed over the tops of her boots. She got to Cowlick’s head and, with a sucking sound, lifted. Emily sank to her knees as she wiped out Cowlick’s nose with the sleeve of her denim jacket. Then she tore the jacket off and used every inch of it to clear Cowlick’s air passages.

  Emily twisted herself around until she sat in the mud under Cowlick’s head. “Jake, can you hear me?” The top of the creek bank seemed a million miles away.

  “Yeah, I’m here. You want me to come down?” His voice, clearly audible, had to be twenty feet straight above her head. How were they ever going to get Cowlick up that hill?

  “No, I found her but I can’t get her out. We’re going to. . .” Emily didn’t know if Jake could do everything, but she couldn’t leave Cowlick. “This is gonna get complicated.”

  “Tell me.” His voice was like a weight lifting off Emily. She had appreciated all he did to make her life easier through this summer, but until this minute she didn’t realize how alone she’d been. “Go to my place. The tractor we bale with—”

  “The Thirty-Twenty International?”

  He really did know what to do. “Yeah, you have to take the baler off and hook up the blade.”

  “The yellow one in your machine shed?”

  “That’s right. You know how to attach it, right?”

  “Does it have those quick attaching clamps like the baler?”

  “Yes, it’s the same. Bring it.” The mud oozed higher on Emily’s body. “And bring all the log chain you can find. There’s some in all four tractors, one in the toolbox in my truck, and two lengths in the barn. We’re going to need enough to stretch from up there to Cowlick, and we can’t get the tractor too close to the edge.”

  There was an extended moment of silence.

  “I’ll come down. You go do all this.” He sounded like he hated to leave her.

  She appreciated that. “Hurry up, hotshot. I’m taking a mud bath down here and it’s not the thrill you might expect.”

  “Be right back. Let’s go, Stephie.”

  The truck’s engine started up and quickly faded into the distance. The calf bawled and Emily wished she’d thought to tell them to take the calf. The way this night was going, the calf would fall over the edge next, although the little guy had shown more sense than his mother so far.

  It was fully dark now. At first she just sat and absorbed how alone she and Cowlick were. Except for the mud and the cold rain that dripped through the tree and down her neck, it wasn’t a bad feeling.

  The night closed in around Emily. Crickets chirping and frogs croaking began to take on a menacing edge. Hours seemed to pass as she sat surrounded by the night. She spent a nice chunk of it in prayer. For strength to get this cow out of the creek. And thanking God that they’d found her alive.

  When she heard the roar of her tractor, Emily breathed a sigh of relief.

  The motor cut back to a lower growl and the cab door slammed. “What now?” Jake’s voice gave her a boost of energy.

  “Link the chains and lower them. We’ll use them to get Cowlick unstuck first. We have to get her out of this mudhole. There’s a more gradual slope down a few feet that if we cut it down with the blade, once she’s unstuck and we get her up, she might be able to climb out.”

  Emily heard the clinking of the heavy chain and watched for the black chain on the black ground in the black night. When she finally spotted it, Emily pulled out from under Cowlick with some difficulty. Cowlick, exhausted, dropped her head in the mud.

  Emily grabbed the chain, then scrambled around to Cowlick’s belly. Burrowing her arms under the little cow, Emily shoved the chain under her belly right behind the cow’s front legs.

  “Let me lift her.” Jake’s deep voice sounded inches behind her.

  Emily squeaked with fright. Then his strong hands joined hers as he knelt beside her in the muck, sliding the chain further. Cowlick lurched, struggling to free herself. Emily’s hands skidded. She landed face fir
st on Cowlick’s belly. She knocked into Jake, who lost his footing and tipped sideways into the mud up to his shoulder on the left side.

  Emily pulled herself up as Jake scrambled back to his knees. Swiping the sludge off her face, Emily shook her hands, then looked grimly at her mud-soaked neighbor. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark enough to see the left half of his face was coated with mud.

  “You know, Jake, animals get in trouble more often than you’d think. You sacrifice meals and sleep and your body to take care of them. A rancher does that because that’s what a rancher does.”

  Jake angled his body toward her, but his knees were so deep in the mud they didn’t move. “Are you saying a rancher’s gotta do what a rancher’s gotta do?” Jake asked sardonically.

  Emily smiled, but the mud on her face had started to harden so she doubted if her lips actually curved up. “The point is, this moment, right here, right now, this is what ranching is really like.”

  Jake gave an unintelligible grunt that matched Emily’s mood pretty well. “This moment, right here, right now, I’m glad I came to ranching later in life. I’ll always be happy to know I missed thirty years of it.” He went back to work on the log chain.

  Finally, they got it fastened.

  “You go up and drive,” Jake offered. “I’ll push.”

  Emily nodded, not sure she had the energy to climb the steep bank but sure she didn’t match Jake in brute strength. His muscle would ease the strain on Cowlick when the tractor pulled on her. “Hold her head out of the mud. She’s drowning.”

  Jake was already doing it.

  Emily dragged herself out of the mudhole and headed up. She crawled up the bank on her hands and knees.

  “Emily, you’re muddy.” Stephie stood hugging the baby calf.

  Emily thought that summed it up nicely. “You listen to Jake. I won’t be able to hear him over the tractor.”

  “Okay.” Stephie let go of the little bull.

  “You get that, Jake?” Emily yelled.

  “Got it.”

  Emily kept yelling at the disembodied voice in the darkness. “We’ll pull her free, then figure out how to get her up! Yell when she’s loose!”

  “Stephie”—Emily turned to her little sister—“when Jake yells, run in front of the tractor and wave your arms and yell your head off. But be careful. Stay away from the tractor and get out front where my headlights can find you. I’ll be going really slow. Make a big motion like this.” Emily raised both hands over her head and crossed them at the wrist, then lowered them straight out at her sides. “Got it?”

  Stephie imitated the motion.

  “Don’t get close to the tractor.” Emily picked up the chain, attached it to the back of the tractor, and scaled the high steps. She put the big machine in gear, increased the torque to a roar, and eased the tractor forward. Seconds after she started, Stephie dashed forward, shouting and waving frantically. Emily locked the brake and jumped back to the ground. She slipped and slid and ran and mostly fell down the bank and slogged to Jake’s side.

  Cowlick refused to stand.

  “I’m going to use the blade to knock out a slope. Right over there.” Emily pointed to the place she’d just come down. “Stay with her.”

  “You’ve already been up and down that bank four times. I’ll climb out.”

  Emily, already halfway up the slope, yelled, “I’m not strong enough to stop her if she starts sliding back into the mud!”

  Emily gave up ten seconds after she started. The creek bank was too unstable to risk getting her tractor that close. “Jake, has she stood up yet?”

  “No, she won’t even try.” His deep voice seemed disembodied, like the creek was speaking to her.

  “Okay, we’re going to have to pull her up with the chain.”

  “It’s too hard on her!” Jake yelled. “You’ll kill her!”

  “I don’t know how else to do it.” Grimly worried about the cow, Emily didn’t wait for an answer. She backed the tractor up to the chain and reattached it.

  “Stephie, signal just like before if Jake wanted the tractor stopped.” Her jaw clenched, Emily pulled slowly away from the bank.

  At last, Stephie charged in front of the tractor, waving.

  Emily jumped to the ground.

  “We got her up, Emily!” Stephie yelled.

  Emily hurried to Cowlick’s side. Jake was just getting to the top of the bank. Cowlick, lying out flat on the ground, didn’t even react as they unhooked the chain. The baby calf bawled and bunted at his mother. Cowlick’s legs jerked and she lifted her head, but she didn’t try to get up.

  “We’re just going to have to let her rest.” Emily patted the cow’s muddy side. “Let’s get some feed and water for her. If we can get her to eat, she may be okay in the morning.”

  They rode back in the overcrowded tractor cab. Emily got a small bucket of corn and some water. The mud was dry and flaking off in big chunks. She drove out to the spot where they had left Cowlick, her truck’s windshield wipers swiping at the drizzling rain.

  Jake, on the passenger’s side, reached across Stephie to grip Emily’s arm. “She’s gone.”

  “That means she got up.” Emily smiled, and the mud on her face cracked. “She’ll live.”

  Jake sagged against the seat. He hadn’t worried out loud about Cowlick, but Emily knew he loved the little cow.

  “Let’s see where she’s gotten to.” Emily drove along the creek. When she was sure Cowlick couldn’t have come this far, she swung her truck around. Her headlights fell broadside on Cowlick, calmly grazing right beside the creek. The headlights startled her and she jumped.

  Emily watched in horror as Cowlick disappeared over the edge of the creek bank. The three of them sat in stunned silence for what seemed like an eternity.

  At last, Emily turned to Jake. “Go get the tractor and the log chains. I’ll make sure she isn’t drowning.” She stepped out of the truck. “And this time, take the calf back and lock it in the barn.” Without a backward glance, she dropped over the edge of the bank and they repeated everything.

  When they got Cowlick up, Emily refused to believe her injured act and insisted the cow get to her feet.

  Emily walked behind Cowlick and herded her all the way back to the barn. Jake drove in on the tractor with Stephie, half asleep, squashed beside him.

  It was eleven thirty when Emily finished triple-wiring the faulty gate panel. Jake, Stephie, and Emily stood in the sullen rain and stared at the mud-caked cow eating placidly out of her feed bunk while her baby nursed.

  Emily tugged her gloves off. “Jake?” she said quietly.

  “Hmmm?” Jake looked away from Cowlick.

  “I’ve been ranching, really all my life. Twenty-four years.” Half a pound of mud broke off her gloves and fell to the ground. Stephie, still mostly clean but drenched, took a step away from her big sister.

  Jake nodded. “That’s a long time.”

  “It’s a quarter of a century.” She started to tuck her gloves behind her belt, then stopped. “I’ve seen a lot. Handled thousands of cows. In all circumstances. In all weather.”

  Jake looked up at the drizzle that had soaked them all to the bone. “Your point?”

  “I have one,” Emily said.

  Jake stood silently.

  “In all those years. . .” Emily pounded her ruined leather work gloves—expensive suckers, fifteen dollars a pair—against her leg. “In all those years,” she repeated ominously, “that”—she jabbed her gloves at Cowlick—“is the stupidest cow I have ever seen.”

  Jake just nodded his head.

  Emily and Stephie headed for home.

  Twenty-one

  The mud bath was the clincher for Jake.

  He quit feeling like he had anything to prove. He was a rancher now, or maybe a farmer. He might need more cows and a lot more land to qualify for a ranch. Still, this was the Black Hills. Out here everyone ranched. So why not him?

  He gave up his desire to be a pioneer.
He agreed to let Emily use her name to get his electricity turned on, and he agreed to get new kitchen appliances. Intimidated by the unfamiliar job of buying a stove and refrigerator, he begged Emily and Stephie to go with him.

  “You can’t buy appliances in Cold Creek. Hot Springs has a hardware store that sells some, but we’ll see someone we know there and I’ll have to explain who you are.”

  He waved away her concern. For some reason it seemed awfully important to take Emily along. “What’s the big deal? Hi, I’m Emily’s cousin.” He put tons of sincerity in his voice.

  “That’s excellent. You’re a wonderful liar. You must be very proud,” Emily said dryly. “The trouble is everyone knows I don’t have any cousins around here. They’d immediately ask”—Emily raised the pitch of her voice to imitate a nosy old lady—“ ‘Are you a cousin on Emily’s mother’s side or her father’s side?’ ” Her voice returned to normal. “Then they’d want to know whose boy you are.”

  “Boy?”

  “Sorry, but if you’re my cousin, then you’re somebody’s child. Anyone who knows me knows my dad has two older brothers and my mom has one sister. They’d want to know about—”

  “Okay, I get it.” He hesitated, torn between wanting her help and wanting to keep his secret. He snapped his fingers. “We’ll just go farther.”

  “I guess we could go to Rapid City. But it’s a long ways. Just go alone to Hot Springs. Being with me is the problem.”

  “I really think I need some help with the stove and refrigerator.” He was disgusted with himself for deliberately trying to sound pathetic, especially when it worked. He supposed that meant he wasn’t faking. He really was pathetic.

  “Okay, we’ll do Rapid City. It will have everything we need, a two-hour drive.”

  “I’m up for that. Maybe we can take Stephie to a movie or something, go to a nice restaurant for lunch. Let’s go in the morning, after milking. We can be home for evening chores.”