Post Grid: An Arizona EMP Adventure

by Tony Martineau

  Jess looked up at Kelly. “Huh?”

  “Cookie means cook, and chuck is food,” said Kelly. “It's a joke, a play on words. You know, Old West chuckwagons.”

  Jess still looked confused.

  “I'm hungry, Jess, I'm hungry,” said Kelly.

  “Me too,” he said, smiling. “I'm always hungry. As long as it means food, I don't care what you call it.”

  ****

  Kelly woke early and quietly eased out of the sleeping bag she shared with Jared. She went to the corral, taking three bridles and some oats with her.

  The stallion and what was left of his harem were still hanging around outside the fencing. His mares inside the fence whinnied to him softly from time to time. The stallion moved toward the rocky, brushy side of the corral, crowding the cliff as Kelly approached. He made noises in protest as she came closer.

  Kelly ignored him and went to the corral. She began talking to the five horses inside. “Come here, girl,” she said to the most inquisitive horse, the little pinto. “Lynn has her eye on you,” she said soothingly, “and I can see why.”

  The pretty horse nudged Kelly's hand, which was now over the fence, with her nose.

  “So you want a pet on the nose? How about some oats?”

  The horse ate greedily what she was offered as Kelly rubbed her nose and ears.

  Kelly made her way around to the gate and slipped in. She had to move a sleeping bag to work the loop of wire that held the corral closed. All of the horses rushed to the far side except the pinto, who stood patiently, probably hoping for more oats.

  “Here, girl,” Kelly said putting her hand out flat with the treat atop. While the pinto ate, she slipped a bridle over her head. “You've done this before, haven't you, girl?”

  Interested now, the other horses approached Kelly and the pinto, looking for some of the same.

  By the time the others reached the corral, Kelly had four of the five horses bridled. The fifth, the gelding, was still stand-offish.

  “Lynn, what do you want to name your horse?” Kelly asked.

  “What? I get the pinto?”

  “Yeah, if you want her.”

  “Want her? You know I want her.” Lynn grinned, then thought for a moment. “How about Beans? I'll call her Beans because she's a pinto. Get it?”

  “Cute,” said Jess. “Do I get one?”

  “Which one do you want?” asked Kelly.

  “I want that brown one, the one who looks like she stepped in white paint up to her hocks.”

  “Interesting face, don't you think?” said Kelly. “She has a thick blaze. If it had gone all the way around her eyes and nostrils, it would have given her a badger face.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Jess asked.

  “It's a type of face mark that horses have, you know, like the star, the strip and the blaze,” said Kelly. “It's like the horse is wearing a mask sculpted around the eyes, almost like the whole face was dunked in paint.”

  “Good choice, Jess,” said Jared. “She looks sturdy, like she could handle just about anything.”

  “What are you going to name her?” asked Lynn.

  Jess answered without a moment's pause, “Lightning, because her blaze is so distinct, like a flash of lightning against a dark sky.”

  “How poetic,” said Lynn.

  “What about the other two?” asked Jess. “They'll have to be for my dad and Dennis.”

  “Remember, all of these horses are meant to pull wagons to Utah,” said Kelly.

  “But we can just tell Dennis and Jose that these are their horses.”

  “Sure.” Kelly pursed her lips. “It won't hurt anything.” Smiling, she asked, “Do you want to name them or do you want to let them do it?”

  “We wanna do it, don't we, Jess?” said Lynn.

  “My dad's has to be Sapo—it means toad in Spanish. Grandpa had this friend who trained horses. He told crazy stories and would call every stupid, stubborn horse Sapo. When I was little I used to imagine a big, green, fat horse.”

  “Do you have a favorite?” Kelly asked Jess.

  “Yep, that black one over there,” Jess pointed to a dark horse with a long black mane and tail.

  “She's a pretty one, but she's not all black; her coat has a nice brown undertone that makes her look velvety,” said Lynn. “I had a dress like that once.”

  “Okay, Lynn, what about your dad's?” asked Kelly. “The only one left is that brown one with the little white dot on her forehead and white on her left front ankle.”

  “I like her, but I'll have to put some thought into it. Can I tell you later?”

  “Sure. Hey, Jared, come get these girls.” Kelly nodded to the four she had tied to a low-hanging tree limb near the gate.

  Jared reached in and untied the lead ropes, then opened the gate just far enough to get the mares out, single file. The gelding made a lunge for the gate but Kelly jumped out at him, turning him around. He whinnied and threw his head back, making a show.

  Kelly stood in the middle of the corral staring down the gelding, rope in hand. She'd made a big loop and now twirled it in the air to keep it aloft. The gelding pranced back and forth, daring the cowgirl to launch it in his direction.

  Jess and Lynn climbed a small tree to watch the show.

  Kelly threw the lasso but it fell short of its mark, landing in a cloud of dust on the desert floor. Hand over hand, she rewound the rope into nice loops hanging from her gloved left hand. Another loop was created and twirled overhead, then launched. The rope sailed over the gelding's head and around his neck. The beast's sharp tug on the rope pulled Kelly forward forcefully. She ran toward the gelding but then stopped and dug her heels in to no avail; he was just too strong. He pulled her in any direction he wished.

  Jared, seeing her plight, made his way into the corral to help. He grabbed the rope with both his hands in front of Kelly's, and they both resisted. The result wasn't that much better.

  “Jess, get me a switch,” Kelly called. “Make it long, as long as you can!”

  One solid leap put Jess on the desert floor under the tree he had been sitting in. His hand went to the knife tucked in his cowboy boot. He looked into the wispy, lime-green, desert tree and chose a branch about ten feet long and two inches in diameter where it joined the main trunk.

  “It's going to take a couple of minutes,” he said, hacking the branch at its base.

  “This horse is mine,” said Jared. “He's got some grit. He's handsome too. I'll call 'im Bullet.”

  Bullet paced back and forth, pulling on the lasso.

  “We'll have to see if he'll calm down. This one might be staying here.”

  “I've got the switch,” yelled Jess.

  “Bring it in here, easy,” said Kelly, motioning to the gate. “Jared, you had better go.”

  “What, and leave you in here alone? No way.”

  “I'll be fine now that I have my trusty friend here,” Kelly said taking the long green switch and cracking it against the ground to see how it reacted in her hand. “Thanks, Jess. It's perfect.”

  Both men looked wary as they left the makeshift corral. Jared looked back at Kelly, who gave him a reassuring smile. Bullet had settled some, but was still a very large animal to contend with.

  Kelly urged the gelding to go around the corral in a circle, clockwise, by pulling on the rope around his neck. He resisted at first by rearing, shaking his head and waving his thick mane. He started toward her. Crack! went the whip at his feet. His eyes went large and round, nostrils flared.

  “This type of training is called round penning,” said Kelly, “and you will see why.”

  He backed off; she had his attention and respect. Slowly, he started moving in the circle that his trainer wanted him to adopt. “There, there, boy. You remember now, don't you?”

  The horse seemed to want to trot. “There you go, burn off some steam,” Kelly cooed. She spun in a circle from the middle of the pen, just giving the gelding his head, letting him set his
own pace. Suddenly, he turned to come toward her and she gave him a crack on the nose, directing him back to his circle. After ten times around, Bullet was slowed and his head directed to turn and start a counterclockwise trot. He did this willingly.

  “See?” Kelly said, “he's not so bad, he'd just forgotten his manners.”

  Horse school continued for about an hour, until Kelly was satisfied that Bullet wouldn't give them any problems on the road.

  “I think I've taken the fight out of him,” Kelly announced. “Let's go home.”

  Chapter 19

  Christmas, long awaited, had finally come to The Wise Ranch. Emma was excited. Just after dawn, she rose to stoke the wood stove and start breakfast. She almost tripped over the Christmas tree as she rounded the corner into the living room. The house was quiet and cold but the curtains had been drawn and it would warm up quickly once the fire was built up again. She tried not to make too much noise, as Jared was still sleeping on the couch. He just bunched his blankets up around his neck, turned toward the sofa back, and resumed his snoring.

  Emma took some precious flour from the pantry and got out the ten eggs she had been saving for the occasion. Pancakes with high fructose corn syrup, salvaged from the tanker truck on the freeway, and scrambled eggs! She would need two eggs for her famous pancake recipe and one for each person, scrambled. Emma took her pail from the kitchen drainboard and headed to the barn. There would be milk and butter on the table too, an unaccustomed luxury. They had been getting milk from one of the cows for a week now. Today a second calf would be declared weaned, and his mama would be milked as well. They would even have enough milk to share with a few of the neighbors as a Christmas gift.

  When Emma returned from the barn, Kelly was up, padding around the kitchen in her robe and some slippers she had fashioned out of the fabric up in the closet.

  “Good morning dear,” Emma said.

  “Merry Christmas, Mom,” said Kelly.

  “Merry Christmas.” Emma walked over and gave Kelly a long hug. She held Kelly out from her and looked her over as if trying to take in every detail.

  “Can I help with breakfast?” Kelly asked.

  “Why, of course. There's butter to be churned,” Emma said without as much as a glance toward Kelly, who had wrinkled her nose in distaste. “The others can take turns as they meander in.”

  Just then Jared appeared. “Well, Merry Christmas to my two beautiful ladies,” he said, kissing Emma on the cheek and then taking Kelly in his arms and planting a lingering kiss on her lips. The room was silent for a minute or so as the young couple kissed and Emma ignored them. “Hmm, that was a wonderful way to start the day.” Jared beamed.

  “Kelly here was just about to start churning some butter for me, maybe you would like to help?” asked Emma.

  “Sure. Ever helpful, that's me.”

  Over the next half hour, everyone filed in. It took forty-five minutes to churn the butter, so everyone took a turn. Emma took the wooden paddle out of the tall wooden churn Jose had made, and scraped the congealed butter from its sides and paddle. She drained off the buttermilk into a small pitcher, then poured clean water into the churn.

  “Churn that another minute or two,” Emma directed Jess.

  She repeated the process of draining off the diluted buttermilk and re-churning twice more, until she was satisfied the water ran clear. She scraped the remaining butter onto her marble candy-making slab and proceeded to beat it with two paddles to remove air bubbles and solidify the mass. “I learned this from one of my old Foxfire books. You have to use the marble and the paddles so the warmth of your hands doesn't melt the butter.” The butter finally resembled what everyone had come to expect from store-bought butter, except it was softer and paler.

  Kelly finished cooking the pancakes and eggs and they all sat down to a hearty breakfast.

  “Can we open our gifts after breakfast?” enquired Lynn, eagerly.

  “I don't see why not,” said Dennis. “Like I said before, I like Christmas as an American tradition—a time of giving and sharing. You guys have celebrated Hanukkah and the other Jewish Holy Days with us, now we would like to share with you.”

  Lynn beamed. “There is a present for all of you.”

  As soon as breakfast was over, everyone gathered around the Christmas tree. It wasn't a typical pine tree but its desert cousin in shape if not in genus: the juniper. Junipers are sparse, light-green-bristled trees with silvery, green berries bearing little resemblance to the conical shape of the pine except in color. The fact that they were evergreen was convenient. It was decorated with scraps of material that the girls of the house had fashioned into bows, seed pods, and a small collection of special ornaments Emma had hung onto for sentimental reasons.

  Kelly designated herself Santa and started passing out the gifts. “Remember,” she said, “these are group gifts. The present is meant to come from all of us at the same time.” There was an air of excitement as they began the familiar Christmas ritual of handing out presents to loved ones.

  The first package went to Lynn. It was soft and about eighteen inches square. It was wrapped in light blue tissue paper. No tape was used; only a piece of brown twine held the bundle together. Lynn gently untied it and unfolded the paper. “Clothes!” she yelped. Inside the package was a white nightgown and three shirts. She clutched them to her chest, then reached out and took Emma's forearm. “Thank you so much, it's exactly what I needed.” Lynn stood and held a shirt to herself, doing a complete circle for the crowd. “I love them.”

  The next package went to Dennis. It too was soft. Dennis removed the plain brown paper around his gift. It was a beautiful tallis, a Jewish prayer shawl, wool with many tassels.

  “I helped Emma put the tassels on,” said Lynn. “The number of threads are right.” She smiled from ear to ear.

  “It's beautiful,” Dennis gasped, making a steeple with his hands and pressing the shawl to his lips. “I shall cherish it always.” He rose to his knees and leaned forward to give Lynn a hug, then held her head in his hands and kissed her on the forehead.

  “Next is Jess,” said Kelly. Jess got a small cardboard box without paper wrapping. He opened it and took out a leather belt with a large silver buckle displaying two horses standing on their hind legs. Jess looked up in amazement. His eyes went from one person in the room to the next. Kelly said, “It was my father's. It's a horseman's belt and that is what you have become.”

  “Thanks,” Jess choked, turning to hide his emotion. He stood up and put the belt around his waist. It was large for him, and it looked like he might have to put a new hole in it. Jess turned the buckle up toward his face so he could see the silver horses. He beamed with pride.

  “You'll grow into it, Mijo,” said Jose. “Thank you, all,” he said for his son, looking around the room at his friends.

  Kelly handed Jose a large cardboard box about thirty inches square. It was heavy and Kelly's arms strained to lift it. Jose rose quickly and bent down to take the box from her. “Dang, that's heavy,” he said. He struggled to stand upright with the box, then sat cross-legged on the floor with it on his lap. He opened it, revealing an old wooden tool tray filled with very old-looking tools, many with worn wooden handles. The metal parts of the tools were weathered and oxidized.

  “Where on earth did you get these?” Jose whispered, blinking rapidly as he stared in amazement. He lifted the tray from the box.

  Jess moved to sit next to his father. “Tools are important in a world without stores. We got them from the Branham's garage. These old tools were mounted on the wall above a workbench, and this old tray was there too.” Jess reached into the tray and took out a chisel. “I'll help you clean them up.”

  The next present was small. It was in a little, pink velvet jewelry box. This gem went to Emma. “What on earth?” she said. Her fingers tugged at the hinged box. When it opened, it was an old high-school ring, a man's ring, on a gold chain. Emma looked up with a blank expression on her face.
r />   “It's not much,” said Rich, “but it means something to me.”

  “No, no, it's wonderful,” replied Emma. “Help me put it on. This doesn't mean we're going steady, does it?”

  “Well, if it did, ol' woman, I wouldn't admit it here in mixed company, now would I?”

  Rich did not stand to help Emma put it on. Awkward as it was, Kelly stood and went to her mother. “Here, Mom, I'll help you.” Kelly looked at Rich but he didn't change his expression.

  The next gift was not lying under the tree, but was offered to Kelly by Jared. He pulled a small box from behind his back and handed it to Kelly. The tag was written in an unfamiliar hand. It was wrapped in white tissue paper and tied like Lynn's.

  “This one is mine?” Kelly asked, grasping the small box with both hands and clutching it to her chest. She held it momentarily, as if waiting to calm a bit. She lowered the box to her lap and pulled at the string. The small bow gave quickly and the ties fell away. She removed the paper, revealing the tiny cardboard box. Her hands shook a little as she opened it. There, perched on a small, pink pillow, were her mother's wedding rings. Kelly looked up inquisitively, first at Jared and then at her mother. “But Mom, these are yours.”

  “Yes, my dear, but I know someone who could use them far more than I,” said Emma.

  Jared took the small box and lifted the band, which was set with a white diamond. He took Kelly's left hand and placed the engagement ring on her fourth finger. “I believe this makes it official, my love.”

  A tear of joy ran down Kelly's cheek. Emma had to blink rapidly to keep her own tears from spilling over her lids and down onto her cheeks. Kelly waved her hands back and forth in front of her face as if fanning herself. “I love them, thank you both.” Kelly hugged Jared with one arm and her mother with the other as they sat, pulling both a little off balance. Kelly got up and sat in Jared's lap, admiring the ring on her finger. Jared pocketed the wedding band.

  Lynn seeing her chance, plopped down onto the floor where Kelly had been sitting and announced, “Jared, the next one is for you.”