by Anne Conley
They spent the next thirty minutes picking up stragglers, Kelly dropping handfuls of cubes while Dalton honked the horn and whistled out the window. The cubes were like candy to cows. Tasty grains and grasses pressed together with molasses made them irresistible to the cattle, who followed the truck as if Dalton was the pied piper. They managed to get the other fifty or so cows back to the barn area in this manner.
“We’ll put these guys in this small pasture by the barn until we turn the rest out into the big pasture and make some room for them. For now, though we have them in the area, so we don’t have to go searching for them later.”
Buddy showed up about that time and they got busy with the cows. Buddy and Dalton would herd ten or so cows into the shoot, locking in the first one. When they were finished with that cow, they let it out of the shoot to go into the inner area, before opening a gate to whichever pasture they wanted it to be in for the next month or so.
The entire property was divided into several pastures, four of which were fenced from the barn. One pasture was for the steers, castrated bulls that were fattened for auction. One pasture was for the heifers, young females who were not old enough to breed. Another was for the regular herd, all females plus one lucky bull. The last pasture was open. Fences surrounded each pasture with a gate or two to other pastures, to rotate the herd around as they ate all of the grass.
Dalton, Kelly, and Buddy easily fell into a routine. Each cow was vaccinated and wormed. They applied a tight rubber band to the testicles of the male calves, which would cut off circulation to the area, and effectively castrate them. Females with horns were dehorned with an instrument which looked a lot like bolt cutters, and then the bloody stumps were cauterized with a searing hot iron. Cows who didn’t have numbered tags in their ears were tagged. Calves were branded with the Colt ranch’s "tattoo," a capital C over a stylized revolver---Richard’s own take on his name.
Dalton and Buddy did most of the work to the cows, while Kelly kept up with the records, writing down the number on the ear tag and what was done to each animal. Then, once the animal was released from the chute, the three of them would shoo the flustered cow through the appropriate gate into their pasture.
They worked hard that day, taking few breaks. Dalton needed to do this for his dad, and Kelly and Buddy understood his feeling of urgency. Nobody complained when he pushed them harder, longer, between breaks. They managed to get all of the cows finished and separated by dusk.
When Renae got back to the house that night, Kelly and Dalton were asleep.
“Ugh...” Alyssa really wished she had remembered tonight was Open House. She might not have had that last shot of tequila. She might have actually dressed up today. As it was, she was hung over, wearing wrinkled khakis and a sweater, with no time to go home and change. The principal had called a staff meeting at 4:30, and parents were supposed to start arriving at 5:30.
She understood the reasoning behind these events, but nobody ever showed up. She saw it as a supreme waste of time.The parents who needed to check their child’s progress in school didn’t come to these events. That was almost always the case.
Alyssa’s hangover hadn’t really been as bad as she thought it would be. A few aspirin relegated the pounding in her head to a dull thud, and her energy level was low, but she managed until her conference period, when she had to call her mom.
“Mom, I’m sorry. I forgot, I have Open House tonight. I can’t come over. Can I fix that stuff another time?” Her mother’s constantly evolving honey-do list had the new addition of weeding the flowerbeds. The list always consisted of things Pat attached a high level of importance to for completing. Alyssa didn’t see what it mattered that the baby trees were taking over her mom’s flowerbed. She honestly had other things to worry about.
“That’s okay. You can do it next week when you have the kids. I can watch them for you. And you can get my Halloween decorations down then.”
“Thanks mom.” Crap. She had forgotten all about the decorations. She hated that she didn’t like doing stuff for her mom because Pat did so much for her, but she squashed the rising guilt.
After disconnecting the call, the last night caught up with her. She was exhausted. Remembering she had duty out in front of the school for the car-riders, she heaved herself from behind her desk and trudged down the hallway.
She was back behind her desk in twenty minutes, where she hit a proverbial brick wall. Laying her head on her desk, she decided she could just rest her eyes for a few minutes before the staff meeting. She had time.
Within seconds, she was dreaming of Denny’s, overwhelmed by the emotion of loneliness, even though she was sitting there with a pretty woman, who kept eating her French fries. She managed to tamp down the annoyance by her actions and engage her in meaningful conversation, but it was going nowhere. She could hear herself saying, in a decidedly masculine voice, she had a degree in agricultural science but was bartending for a while. Alyssa almost couldn’t control the disappointment Dalton was emitting, although she wasn’t sure what he was disappointed about.
A knock at the classroom door interrupted her dream. Jerking her head up, she realized it was Coach Ridley, leaning against her doorjamb, all tall and lanky, with a slight smirk on his face.
“I’m sorry to wake you, but Dr. Cahan asked me to come get you for the meeting.”
“Already?!” Alyssa yanked herself into a standing position, and tried to smooth her clothes, in vain. “Is he mad?”
“No, you’re not the only one missing in action. Come on. I’ll walk with you.” He stood back from the doorway to let her out, waiting for her to close the door and make sure it was locked.
Still muddled from the dream, she walked with the coach to the cafeteria, where the rest of the faculty was waiting. Dr. Cahan was standing in the front, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. Alyssa still hadn’t figured out if that gesture meant he was annoyed or just deep in thought. He did it a lot.
As soon as she sat down, he looked at her pointedly and asked, “Are we all ready?”
She nodded, not sure if he was speaking specifically to her, or to the audience in general.
“Good, then we can start. First of all, I would like for everyone to have a sign-in sheet for their parents to put contact information on. I would also like for each of you to schedule a conference with all of the parents who come tonight. In addition to that, in the next week, you need to have thirty conferences scheduled with parents who didn’t show up, whose children are at risk of failing your class. This is mandatory, and I expect documentation. If thirty parents show up tonight, and you schedule conferences with them, then you are done for the week. Otherwise...”
Alyssa tuned him out. She knew the drill. Dr. Cahan wanted contact with every single parent each six weeks, and Lord knows she had tried. Most of the parents would talk to her on the phone, but a lot of the phone numbers she had were used for telemarketers, and the “mailbox is full” every time she tried to leave a message. Very few parents actually showed up for conferences instigated by the teacher, unless their child was accused of doing something wrong. Then they showed up, ready to fight. Alyssa hated those conferences, and avoided them at all costs.
When Dr. Cahan finally stopped talking and released the teachers to go to their rooms, Coach Ridley caught up with her.
“Hey. Um...I don’t have a classroom and parents never come to my office in the field house. Would it be okay if I hung out in your room for this? I’ve already told Dr. Cahan, and the other coaches, in case somebody is looking for me specifically.”
Annoyed by his assumption that it would be okay with her, she stupidly said, “Okay.” Then she mentally slapped herself. What if an angry parent showed up and berated her in front of him? It had been known to happen, and as many times as she had been yelled at by angry parents, she never got used to it. And she never reacted the way a teacher was supposed to. She always managed to let them under her skin and get upset by the ex
perience. She really didn’t want witnesses to that, if it happened tonight.
Fortunately, it didn’t happen. The parents who did show up to see her were very cordial and talked about how much their child enjoyed her class. She was relieved, and her mood had brightened by the end of the evening.
Coach Ridley had no parents visit him in her classroom, although most of the ones who visited her also had a child in his athletic program, so they got to kill two birds with one stone.
They spent the time between parents visiting, and Alyssa found Coach Ridley to be charming, if not a little too smooth.
At the end of the night, she was locking up, and he was walking her out to her car. He pulled on her elbow to get her to turn to face him.
“Can we go out to dinner Saturday night? Please?”
“I don’t know. I-I don’t really date much.”
“How about lunch? That’s not really a date. It’s just lunch. Please?”
She hesitated. This was a small town, and going out anywhere fed the gossip mill. She only went to the Gin on Wednesday nights because there was hardly anybody ever there. She couldn’t think of a single restaurant that wouldn’t be crowded on Saturday at lunchtime. The last thing she needed was Steven on her case about a boyfriend.
Thoughts of Steven made her angry. He didn’t have a right to dictate who she went out with on her non-custodial weeks. She could do whatever she wanted to, as long as it was legal. She looked at Coach Ridley, seeing a tall, good-looking man who wanted to go out with her.
“Sure, why not? Where do you want to meet?”
“Can I pick you up?”
“Um...I guess.”
His face relaxed into a childish grin. Suddenly, he looked like a teenager. “Great. I’ll pick you up at noon. Is that okay?”
“Sure.”
“Goodnight, Alyssa.” He turned to walk away.
“Um. Coach?” He turned back to her, with a look of fear in his eyes.
“Yeah?”
“What’s your first name?”
He smiled again. “Cody.”
“Okay. Goodnight, Cody.”
The next morning, as she sat at her desk, trying to organize her day before school started, a gaggle of teenage girls walked into her classroom. Most of them were from her Honors class.
“Ms. Fuller?”
“Yes Jackie?”
“I have a huge favor to ask.” Her eyes were wide with urgency, and she was breathless, probably from trying to accomplish too many things at once. Jackie was the classic under-organized over-achiever. Her backpack was bulging at the seams, and the binder in her hand was haphazardly stuffed with papers, which were perilously close to falling out.
Alyssa sighed. “Does it involve helping you re-organize your notebook? You know if you had a separate one for each class or activity, you life would be easier. Also, you do have a locker somewhere on campus you can use instead of breaking your back trying to carry it all at once.”
Jackie rolled her eyes. “No, Ms. Fuller, that’s not it. We are supposed to do a service project for National Honor Society, and this year, I want to have a booth at the Hot Pepper Festival to take donations for the Crisis Center. I’ve spoken with the Chamber of Commerce, and they said they would let people into the festival free if they bring me a donation. The only thing is, I need an adult to help me supervise the booth. It’s one of the stipulations of the service project contract. Can you help me?”
“I was going to take my kids to the festival, Jackie. I’m not sure I can do it.”
One of the girls with her, Jennifer, spoke up. “Diana and I can help you watch them. We love your kids!”
Alyssa knew that was true. Jennifer had actually babysat them once a few months before, and she trusted her with them.
“Okay. When do I have to be there?”
Jackie let out a relieved sigh. “After the parade will be fine. I’ll let you know as soon as they assign me a booth space. Thank you so much, Ms. Fuller. I really appreciate it.”
Alyssa didn’t have problems helping her students out with this kind of thing. She knew Jackie was a hard worker and did everything she could to improve things around her. She was a well-liked young lady, without even trying. The kids liked her genuineness, and she was a good kid.
The rest of Alyssa’s day went much better than the previous one, until fifth period, when she told a boy he needed to shave off his mustache, as facial hair was a dress-code no-no. He ignored her completely.
“Colton? Did you hear me? You need to go to the office and shave. You know you can’t wear facial hair.”
He unfolded his body out of the desk and kicked it hard enough to send it skidding into the wall next to him. The class gasped and tittered awkwardly.
“And now you need to go into the hallway to wait for me.”
“Fine,” he gritted out of clenched teeth.
When he left the room, she partially filled out a discipline slip, made sure the class was working on something, and followed him out into the hallway.
“What’s going on?” She asked him quietly.
“Nothing. I just don’t see why we have to shave. It’s stupid.”
“Well, stupid or not, it’s a rule the school board instigated, and it is my job to make sure you follow the rules. There is absolutely no need to destroy my desks. I barely have enough as it is, and your buddy Dustin has destroyed three this year, just from sitting in them.” Dustin was a huge kid, all muscle, who managed to break stuff just by being in the same room with it. “Take this slip to the office, and don’t come back to class with that hair on your face.”
Once she had gotten through that hiccup, the rest of her school day was a breeze. She spent her conference period grading papers and answering emails before finally going home.
Alyssa wanted to have a quiet evening at home. They were so rare for her, and she decided to enjoy this one. She turned off her cell phone, closed the door to the laundry room, and turned on the TV. The movie Nine 1/2 Weeks was on and she decided to watch that. She hadn’t seen it in a while, and remembered it was pretty steamy the first time she had watched it.
She knew where this sudden desire to watch smut had come from. She was still dreaming of him. Even though she hadn’t been having the sexy dreams for the last few days, just knowing it was him was enough to make it sexy. And in these dreams, she was getting some backstory on the hunky devil.
She knew he had a sister, and a niece who adored him. He hadn’t seen the niece clearly in the dream, but she seemed familiar, like somebody she might know. Alyssa assumed her subconscious was getting lazy, trying to come up with new characters for her make-believe movie life as a man. She also knew Dalton’s dad was sick and had been in the hospital, and ran a ranch. She had seen how frail and worried his mother looked, and could feel how worried about her Dalton had been. Then Dalton had gone back to Dallas.
Nine 1/2 Weeks had become background noise for her own daydreams. She lay back on the couch and imagined she and Dalton were a couple. He would take her home to meet his family, and she and his sister would get along swimmingly. Alyssa had hated Steven’s sister, and the feeling was mutual. She could help his mom cook dinner for everybody, while Dalton and his dad were out doing cowboy stuff. Her children would be able to romp and play in the pastures, getting all the fresh air they could stand.
Alyssa fell asleep on the couch, and didn’t wake up until sunlight streamed in on her face in the morning.
“He’s here.” She said to herself. This last dream had very clearly shown him picking up one of her students, Kelly, from right in front of her school. He had been at the Palestine Regional hospital. She recognized everything. Still foggy from the dream, she went into the kitchen to make coffee, and ruminate.
She felt for her imaginary friend, who seemed to be hurting so badly about his father’s illness. He had thought his dad was getting better, but now he was worse, and things didn’t look good for him. Dalton had been looking around the barn, reliving old me
mories of time spent with his dad, and an overwhelming sense of nostalgia filled Alyssa.
Remembering her lunch date, Alyssa looked at the clock. She still had two and a half hours before Cody would be here. She didn’t need much time to get ready, but she did want to look good. So she got into the shower.
While she was shaving her legs and her armpits, she remembered something her friends had said about shaving other stuff. She wouldn’t be sleeping with Cody today, by any means, but she still wondered what it would feel like, to be sexy. Even if nobody saw it but herself, she would know what she had done down there. Would it affect her attitude? Would it make her feel more attractive? One way to find out...
After showering and shaving everything, she went back into her bedroom to examine herself in the full-length mirror. She had to admit, the thought of her va jay jay looking like an eight-year-old’s initially repulsed her, but looking at it in the mirror, it didn’t seem so bad. In fact, she did feel a little sexier. Not much to be done about the rest of her, but maybe she should join the YMCA, and start working out. That couldn’t hurt anything, could it?
She rummaged in her panty drawer, until she found an ancient pair of panties that were actually made of lace and slipped them on. She put on a sundress and fixed her hair, blowing it dry and using the curling iron on it, until she tamed the frizzies, so it fell in soft curls around her shoulders. After swiping on some mascara, and daubing lipstick on, she spritzed her wrists with perfume, and went into the living room. She still had an hour to wait. Crap.
She went back into the kitchen and did some dishes, then picked up dirty clothes from the floor in her bedroom and started a load of laundry. Now she had forty-five minutes.
Going around the house, and straightening up, she resisted the urge to change into sweats and start heavy cleaning. By the time the doorbell rang, she was a sweaty mess.
