by Risner, Fay
“Don't be silly. What can happen to me between the house and the barn.”
“That may be something Chicken Plucker might have said until recently,” John declared.
“Oh, I see, but I wanted the goat so I should tend to her. You have to get up early. Now it's your turn to stop worrying and go to bed,” Hal declared. “I'll be recht back.”
She took a lantern off a nail in the mud room and got a match from the box behind the cookstove. She stepped out on the front porch before she lit the lantern.
Usually, the sky held a moon and a jillion stars. Just her luck, she had to be out in the dark alone with a dense fog setting in. It was cool and drizzly damp, but she didn't see the need to go back for a jacket. She wouldn't be gone that long. She'd shut Tom in the feed room for the night to keep him away from the goat and be back to the house in a few minutes.
Biscuit came from under the porch swing and nudged her bare leg with his cold nose. Hal flinched before she realized what was going on. She leaned over to rub the dog's head. “You can't sleep, either? Sorry Gano and Tom have to make such a racket.”
Nothing had changed yet. The goat still sounded stressed, and Tom still gobbled angrily. That turkey was one stubborn bird. The argument wasn't going to stop any time soon without some intervention.
With Biscuit behind her, Hal hustled to the barn, holding the lantern high so she could see her surroundings. She wouldn't have thought about being fearful before John reminded her about the fires. She wouldn't admit it to him, but now that he put the idea in her head, she was nervous about being outside alone with an arsonist prowling around the country side.
A horse nickered behind the barn, and another one answered back. Hal wondered what had the horses attention. She stopped to listen. Might have been Buttercat out mousing, or a wild animal looking for a stray chicken that roosted out.
The familiar scents of hay, cows and horseflesh filled Hal's nose when she opened the barn door and stepped in. Biscuit whined. “You stay put. This is no place for you. Tom won't like you any better than he does the goat.”
Biscuit dropped and put his head on his front legs to wait.
Hal held the lantern high. Tom had the goat cornered at the end of the pens. She had to raise her voice to be heard as she hung the lantern on a nail. “Stop that right now, Tom!”
Tom turned to look her direction. Gano slipped past him and ran to meet her. Tom fanned his feathers out and made hissing sounds as he stomped his feet.
“Calm down, Tom. You behave yourself, and I'll let you out of here tomorrow. Stop being mean to the newcomer. You're scaring her,” Hal scolded, but she stayed on the far side the goat to lead her to the pen. “Gano, you stay put. You're already limping. Don't jump over the pen and get hurt again.”
Hal picked up an arm load of what had been a bale of hay. The goat must have been out for some time to fluff up the bale that much. No wonder she'd been quiet until Tom found her out of the pen.
Gano couldn't be very hungry after tearing up the bale to munch on it. Hopefully, a pile of fresh hay would keep her occupied in her pen for a few minutes. Maybe long enough for Tom to forget about the goat, and her to get to sleep.
Hal looked for Tom, wanting to make sure he wasn't going to come at her as she crossed to room to get the lantern. Her thought about trying to convince him to go in the feed room had changed. That turkey wasn't in sight. Hal mumbled, “Fine, he's gone off to sulk now that I've spoiled his fun. I can get out of here.”
The back barn door to the milk room swung open slowly so the hinges wouldn't squeak. A dark form, biding time in the barn yard, stepped into the milk room. Standing very still, the person listened to Hal's scolding voice in the other room.
How lucky can I get? A foggy night that will conceal me while I burn the Lapp barn. Now I find the English redhead is in the barn recht now. That is perfect.
Edging along the wall, the dark form stopped by the milk room door to the pens. The arsonist curled fingers around the handle of a scoop shovel, leaning against the wall and peeked around the door frame.
Hal took for the lantern off the nail and started to leave. From behind, she felt something hard slammed against her head. Violent pain seared through her skull. The room went swimmingly black as she lost the grip on the lantern. Hal felt herself sinking to the hard cold floor before she lost consciousness.
The intruder picked up the lantern, took the cap off the tank and tossed the lantern into the messed up hay bale. A match, swiped across a nail head in the beam behind the hay, burst into flames. The arsonist dropped the match in the fuel soaked hay. Flames licked high immediately and spread through the fluffy, dry hay.
The arsonist limped back through the milk room, moving slower than in days gone by. Dragging the wounded leg made scratchy, shuffling noises on the concrete floor. The pain grew more intense with each movement of the sore leg. Leaning on the scoop shovel that had flattened Nurse Hal was a necessity.
There now, this will just look like an accident. It will be told by all Nurse Hal met her death in her own barn, settling a fight between her goat and her turkey.
In the far dark corner of the milk room, the turkey came out of his roosting stupor. His head went up at the strange sounds of step, slide, step, slide. He sighted in on the dark shadow which was larger than the goat and didn't like what he saw or heard. He rose to his feet, lowered his head and rushed the strange sounding human that was invading his territory.
It came as a surprise to the arsonist when the dragging leg was hit full force by the large turkey. The blow caused the surprised grunt to be loud. The arsonist staggered sideways and landed forcefully against the barn wall.
With victorious gobbles much like war whoops, the turkey stuck his claws through the trousers and into the wounded leg again while he pecked hard.
More grunting and cries of pain came from the victim of Tom's flogging. The scoop shovel became a weapon again as the arsonist raised it above the turkey. The shovel smacked down hard on Tom, and the turkey sank into a feathered heap on the milk room floor. The wobbling arsonist scrambled out the back door, using the scoop shovel as a cane to stay steady.
The nervous cows and horses sniffed and snorted at the sight of a stranger. Their nervousness turned into fright. The bellowing cows kicked up a cloud of dust as they rushed off. The horses bucked and nickered as they mingled together and pushed each other in a circle.
Biscuit smelled the smoke as it billowed out around the door. He let go with his best coon treeing howl. The milk goat bleated and coughed as she filled up with smoke. When the cattle mooed, and the horses whinnied as they tromped back and forth behind the barn, Biscuit raced along the outside fence by the barn, yapping.
Noah and Daniel slipped their trousers on and woke up John. Noah said, “Daed, something is wrong at the barn?”
Daniel saw the empty side of the bed and panicked. “Where is Mama Hal?”
“She must be in the barn yet,” John cried as he leaped out of bed to dress.
The boys took the stairs two at a time and rushed for the door. On the porch, they smelled smoke and saw the flicker of flames through the barn window.
Daniel hollered back in the house, “The barn is on fire.”
He rushed to the barn. Noah headed to the back barn yard.
John was at the front door when Jim and Nora came to the head of the stairs.
“What can we do to help?” Nora said.
“Use your phone to call the fire department,” John ordered. “We've got to hurry, Jim. Hal went to check on her goat. She is in the barn.”
Aunt Tootie burst from the clinic with her nightcap cocked on her head over one eye. “What do we do? What do we do?”
“Calm down, Tootie. I'm calling the fire department now,” Nora said as she poked the buttons.
The men made it to the open barn door with smoke billowing around it just after Daniel went inside. Noah jumped the fence and let the scared livestock out into the pasture. He heard the raci
ng hooves of a horse in the distance and squinted to see across the pasture. He was sure a rider just left, but because of the fog, he couldn't see as far as he could hear the sounds.
Jim ran behind the house to pump buckets of water while John stepped in the barn. Daniel came to meet him with Hal in his arms.
“Hal,” John shouted.
“Mama Hal is alive but not awake. She is full of smoke,” Daniel said, coughing. “I will take her to the clinic.”
Jim arrived with two buckets of water. He'd left Nora pumping more. Aunt Tootie came across the yard with two more buckets. As John took one bucket, he said, “Aendi Tootie, will you go tend to Hal? She is hurt. Have Nora call the ambulance.”
The men waded through the smoke to throw water on the flames. The fire was burning the horse stall wall above the bale. Noah brought filled buckets and threw water on the fire.
The goat was bawling frantically as she raced around her pen.
“Get the goat out of here, Noah,” John said. “Tom, too.”
Noah opened the pen door and grabbed the milk goat by the neck. He held onto her to keep her from balking as they passed the fire. It didn't take much to shoo her outside when she smelled the cooler air.
Noah searched for Tom but didn't find him. The back milk room door was open which it wasn't supposed to be. Maybe Tom went in there to get away from the fire. He was smart enough to fly over the back door half door.
They formed a bucket brigade up until they heard the fire trucks coming. Biscuit set up a howl as the firemen pulled their hoses into the barn and doused the flames. Daniel wrapped his arms around the dog's neck. As he pulled Biscuit away from the barn, the dog dragged all four feet.
The excitement was too much for the goat. Gano left her hiding spot in the lean to and raced passed Biscuit, looking for a safer place to hide. The dog wrestled out of Daniel's arms and raced after her. Daniel let him go. At least, the two of them would be be out of the way.
The ambulance pulled in behind the fire truck. Aunt Tootie paced back and forth on the porch, waiting for the three paramedics to get to her. “Over here,” she cried as she opened the clinic door for them and the gurney.
Aunt Tootie led the medical personnel to the bed. They took in the situation with a practiced eye.
“What happened to her?” Daryl asked Aunt Tootie.
“I don't know. Daniel carried Hallie in here from the barn, and she was unconscious. She hasn't woke up yet.”
Hal moved slightly at the sound of familiar voices.
“Nurse Hal, it's Daryl. How you doing?” His demeanor was serious as he studied and assessed her.
“My head hurts,” she said weakly.
Daryl knelt beside the bed and put his hand under Hal's neck to lift her up. He saw a swollen lump with a gash running through it on the back of her head.
Steve took her vital signs. “Blood pressure and pulse on the low side.”
“We'll put oxygen on her. Hal, you hang in there. We have to lift you up to the gurney. As fast as the ambulance can go, we'll get you to the hospital to be checked out,” Daryl said, patting her shoulder as Ivan and Steve rolled the gurney beside the bed.
The three paramedics lifted the sheet under Hal and hoisted her on the gurney. The quick movement was painful. Hal passed out again. The attendants rushed her down the steps and to the ambulance.
John called from beside the barn, “How is she?”
Daryl said, “We can't be sure. Hal has an abrasion on the back of her head. Looks like someone hit her from behind.”
Nora said, “I'm going with her, John. You come when you can.”
With the siren blasting, Daryl headed for the hospital with Nora in the front seat beside him. As soon as the ambulance pulled out on the road, another fire truck pulled in and parked by the house. The two firemen climbed out of their truck and walked over by the barn. One of them called in the door to the chief to see if they were needed.
As soon as the firemen thought the burn area was wet enough they turned off the hoses. Fire Chief Charlie Miller came to where John and the others stood in the house yard.
“We've got the fire out. You're lucky you didn't lose your barn like Mr. Stolfus did,” Charlie said.
“That is for sure,” John agreed.
“I take it the phone shed was still all right when you made the call about the fire?” The fire chief asked.
John looked puzzled. “We did not use the phone shed. My mother- in-law has a cell phone. She called from here.”
“I see. The last fire truck that just pulled in had to stop and hose down a fire in the phone shed,” Chief Miller said. “The guy sure had a busy night this time, lighting his fires. We found the remnants of a lantern on burnt hay ashes inside the barn. The fuel from the lantern helped spread the fire.”
“Jah, Hal took a lantern with her to see in the barn to check a new goat she bought,” John explained.
“Where was Mrs. Lapp when you found her?” The chief turned to Daniel when he spoke.
“Over by the wall where she would have hung the lantern.”
“The medic said she was hit on the head,” John said.
“Quite a distance between the fire and where Hal was found, don't you think, Chief?” Jim asked.
“My guess is someone wanted the fire to look like an accident. With Nurse Hal out cold, we'd find the lantern and her after it was too late,” the chief said.
“Sure enough, someone else had been in the barn. I heard a horse gallop across the pasture, but I could not see anything for the fog. I do know it was not one of our horses. I was just turning them loose,” Noah said.
“If it is safe to leave now, we need to go to the hospital to see how bad hurt my wife is hurt,” John said. “I want to be with her.”
“Go ahead. We'll watch the barn for a while yet. We're going to fork some of that smoldering hay and pitch it out the back door. I'll notify the sheriff when we get back to town to come look around in the morning so don't move the lantern or anything else,” the chief cautioned.
Chapter 7
Jim drove his car to the hospital. Smoke had settled on them and soaked into their clothes, but none of them wanted to take the time to clean up. Hal's family rushed through the hospital emergency doors and stopped at the nurse's station.
The night nurse came down the hall to them. “You related to Nurse Hal?”
“Jah, I am her husband. These are her sons and father,” John said. “How is she?”
“Awake, but she has a whale of a headache. Mr. Lapp, you can go see her.” She pointed to the waiting room. “The rest of you go in that room. I'll send Nurse Hal's mother to talk to you.”
John walked briskly down the ER hall with the nurse. “Nurse Hal has a concussion. She'll have to take it easy for a few days and stay in bed. She'll be dizzy if she tries to get up and might fall. Going to the bathroom will be about it until she sees the doctor again.”
“Sure enough,” John said. “We will take gute care of her.”
Hal was dozing when they entered the exam room. Nora rose from her chair and came to them. She said softly, “Hal went to sleep a few minutes ago. She has a bad headache. Resting is the best thing for her.”
The nurse asked Nora, “You want to go out to the waiting room and talk to the worried men waiting for news?”
Nora looked at John. “Jim and the boys came with me. Aendi Tootie stayed with the girls.”
“Tell them the doctor said Nurse Hal will be fine after she rests,” the nurse said to Nora. “She will be moved to a room soon. After the doctor makes rounds in the morning, he'll probably release her.”
John spent a few minutes watching Hal sleep. Satisfied she was resting all right, he walked to the waiting room. “We might as well go home now.”
When they arrived back at the house, Nora went into the clinic to wake up Aunt Tootie to tell her Hal would be home in the morning. Aunt Tootie had the girls behind her in bed. They were sleeping soundly. Nora debated waking Aunt Tootie
and decided to wait to talk to her until morning. She didn't want to wake the little girls. They might have trouble going back to sleep.
John wasn't sure any of the rest of them could rest easy after such an unsettling night, but he was sound asleep the minute his head hit the pillow.
The next morning as soon as breakfast, devotion and the chores were done, John sent Noah to Emma's school to tell her what happened to Hal.
Jim and Nora took John to the hospital to pick up Hal. Doctor Christensen said she was to have bed rest for two days. Her equilibrium might be off for at least that long from such a hard blow to the head. After two days, Hal should come back for a checkup before he'd release her to go back to her regular routine.
Back home, John helped Hal out of the back seat. He put his arm around her waist to help her up the steps and into the house. She headed him toward the couch and eased on to it.
Nora scolded “That won't do, Hal. You heard the doctor's orders. You're to lie down.”
Aunt Tootie clucked like a setting hen. “Home a whole minute, and she's not minding right away.”
“One thing I'm not doing is get stuck in my bed upstairs like I was the last time I had a concussion. I want to be down here with my family,” Hal demanded as she laid her head on the back of the couch.
“All right, I'm going upstairs to get your pillow and a quilt to cover up with. If you're staying down here, you're going to stretch out on that couch,” Nora insisted as she headed for the stairs.
“Don't take a quilt off the bed. John will need the cover. Get one out of the quilt chest sitting by the window. There's plenty of quilts in it,” Hal said.
John backed up beside Jim while Nora and Aunt Tootie scolded Hal. After the matter of her resting on the couch was settled, he put his hand over Hal's and squeezed. “Now that you are all settled in, I want to look around in the barn again. Charlie Miller and Sheriff Dawson will be here soon to check the barn, then we can clean the mess up.”
“See you later,” Hal said with a weak wave.
