Nova

by Delia Delaney

  I was so excited that night that I couldn’t even sleep. I laid awake for several hours, just thinking about spending time on a horse ranch and getting paid to intern for an equine vet. I even became excited for the equestrian aspect of it.

  I arrived in Bakersfield just before nine the next morning. I left Santa Clarita early, just in case I had trouble finding the ranch. But Harmony Acres was very easy to find, just as Dr. Stevens had said. I passed acres of white-fenced fields as I drove up the drive. The guesthouse was on my left and the arena and stables were right next to it. I parked in front of a wooden sign on the arena that read “office.”

  As I got out of the car, I looked ahead to where the road continued to the main house and I had to pause. It was beautiful, a two-story Craftsman-style, and the driveway made a gigantic loop in front of it with professional landscaping all around it.

  A few people were milling about. A girl was leading a horse into the stables and two men were loading another one into a horse trailer. There were at least fifteen horses that I could count in the fields across the driveway, and I was sure there were even more than that behind the stables.

  “Can I help you with something?” a young woman asked as she came out of the arena. She looked to be my age or maybe younger, with medium-length brown hair that was tied into a ponytail, and dusty boots that barely stuck out from her faded jeans.

  “Oh, uh, no I don’t think so. I’m here to meet with Dr. Stevens and he said to just find him in the office.” I pointed to the sign in front of me for some reason; maybe I was waiting for her permission.

  “Yep, he’s in there,” she smiled. “Are you Nova?”

  I was a little surprised that she knew about me but I said, “Yes, I am.”

  “Hi, I’m Sam. Austin’s sister,” she added with a smile.

  I guess I could see the resemblance after she said it. And when she stepped closer to me to politely shake my hand, I could tell they had the same eye color. It unnerved me because I realized how much I wanted to see him, and the reminder caught me off-guard. “Oh, it’s nice to meet you,” I said, shaking her hand.

  “Come on, I’ll walk you inside,” she said, motioning for me to follow her.

  We walked through an open breezeway and I could see horses being worked in the enormous arena ahead of us.

  “Well, that’s the main office,” she said, pointing to our left. “And Jack’s office is right here,” she added, turning to the right. His name was on the door, and she pushed right through it. “Hey, Jack?” she called.

  A man immediately produced himself from the back room and he stopped when he saw us, seeming a bit surprised. Then he looked at the clock and said, “Oh, where did the time go?” He chuckled and stepped forward with his hand extended. “Hello, you must be Nova? I’m Jack Stevens.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you,” I replied. He looked to be in his mid-thirties. He had sandy colored hair and blue eyes, and his smile was friendly.

  “Well I’ll let you two get to work,” Sam said. “Just come find me later and we can go riding together,” she smiled at me.

  After she left I asked Dr. Stevens, “Is that a requirement?”

  “Riding?” he chuckled. “You don’t know how to ride a horse?”

  I was instantly embarrassed but shook my head no.

  “Well no worries,” he said, seeming to wave it off. “It’s not going to hurt your chances to intern,” he added with a wink. “Come here, let me show you something.”

  He motioned me to follow him to the back room and I smiled at what I saw. In the corner was a Golden Retriever giving birth to puppies.

  “This is Goldie,” he told me. “I know, totally unoriginal for a name, but what can I say.”

  “Is she your dog?”

  “No, she belongs to Marlo. Mrs. Gaines,” he clarified. “We all prefer to be called by first names here, by the way, so please call me Jack. But one of the camp kids named the dog when she was a puppy, so Marlo just went with it. Goldie is two years old; this is her first litter, and it’ll also be her last. We’ll fix that when the time is right.”

  We spent a few minutes discussing the birthing, and then we left Goldie alone to talk over my options. I was already in complete euphoria after only being on the ranch for a few minutes. Austin’s sister was nice, and so was Dr. Stevens—uh, Jack. So far things were going pretty well.

  I spent almost two hours in Jack’s office. He not only answered every question that I had, but he also answered questions that I didn’t even know I wanted to ask. We discussed my schooling again, and he told me about his own college experiences.

  By the time Goldie had her fourth pup it was decided that I would come up to Bakersfield just for the weekends until I was done with my current semester. And since there was only one class that I could take during the summer, and it happened to be online, Jack suggested that I move to the ranch to work full time come summertime until fall semester began.

  I was so excited and I just had such a great feeling about the whole thing. I knew that my life was headed in the right direction.

  A woman came into the office just before eleven with a big smile on her face. I knew right away it was Mrs. Gaines, Marlo, because she looked like an older version of Sam. When she entered she asked, “Well? How’s she doing?” Then she noticed me and said, “Oh! You must be Nova, right? I’m Marlo, Austin’s mom.”

  “It’s very nice to meet you,” I said, shaking her hand.

  “It’s nice to finally meet you too. So will we be seeing you every day?”

  She seemed really eager for an affirmative answer, and that made me feel really good. I felt wanted, and there was no better feeling than that. “Uh, probably when I’m done with this semester of school. For now it will just be Friday to Sunday.”

  “Oh, that will be a good start.” She looked at Jack and said, “Does Clara know?”

  “Nope, haven’t gotten that far,” he replied.

  “Well let me take care of it, okay?”

  Jack nodded, and then the two of them began discussing Goldie. After about five minutes Marlo asked, “Are you done with Nova?”

  He looked at me and said, “Yeah, I believe so. But we were going to take a walk around the grounds so she can meet some of her new patients.”

  “Hmm, could you do that later?” she asked him. “I can make sure she gets a tour, and when you’re done with Goldie you can go over the vet stuff with Nova.”

  “Sounds fine to me,” he shrugged.

  Marlo looked at me for agreement, so I nodded my head.

  I followed her outside and made a comment about how much I loved her ranch.

  “We love it here,” she replied as we walked. “We started the business when we lived in Texas years back, but then my sister’s brother-in-law had this land for sale, and we just couldn’t pass up the deal. Eventually the business just kind of…grew.”

  “I like the name. Why’d you name it Harmony Acres?”

  “Harmony was the name of my very first horse,” she smiled. “I was fifteen and fell in love with horses the first time I saw her. She was kind of the start to all of this,” she motioned to her surroundings, “so I only felt it suiting to name my business after her.”

  I noticed we were walking toward the main house, and I could only assume Marlo wanted to start there with the tour. As we got closer to it, I saw the tail end of a car parked on the side of the house next to the garage, and I got a funny tickle in my stomach as I realized whom it must belong to.

  It was the Camaro.

  Chapter Six

  “Well,” Marlo said as we entered the house. “Welcome. Let me go find Austin for you; I’ll be right back,” she smiled.

  My stomach did a nosedive into my gut. My feelings for Austin had temporarily been put on hold until that moment. Well, actually the moment I recognized his car by the garage. Why did things have to be so complicated? Why couldn’t he be some ugly guy that wasn’t smart and didn’t have a nice smile with great teet
h? I would have much rather he be someone that didn’t make my heart pound in my chest whenever I thought about him—like right now, when I pictured him looking at me from across a table, or holding the door open for me—

  “Hey, Nova.”

  —Or every time he spoke to me.

  I turned around slowly, mainly trying to take time to compose myself, and said, “Hey,” as casually as I could.

  Oh gosh, he looked better than I remembered. How was that possible? I just saw him the day before. Then I recognized the difference. It looked like he’d just showered, but I could tell he hadn’t shaved. That twelve o’clock shadow dusted his face very nicely, and I concluded that it must be his out-of-the-office, weekend appearance. It worked very well for him, and the fact that he was incredible to look at really annoyed me.

  “How’d it go with Jack?” he asked as he came nearer.

  “Uh, it went great,” I replied, still trying to recover by taking silent, steady breaths.

  “You decide on what you’re gonna do? Will you be working here?”

  He took a pair of shoes into the living room and sat down on an ottoman to put them on, so I gave him a brief rundown of the plan I decided upon with Jack.

  “That’s great,” Austin nodded.

  “Did you just wake up?” I had to ask.

  He chuckled as he stood. “Is it that obvious?” He rubbed his face and said, “Yeah, I was the lucky sucker my mom sent out looking for the dog last night. We were pretty sure she was in labor and she just disappeared.”

  “Where was she?”

  “Behind the guesthouse in the woodshed.”

  “Ooh, and you moved her?”

  “No, she followed me so I just walked her into Jack’s office. I heard she started having ‘em, though. Is she still in labor?”

  “Yeah, she had four already.”

  “And she’s not done?”

  “There’s probably at least one or two more,” I replied, wishing that I could be there when they arrived. But unfortunately someone else was a little more interesting to me, and that made me feel guilty.

  “Hmm,” he nodded. “Oh, did you want to check on her progress?” he asked, seeming to read me pretty well.

  I smiled and said, “Yeah kind of, if you don’t mind.”

  “Nah,” he shrugged. “Oh, just a sec.” I waited for a few moments until he returned with a paper plate that had three apple fritters and offered me one.

  I followed him out of the house and we walked in silence as we ate. There was another trailer parked ahead at the arena and two horses were being unloaded. Austin said hi to the owners as we passed and one of the horses let out a long, loud whinny. It seemed to provoke a response from other horses nearby, and they hollered their response back.

  “A lot of horse talk goes on around here,” Austin smiled.

  I chuckled as he held the door to the arena for me, and then the door to Jack’s office. Jack popped his head out from the back room and paused for a moment.

  “Just lost one,” he informed us. He motioned us back as I stuffed the last of the fritter in my mouth and I saw the tiny little pup lifeless in a towel on the counter. “So, Nova? What do you think?”

  I stepped up to the counter, and after looking over the litter and then the deceased pup on the table, I asked, “Do you mind?”

  Jack shook his head with a slight smile, so I slipped on a pair of sterile gloves before I uncovered the rest of the puppy.

  “What time did she have the first one?” I asked.

  “About four this morning.”

  I barely nodded and took my pinky finger to open the pup’s mouth. “Well, seeing that Goldie had number five,” I nodded with my head to the litter, “and this little guy is number six?”

  Jack nodded.

  “Well, I’m going to say he’s been in the birth canal for too long, or he’s breathed in birthing fluids. His tongue is blue…” I continued to look him over but didn’t see anything that suggested any other cause. “He died from lack of oxygen, but I’d do a necropsy just to be sure.”

  Jack slowly nodded and then smiled. “Nice job. And would you like to stay for said necropsy?”

  “Yes,” I said immediately.

  He chuckled as he took the last fritter from the plate that Austin had set down for him. “Okay, give me about an hour and we can get started on that.” After taking a bite of the fritter, he glanced at the clock and mumbled, “How ‘bout noon?”

  I agreed right away, and when we left the office Austin said, “You seem a little too happy to dissect a puppy.”

  I rolled my eyes but looked at him for a moment. “I’m not insensitive about death.”

  “I wasn’t implying that at all,” he said, seeming to be truly sorry about the comment.

  We walked for a few seconds before I said, “If you think about how many animals are in the world, it’s kind of an incredible amount. There are so many cats and dogs, pets that people don’t even take care of, and they just seem to come and go. Everything is in balance, and I realize that even if I become the best I can be, I’m still not going to save them all. I believe there’s a purpose for every living thing, and when something dies, I have to tell myself that it was meant to be that way no matter what.”

  We walked in silence again until he said, “I agree with you. And it wasn’t meant to mean anything. Sorry, I guess I’m used to teasing Jack about all that stuff. I even tell him he likes sticking his hands up a horse when she’s giving birth.”

  I chuckled at that and nodded. “Okay. And I can take a joke, but I just wanted to clarify that I guess.”

  “Understandable. It’s part of your vet oath, isn’t it?” he smiled.

  I returned the smile and nodded. “Yeah, something like that.” We walked for a few more seconds and I added, “I’ve never even had a pet of my own.”

  “Really?”

  I shook my head. “Nope. My grandma was allergic to cats and my grandpa didn’t like dogs. My mom worked a lot so she couldn’t even take care of a fish. And when we moved into an apartment, pets weren’t allowed. So I guess I’ve never really been attached to any sort of animal,” I shrugged. “I guess I’ve always wanted to be a vet because I never got to be around them.”

  We came up to a fence behind the stables and stopped. There were eight horses in the closest field, grazing on the grass.

  “This is Field One, FYI,” Austin told me.

  “Okay.”

  He pointed to the next fields over and said, “Field Two, Field Three, and back there behind the guesthouse is Field Four.”

  I nodded.

  “Across the road is Fields Five and Six, and behind the main house is Seven and Eight.”

  “All right.”

  “These three fields are mainly the horses that compete. The horses aren’t divided up by ownership or anything, but how they mingle with the other horses. We don’t put horses together that don’t get along because they could really hurt each other. The stable crew pastures the horses in shifts. It’s on a chart in the barn if you ever need to know it, or need to find a particular horse.”

  “Okay.”

  I looked over the four fields to get a good look at the horses. It really was a beautiful site to see so many of them in one place.

  “Do any of these horses belong to you guys?” I asked.

  “Oh yeah,” he nodded. “Right there is one of Sami’s horses.”

  He pointed to a very dark mare that seemed to stand pretty tall.

  “Over there is my mom’s baby,” he smiled. “He’s a spoiled brat.”

  “Do you even know their names?” I joked.

  He gave me a funny scowl and said, “Pssh, of course I do. Sami’s mare is Queen Sadie Elizabeth—‘Sadie Liz’ for short. My mom’s brat is Aces Diamond Rio—‘Ace.’ Over there is Cash the Check—‘Cash.’ Uh…right there is Nellie…there’s Ridley. Zorro’s Last Choice and Conan belong to our stable manager. Uh, that old guy right there is Zazu Zebedee. In Field Two is Benc
h Rider,” he pointed, “and Spitfire is another one of Sam’s… Uh, and that black one there is Wizard.”

  He seemed to be done when he glanced at me, so I said, “Wow. How many horses does just your family own?”

  “As of now there are eighteen.” He turned around and faced the field behind the main house. “There are two of them in Field Five with their colts. We have two studs on the other side of the arena. They’re kept in pretty secure quarters,” he smiled.

  I returned the smile. “Yeah, wouldn’t want that energy let loose.”

  He laughed and nodded his head. “So did you see the inside of the arena, or just the clinic?”

  “Uh, just the clinic.”

  “Okay, follow me.”

  We entered through the stables and I looked up and down at the rows of stalls. It was very professional, wood and wrought iron, and each gate had a plaque with a name slid into it.

  “Wow, how many horses can you board in here?”

  “There are forty stalls in this building, and then there are a few smaller barns out in two fields that can hold a total of ten more. We don’t have them all filled year-round, but this place here is usually pretty busy.”

  I glanced at some of the names on the stall doors as we walked by. Some of them were pretty interesting.

  “Yeah, naming horses is a big deal,” Austin said when I chuckled at “Your Highness, Cute as a Button” and “Your Antique Rolls Royce.”

  I looked at another and read, “ ‘Wing and a Prayer for a Slothful Soul’? Do they call him ‘Wing’, ‘Prayer’, or ‘Sloth’?”

  He smiled. “Uh, I think I’ve only heard ‘Wing and a Prayer.’ ”

  “So where’s your pony?” I teased.

  With a smile and a gesture of his hand he replied, “Aisle Two.”

  “Seriously?”