It was a very cold and snowy night and Cody heard the horses, obviously alarmed. Then the howling of coyotes not far away at all. He jumped up from under the warm blankets and saw four coyotes racing across the sparkling blanket of snow. He jerked on his boots and coat, grabbed his rifle and raced outside, David following close behind. By the time they reached the horses, his chestnut mare already lay on the ground being mangled by the coyotes. They shot several times, killing two and two ran away. He went to the mare and brushed his gloved hand down her neck, she was breathing heavy, mortally wounded. He stood up and shot her in the head and then turned and vomited . He had brought the mare from Texas, she had been a good companion. David stood beside him, and placed his hand on his shoulder, “I am sorry, brother.”
The worst of it was they really needed the horses. Cody said, “We will have to bury her when the weather breaks. My hands and feet are frozen right now.”
As they walked back to the house, David said, “Maybe we can capture one of the wild horses.”
Cody said, “I don't know. Even if we could, it is a lot of work, breaking and training. We will have to think about it later.”
Ashley knew by the weariness on his face, as he climbed under the blankets. She said, “The mare?”
Cody said, “Gone.” She didn't try to comfort, just held his hand.
Chapter Twelve
SPRING
The four and even Charles and Ann had made it through the worst of the winter. Cody had, on occasion thought of what the scraggly man said, don't much care for beans. They did have other food to supplement with and the women were fairly good at making things tasty, he really wasn't complaining. Ann had gotten a respiratory infection during the winter. She was really ill. Ashley had dug around and found some of their antibiotics, explaining to Charles that it was for animals and that it was old. It was worth a try and it seemed to get her well. Charles backed up the idea that many animal medicines were equal or the same as human.
Spring was not really there but there were signs. There were many warm and sunny days, snow would come and not be heavy or stay on the ground long. They were back to repairs and thinking about where to put a small garden. The two men had been discussing how they could capture a wild horse. Cody said, “You know old Charles was a scientist, he specialized in agriculture. He actually graduated from that big AG college down in Texas. I bet he might tell us some things about the wild horses.”
David said, “Good, let's talk to him about it.”
Sure enough, Charles was full of it...information, that is. With his advice and after several days of failed attempts, they finally had a beautiful stallion fenced in. Of course, breaking and training him was not going to be an easy job, David was convinced he could handle it. Charles had told them, find a stallion then you will have colts. David began the slow and tedious task of training the wild horse.
David also talked with Charles about the weird findings in the lab at the college. The aging scientist agreed that he had never seen anything like the rough sketch that David drew. He also agreed that the government or private entities could certainly have been fooling around with the natural order of things.
“Well, not so far away from that place, we had an encounter with an animal that we did not recognize and it looked awfully similar to that skeleton in the lab.” said David. “No more strange animals as we moved away from that area, though.”
Charles just shook his head and said, “Damn interesting, huh?”
“Yeah, I thought so.” David and the man would have many long and deep conversations in the future.
Some nights, Cody felt like he spent as much time looking out the window by the bed, as he did in the bed. He supposed that years of being on guard, broken sleep had made him habitually a light sleeper. This was a pleasant night, not so cold and the moon was making a golden light on the rustling grasses. His lovely Ashley, most nights slept the sleep of the dead. Her soft hair splayed out across the pillow, mouth slightly open and small sounds bubbling out. He heard a noise, was it in the carport or had it been on the porch? He moved to the front window and scoped out the porch, nothing there. His hand on his .45, he moved the few steps to the back door, opened it very quietly and peered out in the carport. There, pawing at the rock on the cold storage hole, was a large dark form. It was a bear, alright. David had come up behind him, from his bedroom, “S—t! It's a bear!” This made the big fellow stand up tall and stare at them. If he had let out one of those horrific roars, like in the old movies, Cody would have probably shot him dead. The bear didn't and he fired a shot at the big furry feet, he somehow just didn't want to kill him. His instinct screamed that he should.
The bear took off, lumbering away on four feet into the trees. Ashley stood at the window by now and Shawna at her window. They leaned out and looked at each other, laughing...”BEAR!” they said at nearly the same time. This little adventure kept them all awake for a while. David growing excited and claiming that when the bear stood up, he nearly touched the ceiling of the carport. Ashley thought she would have a story to write.
It was late in the afternoon, the four had all been working hard that day and they sat on the edge of the porch. Ashley had found an old container of dried lemonade mix on the shelf, it didn't taste bad at all and she had kept a pitcher of it down in the cool hole. They were sipping the tart lemonade and enjoying the warmth of the Spring sun. A sound like horses hooves echoed down the road but when you were on that stretch of road before the big turn, you were hidden from the view of the cabin. Then a furry figure came flying up the road towards them. Cody stood up and squinted, is it a wolf ? He pulled his pistol. Then, bark-bark-bark! Something nearly knocked him over. “Bull” exclaimed Ashley. They all looked up to see two people on a horse coming around the corner and up the hill. PFC Pat clicked and hurried the horse to a trot and Sarge hung on for dear life, in the back. Two big packs were tied on each side. They all ran towards each other, Pat jumping off the horse and swinging Shawna right off the ground. Sarge awkwardly slid down to the ground and there was a profusion of hugs and hand shaking with Bull leaping up between them. “I'll be a monkey's butt,” said Pat, “It's the cabin, isn't it?”
Cody shook his head proudly. They all moved to the porch and questions were flung out. “What about Bubba?” said Shawna.
Pat shook her head, “Bless his heart, he died about six weeks ago.”
Shawna gave her a sad look, “I am so sorry, Pat. I truly know how you feel.”
Pat brushed a tear away and said, “So, Sarge and me, well we figured we might as well hit the road. We waited until it got at least a little warmer and took off.”
Sarge was rubbing his sore bottom, “You know me and horses. She found this one and so I tagged along.”
“Come on in” said Ashley. The six friends walked into the small cabin. They showed the two the small spaces including the two bedrooms. Pat looked around, stuffed her hands in her pockets and said, “Well, damn, you have a great place here. 'Course we won't be imposing. We will be on our way soon.”
There was a clamor of voices, What? No-no...where are you going...you are staying here. Pat said, “That's real sweet and all. You have a nice place for the four of you. You don't have room for us.”
Ashley was patting Bull's head, loving the soft feel of him again, “Look, this is a real comfortable hide-a-way bed and right there is another sofa. We don't need a living room, we have this big kitchen area,” and she pointed to the window, “And all of that beautiful outdoors. You've got to stay Pat.” They all chimed in and said they really wanted them both to stay.
Pat walked over and stood looking out the window at the distant mountain peaks, they were still capped with white and would be until probably June. A pair of antelope raced across the green meadow at the base. It was a stunning place. Nothing said for a minute. Pat turned to them and said, “Well, truth is, we don't need two beds,” she glanced over to Sarge and did not smile.
He smiled his big toothy grin
, rubbed his hand across his face and said, “Wherever Pat goes, I go.” Obviously, this was not a situation that just occurred this moment. Later, they would discover that Bubba had become so very ill. Sarge had stood right beside Pat, never flinching from helping her care for her brother. She didn't know what she would have done without him. Not just in taking care of her sick brother but in helping her through the loss of him. She soon stopped fighting her confused feelings for the soldier and gave over to his persistent attention.
Cody saw that Ashley's mind was already churning away. She said, “We can put a divider of some sort...oh, you know the guys can make it...right here. And since you don't need this second sofa,” she winked at Pat, “We will put it here in our common area.” He remembered the day so long ago, that he had walked into Jack and Beth's Texas home. Beth was immediately shuffling and making arrangements for him and his uncle to stay and sleep. From that day forward, he was home.
Pat and Sarge were welcomed in. They had their private space, that was luxury these days. The mare was in the pen, the new stallion would be a polygamist. Bull was back and being slathered with attention and doing his watch dog job. There would be the daily work of providing food and shelter and security in this world that they were all adapted to, the world where no one else provided that for a person. That self sufficiency, that ability to use the available resources to survive, united them. Now the six of them were going to be home. They would make a new life here.
Cody thought of their long journey to get here. Always and forever in the bottom of his heart would be the family back in Texas. He also wondered about Jeff and his young son, Kevin. Had they survived the winter? Where were they? He hoped that they were together and delivering those hopeful letters. Perhaps they would turn up at Unity and give the letters to his family. Perhaps they would someday show up here with a letter in return. There was no doubt that people were surviving, good people and bad people. They had seen some of both. It was really just a small portion of the country, he couldn't testify to what lay out there in whole big United States. Fifteen years after, the country was not normal, not anywhere near the America that had once thrived and grown here. Would that bustling, technology laden, extravagant and abundant world ever come back? He supposed that it would some day, it wouldn't matter to him. He knew that this was his normal. This was a world that he had learned to live in and thanks to Jack and Beth, he had learned to live well in it. He and his beloved and his friends had come West, just as so many had over two hundred years ago and they had found home.
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Hope you enjoyed the third No Normal Day book. I have greatly enjoyed writing them.
If you would like to send me a note, I would be happy to hear from you.
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These books are available on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook and in the Ibookstore.
My Regards, J. Richardson
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No Normal Day III (West) Page 14
