Vetted Again

by K'Anne Meinel

  Jeremy began to tell the interns and the fascinated children about what happened to Khan and how the German Shepherd had saved a little girl’s life by keeping her from being struck by a four-foot rattlesnake. He knew just what details to share and told the story well, keeping his audience captivated. They enjoyed the happily ever after ending.

  After cleaning up from their dinner, everyone did indeed seek out their beds, and no one made an appearance until breakfast the next morning. Allyssa waved the Dorceys off, check in hand for their services. Fey and the interns had headed out early for their regular rounds, and Allyssa sighed with relief to be left alone with her sister- and brother-in-law. Even Renee had the next two days off. She’d be in on Wednesday, so Fey and Allyssa could spend time alone with the children. They were planning on taking them up to the lake for a couple of days in the RV. Allyssa placed their regular orders for meds and supplies, then caught up on some of the paperwork from the previous weekend and followed up on the patients who would need to get stitches removed.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Can we come back for the roundup?” Sean asked, enthused by the idea.

  “It will take place during your school year, and it will take weeks. I don’t think your mother–” Fey began and then felt badly when her brother looked crestfallen. She was sorry for making him feel bad but there was nothing for it. She wondered how much grief her father was dealing with just getting them here for the two and a half weeks? She was also feeling badly about how she had been acting towards her father but didn’t know how to make it up to him.

  Despite the late start for camping, they were able to drive right up to the shore of the lake to camp and were sitting outside the RV. The kids had even braved the cold waters of the mountain-fed lake the next day. Both Allyssa and Fey had only gone in up to their knees at first, finding it too cold to go much farther but eventually, they were soaking wet, having been splashed first, by the kids and then, each other as the dogs joined them. Both Rex and Lexy were enjoying themselves after the harrowing clinic weekend where they had been tied up on the farmhouse porch. Clinics were one of the few times Fey remembered to lock the doors; with all the strange people coming and going it was impossible to watch the house too. Both Allyssa and Fey still wore their sidearms and got curious glances from people for this. They only took them off to go shopping in town, securing them in a lock box that Allyssa kept in the Jeep. The empty holsters had garnered odd looks too and they learned to take those off as well.

  “This is the life,” Allyssa said, sitting back in her chair and looking up at the evening sky that hadn’t yet turned black since the sun was still on the horizon. She was going to have trouble getting out of her chair. She had already gotten stuck in the slingback device twice. She had laughed at Fey when she had the same problem...until it started happening to her.

  “It is, isn’t it?” Fey agreed, reaching out her hand to touch her wife. She was very comfortable and hoped no emergencies would arise and ruin their two days away. Renee was back at the ranch taking calls, but she had also given the interns two days off. She didn’t care where they disappeared to so long as they returned by Friday. She wasn’t oblivious to the fact they weren’t the most appreciated or well-liked people around the practice. Some of their comments had been a little uncouth, and she’d had to discreetly chastise them to avoid embarrassing them. Still, they were better than when they arrived...at least that’s what she kept telling herself. Allyssa hadn’t complained but little details had leaked out about how arrogant the two of them had been. They were halfway through their internships, so hopefully they were learning a lot. She knew the hands-on experience they were both receiving was a heck of a lot more than she had received at their age.

  “Fey, look,” Traci breathed from where she was poking at the fire. She had been looking away from the fire instead of into the fire as Allyssa had advised. Allyssa explained that looking into a fire caused blindness until the eyes adjusted. She was a city gal, but she had learned all about it.

  They all looked to where the young girl was pointing and saw where a herd of horses had come to drink on a lip of the lake. As they watched avidly, they noticed the red horse was among the herd, a foal at her side. The dogs also looked where their humans were watching, and they would have risen if Allyssa and Fey hadn’t each put a hand on Rex and Lexy. Fey had spayed the bitch last weekend, and Lexy had been good about not licking the stitches, so there was no need for the cone of shame. Maybe she realized what the doctor had done for her and was relieved. Fey had rubbed an antibiotic on the stitches as there was no way to keep her out of the lake without tying her up while everyone else had fun.

  The horses vied for space as they spread out to drink, ignoring the humans that were far enough away that they weren’t considered a threat. They saw the stallion was a big, piebald thing, who looked scarred and beaten. His hide was ugly compared to the other horses who looked quite well fed, some even appeared plump.

  Allyssa reached for her camera to capture the scene and focused in on the mare. She wanted to prove to the others who hadn’t caught a glimpse of the red horse that it wasn’t a ghost story.

  “Do you think you’ll round those horses up with the others?” Sean asked, his eyes fixated on the red mare they had all talked about. Her color was very distinctive.

  “I don’t know. I kind of hate the idea of rounding up the Mustangs, but we might have to,” Fey told him. They’d also seen cattle, most of them domesticated as indicated by the brands on their hides. Not all had brands as some ranchers were taking up tattooing their animals to avoid damaging the hides. She also looked for the offspring of Billy, the bull in Molly and Erin’s stories although no one had reported a bull with monstrous horns other than the treed cellular people, and that story still amused her.

  “Why?” he asked as they watched the wild herd. None of those horses looked like the rescues they had taken in. All the rescued horses were accounted for after last weekend, and Fey had two home visits scheduled the following week for people who wanted to adopt.

  “They eat a lot of grass that is better for the domesticated animals,” she parroted what she had heard from her rancher clients, “but we have enough to share,” she countered her own argument. Still, she wouldn’t mind adding a couple of those horses to their own herd. That red one looked beautiful and there were one or two other Mustangs in the bunch that intrigued her. She wished she could get up and get a better look.

  Allyssa was using the focus on one of her longer lenses to get shots and watch the herd. She could hardly wait to get these digital shots up on the website. She was almost reluctant to include the shots of the red mare with her foal, greedily wanting to keep those for themselves.

  Something, probably the setting sun, caused the herd to slowly leave the water and begin heading back into the hills. They watched the horses walking and trotting, a few spiritedly kicking up amongst themselves, until they all disappeared behind a curve in a hill. The humans’ eyes strained as the sun went down and the darkness began to engulf them.

  “Help me out of this thing,” Fey ordered her brother and sister, holding out her hands.

  “Me first,” Allyssa teased, trying to rock her way out of the camping chair and laughing at herself.

  The two siblings laughed as they first helped their awkward sister out of her seat, then with Fey’s help they pulled her ungainly wife out of her seat.

  “I won’t go camping again while I’m pregnant,” Allyssa threatened, laughing.

  Fey laughed. She’d had the same thought about camping as well working while pregnant, although her mind was unencumbered, and she could still do a lot with her hands. She just needed to remain upright; it was when she hunkered down with some of her patients that she had problems. More than once, Althea and Buddy had helped her get back on her feet. The ranchers and farmers laughing along at her predicament. The thing that was getting to both future mothers was exhaustion. Naps were no longer an option but a necessity.
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br />   They made sure the fire couldn’t escape its rock circle, watering around the edges as they slowly put it out and gathered up their belongings. They would be driving back to the ranch in the morning, and they spent the rest of their evening in the camper away from the bugs. They chatted as they watched a couple videos before going to sleep. Their second night out at the lake proved as relaxing as the first, and they headed back across the plains completely relaxed after their two days away.

  Their two-day escape was timed perfectly. On the drive home, summer storms began to rumble across the high plains pouring badly needed rain on the parched ground and providing instant summer growth in the soaked ground they left behind.

  “That’s good and bad,” Fey stated as they watched the rain rolling in as they drove towards the ranch.

  “Why is it both?” Traci asked, and Allyssa’s eyes twinkled at her wife, knowing she had deliberately phrased her comment that way, so the child would ask. They could both see Sean was also curious, and if Traci hadn’t asked, Sean would have.

  “It’s good because this will all turn green and things will grow,” she gestured at the plains and hills around them, “but it’s bad because those things will then turn brown again if we don’t get constant rain. When things get brown and dry, that’s when there is a danger of lightning strikes and fires.”

  “I thought you told us fires open some seed pods?” Sean asked from where he was seated in the RV petting Lexy, who looked up at him with adoring eyes. She sighed contentedly. She was so much happier with these humans than she had been just over a week ago.

  “That’s right, they do. Buddy was talking about those fires in California where people have built homes and the trees and brush needed fire to send out their seeds and restore the balance. We have some of that up here too.”

  “Didn’t you say your great-grandparents lost their house to fire?” he asked, having overheard about the journals Allyssa had put back into the trunk for the duration of their stay since she knew Keith didn’t want the younger children to read them yet.

  Fey nodded in answer to his question. “Yes, our great-great-grandparents,” she corrected subtly, “apparently lost both their first and second cabins. I think the cabin we use as an office, the one you are sleeping in, was their third home.”

  He swelled with pride over this knowledge, thinking how honored he was to sleep in the loft that his own great-great-grandparents had built and lived in.

  “Can I sleep in the loft sometime?” Traci asked enviously. She also felt the family pride Fey was instilling in them.

  “Sometime,” Fey promised, nodding her head as she maneuvered the vehicle across the plains since no real road existed in this area of the ranch. They went by the cellular tower, a fence boxing it off and keeping away the cattle that roamed freely. Even now, there was a cow and its calf mowing the hay around the fence where it seemed to grow longer. “I wonder if the rays from the tower makes that hay radioactive?” she murmured to Allyssa in a teasing manner. They had both researched the towers and nothing they read suggested there was anything to worry about with the tall tower that netted them an unexpected income they sorely needed. They were certainly going to need it this fall after they both gave birth.

  Allyssa didn’t feel well the morning they were supposed to return the children. She woke up to nausea and a headache. As a result, they had to change their plans. Fey would take her brother and sister to meet their father at the halfway point. It was an unfamiliar feeling for Fey to be driving the Jeep and answering her siblings infernal and endless questions. Sometimes, Fey was certain Allyssa was going to make a better mother than she would. Neither of them had been around babies and Fey only had her grandmother’s influence as a mother figure. She didn’t know if Allyssa felt that way about her own mother but from her viewpoint, Helen wasn’t a great mother to Allyssa. She thought about that situation for a while in between the constant conversations with Traci and the no longer shy Sean.

  Her father was surprised to see her pull herself out from behind the wheel of the Jeep and when she explained that Allyssa wasn’t feeling well, he enfolded her in a hug. “I’m so surprised and happy to see you,” he told her sincerely. He had always felt bad about their estrangements over the years. Seeing her looking healthy and obviously happy made him happy. “I mean that too,” he said, tears in his eyes.

  Seeing his obvious affection surprised her and made her teary-eyed too. She knew her father loved her, but she still didn’t understand why he had allowed Rosemary to keep them apart all those years. It hadn’t been fair, and it hadn’t been easy, but fortunately, her grandparents had been willing and able to raise her. She’d had a wonderful childhood, but now that she was about to become a parent herself, she hoped she’d be a better parent than her weak father. Still, her sister and brother were good people and hadn’t been as affected by Rosemary as she thought they might be. “I’m sorry, Daddy. We shouldn’t let these things go on,” she returned his affection with a hug of her own.

  He pulled back, surprised by her calling him Daddy. She had rarely done that, and it had been a long time. It delighted him, and he wished they could spend more time together now, but Rosemary was expecting him back promptly. They’d had a doozy of a fight before he set out, and he knew he would have to get the children back before she accused him of something ugly. It wouldn’t be the first time. Knowing what he had waiting at home, he impulsively asked, “Why don’t the four of us stop for dinner? I’m sure you are tired of driving and could use a break? And when was the last time this family ate together?”

  “Are you sure?” Fey began hesitantly as she released her father. She knew he was usually in a hurry to get back.

  “I’m sure,” he reassured her. “What do you say, kids? We eat out?”

  The two younger Herriots agreed wholeheartedly. “I’m only sorry Allyssa isn’t here to make this family complete,” Keith murmured a while later as they entered a nearby restaurant, having driven off the interstate and into a small town. They both noted he made no mention of Rosemary being part of this family. The four of them enjoyed sharing stories, the children’s tales mostly centered around what they had done on the ranch the past two and a half weeks.

  “I’m sorry we had to leave Lexy there,” Sean said earnestly. He had really taken to the dog, much more so than Rex, although he also adored him. He wished his mother would let him have a dog.

  “You can see her anytime you come to the ranch. We’re keeping her,” Fey reminded him. She had spoken to Allyssa to confirm it just the other night. The terrier was so eager to please. Some people were against Pit Bulls, but she was the sweetest thing, and it wasn’t the breed’s fault that there were shitty people out there who raised them for profit or fighting.

  “Don’t you think you are doing too much at this stage of your pregnancy?” Keith fretted when he heard about all they had done at the clinic and the camping trip.

  “I am pulling back, and the interns are very helpful,” she told him.

  “Althea is a snob,” Sean put in disparagingly.

  “No, she just has a different set of values. But she likes horses, which is why she went into this business. Her way and my way differ, but she’s learning a lot, which is the point. At least she is trying with the other aspects of a large animal practice, which don’t really interest her,” Fey defended the woman even though she agreed with her brother.

  “Buddy isn’t so bad, and I liked the plans he had for your new theater,” Traci said innocently, finishing her meal with a strawberry sundae that she knew her mother wouldn’t have allowed.

  “Theater?” Keith asked, wondering what on earth his daughter was planning now. It was all too much with the large animal practice, the rescue, and the ranch. He didn’t know how she did it all, and then he answered his own unspoken question...Allyssa was how she did it all. Between the two of them they did everything successfully. At least that’s what he gleaned from the blogs.

  Fey told him about the lar
ge animal surgical theater they were thinking of building someday specifically for horses. “Buddy has a friend, who is helping him design it based on that movie with Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn,” she told him, mentioning the name of the movie and what they had in mind for it. It was fascinating to make plans, but she didn’t know if she would ever be able to make it. It sounded expensive, and so far, the plans were just a bunch of scribblings to her. Buddy was going to work on the cost analysis to see if it was viable. Meanwhile, it would be good for the paper he was writing on this subject for school. Althea was also enthused about the idea and had added her own input to the project that was close to her own heart...horses.

  They treasured the hour or so they spent together in the restaurant. It was the first time in a long time they were together. Allyssa was missed. Rosemary was not. Keith knew he would pay for that extra hour, but in that moment, with his three children eating next to him, he didn’t care. They were bonding in ways he had missed over the years. He wondered, not for the first time, if he could ever get away from Rosemary and her ways. He hugged and kissed his oldest daughter goodbye. The younger children took turns awkwardly trying to hug her around her baby bulge.

  “You’ll call us when you have the baby?” Traci worried as she patted her sister’s stomach. She had even felt the baby moving a few times, which filled her mind with wonder.

  “Sure will,” her sister promised. She knew her sister wished they knew the baby’s sex, but neither Allyssa or she had wanted to know; they wanted it to be a surprise.

  “Please take care of Lexy for me and Sarge?” Sean asked pleadingly, the tears in his eyes giving away his concern.

  “You know we will,” she promised, smiling at her brother as she gave him a slight shove. She would have punched him in the shoulder but didn’t want that kind of relationship with him.