Chapter Fifteen
- Congested Roadway - Beware of distractions . . .
Spread out below us was an idyllic panorama that would have made a perfect calendar scene.
To our right and off in the distance, was a small lake, its surface scarcely ruffled by a soft breeze and tiny waves reflecting glints of the clear blue sky of late spring. Nearer to us were the neat and trim buildings of a small ranch that Grampa Bender and our family had built and maintained over the years. Everything was backed by the varied greens of a boreal woodland. The trees were in turn was backed by the verdant slopes of the foothills ranging into the distance. Then on the edge of the skyline we could make out the icy peaks of the Rocky Mountains.
Grampa Bender's old cabin rested in the center of the extended clearing below us, its silver grey log walls and shake covered roof almost luminescent in the bright sunlight. Winding down the long slope below us were the tracks of a barely distinguishable dirt road. Most of its surface hidden under the growth of years of vegetation except for the two parallel tracks made be the wheels of cars that had passed that way. Grass and small plants had almost reclaimed that track. The one truly clear area was the deck of a creosoted wooden bridge that crossed a small stream near the foot of the slope. The bridge was really the only visible sign of the creek from our viewpoint, the water being hidden by the shading leaves and branches of willows that grew along its verge.
Slightly to our left and slightly further away from our viewpoint were the red painted walls and roof of Grampa Bender's hip roofed barn as well as several smaller outbuildings where animals and tools were kept. Neat pole fences separated several of the pens, the only exceptions being the small area he had reserved for his huge old sow or the large chicken run, each of those was enclosed by wire fencing stretched over peeled posts.
At first glance everything looked clean neat and well maintained, but I knew better. Grampa Bender was an old man who was starting to find it hard to keep everything in top condition and I knew that there were a thousand small repairs that needed to be done. I wanted desperately to be the person to do those tasks. In my mind I had decided that when he returned from the hospital everything would really be as neat and functional as the setup appeared from the distance.
For several moments we simply sat on the top of the little hill and looked down at the slope toward Grampa Bender's little ranch. Then Mom leaned forward from the back seat until her head was almost resting on my shoulder.
"I admit that the whole effect is beautiful, Chris, but you can't eat the scenery. How would you ever manage to make a living if you farmed this?" She asked, her voice right in my ear as she spoke quietly.
"I admit that it might never be a profitable farm, Mom." I answered calmly. "It has the possibility of being a great horse ranch though. Especially if you include the top end of the lease, the section above the drop off into the lower valley."
"You know, that's not such a bad idea." Dad said quietly after a moment's thought. "If you included all the land in the upper basin, you'd have almost five-thousand acres. With the land conformation being the way it is, it wouldn't take a lot of fencing to do it either. Most of that area is surrounded by steep banks and cliffs, all you'd need would be to fence the draws leading up to the heights and perhaps a mile or so of fencing across the top end of the lower valley."
"Grampa Toby has already done part of that fencing, Willard." Uncle Tom commented from the back seat. "I remember helping him years ago, when I wasn't much older than Chris. We fenced all of those draws then."
"I remember that." Mom said as she sat back on the seat. "Didn't Uncle Toby do that partly to fence the wild horses out? I remember coming up here with Kate when we were just teenagers to help Aunt Tilly do her canning. One time we came and she was so mad because the mustangs had come down from the hills and had almost wiped out the peas and corn in her garden. We were here to help her for the weekend and there wasn't much we could do, so one day we went skinny dipping in the lake and almost froze. It sees to me that you were here that weekend, Alice. Do you remember it?"
"Yeah, I remember! Kate talked me into coming out with her that weekend. In fact I think that was when I first met Tom. He snuck down to peek at us when we were swimming." She laughed, then her voice changed until she sounded annoyed. "But, there aren't many mustangs to keep out now! The damn wild horse hunters are going after them with planes now and other people are shooting them. I think they're the ones who should be shot."
"Well, mustangs can do a lot of damage." Dad sighed. "I don't agree with killing them out in the wild though or with catching them and shipping them to a packing plant to grind them up into dog food. I think that should be stopped."
"That takes government action." Uncle Tom sighed. "The problem is keeping them out of farms and ranches. It takes a darn good fence to keep them out. I know, I helped Grampa Toby build the fences here in the forties, remember. We had a four-foot high fence on one gully and those darn wildies just jumped over it like it was a two-foot high log. We had to make all the fences almost six feet high."
"You must have done good work. Some of those fences are still there." I commented. "But my point is that if the wild horses ranged here, then why can't this be good range for quarter horses?"
"Oh it could be." Dad agreed with me, nodding his head. "The thing is you'd need to have all the fences in top shape, then you'd need corrals and equipment. On top of that the sublease would have to be modified."
"Where would you get the initial horses for your foundation herd?" Uncle Tom asked. "I'd think that would be the most expensive part of the setup."
"I don't know." I admitted with a shrug of my shoulders. "After all it's just a pipe dream for sometime in the future. Right now I'd just like to be sure that the place is looked after so that when Grampa Bender gets out of the hospital the place is in better shape than it is now."
Everyone fell silent and I decided it was time to drive down the hill for a closer look at everything. I'm not sure what anyone else was thinking about, but I had put my thoughts about the costs of setting up a horse ranch and ways of working out methods of reducing those costs on a back burner of my mind. Instead I was looking at the general condition of the little old cabin and its outbuildings, making mental notes about repairs and improvements that needed to be done.
As I pulled into the door yard of the old cabin, Grampa Bender's old dog finally got to his feet and sauntered over to greet us, barking loudly.
"Alright, Duke." I laughed at his noise. "You know me, so what's the fuss about?"
"He's probably hungry and lonely." Dad snorted. "On top of that we came in a strange car that he probably doesn't recognise."
"He's probably just lonely, Dad." I said quietly as I got out of the car. "I filled his bowl yesterday before we left. Grampa Bender insisted on it."
I paused to pet the dog as I got out of the car, which did settle him down somewhat. Once he'd checked everyone out, he seemed a lot calmer, but by then we were all out of the car and walking toward the cabin. At a glance I could see that almost everything was in about the same condition as when I'd left the day before. Once the fuss over greeting the dog was done, everyone had fallen quiet again as if each of us was looking the place over and assessing the scene for obvious problems.
Since it was a sunny day and the doors of the cabin were closed, it was slightly stuffy inside. In fact the cabin had a distinctive odour that I mentally associated with Grampa Bender, but Mom called a 'lonely bachelor' smell. I had to grin, because the moment she and Aunt Alice stepped in through the door I could sense their minds going into clean and shine mode.
Uncle Tom, Dad, and I managed to escape by using the excuse of checking the animals. Once we were outside, we all began to head toward the barnyard. We all knew that if we didn't find something to do in the yard, Mom and Aunt Alice would find some way to put us to work in or around the house.
I paused at the car, slipping a cut down overshoe over the cast on my foot just to protect it from getting covered in barnyard muck. While I was doing that Dad and Uncle Tom had paused and were looking around at the yard and the buildings, making comments about the slightly rundown condition of the buildings, corrals, and fences. I think that they were mostly intent on seeing what needed to be done around the yard in the way of maintenance and improvement.
At the moment I was more interested in being certain that all the animals had enough food and water for the next day or two so once my cast was protected, I went to work. I didn't realise that both Dad and Uncle Tom were watching as I checked the dry feeders and the semiautomatic waterers for the chickens and the old sow. It was only as I was opening the gate to walk out into the upper pasture in order to check the cattle that I felt Dad's hand dropped onto my shoulder causing me to turn and look at him and Uncle Tom.
"Why don't Tom and I go look at the cattle for you?" Dad smiled. "So far you've been the only one doing any work and after we drove all the way up here I'd like to say I did something useful."
"I can do it, Dad." I lifted my fancy fibreglass walking cast and gestured at it with one hand. "This thing is better than any shoe for protecting my foot and . . ."
"And I think you should rest before you stress that foot too much, after all you are supposed to rest it." He interrupted me.
"You need to learn to work a while, then rest a while, at least during the time you're recuperating." Uncle Tom added. "Besides, if you plan on doing a lot of walking, you might pick up a cane or at least a walking stick of some kind."
Since Uncle Tom had spent almost a year recuperating from an accident to one of his legs, I knew he was talking from experience. He'd been badly hurt when he'd gotten tangled in the power takeoff of a tractor a few years ago. Instead of arguing with either of them, I shrugged my shoulders and described how many animals they should see in the pasture. I made certain that I mentioned one cow and calf that I wanted to check in particular, describing them in detail. I'd noticed that the calf had seemed far smaller than any of the others when I'd let them out the day before. I wanted to be certain that it was doing okay and wasn't sick or anything of that sort.
We all stood there for a moment or two discussing the cattle and the pasture, then I leaned against the fence and watched the two of them traipse off through the thick grass. While I was standing there watching them walk away, I had a strange feeling of being 'left out' somehow. At the same time I knew that as far as I was concerned I'd accomplished my main objective by just coming to Grampa Bender's place in order to check that all the animals were okay. Then it dawned on me that the feeling of being 'left out' came from not being directly involved in what was going on. That's when I realized that I'd come to feel that I had to assume responsibility for caring for the place, but I also realized that I was going to have to accept the fact that my family cared just as much about Grampa Bender as I did.
Instead of dwelling on that feeling, I tucked it into a corner of my mind to explore at a later date and decided that I had to find something else to keep myself busy. Looking around the yard, I was mentally making a list of small things that needed some attention or repair when I heard Mom calling me from the cabin.
When I went to see what I could do to help her, I found that all the doors and windows had been opened as wide as they could go. At the same time there were several large bundles of clothing on the front porch.
"Oh, there you are, Chris." Mom turned from working at the kitchen sink. "Could you please take all those bundles on the front porch out to your car and pack them in the trunk? It doesn't appear that Uncle Toby has been able to do any washing for quite a while. Alice and I are going to take all the bedding and linens home with us and wash it there. Just about everything in this house needs a good cleaning."
I knew better than to comment in any way. Instead I headed right back outside and packed the trunk of my car full of clothing and bedding. That wasn't the last of the little jobs they wanted me to do though, jobs like taking out the garbage and sweeping the front and back porches fell on my shoulders as well. When Dad and Uncle Tom came back from their walk to check the cattle they were put to work too. In fact we all worked like slaves for another hour or more. Both of the women probably would have been willing to work longer, but Uncle Tom and Dad insisted we had to get back home for evening chore time.
The last thing we did before we left was to pack up Grampa Bender's CB radio in order to have Bob Grant, George's dad, check it out and repair it if necessary.
I was surprised that everyone was so quiet as we left and drove up the hill. Then somehow as soon as we'd topped the grade and could no longer see the little ranch, everyone seemed to open up. Dad was the first one to speak.
"I think Chris is right. Someone will have to spend some time looking after the animals every day or two." He said quietly, his voice had a resigned tone that I felt boded well for the idea. "On top of that there are a lot of small repairs that need to be taken care of, otherwise things are simply going to deteriorate."
"Well, I agree." Uncle Tom spoke then. "The problem is that scope of some of the things that need doing, I wonder if anyone can handle all of them on his own. What do you think, Chris?"
"Well, jobs like fixing the missing shingles on the barn roof would be impossible. I'll be darned if I want to try climbing up there on a ladder with this cast on my leg. I'd need help with things like that." I answered with a snorted laugh. "I think I'd need to bring my horses up as well, that way I could ride a horse in order to do jobs like going out to see the cattle and checking the fences."
"Can you ride with a cast on your leg?" Aunt Alice shot back at me.
"Well, I might need a special stirrup on the left side, but I think young Tom could help me weld one up." I grinned into the rear view mirror at her, feeling that I was convincing everyone that I'd seen a lot of the problems and had planned ways and means of handling problems.
"I'm more worried about you having to cook for yourself." Mom spoke then. "I know you aren't the worlds best cook."
"He'd soon learn." Dad answered for me. "I think that for the first while he should plan on coming home every day or two anyway. In fact until he's done with his exams, I think he should be home every night."
That was the point when I realised that they were going to go along with my scheme, up until then I hadn't held out a lot of hope that they'd all agree. The rest of the drive home seemed to fly by for me as the discussion raged about what had to be done and how much help I was going to need. My mind was too wrought up to remember many of the details, in fact I was alternating between feeling euphoric that I was going to be trusted to be on my own and worried that I was going to screw up in some way.
The next two weeks flew by.
It was during that two weeks that I really learned to prioritize the tasks of my life. Most week days I had to go to school and write at least one final exam, in fact one day I had to write two, but I had three days when I wrote no tests at all. Each day I visited Grampa Bender in the hospital, looked after the animals on his farm and still managed to spend some time with Carissa. On top of that I was able to spend an evening with George's dad repairing that pesky CB radio. Another evening was spent with Tom making a special stirrup to fit over my cast. I even spent some time with Mom and Beth getting lessons in cooking simple meals.
In actual fact I'm not sure where the time during those two weeks went. I'd never been so busy in all my life.
The first weekend during the exams was just as hectic. Saturday morning I woke early and made breakfast for the whole family as Mom and Beth supervised. After that we caught my two horses, saddled the Thoroughbred gelding and Beth set off for Grampa Bender's, riding the gelding and leading the Quarter Horse stud. Once she was on the way I drove into town planning to see Grampa Bender, then picking up Carissa who wanted to spend the day with me. Corinna was going to catch a ride back home with us so she could spend time with Wil. I was planning on driving back home to pick up George and Tom so they could come up and help me for the day at Grampa Bender's place.
At the hospital I found Grampa Bender in a ward room with several other older men and I was shocked at how old he looked. However this was the first time that I really had a chance to talk to him since we'd rushed him to the hospital. When I told him that I was going to be looking after his place until he could go home it was as if a weight had lifted from his shoulders. It seemed that he'd been worried about his animals and I'd just relieved that pressure from his mind. Since both I and at least one or two of my family had been in to see him each day I was astounded that he hadn't realised before that his place was being cared for. I spent nearly an hour with him, explaining how I was planning to look after the place and telling him about the things we had already done.
When I finally had to leave, I was stopped in the hallway by one of the nurses who had seen us talking. I was surprised to find that she had noticed how he had perked up as I'd been talking with him and even more surprised when she suggested that my involvement was probably the best medicine that he could have. She explained to me that the stroke he had suffered was affecting his short term memory. She also told me that if I or my family kept on reminding him of what was going on each day, eventually he'd accept the fact that we were caring for his farm. She suggested that I should talk to his doctor one day since she felt that because I was directly involved I should know more of Grampa Bender's prognosis for the future. Her words and tone left me in a very sober mood, in fact I was somewhat worried when I left the hospital.
Carissa and Corinna managed to restore my mood somewhat when I picked them up, but as soon as I got home I managed to get Mom alone and buttonholed her to see if she knew more about Grampa Bender's condition.
"Well, he is a very old man, Chris." She said with a frown and a deep sigh. "I don't think the nurse should have dropped that on your shoulders though."
"I think I should know what's going on." I answered firmly.
"Unfortunately we're not certain how long his recovery will take and neither is his doctor." She said firmly. "It's not something you need to worry about right now."
"But Mom, I want to plan for the future."
"Chris, you're doing far more than we ever expected; all of you kids are, but you're the one who is leading the pack as usual." She put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed gently. "Right now even the doctor is uncertain how fast he's going to recover or how complete his recovery will be. I promise that if we find out anything for certain Willard and I will pass it on to you. For now, we all have to simply hope and pray that things will work out for the best."
With that statement she pulled me into a hug and I had a clue that Grampa Bender was in far worse shape than I had suspected simply because of the depth of feeling that she was expressing. I was actually quite shaken by the dawning realization that Grampa Bender might never live on his place again. At the same time I knew that I was going to have to conceal that possibility from the other younger members of my family.
Somehow I realized that I'd gone a step further into adulthood than I had planned and I was being given as much responsibility as I could handle. Mom and Dad were there to support me, but they were also encouraging me to go as far as I could on my own. It was a very sobering thought.
I was still in a rather sober mood as Carissa, Tom, and George climbed into my car. However their moods were all bright and lively, so it wasn't long before my mood lifted. Because she rode across country while we had to go around by the road, Beth was already at the cabin when we got there. In fact she had the coffee pot on the stove and as soon as we got there she and Carissa insisted that we eat the lunch that Beth and Mom had made for us.
While they were setting it out on the table and I was doing a quick check of the animals, Tom and George brought all the laundry that Mom and Aunt Alice had done in from the trunk of my car. Then as we ate lunch I laid out the tasks I wanted to try to do that day. The next few hours were extremely busy and I was astonished at how much we accomplished.
The two girls had taken over the jobs in the house and had put away all the laundry, then had rehung the curtains and made the beds. Next they'd restocked the cupboards with groceries that Mom had bought during the week. After that they had joined the guys outside.
Around the farm we had repaired some weak points in the fences, replaced the shakes on the bare spots and fixed the obvious leaks that we could see on the barn roof. Then we cleaned out the stalls in the barn and the worst of the manure in the chicken coop. As well we'd started the old tractor and spread the load of manure on one of the lower pastures. Tom even rigged the mower onto the back of the tractor in order to cut some of the long grass near the vegetable garden. Meanwhile, the rest of us were weeding and cleaning up the weeds in between the rows of vegetables. Even with the time it took to do all that we left by four in the afternoon so the guys could be home in time to do chores.
After we'd eaten that evening I was going to go back and spend the night and Wil was going to use the pickup to run the twins back to town. At least that was the plan until Corinna suggested that she thought Wil should drive her up to Grampa Bender's so she could see the place. Carissa seemed to think that was a great idea and Wil didn't mind, so Carissa and I drove back in my car while Corinna and Will followed in the pickup.
Because it was near the end of June, the sun didn't set until late which meant that Corinna had a good chance to see the whole setup with Wil acting as her guide. I didn't feel like doing much more walking that evening, in fact my leg was a bit sore, so using that as an excuse, Carissa and I stayed around the cabin. One benefit of that as far as we were concerned was that we could finally be alone together for a while. In fact, kissing, hugging, and petting almost got too serious, but we managed to break it off before we got carried away completely.
Instead we made coffee, then sat on the front porch and talked as we drank it. Carissa wanted to know what I would do if the place were mine so I shared my pipe dream of raising horses and turning the place into a working ranch. We were still talking when Wil and Corinna came back from their walk. Of course they teased us about sitting on the front porch drinking coffee like an old married couple, but a moment later they joined us and we talked until quite late. Since I wouldn't see Carissa again until Monday at school, we managed to sneak in a nice long goodbye hug and kiss before they left.
I expected to have a hard time going to sleep because I'd never spent a night there, but I suppose all that I'd done during the day had tired me out. I fell asleep almost a soon as I'd gotten into bed.
The next morning I was up bright and early. After frying myself some eggs and bacon and having a couple of cups of coffee, I went outside and looked after the animals, then began to putter around the place doing small jobs. In fact the whole morning and part of the afternoon were spent doing small jobs. However, by four in the afternoon I was beat. After one final check around the place, I drove home to have Sunday supper with my family. I even managed to get in an hour or two of review for the exam I had the next day.
The following week was as hectic as the prior week had been, but at least I only had three exams that week. One of the high points of that week was the fact that I was able to tell Grampa Bender about all the work we'd been doing on the farm, another was when I brought Carissa into the hospital and introduced them to each other. However, circumstances seemed to conspire to keep Carissa and me apart most of the week. Because none of our exams coincided and since I was so busy outside of school time, we only had a few brief minutes together each day.
My last exam was on Thursday, then I was done. I was hoping to be able to spend some time with Carissa that evening, but she had a tough exam on Friday, so we didn't get a chance to be together for long. Instead she spent Thursday evening studying and I spent the evening at home with my family. That weekend Mom, Dad and Beth were going off to a gymkhana where Beth was going to show her horses and Wil was going to stay home to look after the farm. I was planning on spending the whole weekend up at Grampa Bender's cabin with the exception of one quick trip to town.
Friday was an extremely busy day for me. The day started with helping the family to load Beth's two best horses into the horse trailer, then packing the pickup with the gear my family would need over the weekend. Once they had gotten away that was followed by hurried trip to town. After a quick stop at Frank Dolens' service station to pick up some gas and oil for the old tractor, I went directly to the hospital and visited with Grampa Bender for a short while. Following that I'd planned on visiting the grocery store, then I wanted to be at the school to pick up Carissa after she finished her last exam.
Everything went well until I was finished at the grocery store, that's when I found my car was blocked in by a delivery truck. Of course that made me late getting to the school and after looking all over the school for her I found out that Carissa had already left. Expecting that she might be annoyed with me for being late, I drove to her house, but it seemed that there was no one home, at least no one was answering the door.
Then my world fell in around me. One of the neighbours saw me at the door and came over to tell me that the Coulter's had gone away for the First of July weekend just like my family had.
I was stunned. Carissa hadn't mentioned that she was going away. Of course I assumed the worst since I was still something of a neophyte concerning romance. On top of that I was slightly pessimistic about my luck with women so I jumped to the conclusion that she'd decided to break up with me.
I made a beeline for my car and drove directly out to Grampa Bender's place. At first I planned on going down to the cellar under the cabin and opening a quart of Grampa Bender's hooch so that I could drink my sorrows away. However when I got to the cabin I decided to look after the animals first and get drunk later. Of course one little job seemed to lead right into another and before realised it, I had worked the whole day away. When I finally stopped looking for small jobs that had to be done, it was late in the evening. That's when I realized that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and I was extremely hungry.
While my meal was cooking, I turned on the CB and called home to let Wil know I was okay. Since I didn't want to talk long, I used my hunger and the fact that I had food cooking on the stove as an excuse to sign off after only a moment or two.
I've heard it said that the lovelorn eat either too little or too much. I suppose I fall into the latter class. At least that night I certainly put away a huge meal. Expecting that I was going to have trouble getting to sleep, I made myself a cup of hot chocolate and went out on the porch to sip it as the sun went down.
As I sat there my mind was wheeling and whirling about the tough luck I had with women, but the combination of a hard afternoons work, a heavy meal and the hot chocolate combined to make me quite sleepy. I decided to go in and go to bed.
I had stripped down to my shorts when the dog started to bark. I pulled my jeans back on, then rushed outside to see what was the matter. In the fading daylight an old jeep that I didn't recognise was coming across the bridge over the creek and I instantly wondered if it was some form of trouble that I hadn't anticipated.
One of the things I had worried about was the idea that some of the rougher elements from town might have heard that Grampa Bender was in the hospital and decided that the place might be abandoned. I'd heard of them going out to various outlying farms that had been unoccupied for a few weeks and trashing those places by having wild parties there. Since this was the last Friday evening of the school year the possibility of that circumstance developing seemed exceptionally strong.
Just in case that was what was going on, I stepped back inside the cabin and grabbed Grampa Bender's old twelve gauge pump shotgun from the pegs it hung on near the door and jacked a shell into the chamber as I stepped back onto the front porch. I wasn't planning on shooting anyone, but having that old scattergun in my hands as a deterrent was very reassuring.
Although the light was failing, as the jeep got closer I could make out the fact that there was only one person in it. Knowing that I relaxed enough to pop the shell out of the firing chamber of the shotgun and stand it against the wall. Then the jeep was coming toward me across the flats and finally pulled up beside my car. I stared in astonishment as the driver stepped out.
"Hi, I thought you might get awfully lonely up here by yourself this weekend, so I borrowed Uncle Frank's jeep and came to visit you." Carissa said quietly.
I was shocked and totally speechless for several seconds.
"You aren't going to make me drive all the way back home tonight are you?" She asked with a slight quaver in her voice.
"Unh, uh." I managed to grunt and shook my head, still trying to adjust to the implications of her being there, but at the same time very happy that she was.
I'm not certain how long we stood there staring at each other, but at some point I realised that she was probably as uncertain of herself as I was. I took one hesitant step toward her, then suddenly both of us were rushing into each other's arms.
"What about your folks?" I asked, my face buried in her sweet-smelling hair as we hugged tightly. "Your neighbour told me that your whole family went on a holiday."
"The neighbour is a nosy parker and an idiot. Mom and Dad took the weekend off." She sighed. "Corinna is spending it with Wil and I'm here with you. Now, do I finally get a kiss or not?"
She didn't just get a kiss. Actually, she almost got eaten alive, but she was as enthusiastic as I was so it was a fair trade.
I'm not sure if she expected to be scooped into my arms, carried inside the cabin and into the bedroom, but she certainly didn't fight me in any way. In fact she was completely cooperative, or rather, she was as impatient as I was. Only moments later neither of us were virgins. Neither of us may have had any experience, but we must have made up for that with our sheer enthusiasm or else we simply had natural talent. Perhaps the days and weeks prior to our finally getting into bed had served as foreplay or else Carissa was extremely easy to get aroused, but she certainly disproved the old wives' tale that virgins never climax during their first session of intercourse. As for me, I was almost euphoric.
I couldn't seem to get close enough to her, and I fell asleep holding her gently in my arms.