Chapter 40 ~ Mf
Junior got a call on his phone from Pete Rollins, so unlike most calls he actually answered it. "Pete!"
"Hey Junior.... just heads up: the word is out on our girl. I am at the governor's joint press conference with Chief Resting Bear and they used Mary's name as the source of intel on the compound. The media is coming. They all have cell phones and helicopters and I am guessing you have an hour until they start showing up."
"Oh Lordy," Junior exhaled, but with a small smile. He loved how his daughter made such an impact on the world.
"Listen June, you don't have to give them permission to land on your property, if you don't want," Rollins added.
"Nah.... it'll be fine. I'll tell them to park starting a quarter mile down the driveway... make them work a bit if they want to drag camera gear up to the house," Junior said.
Pete chuckled over the phone. "Well, good luck, June. Don't let Mary be too rough on them."
Junior laughed back, "Like I could stop her if I wanted to."
"That's the plain truth," Pete answered. "I'm out. Good luck."
"Right back atcha, pard," June answered, and closed his phone.
Junior looked out at the corrals, the girls were putting the horses away that had been out for the day. It was late Friday afternoon and he knew they planned on riding out to the spring for the night.... they were going to have to rush if they wanted to be away in time. He started jogging out to them.
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Lindsey, Veronica and Anastasia, friends and lovers, sat on the large couch in their New York penthouse. It was one of those rare evenings when all three ladies were free. Lindsey and Vern had no homework and there had been no afternoon photo shoot to attend. Anna, their school headmistress, saw her girls were off so called it an early day at the school, so now they were spending some quiet time together. The man they shared as a husband was in the kitchen cleaning up after cooking them dinner.
The television was on the evening news but none of them were really paying attention to it. They just sat quietly with each other, half watching the television, half looking out the window at the evening skyline as the lights were coming on, and just being together.
The newscaster on television then said, "And now, more on that daring joint raid by the FBI, Texas Rangers, and Navajo Nation on the Oklahoma Compound for Wayward Children. CBS news has found the young woman who brought the situation in Oklahoma to light, Mary Donners of Texas. Our own Christine Williams flew out to Texas today to meet her. Christine?"
Suddenly the view was of a dark haired woman with a backdrop of desert and far away mountains. She was holding her ear, it seemed to be a little breezy there. "Thank you, Dan. I'm here in the west Texas desert, the home of a brave young woman who was key in uncovering that horrible compound in Oklahoma. I had a chance to speak with her briefly this afternoon... but as you will see, she is a little camera shy." The view suddenly changed to a setting in front of a stables, there were three horses being ridden by three women.
"Whoa, look at that blonde," Lindsey said.
Vern poked her in the ribs.
Lindsey giggled... "Hey, I have a thing for blondes. You know that."
Anna laughed softly.
There was one woman on a horse.... either very petite, or that red horse was very large. There were several people shouting questions, many with microphones pointed at her, a cacophony of, "Miss Donners, Miss Donners, how did you find out about the compound? Have you ever been there? What made you come forward?"
The large red horse seemed agitated, and actually reared when one microphone on a stick bumped into his flank.
"Whoa," Vern said.... "did you see her rear up with that horse? She was just holding on with her knees like it was cool. You go, girl."
"That is a fine animal," Anna said. Lindsey and Vern listened but their eyes were on that strange scene on the television. "Purebred Arabian, I would say," Anna finished. Lindsey gave Anna a little nudge in the ribs with her elbow, she did that whenever Anna would reference an experience growing up as a rich girl. Anna giggled, "Well it isn't my fault I grew up with stables."
On TV the horse landed, turning in an angry circle, Mary soothing him. The microphone picked up her words to the horse as she patted his neck, "Easy my good boy, no, they do not want to fight you."
Finally Mary spoke to one of the cameras, trying to look at all of them. "My name is Mary Taylor, I just haven't officially married my wife yet. And my friend was there, and they hurt her. I couldn't let that go, so I made sure they would never hurt anyone again. That's all."
Behind Mary the other two riders were in the shot, one pretty brunette in pigtails leaning forward in her saddle smirking at Mary, and a sad looking but beautiful blonde woman, not paying attention to much at all, just sitting still in her saddle holding the reins.
"We've got to go now... sorry y'all came all this way." She turned her horse and began riding away.
The reporters started shouting at her, one voice caught Mary's attention. "Mrs. Taylor, is there anything you would say to other girls who might be out there listening, in trouble, hoping someone can help them?"
Mary stopped her horse, and turned. She wasn't sure who asked it, but she answered. Mary said softly, but firmly. "I would say be strong. You might feel like you are in a helpless situation, and maybe no one knows you are in trouble... but it won't last forever. Persevere. Outlast those who hurt you, show them you are unbreakable. You are not alone, there are people who care, and even if they don't know it, they want to help you. You aren't alone," Mary said the last words directly to one of the cameras, the one that happened to be looking directly at Lindsey, Vern, and Anna.
"Wow," Lindsey said softly.
Vern said, "Sometimes I get reminded about how lucky I am."
Mary was about to turn away yet again, when a man's voice reached her. "What makes you feel so qualified to help people in trouble?"
Mary turned to him, controlling her horse who was suddenly snorting, agitated, as if sensing her mood. Mary put her hand on the animal's neck, who was soothed, but never breaking eye contact with the reporter who had asked the question. Mary took a deep breath, she wanted to make sure she was heard. "Because this is Texas, it's what we do."
All over the state, even in Austin, the least Texas-like city within the borders, Texans cried out at Mary's statement, suddenly knowing that yes, that's what we do.
In New York, Anna was concerned. "I don't know how I missed this story," she was muttering to herself as she typed on her phone, reading about the bust of the Oklahoma Compound for Wayward Children. She suddenly got up and started going to the stairway.
"Where you going hon?" Lindsey asked.
"To the study," Anna said a little distractedly. "I'm going to log in to school, pull up student records. That school name sounds familiar, I think we have a girl at Clinton who came from that compound."
A few months later the State Legislature of Texas had a vote, and it was decided unanimously that all of the "Welcome to Texas" signs around their many thousands of miles of border were changed to include the phrase, "...it's what we do."
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Somewhere near the Texas border, John Branch was on his couch receiving a blowjob from his 9 year old little Rosalita. But he wasn't looking at her, he was staring at the television, paused. He rewound the DVR again, looking at the scene, paused it again. He was looking at Erin, on a horse. His Erin.
On the couch next to him was Mia, breastfeeding their son. Mia looked at John, the father of her baby, as her little sister sucked him. Sometimes Mia wondered if she should kill John in the night while he slept with one of the long knives in the kitchen. She wondered if being on their own again was better than what he was preparing Rosalita for.... he had bought her a small vibrator to practice penetration with, and Rosalita loved it.
John came in Rosalita's mouth as he stared at Erin on a horse. Rosalita swallowed every drop.
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Junior and Martha lay in bed. The lights were out, they were sharing their day with each other as they did every night when they were finally alone. The ranch was nothing if not routine... their stories to each other didn't change much, only the wisdom and perspective of those telling the stories. Since Mary had come to them their stories often followed her, examining their life together again for the first time through her eyes. It had been a happy life.
"So I let Mary take care of the feed vendor, today. I told her yesterday so she could prepare for him, and she did a great job," Junior said to his wife as she lay in his arm, her head on his shoulder.
"Was it Smith?" Martha asked.
"Yep."
"How did he take it? I recall he doesn't have much respect for the abilities of women when it comes to running a farm," Martha responded.
Junior smiled in the dark, "I told him he had to deal with my daughter, and he took one look at her and looked back at me like he thought I was pulling his leg. But then Mary stepped forward and offered her hand, and he took it, and I could see her squeezin'. It was great. And he may have thought she was just going to say, Same order as last time, but then Mary starts telling him how the drought in the Midwest was over and feed prices were coming down, and we were going to need a 5% reduction in the price from last time."
Martha laughed, "She didn't."
Junior laughed back, "I swear she did. And I swear old Smithy turned red and plum looked fixin' to have a heart attack. But Mary already had all the amounts and figures in her head for what we'd need, and then she pulls out a check from her back pocket already made out."
Martha was now trying to keep her voice down as she laughed.
"That girl..." Junior's voice had gotten softer.
Martha stopped laughing. "So you think you want to start letting her run things? See how she does?"
"She knows everything. She hasn't had to learn anything new in six months. Her and Sam take everything as a team. Mary helps with vet stuff, Sam helps Mary with running the ranch, or just whatever needs to be done that day. I never really thought much of having two bosses, but those two make it work."
Martha caressed her husband's chest. "You just don't know how women think, dear. Those two... are the same. There aren't conflicts like with two men feeling like one has to be in charge."
Junior considered that for a bit. Finally, "Have you seen how Mary breaks horses to the saddle?" Junior asked.
"No, I've never watched her do it," Martha answered.
Junior was quiet for a moment, collecting his thoughts. "I've trained hundreds, maybe thousands of horses to the saddle. You let them get used to the weight of the saddle, you sooth them, then I jump on and hold on for dear life. Mary...." and he paused a moment... "she reasons with them. She talks them into it." He smiled, "And she even does it differently depending on a mare or a stallion. With a mare she just has a quiet conversation, telling them step-by-step what's going to happen and calms their jittery nerves. And it always seems to work."
"And what does she do differently with the stallions?" Martha asked.
Junior chuckled, "She tells them that no one thinks they can do it, and then they want to be ridden just to prove they can."
They again laughed softly, in the dark. "I think Mary understands the differences between boys and girls no matter what the species," Martha said softly.
"So yes... the answer is yes." Junior finally circled back to Martha's original question. "I think Mary is ready to start taking over the ranch."
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Junior died in the small hours of a Sunday morning. It had been a great day.
It was summer break, all of her friends were off school for the months before their upcoming semesters in college, so Mary flew them all out to visit.
Saturday morning Junior ate breakfast with his family and their loved ones, and there was so much laughter the chickens in the back yard were fretting as they were waking up and started walking the yard. In the morning he watched as Jimmy and Lucy were helping Erin to saddle up Cindy, and they managed to get a smile out of her once or twice. Junior was concerned about the little blonde woman, she still wouldn't speak and she was nothing like what Lucy had said she used to be, but he sensed she was still there, somewhere down deep, hiding. But sometimes she seemed to peek out from her darkness, and he thought she was going to be ok.
In the afternoon when the girls were out riding he shoed a couple more horses and wrote some tasks down on the big board that needed to be done the coming week. His people would look at it Monday morning and that would set the direction and tempo of upcoming work. More and more the tasks were written in Mary's neat script instead of his own scribbles.... Mary was making the decisions. That was well. In mid afternoon he went and sat with his wife while he took a break, they held hands and didn't need to talk at all. After 20 minutes he kissed her cheek and she smiled at him as he left, saying, "Don't work too hard," as she had almost every day for nearly 40 years.
He straightened up the stable tack room, cleaned up Satan's and Cindy's stalls as long as they were out playing anyway, and managed to have a few minutes to clean himself up before supper.... the girls wanted a pizza night, so he obliged happily as he watched them have a slumber party in the family room, like they were little kids and tomorrow was a Saturday.
He and Martha told them goodnight at 10pm and they went to bed together, they shared a good night kiss, talked about their day, reminded each other that they were loved, and went to sleep.
There was nothing wrong, there was no malady that had gone undetected, his heart just simply stopped. It was his time.
The essence of his life left his body, floating above the shell.... the reality of his physical form had just been left behind, what was left was a purer form of what Junior had been, without all the distracting biology. He was simply the sum of his experiences, his works, his will. He glowed with an invisible light.
He rose above this house he had been born in, and he looked down at it, under the moon. He could see the lights inside of it, not of bulbs, but of glowing spirits. He saw his daughters holding each other in their bed, asleep. Though their bodies were still he saw their souls together, softly entwined, always touching each other, always exploring, advancing and receding like gentle waves upon a shore. He could not tell where Mary's soul ended and Sam's began.
He looked in on Lucy and Ashley as they held Erin between them as they slept. He saw the love flowing from them to her in the middle, to the hidden, flickering ember of herself. She wasn't taking, they were giving freely, and he could tell Erin was so thirsty.... so thirsty. He sent Erin his thoughts and love, as it was. He wished for the blonde woman's health and happiness, as he had always done for everyone, all of his life.
He looked in on Nora and Laura holding each other, and he saw the new life forming in Laura, and all three of their souls communed as their bodies slept. The life inside Laura seemed aware of him for a moment, and he gave his noncorporeal version of a wink and the new one was tickled. Next to them Nora, outwardly strong, and so scared and uncertain inside. He had always seen a long road for her, but he had a feeling she might end up back here, some day, at the end of her journey. That would be good.
And finally he looked in on his Martha, his companion on that long, slow road, his wife. He saw her light, and it seemed to be confused, it already felt his absence for the first time in decades. He could see her sleep was becoming troubled, but he sent her his love, one last time, and she fell still. I will see you again, wife.
He rose higher still, until he could see half the planet below him. He saw light everywhere, across the land, and he knew they were the lives he had touched.... in this stage of being, one's only existence was that which you had made for yourself. Whether it was a stranger he had helped on the side of the road, or a stray he had taken in and healed, or simply a horse that he'd raised and sold that seemed uncommonly intelligent and good with children. His good works had spread, and multiplied, and flourished, and in a way, over his short decades of life, he'd touched almost everyone, everywhere.
You have lived an exemplary life, he heard from everywhere.
Eh, I only did what I could, he thought with a grin on a mouth he no longer possessed.
Come to us.
And then he was gone.
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In the stables the horses cried out to the universe as one, but no one was there to understand them.
The folks in the bunk house were awoken and came to check out the noise, but the horses were again still and quiet by the time they got there.
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His funeral was four days later in Austin at the largest cathedral in Texas. Over two thousand people attended from all over the world, those who had known him, respected him, admired him, loved him. Far more people came than the church could accommodate, so those who couldn't fit inside waited outside, peacefully, quietly, filling the streets so they could at least bear witness to Junior's last journey home.
His family was in the front, all in black, with red eyes. Finally it was time, and Mary rose to her feet and stood behind the podium, trying to keep from crying again by thinking about the last time she had been in this church after she'd brought Erin home, and she and Sam had been married in what was supposed to be a small ceremony.... but it had been announced in the papers and it turned out that no one was going to let Texas's favorite daughter marry without being witnessed. At the podium Mary put down the page of notes in front of her. She looked up at the crowd, and those standing in the back. "My name is Mary, and he was my father. He wasn't the one I was born with, but he was the one who found me when needed him, when it was almost too late for me. He helped me to..." and she paused, collecting herself. "He saved me, I was so lost. He saved me and he brought me back and he helped me to be so happy with my life for the first time ever. I didn't know what it meant to love. I didn't know what it meant to be happy or laugh or ever have fun. He helped me learn those things." Mary looked down at her wife, and she looked at Erin, beside her, and the rest of her dear friends. They were all looking up at her, tears on their cheeks. "There are so many good people in the world, it seems so unfair when they leave us. He left us too early, and I loved him. I loved my dad." Mary could no longer hold it, she broke, and left the podium, crying. The paper she had prepared fell to the floor, the only words on it had been, "I want my dad back."
In the row right behind Erin, Sam's brother Jimmy stood, and spoke out clearly. "Junior helped straighten me out when I was a dumb kid."
Near the back, the Governor of Texas stood. "I hope you plan on running the ranch, Miss Mary. My grandkids won't ride anyone elses horses."
Near the front left, a woman. "He used to tip me way too much at the diner when he was in town just for coffee. He helped me feed my kids."
In the back, an older man in full Native American garb stepped forward and shared in his clipped words, "Junior built our school on the res so our children could get an education."
Over and over people stood and it was like that, sharing a memory, a way Junior had changed their lives, or helped them in some small way, never asking anything in return. Sometimes people laughed at what was shared, sometimes people wept and wiped their eyes. An hour later everyone was standing, and Martha, her daughters, and the people they loved stood, and went to his casket. They turned, stunned to see so many faces, so many tears, so many smiles.
"He always hated people praising him," Martha said to them all with a smile.
There was a ripple of laughter, and then the applause started and grew quickly, so inappropriate for a funeral, so fitting for Junior's. Martha and Mary and the others, hand in hand, smiled and thanked them for their kind words, but the people only cried out louder, and finally the women laughed for the love they felt, as they cried.
He would be missed.
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He was buried under the old tree the next day, in the family plot on the ranch, next to his brothers, and parents, and grandparents back to the beginning of The Second Chance Ranch. Martha, Mary and Sam, Lucy and Ashley, and finally Nora and Laura, eyes red, holding Erin's hands. Jimmy stood a pace behind Erin, his eyes red. They formed a circle around him for the first and last time once the last shovel full of dirt had been laid.
The clouds had been growing through the day and finally at this moment they broke and washed them clean so you could no longer tell which were the tears, and which were the drops of rain.
Martha looked up into it, "Thanks for this, dear," and they laughed.
Mary looked at Sam with a twinkle in her eye. "Maybe we should change and go for a ride."
Sam understood.
The ladies ran back to the house and stripped out of their wet dresses, quickly put on riding gear, and the flash rainstorm had already stopped by the time they headed to the stables. It felt so different here to Mary and Sam, knowing Junior was gone forever. It felt... lesser. The experienced riders helped the newer ones prepare their horses, and Mary comforted Laura, saying they would take it easy and her baby bump should be fine. Mary was surprised when Martha joined them in jeans and boots and a cotton shirt. "Mind if I borrow Cindy?" she smiled, and Mary nodded happily. She didn't think she'd ever seen Martha ride, before.
She had Satan ready but was helping Erin, and she was bemused by Cindy's reaction to Martha. Cindy was being overly respectful, even fawning at the attention she got from Martha. She wasn't sure what the image was that Cindy was sending out, but it seemed an awful lot like "Queen." She looked at Cindy and sent her a soft rebuke, "And you still call me 'little one?'"
Be respectful... She is finally here to Ride.
Mary grinned at her.
Mary turned to Erin's horse, took her head and put her own forehead against the horse's. Softly, she said, "This is Erin. Be gentle with her."
The horse exhaled through her nostrils, It will be as you say.
They saddled up and Mary and Martha led them with Sam in the back, ready to help if anyone needed it. "I've never seen you ride before, mom."
Martha got a faraway look. "Junior and I used to go on long rides every day, before my favorite horse got old and died. I kind of lost the flavor for it, after that... so I threw myself into making the ranch run." She looked at her daughter, "How do you think Junior knew about that spring where you and Sam spend so much time?" with a twinkle in her eye.
"Mooom!" Mary said softly, blushing.
Martha smiled, on this eventful day.
The clouds were breaking as they arrived at their destination, the shallow valley before them dappled in pockets of sunlight. Sam pointed far to the west, "Do you see that brown patch? That's the cow herd." She pointed east, "Do you see that lighter brown patch? Those are the horses." The girls talked among themselves, enjoying the scenery as more and more sunlight punched through the clouds.
Mary rode behind them and slid into the line next to Erin, with Lucy on her other side, and took her hand. "How are you?" she asked her friend.
Erin just turned to her, and smiled softly.
"You are looking great on that horse, her name is Apple." Mary looked at the horse, and smiled. "She calls you Sunshine, she likes your hair. She says you are very polite with your reins."
Erin looked at Mary, down at the horse, and back at Mary, looking slightly confused at that exchange.
Mary smiled, "It's ok, I talk to horses, no big deal," and Erin smiled.
Mary squeezed Erin's hand, "Something is about to happen out here, I think you're going to like it. Junior brought me here to see this when I was still in trouble.... it helped me a lot."
Erin looked out over the valley, she didn't see anything.
The last clouds were dissipating, the heat was rising, and they were beginning to feel the humidity.
"Soon," Mary said. "Just keep watching."
Lucy was the first to see, "Look, yellow," and she pointed off to the right.
Mary found Sam's eyes, and they smiled at each other.
"Hey, red," Ashley said, pointing left.
The valley bloomed before their eyes, as it had before when Junior brought her here to teach her that the world was full of so much impossible beauty, even when you weren't looking for it. Mary was still moved by it, but she was more moved by looking at her friends as they experienced it, the ones that had helped her get here to this perfect place. She saw Lucy and Ashley holding hands, alternating between looking at each other and at the cacophony of color exploding before them. She looked at Nora, eyes fixed on the valley, so strong, so independent, holding Laura's hand... yet still so alone. Mary worried for her, wondering if she would want to stay here, someday. She turned and saw her Sam, watching her as she watched them, for the same reason. Sam knew her so well. She felt Erin's hand shaking in hers, and looked at the blonde girl, the one she had first met so briefly, so long ago. Erin was weeping, eyes fixed on the valley. She knows, she feels it. She's still with us. Mary moved Satan closer with a squeeze of her knee, and she put her arm around Erin, holding her close, letting her cry. She hadn't cried since the night Mary found her.
Laura watched the valley bloom and she squeezed Nora's hand in hers, and put her other hand on her baby, I wish you were here to see.
On the end, Martha looked out at the valley, and then looked to the sky, so beautiful with the sun on her face. She repeated herself, softly, "Thanks for this, dear."
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On the ride home Mary and Sam and Martha rode together in the back keeping an eye on the newer riders, Martha between her daughters bearing herself every bit a queen. "So I've heard you discussing sometimes whether you want children. Had you decided?"
Mary looked at Sam. "Well, we do want kids," Mary answered.
"But we're not sure how we want to go about it," Sam continued. "We both want to..." and she blushed a little, "...carry, and have babies. But we're not sure how to go about finding a sperm donor, whether an actual man, or an anonymous donor, or what."
"We haven't really nailed down the specifics of it," Mary finished. "But soonish, I think," and she and Sam shared a smile.
Martha smiled, "I'm glad to hear that. I never thought I'd be able to enjoy grandchildren, and today I find myself thinking about it."
Mary reached over and squeezed her mother's hand that was holding Cindy's reins.
"But I may have a solution to your father problem," she added. "Back in the 80's when we were trying to have kids, your dad made a lot of 'donations,' I guess you could say, to the sperm bank, so they could test him. It turns out he was fine, the problem was with me."
"Wait," Mary interrupted. "We talked about it once, and he implied it was his problem."
Martha smiled, "Yes, he would. He was always so willing to carry the burdens of others. But no, he was fine, and every six months I get a letter in the mail saying the status of his sperm is fine, still frozen, and viable." She left it at that, made clicking noises out of the corner of her mouth, and Cindy fell into a canter for the front of their little caravan, leaving Mary and Sam alone in the back.
Sam's eyes were big.
Mary watched her mother ride away, "Now what do you think the point of that was?"
Sam looked at her wife, "Don't you know?"
And suddenly Mary did.
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It made for a long day, but Mary, her wife, and all her friends decided to sleep that night at the spring. They rode long and and after a refreshing swim finally sat in a circle around the fire, each of them talking, Erin's eyes always finding whomever was speaking, listening, laughing with them when it was appropriate.
Erin was slowly waking up, it had started when she watched the valley bloom. While watching them around her, the glass pane between her consciousness and the rest of the world disappeared. It was suddenly just gone. She saw no one here who was going to hurt her.... in fact, she realized they all loved her. A feeling of peace fell over her at the end of this long, eventful day that she may have not been able to achieve if it had gone any differently. She looked around at her friends, the people she remembered she had loved for so long, their smiling faces in the glow of the flickering fire. She looked to her right and saw Ashley, the one who once upon a time had helped pull her back into the world when she had thought it gone. Next to her was Nora, so strong, so vulnerable, Erin's first experience with raw femininity, laughing at a story Sam was telling about Mary learning to swim. Laura, her hand resting on her growing tummy without realizing, glowing in the love she knew she had from her husband, children, and friends. Sam next to her, her knee touching Mary's.... Erin had noticed they always seemed to be touching each other, as often as they could. In her mind she heard, where one ends, the other begins, but wake up, girl! like an echo from far away. Then Mary herself, the one Erin had tried to save, so, so long ago. The one who had ended up saving her, in the end.
On Erin's left was Lucy, who was looking at her with a strange smile on her face, sensing something was different. "Are you ok, honey?" she asked Erin softly, touching her arm.
Erin looked at her, blinked once, twice. She looked around the fire, all eyes now on her. "We are a Circle," she said softly.
Copyright 2016: "Marissa Banks." Rights reserved. Not for reuse without express written consent of the author. All content is purely fictional; any similarities to actual persons or events is pure coincidence. Reader must be of legal age in the judicial area he/she resides. Reproductions of the fiction contained herein or linked from here may not be used in whole or in part without express permission from the author.