To Be Named
My life- it's hectic, crazy even, but I know that if it was any other way, I wouldn't be able to stand it. So I take what I can get. Now don't get me wrong, I love what I have, but I just wish I could change some of it around… it would make everybody happy. Maybe.
Chapter One: Peace, Love, And Life
I lay on my back in the cool, soft, green, luscious grass, under the big oak tree beside the water of the lake. In the distance, a waterfall thundered into the cool water. It was my kinda day, sun on full blast, white puffy clouds scattered throughout the big blue Montana sky, it was summer right now, and as warm as it gets up here. I closed my eyes and tried to mentally absorb the things around me, the grass, the shade, the sun's heat, and the sounds of summer - the horses in the pastures, the quite bustle of the ranch down further on the mountain, and then my best friend, Patience, grazing a little ways away, I smiled and opened my eyes to look over at her, I ran my eyes over her nearly perfect piebald coat shimmering in the sunshine, she snorted and shook her head. It made a clinking sound with the bit and reins. I closed my eyes again; simply to enjoy the peace, the simple serenity of just being out here. I loved it.
Feeling something nuzzling my left arm, I opened one eye, it was Patience; of course, probably coming over to see why I was stupidly just laying here instead of doing something that had meaning, I grinned and sat up- rubbing my hand over her as I did so. She bumped her head against me, as if she were asking if we could do something now. "Alright girl, we'll spoil this perfectly good moment to relax, just because you want to actually do something other than graze…. Are you sure you're a horse?" She snorted, and shook her head again, and I laughed at the ironicness, I knew it was probably just from the flies landing on her, but it was still funny. I reached for her cheek band on the bride "pull girl" was all I had to say and I was standing about five feet from where I was basking in the sun, just a second ago. I sighed and worked my way over to her girth, checked it and mounted, "so, where are we going, Patience?" I nudged her sides with my heels and decided to just give her free rein, she turned towards the ranch and started walking "we actually have free time and you wanna go back home?... your nuts" I taking up the reins, I kicked her into a canter, she pricked her ears and her head came up a little, it was our favorite pastime together. Dodging between boulders, shallow spots, and trees; we just rode and rode until we got to a small cliff that lead down though the flat lands of the base an onto the plains right below the mountain.
We were about a mile from the ranch now, I could tell because we couldn't see over the trees anymore, which meant the mountain was leveling out to the plains, not that the mountain was that steep near the base any way. I slowed Patience down to a walk as soon as we got into thicker trees; I didn't trot because if I trot for too long my stomach starts hurting real bad. Plus it might spook her… you never know.
Patience was calm as we walked our way through the tall pine trees and round the random boulders that were either part of the mountain or used to be and you know….. fell. Once we got to the creek that was a couple thousand yards away from the ranch gate. It was a super shallow, wide creek with a lazy current and lots of rocks and things in it. I clicked to Patience and nudged her to start splashing across, she jumped in, I laughed and rubbed her neck, she snorted and pawed in the water, then started drinking it. I pulled a little on the reins to get her to move further upstream so she wouldn't drink the stirred up dirt and debris.
After that we headed towards the gate, and went into the barn, I rode her down the center aisle and strait into her loose box stall. She nodded her head happily like she was saying "yes, this is where I wanted to be." I laughed and took her saddle and saddle blanket off, and dumped it in the aisle nest to the door, then removed her bridle leaving just her halter on. "You were a good girl today, maybe we can go riding again later, ok?" she ignored me, oh, well, it's the first time she's not responded to me all day…. weirdo horse. I lugged the heavy leather saddle and accessories to the tack room. I was surprised not to find a ranch hand or my parents, or my older brother in there. Here at Red Rose Farms we have alot of horses and even though only a few are in the barn, there always seems to be somebody in here…. Hm that's strange; they all must be inside taking a break... for once…. Why don't these things ever happen while I'm working?
I pondered this while I rubbed down my beautiful piebald's coat, and made it shine. It really makes her wall eyes, multi-colored mane and tail stand out. "You're so beautiful, we shoulda named you Belle, for Belle of the Ball…." I really liked that named for a pretty horse, but I didn't think of it when she was born. We named her Patience because she wasn't a very pushy kind of foal, she waited to milk off her mother, and she always seemed to be the resolver to conflicts with other horses, when she was a little older, and was in the pasture.
I kissed the side of her head and went to shut the door, and go to the house to solve the mystery of my missing friends and family.
Chapter Two: Surprise!
I strode up to the house and knocked on the door as I opened it and said "is anybody here?" "Yes honey, everybody's inside right this minute… I think. Why?" said my Mother, Mrs. Brooks while she bustled around the kitchen doing various things. "Well, for once nobody was out in the barn… or anywhere else in sight… hm…"
"Oh, well that is strange now is'nt it?" my mother laughed and looked over her shoulder at me
"HEY LITTLE SIS!" My big brother rushed suddenly into the room like a tan, muscular, powder blue eyed tornado and scooped me up with ease
"CHASE! Put me down!"
"no." he said simply
"I'm gonna start calling you Taz"
"Why?" He said with his 'I'm so cute and innocent' face
"Because, you always coming in, picking me up, making my dizzy and your always so hyper" I pretended to pout and be upset by this.
We both laughed hysterically as he dropped me down onto our sofa in the living room…. Apparently we were having a meeting. My mother walked in, and I noticed the four ranch hands sat- or stood- in lonely corners around the room. My father seemed to be in the middle. This was normal, but what was not normal was the fact that they were all staring at me. Everybody was. "ok, what gives? It's not a new fashion to stare at me- is it? Cuz I would be a little left out." Everybody in the room laughed, I grinned. "No, Daisy we got super-ultra good news for you" Chase looked at me and grinned in that special big bear of a brother way. "What?" I was immediately interested, because it HAD to be something amazing to have to bring in the whole farm. So naturally, I shut up. My father grinned and looked sideways at our Head Hand; Charles, he nodded in encouragement. My father looked at me and took a deep breath "We realize that your birthday is in about a year and we were thinking that for a present we would give Patience - and you - a foal" I gasped "REALLY!" The ranch hands – along with my mother- laughed - or at least smiled - Chase tugged on my shoulder, I didn't realize that I had stood up in amazement and awe, I had always wanted a foal since I was little, but you couldn't get the confirmation that you could breed one till your 16th birthday, so I was actually getting mine early. "By Who?"
Chase had to chime in here " By the greatest stallion in the world, Stay Gone!"
My hands flew up to my mouth and I collapsed dramatically on the couch next to him…."Really?"
"Yeah, I mean it, I offered him up as stud to your mare for your 16th birthday… consider it a big present from all of us."
Stay Gone is my brothers AMAZING, solid black, Quarab stallion. He was basically a super model horse."Oh I will" I sat back into the cushions as everybody left to get back to some form of work. Charles smiled at me as he left. I nodded my Thanks and grinned. Chase stayed next to me, apparently he saw that I was in a daze because he reached over and gave me a knuckle sandwich
"Ow, ok-ok, you got my attention - what?"
He grinned and sat back "Are you really that surprised?"
"Huh - yes"
"Why? - You remember when you were walking towards the tack room and you saw me talking to everybody about something?"
"Yeah… well I had no clue, yall did good"
"Good" He got up and left. I sat for a few minutes and then hopped up to go work out the details with Daddy.
Chapter 3: Realization & Responsibility
I waltzed into the kitchen and stopped by 'accidently' running into Daddy and basically strangling his torso "Thank You! - Thank You! –"He Interrupted me. "Now you know that you WILL have your normal responsibilities, plus the additional responsibilities of a foal, and Patience's needs also. Right?"
"Yes Sir, I've been raising horses for as long as I can remember, Remember?" He smiled and nodded
"I was wondering exactly when we are going to breed her?"
We smiled at each other and I let go of him and he sat down, and I prepared myself for the news, "Well, I was thinking about breeding her about a week from today."
"That soon?"
"Well, normally I would wait awhile, but we've been ready for this for about a month now, so we have everything ready"
"Oh, ok!" We smiled at each other and I let go of him and headed towards the barn, once again.
I strolled into the barn and was greeted by the - now busy - noises of the barn… the nickering of our four legged friends, the laughing, and relaxed conversations of the barn people. I took a deep breath and smiled. Walking over to Patience's stall, I was greeted by George - a stable hand at our farm- "Hey, new mommy" he smiled at me, I grinned back and said "yeah, I was so surprised."
"Everybody thought you knew"
"Why?"
"Because of how you were around us that one day in the barn" I thought back to the day he was talking about, I had been untacking Patience; and I was walking towards the door of the tack room, when I saw Chase talking to George, my father, and mother. I had noticed that he was using his hands quite alot in his explanations. Then Mama must have seen me because she said 'Daisy!... hon, you look like you've been working hard, let's go get a drink' and she grabbed the tack, took me by the shoulders, turned me around while all three men looked up at me and immediately disbursed.
"Yeah, Chase told me, but I'm telling you that if I had known, I would have tackled somebody from excitement!"
George laughed in a husky way, "Huh… Yeah I know!"He shook his head in a 'she's so weird' kinda way. And mumbled something about having to polish tack, and then going to check fences…
I continued towards Patience's stall. She nickered and pricked her ears when I entered the stall. While rubbing her ears between my fingers and my palm, I told how she was a good girl, and she was going to be an amazing mommy to her foal. She just stared up at me with those big, beautiful, blue eyes. I smiled and stepped to her left shoulder, faced her then reached over and slid her halter around her face, and pulled it over her ears. Then lead her into the isle to the crossties. After doing that I headed outside to find the wheel barrel, to do the daily mucking out. That was one of the rules around the farm, if you didn't do anything all, you at least cleaned and took care of your horse, but nobody had a problem with that rule, so it was basically pointless.
Mean while, Daddy was inside his office, reading a note where Mama had wrote down that a man named Tom Fieldstone, had called, requesting to try his way at a barn hand. His brow furrowed, a man from Whitney, Nebraska, wanting to come up to Montana, to work as a ranch hand? Don't they have ranches there? Colton sighed and grumbled something unintelligible, then picked up the phone and began dialing. "Hello, my name is Colton Taylor, Co- Owner of Red Rose Farms -" He paused for a second, to listen "Yes- Now you called earlier about maybe coming up and working as a ranch hand?" He paused for a second time "Mm, Well, we will take you into consideration, and I'll call you back in a day or two. Ok?" "Alright, good" He hung up the phone and left to talk to Mrs. Taylor. Hoping she was in the house.
"Jo?" He said as he walked in the kitchen door.
"Hey Dad, I think Mom's in yall's bedroom" Chase said
"Alright, Can you go out into the barn and tell Charles that we might be getting a new hand, so to please come see me soon?"
"Yeah, I'll tell him" Chase turned and headed out the door, towards the barn. Colton walked back to his room, Jo was sitting on the bed, folding clothes.
"Hey darlin," she looked up and smiled
"Hey hon" He said while sitting down
" You remember the boy; Tom, that you were talking to?" He grabbed some clothes and started folding
She picked up a red shirt and walked to the closet to hang it up. "Yeah, what do you think?"
"I think it's odd that he wants to come all the way up here from Nebraska; just to come to another farm." He said grimacing at the huge stack of clothes.
Jo came back out and nodded "I thought so too, but maybe he just wants to get away from it all? It pays to be somewhere else"
"Yeah, I know. Speaking of paying, can we afford another monthly ranch hand pay?"His eyes followed her as she continued with the chores that I completely forgot about.
She frowned at Colton "Do you think I would bother you about it if we couldn't?"
"Well, Thank you" He stood, stretched and gave her a quick kiss.
"Your welcome" she smiled warmly, then turned to continue with the bothersome chores. He smiled up at the ceiling as He walked back out of the house – Silently thanking God for what He and given me in life.
Patience stomped her foot in impatience, "OK girl, Just wait" I smiled over my shoulder as she continued to throw a fit. Chuckling a little, I headed over to the tack room, grabbed up her tack, and turned to walk out the door. "OWH!" I reached my hand up slowly to the throbbing pain that came from my head rudely smacking against the cement. All I saw was black.
"Oh My God! Are you ok Daisy?" I opened my eyes and tried to focus on Kandi – George's Wife -. "Oh! Kandi! Wha… What happened Kandi?"
She got down on one knee next to me, and put her hand behind my head, "Hon you got quite a knock on the cement… I'm awful sorry."
I sat up with her help, "Aw it's alright." Rubbing my head; I stood up, just to nearly fall again as I stumbled and tripped over to Patience.
I heard Kandi behind me "Are you sure you can ride right now?"
I leaned against Patience and she nickered, reaching her head around to sniff me. "I'm sure I'll be fine after a drink – Help me into the house?"
She nodded and reached for me, "It's the least I can do." She frowned at me as we stumbled out of the barn and made our slow way to the house. I was gradually regaining my senses and realization. Mama came out the door, already reaching for me. I could hear her before she was talking "Oh My Gosh! Are you ok? What happened? Were does it hurt?" I sighed and walked with her and Kandi inside the kitchen, just to plop down at the table as Mama got the cup and water for me. "Thanks Mama."
Chapter 4: Secrets & Success
My cowboy boots clunked against the boards of the barn wall that I was walking beside. Casually making my way into the barn I nodded my hello's at George and Charles who were polishing tack and exchanging their stories. I smiled and shook my head, as I headed past them into the tack room to fetch Stay Gone's tack. "Where you think you're going Chase?"
"Nothing" I turned and smoothly put my arm on the door jam. Playing innocent. They busted out laughing, slapping their knees and the table. "That wasn't an answer" I frowned as they chuckled. I grumbled and continued walking toward Stay Gone's stall.
"The answer was NO WHERE!" George yelled at my back, I smiled and shook my head and waved them off without turning around. The second stall down, left side, a beautiful, coal black, might as well be a super model horse; was Stay Gone, he nickered at the sound of my approaching steps and pranced to the door. I reached my hand through and petted him on the nose, as I put down the tack and went into the stall. "Hey Bud! Wanna go for a run?" He nickered again, so I lead him out to the other side of the barn. He didn't want a cat fight between him and Patience - that would come on next Monday! I put him in the other set of crossties and began brushing him down and tacking up. Kandi came in and walked up behind George. "Hey Honey" He looked up smiling "Hey baby, Working hard?" She nodded; he smiled and pulled out another chair. "Sit down for a spell!" Charles coughed and stood up "Well, I don't know about you younging's but I have work to do." So he walked over to were his horse - Winston - was tied up and mounted, Then walked out of the barn. Kandi laughed and said "Chase, you might want to go inside and check up on your sister, she blacked out earlier."
"How?" I was surprised, Daisy was tough.
"Well, I sorta bumped into as she came out of the tack room, I'm sorry" She grimaced and George told her it was ok, then rubbed her back.
"I'm sure it's alright, and I'll go in and check up on her"
"Ok..." she turned to George " Hon, we outta go check fences out on the north corner hills" He nodded and stood with her to go tack and mount up their horses - Snowflake and Fable – "Common Fable" said George. I shook my head, and mounted up , just to walk over to the house and dismount to go talk to Daisy.
I walked in the door and saw Daisy sitting there drinking big glass of cold water. I sat down next to her and Mama told me what had happened. I looked at Daisy "You realize that Patience is still standing in the barn isle?" She gasped "OH GOSH! I gotta go to the barn." She jumped up and started running, I felt a hand on my shoulder and Mama said "Well, I guess she's feeling better!" I laughed and nodded then followed Daisy out the door to ride off with Stay Gone.
As soon as me and Bud - short for Stay Gone – were out on the range and heading towards the mountain, I felt more relaxed. Bud knew exactly where we were heading, mainly because it's pretty much the only place we have rode to in the past three years. I looked at my cell phone, 3:43… we were going to be late "Common Bud!" I kicked him into a canter.
Soon we were in the tree line on the small mountain, and I could tell we were close because Bud started getting excited. I patted his neck to sooth him "It's alright bud; we'll be there in just a sec." Up a small hill, around the big boulder, and through some bushes that made a small clearing around a huge oak tree that acted like an umbrella to the whole, private clearing. I dismounted and led Stay Gone towards the oak tree and tied him up beside a flea bitten grey quarter horse, the horses touched noses as I patted both of them and looked around; Waiting. I started to yell "R-" that was as I got because a hand closed over my mouth and her tan les wrapped around my torso as she tackled me to the ground from behind. "Rosalie!" she giggled hysterically and rolled off of me while rolling me over "Um… Thanks?" We burst out laughing; it's just how we act when we are together. She laid down beside me in the tall grass, but shifted to where she could still see my face I looked down upon her, and smiled "I love you" was all it took and we were soon passionately kissing and whispering to each other…
Chapter Five: To Be (Yet Again Named)
WHAT HAPPENS? THE BREEDING OR THE "SOME PART OF TO BE NAMED" NO…..OR…. WHAT?