I was even more out of breath, trying to keep up with how fast Adam and Brian headed towards the driveway.
By the time we were within sight, the truck was backing up, all the way down the driveway. He was backing up fast, too.
Daniel and Evan were walking back towards the house, and as soon as they were within hearing distance,
Adam asked, "What's going on?" in a worried way.
Waiting to answer until they were all standing near to one another, Daniel said, "Said they're lookin' for work. I think it's more like
they're lookin' for trouble."
"How so?" Brian asked.
"They're edgy," Daniel said. "Nothing they said made any sense."
"You see them before today?" Adam asked.
"No," Daniel said, with a shake of his head.
"Nope. I haven't either," Evan said.
"What was their names?" Daniel asked Evan. "Travis somethin'?"
Before Evan could answer, I spoke up. "Trey and Charlie Howard. That's what he said."
That made all their attentions turn to me. "What'd they say to you?" Daniel asked me. Then, in explanation, he
said to Brian and Adam, "We heard the dogs barking up a fuss, and came up on them talkin' to her."
Now they were all waiting, for my explanation of how it had begun.
"I was walking back from the mailbox, and they just whipped into the driveway," I said. "They asked if this was
the McFadden's. And I told them you all were up by the barn."
"I got a bad feelin' about 'em," Evan said. "When they were talkin'. They were looking for trouble," he added, echoing what
Daniel had said.
"They said real specifically that they heard the McFaddens needed help," Daniel said.
Adam and Brian exchanged a glance between them, and then Adam said, "Well, there's nothing to be done about it. You
sent 'em on their way. Hopefully, that's the end of it."
Brian asked me, "That all they said to you?"
"Only the one did all the talking," I told him.
"Him, then. Is that all he said to you?"
"He asked me my name," I said. "And if I was a McFadden."
"Did they try to scare you any?" Adam asked me then.
"No. Not really. I mean, they were sort of weird acting." I hesitated. "And when they saw Daniel and Evan
coming, they asked if they were my brothers. When I said yes, he said, 'that's fine', in sort of a creepy way."
"Hmm," Adam said, looking thoughtful. And concerned.
"I think I might have seen the other one somewhere before," I went on. "The one that didn't say anything."
"Where at?" Adam asked.
"I don't remember right now," I said.
"Well, that's alright," Adam dismissed it. "Likely we don't need to worry about it."
By the time lunch had been eaten, some of the guys went back to the fencing. The ones that weren't doing that spread out
for work further from the house.
Before he went back outside, Adam paused by the back door, addressing Hannah. "You alright with work in the house? Or do you need
Harlie this afternoon?"
Inwardly, I simmered. Why should I get stuck inside all afternoon, just because I happened to be a female? I guess I must
have shown my true feelings on my face, even though I didn't say anything, because I looked up to see Daniel eyeing me.
He was wrinkling his forehead at me a little. I put my plate in the stack beside the sink, and waited to
hear what Hannah had to say.
"I think we can manage," Hannah said, looking towards Clare and Kristin. "Don't you think so, Kristin?" she asked, smiling.
Kristin nodded, looking happy to be included in Hannah's words, and I felt a prick of guilt nudge me. Kristin was so happy just
to be around our house.
At Hannah's next words, though, I really felt guilty.
"Besides, I know Harlie would much rather be outside," Hannah said. "Right, sweetie?" she asked me.
I nodded. "Yeah," I said, and when Adam said, "Well, come on then, sugar," I stopped long enough to give Hannah
a quick hug.
Hannah hugged me back, looking pleased by my affectionate gesture.
As I walked across the yard with all of the guys, Adam said I could go along with Guthrie, Evan, and Ford, taking the truck up to
the line cabin, to clean it out. All the stuff that had been there when Seth and the other guy were trespassing were still there.
Guthrie and Evan drove up in the truck, and Ford and I rode horseback, so we could check on the fences as we went, and a bit further on.
At the last minute, Evan sent me back inside to grab some trash bags to put all the trash from the cabin into. While I was in
the kitchen getting those, I filled a sack with several apples, and some cookies. I figured Ford and I might need some
snacks to bolster us up thru the afternoon.
To me it felt like heaven, being out riding, even though the sun was bearing down really hot.
Once at the cabin, we all went inside, though a bit cautiously. Once inside, it was an out and out mess, no doubt about it.
We all got a trash bag, and started pitching stuff into them.
"Gall darn pigs," Guthrie grumbled, stuffing newspapers and dirty paper plates into his trash bag. There were bugs all over some of those
plates.
I was peering into the hole in the floor, and was startled into a squeal when a mouse popped up and scurried across the floor.
"What is it?" Evan asked, coming over immediately. "A snake?"
"No. A mouse," I said, without thinking.
Immediately, Evan went into that older brother mode, the one designed to scoff at a silly younger sibling.
"You're screaming about a mouse?" he asked, sounding disbelieving.
"I didn't scream," I denied. "I just squealed a little."
"And you want to be a vet?" he asked me, in a mocking sort of way.
"It just startled me, is all," I protested.
"Uh huh," he said, with a sort of wicked grin. I knew he was going to be razzing me about the whole incident for a long
time.
I was glad when we were close enough to being done cleaning up that Evan began to try to patch that hole in the
floorboards. They had brought up some scrap lumber just for that purpose.
Kneeling on the floor beside the hole, Evan looked up at me and said, with a wicked twinkle in his eyes, "Sure you don't want to
take another good look in here, Har, before I board it up? Maybe your little mouse friend has some relatives that want to say hi to you."
I rolled my eyes at him. "You know what, Ev? Whoever told you that you were funny, well, they were lying to you."
Evan laughed and began adjusting the short pieces of scrap boards to fit over the hole to be nailed down. Guthrie was crouched down
beside him, holding the boards as Evan began to nail them.
"Don't slip and hit me with the hammer," Guthrie said. "I've got enough injuries from earlier this morning."
"Why, what happened this mornin'?" Evan asked.
"Har is what happened," Guthrie said. "She practically killed me with some fence posts."
"Don't start all that again," I told Guthrie.
I knew Guthrie was just having a go at teasing me, the same as Evan had been about the mouse. But, somehow I felt as though
I was on 'brother' overload for some reason.
"I'm going to ride on," I announced. "I can start checking on the fence, and you all can catch up to me."
"You're not goin' by yourself," Evan said, still nailing away. "Just simmer down and wait for us."
"Oh, for gosh sakes," I said, in vast irritation. I stomped outside, and untied Petra from the railing that Ford and I had tied our
horses to. I was petting Petra's neck, and I could hear Ford saying, "Okay. See you in a few."
He came out the door of the cabin, and went to the truck, reaching in to take the rifle from the gun rack.
"Ready to go?" he asked me, sliding the rifle into the long holster off of the saddle.
"Do we have permission to go?" I asked, sarcastically, referring to Evan's comment.
Ford only looked at me, and then mounted his horse, without saying anything. He began riding down thru the trees then,
and I quickly got on Petra, following him.
As we rode along, and I was eventually riding alongside of him, Ford said, "What's wrong today?"
I gave him a quick sideways glance, and then I said, "What do you mean?"
"You're grouchy," he said bluntly.
"I don't think I'm so grouchy," I said in protest.
Ford shrugged, and said no more.
After a few minutes of quiet riding, I said, "I guess I am. A little bit."
"Something bothering you?" he asked then.
"No. Not really." I thought for a moment and then I added, "It just seems sometimes like I'm always going to be treated like
a kid."
"How so?" he asked.
"That's how Evan treats me. Like I don't have any brains. And today Crane-" I hesitated, letting my voice trail off.
"Crane what?" Ford prompted.
"Nothing," I said. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Okay," Ford said. "As far as Evan goes, he doesn't mean anything by the way he talks. Heck, he talks to me like that too, sometimes."
"Sometimes, maybe. But not all the time, like he does me," I corrected.
"It's not all the time, Har," Ford corrected.
"It's not just Evan," I went on, ignoring Ford's last comment. "Everybody does it. I think everybody still focuses on what
I did, running off to Daniel's last spring."
"Nobody is still thinkin' about that," Ford objected, giving me a frown. "That's all been forgiven and put away."
"I don't think so," I denied, and Ford gave me a sad sort of a look, and shook his head a little.
As soon as I said that, I felt badly. I knew that Adam and Brian and everybody else had forgiven me totally for what I'd done. Even
Evan had forgiven me. I'd felt the family's love and forgiveness in all of it. So I had no reason to say such a thing like that. It wasn't true.
Any of the other six would have given me what-for if I'd said what I had to them. I'd have been hollered at, and lectured, and
most of them would have been angry about it. Even Guthrie would have told me that I was talking crazy.
Ford, though, well, he's different that way. He only gave me that sorrowful look, and shook his head, and then looked straight ahead,
saying no more.
We rode now in silence again, for quite a while.
"I'm sorry," I said finally. "I'm being a jerk."
When he only gave me another of those 'sorrowful' looks, I added, "I know you're right. About everybody forgiving me. I'm just
in a bad mood, I guess."
"It's alright," Ford said. "If you really do feel that way, though, about what happened, and how the family feels, well, then you need
to talk to them."
"You're not gonna say anything to anybody, are you?" I asked, in sudden worry.
"Of course not."
I sighed with relief. "Okay. I don't really feel that way. I know-" I hesitated. "That they've all put it away, like you said."
"Okay, Har," he said.
There was something in his tone. "You're thinking something," I said, with certainty.
"I just think that a person's true feelings and worries can come out, sometimes when you don't really even know that you're still
feeling a certain way about something."
I considered that, looking at Ford contemplatively. "Well, maybe," I admitted.
"If you feel that way, then it just means you need to talk to them," Ford continued. "So you can hash it out, and put your mind at ease."
"It would hurt Adam so much," I said softly. "If he thought I felt that way."
"He'd want to know."
After that, we didn't talk about it anymore. We checked fence as we rode. To my surprise, and my delight, we came upon a
small group of horses in a meadow. I saw them first, because Ford was looking off the other direction.
"Ford, look!" I said, in a rushed whisper.
"What?" he asked.
"Shhh! Look!" I pointed.
We both rode to a stop, and just sat there watching. We weren't a very far distance from them. Maybe a quarter of a mile or so. Close
enough that we could see there were five of them. One was the stallion that I'd seen the other two times. He raised his head and
looked directly at us. This was so different than seeing them down in a canyon, and being high above. So much better. I held my breath,
waiting for them to spook at the fact that we were so close to them.
I heard Ford's quick intake of breath. "Wow," he said softly, reverently.
"Should we ride closer?" I asked. I didn't want to frighten them away, but yet, the desire to get closer pulled at me.
"Let's not," Ford said.
The stallion took a few steps, and then made a small run in a circle around the other Mustangs. He paused, and looked at
us again, and then, almost as if he spoke to the mares, all six of them broke into a run at nearly the same moment. They galloped away, thru
the meadow, and they were gone, out of sight.
I let out a breath that I'd been holding. "Ford," I said, with emotion.
"I know," Ford answered, in understanding. "That was amazing."
As we began to ride on, I was still in somewhat shock that we'd been at exactly the right place at the right time.
"Why do you think they're down here?" I asked Ford. "So far from where they usually are?"
"Maybe they're lookin' for a safer place to be. Where they won't get chased down," he suggested.
What Ford said made good sense.
"They feel safe on our property, Ford. Isn't that amazing?"
"They don't know it's our property, goofy," Ford said.
"You know what I mean."
"Yeah. I know what you mean," Ford said, and smiled at me.
"I hope when they saw us like that, that it doesn't make them not want to be here," I said, feeling a qualm. "They might think we're like
all the other humans they've seen, and think we want to hurt them."
Ford started to answer, when he suddenly pulled up on his reins. I looked the direction that he was staring into.
Four eyes were staring back at us. The eyes belonged to what I first thought were donkeys. Two small, furry, brown ones.
They were contentedly munching on grass. Or they were, after they'd given us a good look.
"Donkeys!" I said, with glee, though I didn't say it loudly. I didn't want to startle them. Why would two donkeys be all the way out here,
like that?
"Ford, they're burros," I said in excitement. "Wild burros!"
"Maybe so."
"I'm sure they are. Maybe the stallion brought them here!"
"It's hard to say. They might have been around here for awhile," Ford said.
"Wouldn't we have seen them, though, if they had been? I mean, there's somebody up this way all the time."
"Maybe," he said again.
We just sat for a couple of minutes, watching the burros. They stopped surveying us and went back to grazing on the grass. I had a
sudden inspiration, and reached into the snack bag hooked over my saddle horn. I took out an apple.
"Can I borrow your pocket knife?" I asked Ford.
"What for?" Ford asked. but he reached into his pocket and brought out his worn pocket knife.
I took it from him, and sliced the apple into two separate pieces, handing the knife back to him. "I'm gonna give them a piece of apple," I said, and slid
down from Petra's back.
"Well, don't get too close," Ford cautioned. "Just toss the apple pieces over there."
I began to walk closer to where the two burros were standing. They were both on alert, turning their faces and twitching their ears.
I began to talk softly to them. Ford had gotten down off his horse, as well, holding the reins of his horse and Petra, too.
"Don't try to hand feed them," Ford warned me.
"They're not aggressive," I said, taking another few steps closer. "They're gentle."
"You don't know which they are," he argued. "Toss 'em the apples."
One of the burros moved, appearing skittish. and I paused, staying still.
"Harlie, toss the apple," Ford ordered. "I'm not kidding."
"Oh, alright," I said, succumbing to his protests. I threw one of the pieces to the burro closest to me, and then the second piece I aimed
to the ground near the other burro. Both began immediately to sniff at the apple slices. And then nibble.
"Look, Ford," I said. "They're eating it!"
"I see," Ford said. "Come on. We need to get going."
I sighed, reluctant to leave the burros. I was still standing there, and Ford said, "Harlie. Seriously."
"Okay, okay," I said, turning to walk back over to the horses. I took the reins from him, and we both mounted. Ford rode ahead, and I followed,
still looking back at the burros, who had finished their apples swiftly, and were now just watching me.
7
