Race stood to stretch his back, which creaked and groaned in protest of the work he had been doing for the last few hours. He leaned back on the fence post he had just placed to test its tolerance to weight. The tornado and its aftermath had only become truly apparent in the days following. While the farm had been spared the brunt of the tornado, they still had some rebuilding to do. The fence around the horses' pasture had been torn apart by the passing funnel cloud and was the first priority on a very long list of things to do.
The horses were being corralled near the barn for the time being as the seven guys worked feverishly to repair the downed fence, but their farm hadn't been the only one to be hit. So getting the bailing wire needed to make the fence secure had taken more than a week. But they had finally gotten it and were just now putting the finishing touches. The womenfolk had been a big help to the guys, which had been a surprise. They had not only cooked and cleaned for the guys, but they had helped with the clean up around the farm, including rounding up the spooked animals and caring for the minor injuries suffered by both man and beast.
"Racetrack do you need help with your fence." A somewhat gruff voice called out.
Race looked around and was startled to see that Saiorse had come out. "Um, yeah I guess so." Race finally mumbled.
Saiorse gamely went to where the coiled fence lay and pulled on a pair of gloves that Skittery had left when he had gone in search of some food, or rather to pester a certain Miss Black. Saiorse then picked up the wire and looked at Race expectantly. "Where do you want me to go with this?"
Race went to help her, motioning to the fence post that he had been leaning on before picking up his half of the wire. The task of getting the wire strung took the two of them almost twenty minutes. Getting the wire to actually unwind and around the post then back to the first post wound and back again was a task that Race was expecting Saiorse drop as soon as they finished with the final winding.
After dropping the wire Race grabbed his shovel from the ground near the fence post and paced out another twenty feet. As he dug Saiorse came to watch him. "Why don't you place your posts first then just string the wire afterwards?" She asked as he finished with the posthole.
"I don't know this was how we did it when we started out last year." Race said with a shrug. He motioned toward the pile of fence posts. As they walked over she had another question.
"But wouldn't it go quicker if you were to mark off where you need the posts, then put the posts by those spots. Then dig your holes and place the posts, and then finally put up your wire fence?"
Race seemed to consider her suggestion as they dragged the heavy post back between them. "Well it might make sense, but then what if you make one of your wires too tight? Then you'll put unnecessary strain on the next batch of fence and risk having an easy place for the animals to escape over."
Saiorse grunted as they dropped the post in the hole. She held it in place as Race filled in around it with dirt. "Possibly but you still run that risk doing it your way. At least my way you can have it done in a couple of days. You all have been working on this fence for nearly four days."
"And we are nearly done now." Race said simply as he leaned on the now completed post, again testing its placement. "We just have to make it to that post there and we'll be done." He pointed to a spot not forty feet away.
Saiorse rolled her eyes, if he wanted to ignore her suggestion that was his business. The rest of the fence was completed in silence. Race cut the wire just as the supper bell rang. He motioned for Saiorse to go ahead, "I need to clean up here anyway."
"I'll help, then we both can eat." Saiorse insisted as she began picking up tools. There was one thing to be said for the boys' method that Saiorse hadn't thought of; all of the tools were with in a few feet of each other. Which made clean up much easier than it could have been. The two walked back to the farmhouse silently. As they approached the barn Race turned to get the rest of the tools. "Thanks for the help. It did make that go a lot quicker than I had thought."
Saiorse gave him a small smile. "You're welcome." She turned to go to the house without another word. Race watched her go with a bit of a smirk before turning to put the tools in the scant protection that the barn would offer. The barn was the next project that the boys had started on after the pasture fence was almost complete. The tornado had taken the barn roof off, though it had left the house itself untouched. So when it had been apparent that the fence was near completion the boys had drawn straws to see who would work on the roof and who would work on the fence. Race and Skittery had won the fence job, though Skittery had spent a lot of the time the two of them had been working on the fence complaining.
Not that Race really wanted to be up on the roof of the barn, twenty or so feet in the air, nothing under him except for a few animals, the stall walls, a pile of manure, a few piles of hay and one very hard ground. Oh yes falling off the roof and having to aim for the pile of manure or hay really wasn't high up on his to do list. No he would keep his feet planted firmly on the ground as long as was possible. Preferably for the next fifty or so years of his life, there was no way he was going up into those rafters.
"So Race you got the fence finished I see." Jack came up behind Race and slapped him on the back.
Race shrugged, "I guess so, I would like to check the tension and stuff before we put the horses back in."
"You can do that later cause we need another set of hands up on this roof. You up for it?" Jack said pointing up to the rafters where the guys were now climbing down. Even Chaney had been up on the roof working on putting it back to rights.
Race paled a bit under his tan and cleared his throat. "We really should get those horses back into the pasture. I mean we're literally eating into our hay supply for the winter every day we keep them in the corral."
"In the morning Race. We've been sleeping under the stars way too long as it is. I don't fancy another morning waking up drenched in dew. So the roof goes up by sundown, the horses will be fine in the corral one more day." Jack said firmly.
Race sighed and nodded, "I guess they will have to be won't they. How about some grub?"
"Now that is a plan I can go along with, last one to the porch goes up first." Jack said taking off toward the porch. Race went after him as one who was condemned to die.
He ate his meal of pork and beans as slowly as possible if this was going to be his last meal he was going to savor it. Who knew what he would eat in heaven, probably bread and wine from water.
Saiorse watched Race eat from the other corner of the porch. She had worked up an appetite in the morning sun, but she wasn't about to let this chance to study him go to waste. There had to be a reason that he had chosen to write to her of all people. What had it been? It couldn't have been him falling in love with her because of her letter. No he hadn't been one to profess love like James had. James, now there was another can of worms she didn't truly want to open any time soon. She shook her head as if to clear it, before going back to her study of Race.
He was kinda short, well he had the potential to be short. For some reason it didn't occur to her that he was short until they were standing next to each other earlier this morning. Then she realized he was just barely as tall as she was. Anthony "Racetrack" Higgins carried himself as if he were a good six inches taller. As if no one looked down on him. He also was a bit of a braggart. He always was talking about how great his horses were or how much faster they ran than any horse in the races back at Sheepshead Bay or Aquetoga.
Saiorse didn't know about that, but she did know that the horses that the guy raised weren't thoroughbreds or even quarter horses. But they were fast animals, especially when one was trying to catch them after they had been frightened by a bad thunderstorm.
She turned her head to get a good look at him. He was a good looking young man, she guessed. He wasn't ugly, his teeth didn't stick out of his mouth, he had plenty of hair, but there was the problem she had with the cigar that seemed to be permanently attached to his mouth. That was disgusting. It maybe be lit once, then allowed to die out and he would just keep it stuck there, punctuating sentences with it. As if he could drive a point home just by sticking you with his cigar. She found its perpetual presence a nuisance.
"Hey Saio, Saio, Saiorse you even listening to me?" Michelle called to Saiorse.
"Yeah I was, what was the question again?" Saiorse blushed a bit to be caught staring at Race.
"I asked if you were done with your plate? I was hoping to do the dishes before going into town with Helen she has some letters to post." Michelle held out a hand for Saiorse's plate.
"Oh sorry I'll do the dishes if you want me to." Saiorse said standing up.
"You would?" Michelle asked happily. "That would be wonderful. The guys have already put their dishes in the sink. Thanks again." And like that Michelle was gone.
Saiorse sighed as she stood up to go into the kitchen; of course her daydreaming had gotten her stuck with the chore of cleaning up. But it was better than sitting on the porch staring off into space, this way no one could know she was thinking about anyone in particular. Doing the dishes was soothing, gave her time to think about things. And one of the main things she had to think about was if she was going to stay in Texas now that it seemed she wasn't going to be marrying anyone, least of all Anthony Higgins.
A/N: In honor of Labor Day and getting my first holiday off since Christmas I give you a new chapter. It's actually the first part of a tiny story arc that hopefully will only go three chapters. So don't forget to read and review and hopefully I'll have another chapter up by the end of the week.
