Acquaintances and Mishaps
Jack and Ty were finishing dishes from the evening meal, as Lou put the baby to bed in her crib. The phone rang and Jack picked up the line.
"Hello" said Jack, and slowly his expression changed to one of a smiling man.
"I'll be... good to hear from you Dean. You know, its a crazy world where we get the chance to talk again after all these years. And even crazier that our paths would cross via my granddaughter."
After talking for 10 minutes had went to do night check in the barn and Jack hung up the phone, having finished chatting with his old friend Dean. Jack had a warm feeling about his granddaughter living near an old friend in Colorado.
"You know, there are times the good Lord looks down on us here with blessings", said Jack to Lou. "It is nice to know we don't walk through our lives in this world alone".
"What has you so happy grandpa?", asked Lou
"Well, that was an old, old friend of mine from the cattle ranching days - Dean Richards.", said Jack.
"That's the gentleman Amy mentioned in email, right?" queried Lou.
"Yep. He just called to let me know he had met Amy there and said if we needed anything done for her while she was living there this summer... to just drop him a line."
Amy enjoyed dinner with Peter and Brigitta and later they looked at the care package that Lou had sent along with some strawberry jam, cookies and other baked goodies. There was also a DVD simply labeled "For Amy", written in Ty's handwriting.
Amy saved the DVD for later playback in her laptop DVD player.
Peter headed back to his hotel in downtown Fort Collins after giving Amy a hug goodbye. "See you back at Heartland in a couple months Amy!"
Amy tried finishing up some homework for class tomorrow, but she decided to watch the DVD. She popped in the disc on her laptop and the DVD player fired up automatically.
Amy watched as a slideshow started running across the screen, showing photos of friends and family among the scenery of Heartland while a favorite song - A Million Skies - played in the background.
Amy remember the video slideshow that Mallory had made last year for Ty... and now Ty had done one for her...
"Ty... if only you were here to see each other and talk about our future".
Amy snuggled under the blankets in her loft hide-away bed and quickly fell asleep.
That Thursday, Dean Richards continued his afternoon work task of dragging pine beetle kill trees out of the mountainside down to the meadow for cutting up firewood. Dean saddled Lakota, and his wife Anne readied the Honda ATV for work.
After a couple hours of work in the mid afternoon shade of thickets of lodge pole and Ponderosa pines, a grouping of half a dozen beetle kill trees had been felled and most taken to the meadow. Dean had lassoed up the last tree truck of a 25-foot tree and mounted Lakota to pull the tree down the slope to the meadow. Lakota began to pull at the tree, when his demeanor changed and he began to act skittish. Just as Dean was trying to settle Lakota, the growl of a mountain lion came from the western slope.
The mountain lion pounced forward, startling Lakota. As the horse reared, Dean lost his balance falling backward and as he hit the ground, he tried to break his fall with his left arm. Lakota continued to rear with his front hooves defending against the mountain lion. The young mountain lion made its retreat up the western slope, as Dean winched in pain.
Dean called out down the slope toward the meadow where Ann was waiting, "Ann... Ann, I am going to need your help." Soon, he heard the Honda ATV's engine chugging up the hill. Dean sat up, again winching in pain.. knowing he had broken his left arm.
"Dean, what happened..." yelled Ann as she approached.
"Mountain lion spooked Lakota.." was the reply.
"Can you ride the ATV to the house with me...?"
"I think so... let's lead Lakota back with us... and then get to the medical center", said Dean in a labored breath.
Slowly they made there way back to the house. Dean put on a tough front, but the truth was he was hurt in places he did not suspect. As Ann drove down the canyon and toward Poudre Valley Medical, Dean's pain increased... and she wondered if she should have called the fire rescue unit from home instead of driving herself. Dean's stubborn streak sometimes was such a bother.
Word spread quickly and some of the neighbors quickly organized help for the Richards to help with their chores at their home place. Brigitta offered her help in doing evening chores for the horses and the couple head of white-faced yearling steers.
The evening, Amy assisted Brigitta with the chores, which took about 15 minutes.
"I have to be honest Amy - I am not sure how Dean will be able to function by himself the rest of summer", she confided.
"Why do you say that?"
"Well, remember I told you Dean does the haying for Rist Canyon... its now early July and haying will be starting in full until mid August... Dean's always done the work by himself for the most part."
Amy was not surprised, "sounds familiar"... thinking of her stubborn grandfather.
"Let's try to visit Dean when he gets home tomorrow from the hospital", said Brigitta. "Maybe we can find a way to assist him...between classes and work at the stable..." Both Amy and Brigitta frowned at the proposition of adding more to their busy schedule.