So it was that Arrietty found herself hanging to the side of the truck bed for dear life while the truck engine roared to life. She looked across the bed at Sissy, who was braced against the opposite wheel well. The calf was on a blanket between them, its legs folded neatly underneath its fuzzy belly. Sissy had one hand on its collar just in case, but as soon as the diesel engine started it closed its eyes and went to sleep.
Arrietty glanced at the cab. The farm dog, a blue merle Aussie with mismatched eyes, couldn't decide whether to sit down next to the farmer and look out the windshield or put his paws on the back of the seat and watch the girls. Every time she looked at him, he barked and wagged his stump of a tail. Flakes of dried mud and grass vibrated in the grooves of the metal bed. She looked back at the cowshed on the other side of the fence, at the field surrounded by windbreak trees, at the stream that had brought her family here - so long ago, it seemed. Now she wouldn't be able to use that phone...
"Are you sure this is safe?" she couldn't help asking, as the farmer shifted gears and pulled away from the fence. There was no road, only a vague path where the grass grew less densely - and then, acres and acres of grass with the view interrupted by clusters of trees so that, though Arrietty got a sense of lots of space, she couldn't really see that far.
Sissy shrugged. Her hair was pulled back in a hasty ponytail, and now wisps of it were escaping to blow everywhere in the wind. "I've never fallen out yet," she said, and laughed as the truck swerved and bumped over squirrel mounds and other irregularities in the terrain. Arrietty liked Sissy's laugh, but she wasn't sure she liked riding in the back of a truck.
After driving farther than Arrietty had ever traveled in her entire life, the farmer made a sharp turn onto a gravel road. The ride was less bumpy now and Arrietty relaxed. Her eyes never stopped moving, recording landmarks so she could find her way home. There a dead tree with two bird nests in its naked branches. There a badger hole at the base of a willow. Here a fence post that leaned theatrically, trailing two wires on the ground.
"We need to fix that," Sissy remarked. "That's probably how Beauty got away from the herd."
Hopefully they wouldn't fix it too soon. It made a nice landmark.
The farmhouse was a long, low building set in the center of a neat gravel yard, with flowers around the walkways. The narrow side of the house faced south so as to catch less of the oppressively hot sun during summers. A neat white fence enclosed the farm yard, which included the house, a barn northwest of the house, a long feeding shed wrapped around the north side of the farm yard, and a swing set on a square of overgrown grass in the south corner of the yard. The barn and feeding shed opened out into pasture land to the north and west, pasture land that backed into gradually rising hills topped with forest. The truck pulled into the yard just as the sun tired of waiting and lifted himself fully into the sky.
"Ma! Ma!"
Sissy was out of the truck before it stopped moving, leaving Arrietty alone with the calf. Arrietty gasped and scrambled across the metal bed to grab the calf's collar. It flicked an ear and licked her face, then went back to sleep. A square of warm yellow light opened onto the yard, silhouetting Sissy in mid-stride, then blinked out. The slam echoed across the farm yard, out into the hills, and back again.
"That girl," the farmer groused, climbing out of the truck. "Come on, Radar."
The Aussie bounded out after him and ran circles in the gravel, nose to the ground, making sure nothing interesting had happened while he'd been gone. Arrietty heard chickens clucking from the direction of the barn, and a rooster's crow. Then, after a minute, a cow's insistent lowing. The calf woke up, called back, and climbed to its feet, with Arrietty keeping an uncertain grip on its collar.
"That'll be Beauty's mother. Give me a hand, lass."
Arrietty wasn't sure how much help she really was, but the farmer made her feel like she was helping as they guided the calf across the tailgate. The farmer lifted it down in his powerful arms and left it in Radar's competent care while he helped Arrietty down.
"I'll take Beauty back to her mother. Here. Take my flashlight to the kitchen, will ye?" He pointed in the direction of the door Sissy had slammed. "The missus will give ye some breakfast. Don't worry, now," he added, when Arrietty clutched the flashlight to her chest and sized up the kitchen door as though it were a fearsome opponent. "She's that kind, birds eat out of her hand. Go on, get something in your stomach."
He patted her shoulder and gave her a gentle push. Arrietty found herself walking, heart thumping against her ribcage, toward the kitchen door.