Drover, Head of Ranch Security
Chapter Four: Beulah Visits
Drover spent the rest of the night hiding in his gunnysack under the gas tanks. He wished he could somehow melt into the ground and never have to deal with his new job but he knew that was impossible. Dogs don't melt.
It was around two in the afternoon when he heard a pickup pull up into the driveway. He perked his ears up at the familiar hum of the motor and the way the tires sounded when they squealed to a stop. It was Billy's truck; Billy lived on the ranch next door. And when Billy showed up for a visit, that usually meant Beulah the Collie and her boyfriend Plato the Bird Dog had shown up as well. Drover wasn't sure if he felt like talking today, not even to Beulah. She would only remind him of all the times Hank had tried to win her affections and failed.
He buried himself further into his gunnysack to try and disappear into an invisible void. Maybe nobody would see him. Maybe nobody would bother him for a while.
He was wrong.
"Drover?" he heard a soft feminine voice ask from in front of his nose. "Drover, what are you doing under there?"
"Trying to disappear."
"You know that's not going to work. Come out so I can talk to you."
"I don't wanna talk."
He heard a sigh. "Drover, I know you must feel upset about what happened. I was shocked when I heard the news too. You're not going to be the only one who misses him."
"I saw it happen. I saw Hank die. Hank's not supposed to die, he was invincible."
"I know he may have seemed that way, but he wasn't. He was just a normal dog like the rest of us. Drover, please come out. I don't like talking to gunnysacks."
Drover thought about coming out but then changed his mind. "Miss Beulah, I really don't feel like talking about Hank right now. I'm sorry."
There was a pause. "We don't have to talk about Hank if you don't want to."
"You promise?"
"Yes, I promise, but only if you come out from under there."
Drover decided that Beulah wasn't going to leave if he didn't do what he was told so he did it. He pushed himself out backwards out of the gunnysack and sat on his haunches, staring at the ground. He didn't want to look at anyone.
"That's better," she said. "How have you been?"
"Fine I guess," he told her in a quiet voice, pawing the ground gently with one paw. "I'm in charge now."
"You're what?"
"In charge. Y'know, of the ranch. Hank told me that."
"I thought you didn't want to talk about Hank."
"I don't," he said, his lip quivering. "I don't want to think about him but I can't help it. I can't help but think about what a pathetic replacement I am to him."
"Aww, Drover, don't say things like that. You'll do a good job being a ....whatever it was he called himself."
"Head of Ranch Security."
"Yes, that," Beulah nodded. "Besides, you've only started. You have to give a new job time to grow on you, you know. I'm sure Hank wasn't that good when he first started."
Drover didn't say anything in response. Beulah sighed. She was getting nowhere. The whole point of her coming out here was to try and give Drover a pep talk since she figured he would be like this.
"Well....I'm going to go pay my respects. Where's the grave?"
"In the front yard garden. You'll have to jump the fence. Don't let Sally May catch you though. She'll throw a frying pan at ya."
Beulah walked back to Billy's truck where Plato was waiting on here.
"How is the little guy?" he asked her as she walked up.
"Not so good," she told him. "He's exactly like I figured he'd be. Let's just go pay our respects and hope Billy doesn't want to visit long."
"All right, honey lamb," Plato said, jumping down to walk with her to the garden. "I'm gonna miss ol' Hank. He got me outta all kinds of trouble. Even though I got the feeling he didn't like me too much. I wonder why that is. You know why he might not have liked me?"
"Who knows, Plato. Hank was rather strange at times," Beulah answered, although she knew very well why Hank hated Plato. He had always had this crazy belief that Plato had stolen her away from him, although that wasn't true. She and Hank had never been a couple. Oh sure, she liked him as a friend and he could be fun to hang out with, but he just wasn't "boyfriend material". He was always so busy doing his precious job, going off into the wilderness without warning, getting in trouble. He was rude and crude. Plato was well behaved and soft-spoken—a little quirky, but still a perfectly decent guy.
Not that she hadn't wanted to like Hank. He had just made it so hard for her to do so.
"Well, it's certainly too late for him to change his ways NOW," she thought to herself.