"Danny."
The forceful whisper snagged his attention, even with the milk room thrumming and loud clicking of the milkers. Danny quickly finished with the drying and tossed both wet and dry washrags into the dirty towel bucket. Stepping out from the stalls and into the alleyway, he glanced for the voice.
The hiss came again, insistant, louder.
"Danny!"
Oh. There. Around the open sliding doors. Katie leaned from outside the barn, waving a small hand at him, then her eyes went wide and she hide back behind it.
Danny turned his head, down the alleyway to spot Dale striding across to another stall, milker in hand.
As soon as the man hooked it over the pipe and connected it, Danny headed down toward the doors as Dale crouched to put the milker on. Curious and a little concerned, wondering if she'd gotten into trouble, Danny peered around the corner. Katie yanked him out of sight.
Jon was there too.
"Danny, come on, you have to try! Quick!"
"Uh, try? Weren't you two supposed to be pushing up the uh, the feed mixture stuff up to the cows in the free stall barn?"
"Did it." Jon claimed. "Takes like, two minutes."
That sounded like the boy talking about his nightly reading assignment. Bold and easy breezy boastful. A lie. That, in some way, got believed most of the time. Dale was one thing, but Danny was surprised Edi didn't call out Jon as much as Elizabeth and Matt shot their brother dirty looks and rolling eyes.
"Jon shifted stuff and I went after, getting the rest up. We make a great team. But, you gotta come out, Danny. Quickly."
At least they hadn't gotten in some trouble out there. Yet. With how they kept out of Dale's sight, Danny's curiosity had risen as had his concern.
Eyes bright, lips pressed tight in determination, Katie yanked at his sleeve again.
"Why don't you two help in the barn since you're done out there? There's still a few cows-"
"Dad's only got a few cows left to milk, he'll be fine. This is our chance. Your chance. She might move soon."
"You have to join us!"
Join?
Okay. Had they already done something out there? Planning to repeat it? What the heck were they up to that required hiding it from Dale?
At Katie's next urgent tug, Danny followed. "All right, all right. She might move?"
Her face lit up. "Yeah! Nice Cow! She's in the perfect spot!"
Danny raised an eyebrow. "You mean the old cow that has two speeds? Stop and extremely slow?"
It didn't matter how you tried to rush that cow. It trudged along at its own speed in and out of the barn. It would not be chased or hurried during a switch. Got there, went straight where it should, it just went one...step...at...a...time.
"Come on! You can't be too much more than Elizabeth and she was still able to do it last time she did it."
"Did what?"
As they reached the free stall barn and turned right toward the center, Danny saw a cow standing in the very first stall. All the rest of the cows inside were gathered on the south side, munching away. He couldn't tell any apart, aside from the one Katie had named, but this one was obviously Nice Cow.
"Great! Nice Cow didn't move! I'll show you, Danny! Jon already went, so I'll show you and then you can go!"
Scooching between cow and the cement bottom half of the building wall, Katie reached up for the edge of the cement, pulling herself up.
Having no clue what was going on, Danny peeked over to Jon. No hint there. Then back to Katie who was reaching over to the metal dividing pole from where she now squatted on the cement.
"Then I can go...do a balancing act down the middle?"
It was clearly wrong.
Nice Cow was a factor. What, Danny didn't-
"Katie!"
Hazel eyes beamed at him over a shoulder. Grin wide. Katie let loose a whoop and mimicked twirling a lasso over her head.
From where she sat.
On top of the cow.
"Get down!"
"I'm fine!"
"You're on a cow!"
"It's Nice Cow. Katie's fine."
"Yeah!"
He couldn't breath, couldn't look away, he couldn't believe this, he was going to have a freaking heart attack.
"We've all sat on her. None of us weigh enough for her to care, see? Now it's your turn, come on Danny. Even Katie does it, no problem, and she's just a little g-"
"I'm still a town kid, I don't care, but get down right now!"
"Fiiine."
Katie tilted herself to one side, swinging one short leg over, then slid off the cow.
Leaving the stall, Katie lifted up her arms and eyebrows. "Better?"
"Yes."
"Sorry I freaked you out Danny. But I was fine. Honest."
"I'm sure you were."
Lie. Danny was still panic breathing. And in disbelief.
"Elizabeth has done this?"
"We all have." Glaring, Jon didn't take his eyes off of Danny. "Except you. It was perfect! Right next to the side! We even hurried to make sure you could sit on her!"
"I think I'll live."
Breathing steady, but disbelief still in place, Danny cornered Elizabeth away from the others as she was clearing off the table.
"Oh." Her eyebrows went up. "Uh. Yeah. Matt and I did that as kids."
"Why? Isn't that dangerous?"
"Not enough to be told not to do it during farm safety classes."
Danny stared. "What?"
Jazz would ne-
"You okay?"
"Fine."
"Our cousin Scott showed us, I guess?"
Elizabeth shrugged. Blasé. Like it was no big deal. What was with these kids?
"I'm pretty sure most of any of the more daring stuff we did growing up was things he taught us. Like the clothespin challenge."
She pulled a face then turned back to washing off the dirty dishes.
Suspicious and panic growing up fearfully again, his voice nearly squeaked. "What clothespin challenge?"
"Don't worry about it."
"What if Katie and Jon do that?!"
"They'll be fine. Besides, Dad thinks it's funny. Uh, don't mention it to Mom though." Elizabeth gave him a sideways look. "You were the older one, weren't you?"
Startled out of trying to figure out what this clothespin challenge might entail for Elizabeth's face and Edi's disapproval, Danny blinked at her.
"Huh?"
"Nothing." She shot him a smile. "Want to help me rinse these off?"
"Uh, sure."