Beyond the New Horizon

by Christine Conaway

  “You didn’t think you got to be the only one to have fun this morning did you?” Journey asked as she came around the end of the trailer with a cup in her hand. “Here,” She shoved the cup at Gina. As if seeing Ben for the first time, “Whoops, I forgot about you. Do you drink coffee?”

  He grinned, “Only if it’s strong and black.”

  “Well, I can promise black, but strong…maybe not. I’ve already started conserving on our grounds. You’re welcome to some anyhow. Lucy has fry bread on the griddle, and she made extra so we wouldn’t have to stop and fix something for lunch.”

  Journey pulled her sleeves down over her hands, “Dang, it’s really getting cold.”

  The three of them looked up. While they couldn’t see the sky, it was ominously dark.

  “Ten minutes to drink and eat breakfast, then we need to get moving. I do not like the feeling in the air, and it smells like snow.”

  Ben laughed, “You can tell it’s going to snow by smelling the air?” He shook his head and went to the fire where Lucy was flipping something over on the griddle.

  Journey paused and took in a deep breath of air through her nose, “It smells like cold air to me, but I believe you. I remember the last time you said that up in Montana and we ended driving out in a foot of snow.”

  “Let’s hope that isn’t the case here.”

  As soon as they had eaten, Gina began putting her travois together. She cut lengths of parachute cord and handed them to Lucy to burn the ends. Gina was going to use them to tie the cross pieces on. Once she had enough pieces cut, and the ends burned together, she told Lucy, “Why don’t you and Journey get Gus’s pack on and start loading it. Pack only the dishes and food. The bedrolls and our clothes can go on one of the travois’.”

  Lucy turned to go and help Journey.

  “Lucy, can you send your Ben back to give me a hand please.”

  Lucy stopped walking and turned to face Gina. “My Ben?” She mouthed silently.

  Gina rolled her eyes, raised her eyebrows and nodded yes. Lucy grinned in return. Gina had seen the hurt look that Lucy had given her and Ben sitting at the fire earlier, and she wanted to make sure that Lucy knew she had nothing to worry about as far as Gina liking Ben.

  The women had made a pact to never infringe on a man that one of the others liked and to never date one of their cast-offs, whether they had done the casting or been the recipient of a fond farewell. It was an agreement that had served them well over the years.

  It had taken both Ben and Gina, each carrying an end of a hay bale to move them to the first travois. After a few minor adjustments, they were able to load four bags of feed and some lighter things on top of the hay. Sailor stood as if he had been pulling the travois his whole life. He never side-stepped nor acted stupidly when they began piling on the weight.

  The poles Gina had cut could have been a foot or two longer, but she wasn’t about to start over. They had three bales on the bottom, and it would have to do. She used baling twine to tie them together. She led Sailor forward and dropped his lead line. After giving him a scratch, she walked back to Joe and set his gear up the same as she had for Sailor. Because he already had a breast collar, she hadn’t had to use a cinch around his chest to tie off to.

  “Can I help you, Miss Gina? Daddy said I need to make myself useful and get out from under his feet.”

  “How are you with holding the horses?”

  “Good. I spent two summers at the Eagle Crest guest ranch, and we got to ride every day.”

  “Well, then I guess you can hold Joe’s head for me while your Dad and I load the hay on him.” Gina looked to make sure Abby knew what she was supposed to be doing.

  For just a moment, Abby looked very much like a little girl. Her eyes were glassy as if she were going to burst into tears. She looked up at the sky, mouthed something Gina couldn’t hear and took hold of Joe’s lead rope.

  “Hey kiddo, are you okay? I can get someone else to hold him, or we can tie him up.”

  Abby sniffed and wiped at her nose with her sleeve, “No. I’m okay. Whenever I think about the ranch, it reminds me of my Mom. That was our fun time before she got so sick.”

  “Your mom?”

  “She’s in heaven now with Grandma and Grandpa. Dad, says she’s watching down on us. She won’t let anything bad happen to Daddy and me.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Gina said. Abby had gone from a mature young woman to a little girl and back to a young woman in the space of a heartbeat all with a look, a sniffle, and her stance. As she watched, Abby began to scratch and talk to Joe as if she’d known him forever. Joe, who had never stood to have his face scratched before, lowered his head just for Abby.

  Gina shook her head and thought, “The power of animals and children…go figure.”

  It didn’t take long for Ben and her to load the hay. On top of it, they piled two of the bags of feed and stacked boxes and bags of items and tied it all together.

  Lucy and Journey had loaded Gus and tied him to the truck bumper. He was busy cleaning up the wisps of hay left in the bed.

  “Come on Bess. I have a feeling you aren’t going to like this, but we all have to pull our weight.”

  “Can I hold her?” Abby asked.

  “You better let me,” said Journey as she took the lead line from Gina. “She isn’t going to like having to pull anything.”

  “Well, if you had bought a real horse, she would have been fine.” Gina laughed when she said it.

  “Don’t go starting on that now. You know why I bought Bess. Besides, I couldn’t afford to buy one from Nichole, and you know it.”

  “I know I was just razzing you. Nick’s horses were meant for bigger and better than trail riding.” Gina saw the hurt look on Journey’s face. “Forget I said that. There’s nothing wrong with Bess, and you did save her from going to France.”

  “Wow, Miss Bess was going to France?”

  “Forget I said that. I was joking with Journey.”

  “Then why can’t I hold her for you? I held Joe, and you said he was good.”

  “Don’t be a pest Abby. If Gina says no, then it’s no.”

  “Yes, Daddy.”

  Abby went and pulled herself up onto the tailgate to watch as they fixed the travois to Bess’s saddle.

  As soon as Gina came close with one of the poles, Bess threw her head in the air, eyes rolled back in her head, and danced sideways. Journey stepped in front of her and grabbed her bridle, one hand on each side to steady her. Once more when Gina got close, Bess shied away.

  “Damn, we don’t have the time for this. Put her up against the trailer.”

  Again, Bess came unglued as soon as she saw the pole. She practically ran over the top of Journey, knocking her to the ground. Journey had turned the lead line loose when Bess hit her, and Abby had jumped off the tailgate and grabbed it. Bess now stood, head down, resting her head on the open tailgate for Abby to scratch her between the ears.

  Bess never lets anyone put their hands on her ears, and there she was letting Abby do whatever she wanted, including fondling her ears and forelock.

  “I’ll be damned,” Gina said as she helped Journey to her feet. After being assured by Journey that she was okay, Gina said, “Abby, go ahead and bring her over here, please. Just don’t stand in front of her. If she starts to act stupid, throw the lead line away.”

  Bess followed Abby back to the side of the trailer, her head so low, the lead line was touching the ground in the middle.

  When Gina began the process of putting the pole in the stirrup, Bess started to throw her head, but Abby began to talk to her and rub her face. Immediately, Bess calmed down and stood for Gina to fix the travois to her saddle.

  Before she loaded it, Gina wanted to make sure Bess wasn’t going to go all crazy on them, and she had Abby lead her a couple steps forward. Bess rolled her eyes and tried to pull back until Abby talked to her and Bess walked forward following the girl.

  “Whoa, good enough. L
et's get her loaded and get out of here,” Gina said, blowing on her cold hands to warm them. Because there were no more bales of hay, Gina and Ben crisscrossed more of the parachute cord between the poles. They would have to make sure the feed bags didn’t fall between the webbing, but it would work.

  “Just a thought, but what about folding up and laying the tarp on the webbing and we could cover it if it rained or anything.”

  Gina considered Ben’s suggestion and realized it was a good one. She didn’t want to cut the tarp up to cover the other loads, but they could put their tent and awning tarps over them.

  With Bess rolling her eyes at the blue tarp, but not moving, it only took minutes to cover and tie the load down.

  Gina stood massaging her forehead, she didn’t know if she was getting a headache from stress or lack of caffeine. Both would be bad. “Journey, do you have any of that aspirin left?”

  “No, sorry, there was only the one packet.”

  “Daddy, we have some,” exclaimed Abby. “In my backpack.”

  Gina was grateful for the offer and sipped some water to wash them down. “Thanks, now let me make one more inspection, and we’ll get out of here.”

  Sitting on the tailgate were the backpacks that Ben and Abby had walked in with. Gina went to move them when she realized just how heavy they were. She couldn’t believe Abby could walk carrying hers let alone run the way she had when they had shown up the night before.

  Ben grabbed his and went to slip it on. “Let me see that thing,” Gina said and held her hand out.

  Reluctantly, Ben handed it over. Gina was not prepared for the weight of it and dropped it at her feet.

  “You actually wear this thing? It’s got to weigh at least fifty or sixty pounds.”

  “Eighty-five is more like it. Abby’s is around fifty.”

  Gina turned and looked at the horses and Gus, who were all pointed up the road away from the trailer. She knew the horses were capable of pulling more than weight than carrying it, but she didn’t want any of them to strain anything. She looked at Gus. He was carrying his usual pack which, while heavy was light compared to what he could carry.

  “Put yours in the valley of Gus's packs, and you can carry Abby’s. Abby can lead Bess and Journey can help Lucy with Joe.”

  Ben didn’t question her and lay his pack in the valley between the panniers. They usually had their bags, tent, and awning there, but with them covering the loads, the space still remained empty. The pack fit as if made for it and Gus didn’t blink an eye at the extra weight.

  “Now, one more look around and we can go. The trailer was empty as was the back of the pickup. Gina opened the truck door and made sure the girls had gotten everything from the glove box and center console. They had even taken the floor mats. She closed the door and opened the door to the back seat. There, sitting behind the driver's seat, was her tool box and another cardboard box that was taped up. On the outside, someone had written the word BOOKS in red magic marker.

  She pulled the back of the seat down and looked behind it. There, in a bracket made just for it, hung the high lift jack, and tire iron. On the floor were the jumper cables and various lengths of rope, along with a half empty coke bottle, and a couple of full ones. She had no idea how long the soda had been back there or if it was still good. She shrugged and shook her head.

  Gina looked at the stuff to be left behind and decided she couldn’t do it. She didn’t want to leave anything behind, but she couldn’t justify another hundred pounds on any of the horses and Gus has more than his share.

  She hurried back up to Gus and Journey, “Where are the white trash bags? Are they easy to get to?”

  Journey went and unbuckled an outside pocket on the panniers and pulled out the box. It was brand new, still unopened.

  Gina, split the top open and pulled several of the bags out. “Come and help me please,” she hurried back to the truck. With Journey’s help, she managed to put the box of books in one, the toolbox in another and the jack in a third. The jack barely fit, but Gina managed to wrap the plastic tie around the top and hoped it would keep out most of the moisture. With them sitting on the ground at her feet, Gina looked around to see where she could hide them.

  “Why not just lock them in the truck?”

  “What? So someone can steal them? Let's put them off the road a ways and maybe they’ll get overlooked if someone does come up here. Once we get settled in up there, we may want this stuff, and we can come back for it.”

  “I guess,” Journey said and picked up the box of books. She grunted with the weight of it, she followed Gina down the slope to the creek. Halfway down Gina scuffed out dirt from the underside of a fallen tree. When the hollow was deep enough, she placed the two bags in and went for the last one. As soon as all three bags were in the hollow, Gina scooped the dirt back over the bags in an attempt to disguise them. She pulled some dead branches over them.

  “Go back to the road and tell me if you can see them,” she told Journey.

  “Not really, I mean I can, but only because I know where to look.”

  Gina threw up her hands and walked back to the road. If she had not have been the one to bury them, they would have been invisible.

  “Good enough! If they’re still here if we ever come back, then we’ll take them, if not…”

  “Tell me again, why we can’t just put them on the top of one of the loads?”

  Gina looked at the loaded travoises with their sagging pine poles, as if gauging the weight the horses were carrying.

  “Everything we have, I consider a necessity for our survival. The horses are over-burdened as it is. I hate leaving anything behind, but…”

  “Why not, just put it on Joe’s travois? He’s bigger than the other horses, and it seems to me like he’s carrying less.”

  “Because,” Gina whispered, “he’s probably going to have to carry Lucy too. You know the problem she has when walking for a long time, and with walking on this rough road, it won’t be easy for any of us, especially for her.”

  Chapter nine……Left behind without tears

  Gina looked at her pickup and trailer for what she thought would be the last time. She had worked so hard to pay them off, and her truck had been good to them over the years. She’d had to put some money in it from time to time, but the engine had over three hundred thousand miles on it and still ran well.

  Journey put her hand on Gina’s arm as if she knew what Gina was thinking about. They had had some good times and had hauled their horses and Gus all over the northwest.

  “Who knows, maybe someday when we can come back it will be still sitting here just like we left her.

  Gina wasn’t going to cry over leaving her truck and trailer sitting along side of the gravel road. She sniffed, wiped her nose on the hem of her shirt and trudged up to where everyone was waiting for her.

  She took Sailor’s lead line from Lucy and walked up the road, not looking back, because she knew that would be all it would take to bring on the tears. She didn’t want anyone to see her crying over a truck.

  Another look at her watch and she saw that it had taken them over two hours to get everything loaded and the time was now eight-thirty.

  The weight the horses were pulling didn’t seem to be too much of a strain once they got them moving. Gus followed along behind not seeming to care about his load at all. He would stop and grab a few bites of grass and then trot to catch up. He wasn’t going to get that far from Bess or get left behind.

  They stretched out up the road with Gina and Sailor leading the way, followed by Abby and Bess. Ben had dropped back to walk with Lucy. While Journey spent her time between Gina and Abby.

  After the first hour, they had stopped long enough to check cinches, make any adjustments that needed to be made and relieve themselves. While the horses were all sweaty, they didn’t seem to be under duress pulling the travois.

  The only problem that Gina could see was that the ends of her poles were wearing off. She wondered
what the Indians had done to keep theirs from wearing. She thought that maybe they covered them with tanned animal hide, but she was just guessing.

  She was kicking herself for leaving the books behind, because, not only would they come in handy for reading, there was also the paper for starting fires, and if she remembered correctly, there was a small handbook in the box that the guys from Montana had given them. She hadn’t seen the need to keep it when their lives were normal, she hadn’t even had enough spare time to read it, but now, she thought they could have used the knowledge. It was ‘The Preppers Guide to Survival’ if she remembered the title correctly.

  Her stomach growled, reminding her it had been hours since they had eaten. She stopped, and Sailor immediately stood beside her. She rubbed his neck, “You ready for some grub big guy?”

  Gina waited for the others to catch up. When they got close enough to hear her, she asked, “Anyone back there hungry?”

  “I am! Abby called, “and so is Bessie.”

  Gina chuckled when she saw the look on Journey’s face. Her forehead had wrinkles, and her mouth was scrunched up. She hated it when anyone called Bess, Bessie. She said it reminded her of someone’s old Grandmother. Bess’s registered name was RAJA Best Girl. They couldn’t think of anything but Bess to shorten it too. She was supposed to be pure Polish Arabian, but from her size and body mass, Gina thought it was unlikely. Whoever had run her through the sale, had thrown the papers in to try to get more money.

  Seeing as it had been a meat buyers sale, she wondered why he had bothered. For Journey to have bought her, must have been a surprise for the owner.

  “How much further are we going today,” Journey asked and handed Gina a napkin wrapped around a piece of fry bread with strawberry jam.

  The jam had soaked into the bread, making it appear like a blood red line dividing the halves. Someone, probably Lucy, had made them up that morning.

  Gina shrugged, “I don’t know. I’d like to stop before it gets too dark to see.”

  Gina bit hungrily into it, relishing every crumb. She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was but finished it in a few bites. A small sip from her water bottle and she was ready to go again.