Waiting Out the Storm

by Ruth Logan Herne

  “The wolf will live with the lamb, and a little child will lead them…” Snips of Isaiah’s verse nudged Craig’s conscience. No doubt he’d remember them better if he got to church more regularly, but on-call weekends interfered with all kinds of things, including church attendance. Hadn’t his mother tweaked him about that very thing last week?

  Aleta eyed the box lunch offered as part of the day’s program. An instant frown morphed to a practiced pout. “I don’t like this, Aunt Sarah.”

  “You don’t even know what it is, Skeets,” Sarah replied.

  “I only like peanut butter and jelly and apple pancakes,” Aleta whined.

  “Have you looked in your box?”

  “No.”

  “You might be surprised,” Sarah noted. Opening hers, she pulled out a chicken salad sandwich. The little girl pretended to gag.

  Sarah frowned. “Open your box and see what you have, please.”

  “PBJ” marked the top of Aleta’s box, but Craig appreciated Sarah’s attempt to encourage the child’s independence. Scowling, she lifted the lid and peered inside. “Peanut butter and jelly!”

  “Yes.” Sarah pointed to the box top. “Those initials mean peanut butter and jelly.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell me?” Aleta demanded.

  Zing. Craig’s protective instincts rose, surprising him. Why in the name of all that’s good and holy would he want to protect Sarah from a six-year-old’s onslaught?

  And yet he did.

  Sarah maintained a patient expression and tone. “You need to look beyond your feelings and see the things around you, Skeets. You make too many assumptions. Trying new things is good for you.”

  The kid didn’t look like she bought the theory, but she stopped arguing long enough to eat, a concept Craig understood. Food ranked pretty high on his list of desirables, too.

  Kyle chatted with Braden while they ate, a momentary peace established.

  Craig should have known it was too good to be true.

  Sarah sat alongside Skeeter on the bleachers, watching as various professionals fielded audience questions. People rambled in and out, picking which speakers intrigued them.

  There was no small number of cute, female elementary school teachers in the room when Craig Macklin spoke. Surprise, surprise. They reacted like eighth-grade schoolgirls—exchanged looks, little giggles, smirks of appreciation.

  Please. He was just a guy. A really cute guy, if Sarah was being completely honest with herself. With great hands, a firm jaw and a quick smile.

  But that smile…

  Too practiced, too glib, too smooth. Oh, Sarah was privy to the chick chat regarding Craig Macklin. Not only did the “doctor” title enhance his standing with the feminine contingent, his good looks and quick humor sent ripples of anticipation through a three-county area. But Sarah had been around long enough to recognize Craig’s preferences. Fashion-doll pretty and dressed to kill. Since Sarah was a plain-Jane-in-barn-clothes girl, it mattered little. She’d take her small level of satisfaction in his more pleasant demeanor that morning and call it enough.

  As Craig finished his spiel, Sarah’s sheep were brought forward by two high school helpers. Sarah passed Craig without making eye contact, focusing on the two ewes and three lambs being herded into the circle’s center. With the high school volunteers monitoring the sheep’s antics, Sarah faced the audience.

  “As you probably guessed, I work on a farm.”

  A chorus of “ohs” followed that statement.

  Sarah nodded Craig’s way as he retook his seat next to Kyle. “Because I work with animals all the time, I sometimes use veterinarians like Dr. Macklin to help me. Animals get sick, just like people and when they get sick, they need a special doctor. An animal doctor.” Allowing a pause, she met Craig’s eye in challenge, a silent reminder that he made himself singularly unavailable to sheep farmers in general and her in particular. He squirmed.

  She smiled.

  “Sheep are wonderful creatures,” she instructed, moving to the small flock. “They’re dependable and docile. Very easy to manage. I brought two ewes, or ‘mama’ sheep, that just had babies. This sheep,” she indicated the shorn ewe with a wave of her hand, “has been sheared. We shave their wool in the spring and sell the fleece to be made into thread for blankets and coats.”

  “People wear sheep?” asked a little boy, perplexed.

  Sarah smiled his way. “Not with the animal attached,” she promised. One of her teenage helpers hoisted an exhibit board while the other raised a blanket in one hand and a wool coat in the other. “Sheep products go beyond meat,” Sarah explained.

  “You…eat…them?” A middle-school girl’s voice took a tone of pure, unmitigated disgust. “You actually eat your pets?”

  A chorus of “eeeewwwwws” met her question.

  The teacher reminded the group of hand-raising protocol, then shifted Sarah’s way, awaiting an answer.

  Sarah met the girl’s gaze. “These sheep aren’t pets,” she corrected. “Meat comes from animals. Every time you grab a chicken nugget, you’re eating a bird. Hamburgers and steaks come from cows. Spare ribs and pork chops from pigs. And since protein is an important part of a daily diet, someone has to raise the meat you buy in the grocery store. I’m one of those people.”

  The girl looked freaked out, so Sarah switched her attention to the younger kids. “Baby sheep are called lambs. Aren’t they cute?”

  “Do you eat them, too?”

  Obviously this girl wasn’t about to give it up, and Sarah had no intention of lying. “Many cultures use lamb as food, yes.”

  The girl half stood. “You’re kidding, right? You eat babies?”

  Could this get worse?

  Oh, yes. At that moment someone bent to drink from the water fountain at the back of the gym. The full-coated ewe heard the sound of running water and charged the fountain, eluding the teenager’s hold and threading her way unceremoniously through the crowd. Pushing up, the ewe balanced on strong back legs while she licked the water basin, obviously thirsty.

  Cameras clicked. Kids shrieked. Some parents laughed, some groaned, while others looked dismayed at sheep tongue fouling a water basin.

  Pandemonium threatened until Craig Macklin crossed the room, commandeered the thirsty sheep by her collar and led her outside.

  The circus scene squelched the rest of Sarah’s presentation. Her antagonistic young questioner looked smug. Sarah swallowed the temptation to wipe the self-satisfied expression from the youngster’s face, and realized she’d voiced what so many people felt.

  As long as meat came without legs and a tail, modern society embraced the concept. Add a dose of reality? Big round eyes? Round wooly ears? Instant vegetarians.

  Sarah didn’t buy that mind-set, but now wasn’t the time to weigh pros and cons of meat production. Embarrassed that she needed another rescue by Craig Macklin, she kissed Skeeter goodbye and herded the remaining sheep into the penned school yard, chin down, gaze straight. She didn’t need to see the humor in his eyes to feed her mortification.

  Ignoring everyone and everything, Sarah loaded the errant sheep into her scuffed-up animal trailer and headed home, eager for the peace and quiet of her small farm.

  Chapter Four

  Craig watched Sarah as she ably loaded the five sheep into the small animal trailer hitched to the back of her worn tan pickup truck, her head down, looking neither left nor right.

  Her tight jaw and stiff hands were the only indicators of her inner feelings, but Craig had little difficulty reading the body language. Downright mad.

  But handling it well. Weighing choices, he considered offering help.

  Her capable moves proved she didn’t need it.

  Or he could offer commiseration that would be unwelcome and more than a little in-your-face. Hadn’t he professed the lack of intelligence in sheep loud and long?

  No, he’d be the last person she’d want help from right now, and since she was just about set, he walked
back into the gymnasium to rejoin Kyle for the last minutes of the day.

  But he couldn’t shove aside the look of her, the dusk-toned skin, big brown eyes, dark mass of hair threading down her back, softly arched brows. She had an earthy beauty that probably rarely saw makeup and didn’t need it in any case. Breathing deeply, he remembered the scent of her at lunch, the soft, sweet smell of wildflowers on a summer’s day, the sun shining warm on a field of heather.

  But mostly he remembered her look of chagrin as the sheep charged the water fountain, a fairly smart move for a thirsty animal. He might have to rethink parts of his opinions on sheep. At least this one was smart enough to drink when thirsty. Didn’t he know people who got dehydrated every summer because they weren’t smart enough to grab a glass of water?

  Today’s situation had embarrassed Sarah and he felt bad about that, but there was little he could do. She’d mistrust his sympathy and reject his help if offered. He knew that.

  Still, inner guilt rose because he didn’t offer.

  Kyle spotted him and charged forward, redrawing Craig’s attention to the day’s festivities. He glanced around for Aleta but didn’t see her. Maybe just as well. Neither of those Slocum girls needed any more embarrassing moments.

  Sarah cast a wistful glance around the warming room of her weathered bungalow and refused to sigh, despite the late hour. Most women would come home, stoke the fire, shower and go to bed. An appealing thought.

  Her gaze fell on the dusty spinning wheel to the left of the wood stove, unused, untouched. She longed for peaceful evenings of spinning yarn, her fingers guiding the carded wool while her foot rocked the treadle. Someday there would be time for such pleasures again.

  But first, the farm. Its success depended on her efforts. Long evenings spent crunching figures for area businesses left no time for spinning and knitting. She gave the wheel one last, long glance. Someday.

  Stoic, she left the inviting flames, donned farm boots and headed to the near barn. As she trudged across the drive, Gino kept pace, head up, attentive. Maremmas were great night guardians. Perfect for her, a shepherd alone. With them on guard, Sarah could actually sleep. Mostly.

  But lambing loomed. With the front barn full of soon-to-deliver ewes, a turn around the lambing quarters was essential. While she’d specifically chosen a Dorsett/Finn cross breed because of their less seasonal cycles, Sarah still engineered a strong spring lambing. Her January lambies were being marketed now for the Easter trade. This new batch would be sold in Albany and New York City come late spring and early summer, where eastern European immigrants celebrated love and marriage with roasted lamb, much as their Biblical forebears.

  Sarah flicked the barn light switch then paused, her eyes adjusting, her ears tuned to out-of-sync noises.

  All was calm.

  Walking through, she found a new set of twins. The sloe-eyed ewe must have delivered late afternoon. Both babies strong and healthy, the caring mother uttered soft bleats of comfort to her offspring. The number of animals provided plenty of heat in this foremost barn, even in the bitter cold. Regardless of the calendar date, night temps could drop on the heels of a Canadian Clipper, a steep down surge of the jet stream. Tonight promised to be one of those. The wind blew intemperate, but the barn was snug. Secure. She’d made sure of that when she first considered this parcel. A cozy barn, good pastureland, large hayfields. Essentials to a northern shepherd on an accelerated breeding program.

  And a house that needed cleaning. Cleaning she didn’t have time or energy for most days. Satisfied with the scene before her, she retreated, closing the door with a firm hand, ready for a cleansing shower and a warm bed.

  Baaaaaah.

  Sarah turned, ears perked, drawing her coat closer.

  A sharp wind chilled her neck. She eyed the dark field, knowing the next group of expectant mothers huddled in the second pasture. Not due for six to eight weeks, they should drop late-spring lambs that would be market-ready mid- to late summer, in time for the ethnic festival season in New York City.

  As she turned back toward the house, the bleat sounded once more, followed by a bark, sharp and commanding.

  Gritting her teeth, Sarah headed to the pickup, wondering why she ever thought sheep were cute.

  Hours later, she was still unsure. The tiny lambs born in the cold meadow were taking their own sweet time to warm up. Sarah was sure she’d hit every rut in the farm lane as she traversed the pasture’s edge in the pitch-black. An early-waxing crescent moon had dipped below the horizon long ago. Starlight did little to pierce the woods-edged fields and her long-handled flashlight kept blinking out.

  She loaded the new family eventually, tempting the mother up the ramp by tucking the half-frozen triplets at the end of it. Then she prodded and prayed.

  “It’s a good thing Jesus liked you guys well enough to put you in His stories,” she grumbled to the three newborns flanking the woodstove. At the moment, Sarah didn’t find them all that appealing as she massaged the shoulder she’d wrenched during loading. She loved Christ’s soft spot for shepherds, the parables and analogies. He kept it simple, and that worked for her. You couldn’t get much more mundane than shepherds and fishermen.

  Exhausted, she lounged her head against the worn cushion, the lambs snug in a garage sale playpen. Clutching an afghan to her chest, Sarah watched as the heat of the stove gradually chased the chill from the fragile bodies. Since the newborns needed to re-acclimate with their mother, she set the alarm for a two-hour nap, dozing with them, their quick-pace heartbeats offset by the strength and steadiness of hers.

  The phone shrilled as Sarah adjusted the angle of the Pritchard teat to feed lamb number three the next morning. The others had rejoined Mama with little fuss, but the ewe butted this one away repeatedly. Frustrated and frantic, the hungry lamb needed food and reassurance. Frowning, Sarah let the machine pick up, knowing these first feedings were crucial. Hearing the message, she dropped the retrofitted soda bottle and snatched up the phone.

  “This is Sarah.”

  “Sarah, it’s Cade Macklin.”

  “I know. I heard your voice. I was busy with a newborn lamb.” She inhaled nice and long, slowing her anxiety. “What’s happened?”

  “There’s a petition regarding Rita and the kids. Someone turned her in for neglect. They want the children removed. Livvie’s last prank opened a few eyes.”

  Liv and some friends had decorated the school superintendent’s office with graphic posters when news broke that the administrator was cheating on his wife with the middle-school principal. Their little gambit caricatured the administrators with complex artwork, employing a parody on the superintendent’s theme for the year: Ethics in Education. An eye-opener, for sure.

  Oh, man. Where were these people when her sister-in-law needed help? When kids needed rides, or trips to the dentist? Nowhere to be found. But let a teenager step out of line and she was marked for life. At least if her last name was Slocum and she lived in a Podunk little…

  Sarah choked down a sigh. “What happens now?”

  “Social Services sent someone by Rita’s, found it lacking in supervision, and will request the court place the children in foster care.”

  “Over my dead body.”

  Cade’s voice deepened. “Can you take them? Judge Hicks won’t grant guardianship to your father or Ed. Rita’s people are in Albany, and you know how kids are about being moved around.”

  “Why are you doing this, Cade?” She didn’t mean to sound blunt. Blame it on lack of sleep. Total surprise. The Macklin family owed the Slocums nothing. Zip. Zilch.

  “Because Rita and those kids have suffered enough.” The police chief’s voice firmed. “They did nothing wrong, Sarah. Nor did you. And I can’t see how sending those kids away will help a woman who’s fighting depression. Maybe even suicidal.”

  Sarah thought quickly. “What about school? I’m not in their district.” Sarah’s farm lay mostly in the Canton school district, although a small portion
of her land crossed the border into Grasse Bend. Rita’s house was north, in Potsdam.

  “We can get that okayed by the board. They’re good people. It might be tricky to arrange transportation for the next couple of days, but between the two districts it’s doable in the long run. I’ll work it out. That way the kids can finish the year in Potsdam. Maybe summer will be Rita’s turning point. If summer ever gets here.”

  Since the winter had been cold and gray with little sun, the entire region would welcome warmth. Sarah agreed. “I’ll do whatever it takes, Cade. This house isn’t all that big, but I can stretch it.”

  “Good.” Relief thickened his voice. “I’ll talk to the caseworker and the child advocate. They’ll probably come see you.”

  “Great.” Sarah’s living space longed for time and effort she didn’t have right now, a touch she’d give it if she weren’t constantly working on either sheep or business accounts or helping Rita. Her degree in business accounting kept her tending books at night for a growing number of local farms and small businesses, the steady funds helping her bottom line until the farm was better established. She breathed deep, contemplating. She’d started this enterprise willing to do whatever it took to make her farm successful.

  Throw three disgruntled kids who disliked farms into the mix…

  Ugh. She swallowed hard. “What should I do now?”

  “Hold tight. I’ll pass the word and have them get back to you. They’re swamped, but a petition for removal is serious so it shouldn’t be too long. Then the question is how do we help Rita?”

  Sarah pictured her sister-in-law. Silent. Distant. Morose. “I don’t know. I… She’s….” Her voice tapered off.

  “We’ll figure it out.” Cade’s voice reassured. “No one wants to see Rita hurt. Or those kids. It’s time for everyone to move on.”

  Cade’s magnanimity seemed ironic when she’d been face-to-face with his brother’s animosity too many times to count. Of course, he’d been nicer yesterday. Much nicer. Still… “Not everyone feels like you do.”