by Alana Terry
What Zach wasn’t jazzed about were the ten family-style cabins now located east of the main ranch house for those who wanted the whole ranch experience. The bunkhouse lunchroom, now known as the cafeteria, was renovated to add guests so they could experience what it was like to eat and sleep on a ranch. Zach had to admit that it made sense, and it would take the horse ranch to the next level. It also took the work up to the next level.
At first he couldn’t believe that Giovanni, who was extremely possessive of his privacy, would agree to the expansion, but Zach guessed that even he couldn’t deny it would do wonders for the ranch’s bottom line and brand. The CEO was a forward thinker, and there was no doubt the additions would widen the profit margin. Still, what used to be a relatively quiet horse ranch that slowed down once the horses were set in their stables, was now a hustling horse ranch/lodge that never rested.
The work and security needed to keep guests, young and old, safe and out of trouble was exponentially different compared to what they were used to when they were just dealing with the horses and daytime sessions.
Zach visited his cabin just long enough to throw some dog food in Sebastian’s bowl, shower, and change before going to check on his horse, Falyn. He checked his watch to see if there might be time for a ride after seeing to the therapy horses. He realized with relief that his meeting with Rick Neighbors had gone faster than he first thought.
Zach had bought the fifteen-year-old, dark-chocolate-colored Morgan four years ago. The gelding was being sold to the ranch as a driver when bringing in the other horses, but knowing that Zach had been looking for a horse, Giovanni had given him the first look. He took one look at Falyn and knew they would be great friends.
“Hey, old boy. How’s it going this evening? Are you keeping everyone in line?” Zach asked, motioning to the rest of the stable, now sixty percent full.
The low nicker Falyn gave him made him smile. “Yeah. I bet you are. You’re more likely to cause trouble than to prevent it.”
Falyn’s nose fluttered with a light snort as if to say he was already bored with the conversation.
“So... You up for a ride?” Zach asked, giving his horse’s neck a rub and pat. Falyn sidestepped and nickered again. “Okay. I’ll be right back.” He turned, going to the tack room for Falyn’s brush and tack.
He gave Falyn a quick brush to make sure there were no burrs or snarls that would irritate him once saddled.
He walked Falyn slowly through the low brush near the corral then north of the paddock. He never took his first, full breath until they were out beyond the ranch’s lined borders. He took Falyn from a walk to a trot—and finally a gallop—as the sun made its way to the horizon. This was his solace. He’d worked hard to get here and was pretty proud of his accomplishments since he’d arrived on this ranch with less than nothing, almost six years ago. Time didn’t sit still and wait for him to get a semblance of a life back. It kept moving along, coaxing and taunting him until he stopped feeling sorry for himself and searched for the much-needed peace.
Thank you, Lord, for a day filled with new experiences. I appreciate you showing me how to be a man people can trust. I still love my smaller world of horses, cattle, and dogs, though. He grinned up at the sky, feeling lighter for it.
They crested the first hill and he reined in Falyn. He didn’t know why it always seemed to be a surprise to the horse. This was what he did in the evening when he had enough light from the day to see by. He sat at the top of the ridge overlooking the equestrian center, marveling at the paradox of the two perspectives—within hours of each other—that he witnessed there. The hustle and bustle never seemed to end around the ranch when he was in the middle of it all, but from this distance, there was a sereneness to the place. The sounds came together to form a clattering type of symphony that bespoke of the synergy between man and nature.
He sat there this particular evening feeling expectant yet apprehensive. He couldn’t shake the sense that something new was just over that horizon, and it wasn’t waiting any longer for him to come to it.
Chapter 5
CONSCIOUSNESS CAME back slowly to Shauna. There were gaps in her memory, and what bothered her most was the fact that she was aware of it.
There were the children whose ball she retrieved, but the next thought eluded her. Did she remember being on a bed in a car? No, that couldn’t be right, because after that, she was in another bed hearing her father’s voice barking orders. Why would he be in her bedroom demanding a CT scan? Her next recollection was of quiet and darkness and a splitting headache, just before she felt a weird sensation flow through her arm and body, which gratefully took the headache with it.
Shauna opened her eyes as little as she could to keep the light out but tried to make out her surroundings. It didn’t work, and the spike of pain that came with the shaft of light that hit her pupils caused a moan to escape her lips. She decided to go back to just listening to decipher her whereabouts. The smell of antiseptic was overwhelming, and that awful beeping made her nauseous. She was in a hospital. Why was she in a hospital?
She forced her mind to connect the dots. There were children and the ball. The ball went into the street. Was she hit by a car? She found it disconcerting that she’d hear her heart rate accelerate quicker than she felt it, due to the monitor. She took stock of her body. Could she feel her legs and toes? How would she really know? They said that when one lost a limb there was phantom pain. She would have to open her eyes and see for herself. She cracked one lid open, and to her relief, the pain didn’t shift from the aching she continuously felt to anything more intense. She struggled to move her head but could at least peer down to see the outline of her legs and feet under the covers. She breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed back into the covers for a few seconds before another disturbing thought came to her.
She tried to reach up with her right hand but it caught and pulled on something, so she used her left hand to feel her head and came up against a bandage. She wanted to cry. How much of her hair did they chop? She began breathing deeply to keep from hyperventilating. She loved her hair. She’d worked so hard to keep it thick and healthy. She’d just gotten it to the perfect length—right between her shoulder blades. It would grow back, she thought, trying to calm herself down. Now her legs—they couldn’t grow back. She should be grateful, right?
She was pulled away from her thoughts at the sound of the door opening. She turned toward the sound and winced at the pain that radiated down her neck and back. She watched a nurse, holding a chart, walk in with Shauna’s father on her heels.
Tears sprang to her eyes at the sight of her father’s stricken face. The worry she saw stooped his normal perfect posture. She blinked back the excess emotion and tried to put on a brave face.
“Look who’s awake,” said the too-chipper nurse as she came around to the right side of Shauna’s bed. She placed a hand around Shauna’s wrist to check her pulse. “How are you feeling this morning?”
Shauna started to speak, but her throat made a sound she wasn’t familiar with. She tried to clear it, but it felt like she was swallowing sandpaper.
Spying her discomfort, the nurse asked if she wanted some water. Shauna nodded eagerly, sat up slightly, and sipped heavily on the proffered straw emerging from a white cup.
“Slow down, honey, you’ll make yourself sick,” the nurse chided sweetly. Shauna pulled back and swallowed the sweet liquid that did wonders for her parched lips and throat.
“Thank you,” she rasped then looked at her father still standing in the middle of the room. He winced at the sound of her voice. She turned her left palm up in a request for him to come to her. He moved slowly to the left side of the bed.
His eyes were bloodshot, and it looked like he’d slept in his clothing.
“Do you know your name?” the nurse asked.
“Sha...” She tried again. “Shauna Marie Nathan.” Her voice was still deep but it wasn’t as difficult to speak.
“And do you kn
ow where you are, Ms. Nathan?” The nurse began checking the monitors.
“Hospital,” Shauna replied.
“Do you know what day it is?” the nurse asked, checking the fluid leading to her IV.
Shauna had no clue so she went with what she remembered. “Thursday, January eighteenth?”
She watched as the nurse’s eyes widened slightly. She threw a quick glance toward Shauna’s father then looked back at her. Shauna didn’t know how she felt about that.
“Am I not right?”
“Do you have pain, dizziness, nausea?” the nurse asked, skipping over her question.
“Um,” Shauna said, not clear enough to properly answer the woman. “My head hurts, and I’m a little nauseous.”
“What would you say your pain level is—one to ten?”
Not having dealt with pain before, she thought about how much more she could take and the spike she felt earlier.
“About a seven?”
“Okay. I will set up a syringe with a high dosage of painkiller so we can administer it to you after you speak to the doctor.”
Shauna looked back at her dad. “Is Michael okay?”
Her father’s face shuttered and his lips spread into a line. “Yes. He’s just fine.” Shauna wanted to ask him why he was upset, but the doctor chose that moment to knock and walk in.
“Good morning.” She walked up to Shauna’s bedside. “I’m Dr. Parikh. How are you feeling?”
Shauna voiced the first concern that came to mind. “My hair?”
The doctor gave her an understanding smile. “You have the bandage on your head because you had swelling and we needed to relieve it. We made a small incision at the injury site in the back of your head and you should be able to cover up the part we shaved with your own hair. Once it heals, you’ll have a small scar, but otherwise, you won’t know it’s there.”
The relief Shauna felt reminded her how tired she was. She relaxed back in the pillows before voicing her next question. “What day is it?”
“You don’t know?” the doctor asked.
Shauna looked to her father for the right answer, but his expression was blank. She looked back at the doctor when she spoke.
“I told the nurse the last day I remember is Thursday.”
The doctor nodded and took the chart from the nurse. She walked over to the computer before asking yet another question. “Do you remember anything about Thursday?”
Shauna was confused and more than a little concerned now. What wasn’t her father telling her? By now, he would’ve run out of patience with the woman and ordered her to answer Shauna’s questions.
She shifted her gaze to the window hoping that would help with her memory. “I had Michael stop at a deli on the way back from my riding session. While he was taking care of my order, I saw some kids lose their ball. It bounced out of their yard and crossed the street. I left the car to retrieve it for them.” She glanced at her father. “I was wrong to do so.” She closed her eyes and pushed at her memory. What did she do after she retrieved the ball? It felt like she was watching a movie that paused right after she picked up the ball. It was frustrating, to say the least.
“I don’t remember what came next,” she said exhaling.
She caught the look that passed between her father and doctor.
“What?” she asked her father.
He looked uncomfortable but answered her. “Michael said when he came out of the deli, you were standing in the middle of the street, staring off at something. There was a car coming down the street, and it didn’t look like it would stop. The children shouted at you to move, but you just stood there. Michael said he shouted your name, and you looked his way but didn’t move.” Her father took her hand. “Why didn’t you move?”
“I don’t know,” she said. Her head hurt something fierce. “I don’t remember anything past that stupid ball.”
“Maybe after a few days rest, it’ll come to you,” the doctor said, typing something. “You must be in pain. How about I give you something for that?”
“I have a question for you first,” Shauna said, looking at the doctor. “And I need an answer this time. Not another question.”
The doctor nodded at her while she approached her IV drip. “I will do my best to answer your question.”
“How long have I been out? Better yet, what’s today’s date?”
The doctor stuck a needle in the access point of her tube. Shauna knew she only had a minute or two before the medication took full effect.
“As I said, the injury you sustained was such that you suffered a severe hematoma. Your brain began to swell and we needed to relieve the pressure immediately and give your brain time to heal. In order to accomplish the latter, we induced a coma for seventy-two hours, from which you came out of today.”
The painkiller started to take effect, taking the sharp edges off the light in the room. “I was out for three days?” she asked in dismay. Her whole weekend was gone and she had nothing to show for it except a really bad headache and a scalping.
Before she could get her pity party in full gear, she heard the doctor as if she were speaking through cotton. “No. You were out for five days.”
She would’ve freaked, but the edges of her vision disappeared quickly then a heavy calm came over her so swiftly she couldn’t remember why she should’ve been upset. It felt so good just to let go for once; she embraced the darkness.
Chapter 6
CONSCIOUSNESS CAME a little quicker to Shauna a day later, and with it came memories from her dream the night before. She opened her eyes cautiously, hoping the light from the room wouldn’t take her low-grade headache to something unmanageable. She squinted and blinked through the blurriness until the room came into focus.
It had to be early morning because the light coming in through the window was soft and gray. She relaxed back in the bed and thought of the man in her dream, standing in the shadow of a huge oak tree. She hadn’t been recklessly standing in the middle of the street. She’d been frozen with fear. She didn’t want to tell her father. She groaned as she thought of it.
“Are you in pain?”
Surprised, she turned quickly toward the sound and winced at the pain that shot through her neck and head. She watched as her mother moved closer to the bed.
“Hi, Mom.”
Her mother’s features that were pinched with worry, softened. “Hi, baby.”
Shauna’s eyes scanned the room nervously, but relaxed when she saw it was empty save for her mother. Her parents couldn’t be in the same room together without bickering. They both were equally to blame. Even if their conversation started out civilly, one of them would inevitably say something to put the other on the defense, and the not-so-subtle barbs would begin.
Shauna, being the youngest, was still living at home when things began to change. The atmosphere became strained between them. She didn’t think they thought she noticed, but it was hard not to when she had the type of parents all her friends looked at as the most romantic couple they’d known.
For Shauna, seeing her parents flirting, hugging, or stealing quick kisses when they thought she wasn’t looking, was normal. It wasn’t until junior high school, when girlfriends began commenting on her parents’ public displays of affection for each other that she began to understand the rarity of their passion even after twenty-two years of marriage.
All that changed toward the end of her sophomore year of high school. It was as if a cold wind blew into the home and never left. She walked in on her parents arguing once. The names and accusations they hurled back and forth between one another made her blood run cold. That day was particularly memorable because she’d done well on her physics test and practically ran home to share the news with her father. As soon as she opened the door, she heard the shouting. She couldn’t comprehend their words at first because she was so shocked by the anger she heard in their voices, but as she walked toward the kitchen, she began to make out their words.
“And
you said you were through. You were tired of all the bureaucracy. I took you at your word,” her mom said, and Shauna knew she’d arrived in the middle of the conversation.
“It’s not the same. These are two completely different things.”
“No, Atherton.” She said his name with such derision, Shauna shivered. “It’s cause and effect. Because you’re such a liar, I felt there was no other recourse.” Her mother never used her father’s name. The family knew he’d rather go by Terry, a shortening of his middle name which was Theodore.
“I know you to be passionate, Reina, but not a...”
“If you finish that sentence, you’ll regret it for a long time to come. You won’t be able to take it back.” Her mother’s voice shook.
The kitchen got quiet and Shauna took the last few steps over the threshold.
Her father’s eyes shifted to her, and her mother turned around covering her mouth with a trembling hand.
Shauna saw the deep hurt in her eyes, mingling with unshed tears. She rushed forward to embrace Shauna. “Hi, baby. How was school? Are you hungry?”
Shauna let her mother hug her as she looked over her shoulder at her father whose initial expression of anger and pain was now masked. He rubbed his forehead which was usually a sign that he was very tired.
When she didn’t respond, her mother leaned away from her. She must’ve seen the distress on her face, because the compassion in her eyes spread across the rest of her features. “You don’t have to worry, baby. It’s going to be all right.”
She looked into her mother’s eyes and saw the truth but nodded anyway.
A month later, they were all given a security detail after her father received what his company thought were credible death threats against him and the family. Over the next year and a half, there were a few close calls, but when the man behind the threats was exposed, charged, and convicted of attempted murder, the family was able to take their first deep breath.