by Natalie Dean
She knew all of those goats as if they were family dogs, and she could hear them bleating in a blind panic. So, she pushed through the heat and haze, smelling so many things burning that it was making her nauseous. Was that her hair? It seemed like it might be her hair.
“Here guys!” she called before pulling her mask down to purse her lips into a whistle. “Can you hear me? This way!”
A whinny sounded to her right so she lurched that way, using her robe to cover her hand as she felt for the latch of the stall. She heard the distinctive sizzle of skin but kept going. She had to keep going.
She threw the door open and moved to the side as the panicked horse fled out. That fueled her further, allowing her to go to the next stall. And then the next.
Dani was dizzy, oh so dizzy, and it felt like her lungs were being abraded with sandpaper. Her footsteps faltered, and she tried to catch herself on a bench only to land into a smoldering pile of hay.
Yelping, she forced herself up to her feet. She could still hear the goats bleating. Where were they? Shouldn’t she have reached their pen by now? When had the barn grown so long? And why couldn’t she stand?
Her eyes were watering, her mind was spinning, and everything was a mess. It was hot. So hot! And she couldn’t breathe.
“Dani!”
Vaguely she heard a sound at the edge of her mind and then strong hands were gripping her. She tried to look back at who was hauling her to her feet and pulling her out, but everything was so dark. Cloaked in ash and misery.
And then, suddenly, it wasn’t blazing hot anymore, and her makeshift mask was being ripped from her face. She inhaled a deep breath of cool, cleansing night air only to dissolve into a coughing fit.
“The goats!” she cried between hacks. “They’re trapped in there. I don’t know how.”
“It’s okay, Dani.”
That sounded like Chester. Was it Chester? She couldn’t tell. It felt like her ears were stuffed with cotton and her insides were on fire. But she was out of the inferno, right?
“It’s not okay!” she heaved. “We can’t just let them burn alive. It’s not right.”
The sound of footsteps. Several sets. She looked up, but she could only see hazy outlines, her eyes feeling as if she had rubbed glass into them.
“James, get the hose from the side of the house. Turn it on full blast.”
“I don’t think that a garden hose is going to do much to—”
“It’s not for the fire, it’s for us. Now go!”
Dani saw the slightly smaller form run off. He seemed to return almost too quickly, hose in his hand going at full blast.
“Soak us,” Chester said with authority.
The middle child of their little trio did so, turning the hose on Chester and then himself. Both of them seemed to be moving at an impossible speed, jumping jerkily from one movement to the next, or maybe that was just what her damaged eyes and foggy mind were telling her.
“All right, Dani, you stay here. The fire department has to be here soon. It’s gonna be okay.” Chester pressed a kiss to her heated cheek and then he and James were rushing off.
“Boys, don’t!” she heard Mama cry, but then they were inside of the blaze.
“Help them,” Dani wheezed, struggling to her feet. Her father was suddenly beside her, trying to support her, but she pulled from his grasp and yanked the hose. “We have to help them!”
She tottered forward a few steps, able to feel the intense heat from the barn. It had gone from being on fire in several places to being almost completely consumed by the blaze. It was too much. It had to stop. The normally dark and velvet night was hauntingly illuminated in the unforgiving crimson of the ravenous blaze.
Pointing the hose, she sprayed down the doors, soaking them as well as she could. Even as she blasted them, steam began to rise, drying them out all over again. But she didn’t stop. She sprayed straight down the corridor next, thankful that the previous year their parents had taken the time to upgrade the entire hookup and hose so they could clean their trucks more easily. A normal hose most likely wouldn’t have had nearly enough output.
A moment later there were a series of bleats and a couple of goats burst out, their little hooves pattering across the ground. Dani gave them a spray as soon as she could see them, tilting it up so the force of the water wouldn’t hurt them. The goats reacted to the water just how she hoped, seeing it as a relief and bolting toward it as quickly as they could.
She moved out of their way and kept right on spraying. She couldn’t stop. She was going to keep holding onto the hose until they ripped it from her hands.
More goats exited. And more. And then more, until her hazy mind was fairly certain that all of them were safe.
Just as the last ones blitzed past her, new lights flashed behind her. A moment later, the sound of sirens split through the air, and she realized that help had finally arrived.
Relief flooded her, or at least as much relief as one could feel while watching one of the more important parts of their ranch be eaten alive by a seemingly unstoppable force. She kept her hose pointed, wanting to give her brothers some relief from the heat that she knew was in there as soon as she could.
It seemed to take eons before she saw their vague figures barreling forward, animals in each of their arms. She couldn’t be sure, but one was big enough to be an older goat while the other was far too small. A cat maybe? She turned her hose on their blackened forms and let out a shout of triumph.
They had done it!
Sure, there was going to be plenty of fallout, and she was sure the dawn would be a grim one, but at least everyone had gotten out—
There was a cracking sound like lightning had struck, but there was no lightning. Dani whipped her head around, trying to find the source of the thunderous sound, and then suddenly fire exploded in front of her.
She was grabbed and hauled backward, the hose flying out of her hands. She heard multiple people around her, yelling loud enough over the renewed frenzy. But they held her still, someone slipping a mask over the lower part of her face. Suddenly cool, dry air was forced up into her nose, and her head cleared a little. Just enough to catch up with the wild panic that had enveloped her brain.
This was like a nightmare. Their ranch was on fire!
She looked to the barn, to where she had just been standing and was now surrounded by the fire department. They were hooking up their own massive hoses to their water truck, obviously no fire hydrants anywhere out in ranch country.
Where were her brothers?
She tried to stand again, but those same hands pushed her down. They asked her questions, shined a light in her eyes. Ow. That hurt.
Where are my brothers?
Finally, she managed to shove the hands off enough to look back at the entrance of the barn. The area that she had been wetting down so dutifully. There wasn’t a doorway anymore, just two fallen rafters and a massive blaze that reached above the roof of the building.
“Chester!” she cried, stumbling forward. She had to save them! “James!”
Another step, her head spinning and her legs refusing to move. But she had to keep going. She couldn’t stop; she couldn’t.
She stumbled to the side and then those hands were back on her again with others. They pulled her up into some sort of vehicle. An ambulance perhaps? She tried to get out, tried to tell them that she wasn’t the one they needed to worry about, but then something pricked her arm and the world quickly grew a lot less alarming.
The next thing she knew, it winked out entirely.
2
Benji
Benji kicked his boots against the jamb below the door, getting the worst of the muck off before wiping them on the mat outside of the main house. From there he stepped in and toed off those same shoes, setting them to the side on a rack before putting on his house shoes.
The ritual was soothing in its own way, implying that a full belly and relaxation was on the way.
“Oh, hey the
re darling, do you mind going and grabbing your father from the woodpile out back? I know he likes to taste the soup before I’m done with it.”
“He is aware that he has five sons to chop the wood for him, right?”
“Well, four sons really, but you know how he is.”
Benji winced at the subtle reference to the youngest Miller boy, who was off who-knows-where, doing who-knows-what. His parents seemed to think that Bryant would be like the prodigal son, but Benji doubted it.
“I do indeed. I’ll go get him.”
Benji headed out, apparently the only son in the house at the moment. That made sense, in a way. Ben was probably in his newly renovated cabin with Chastity. They’d really made that place into a home, with plenty of room to grow, and Benji wouldn’t be surprised if there was an announcement for a new little Miller soon.
The thought of that made his stomach twist a bit. It was strange to think that the next generation of Millers could be starting up soon. It was really a toss-up between Ben and Bart, considering how both of them seemed absolutely head over heels with their gals.
Not that Benji could blame them. Ben had loved Chastity since they were all kids, and Bart’s girl was basically a blond bombshell pinup made flesh, and funny as could be to boot. All four of them seemed so happy and to be perfect matches for each other.
It would be nice to have something like that, some special lady who looked at him with love in her eyes. Someone to turn to for comfort and company. A friend, but more.
But in order for that to happen, he’d probably have to leave the ranch and actually interact with people, and that wasn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
“Hey Pa, Ma wants you to come taste her soup.”
The eldest Miller stood, pausing the swing of his ax. “What kind of soup?”
Benji shrugged. “I wasn’t really payin’ attention. It smelled like oxtail maybe.”
“Oxtail?” he repeated happily before burying his ax into the chopping block and rushing in. It made Benji smile a bit, seeing how his parents were still in love and excited about each other. Made him wonder if he would ever feel that way about anybody.
Even growing up, while he’d found plenty of girls pretty, the attraction had never really gone beyond that. He’d never been pulled to anyone like Ben was pulled to Chastity or caught up in some whirlwind romance like Bart. People were people, and he liked them well enough, but that was mostly that.
And it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying. During high school and even for a couple years after, there had been plenty of people who were interested. Whether it was for him or for his inheritance, Benji didn’t really know, but none of them had ever gone anywhere because there didn’t seem to be anywhere to go.
Heading back in, Benji was all set to see exactly what kind of soup Ma was making when she caught him in the doorway.
“Benjie-boy, I have a favor to ask of you.”
“A favor?” he repeated. Ma didn’t ask for favors. She either had errands or chores but never favors. “What’s up?”
“Well, you know that arsonist that’s been running about, making a mess of things over the past year?”
“Oh? Did they confirm the fires were all set by the same person?”
Unfortunately, their little town and the town half an hour to the west had fallen prey to several large fires over the previous twelve months. Always a few months apart and favoring different starters and locations, Benji had just figured it was one psychopath and some emboldened copy-cats. Thankfully, all they seemed to be after was property damage, because almost all of the spots hit were on the very fringes of town and no one was hurt.
“Yes, they’re pretty certain of it now.”
“A serial arsonist, huh. That seems a bit much for out here.”
“I thought the same thing. That seems much more like a city issue, but last night…” she trailed off, her face clouding over and Benji noticed it immediately.
The conversation wasn’t just small talk, it seemed. There was something serious going on.
“You know the Touhey Ranch, of course.”
“Yeah, of course,” Benji echoed, his mind spinning off into dozens of possibilities of what was going on.
The Touheys were a family that moved to the area a couple of generations ago and who worked with the Millers on expanding their ranching into new animals and areas of opportunity. But then there was a big falling out and each family went their separate way, but the Touheys without decades and decades of wealth to get them on their feet. They’d struggled and borrowed, and after years of spite, they seemed to be doing rather well for themselves.
Benji didn’t have anything against them personally, but it was no secret that there was that tension between them. Their ranches were really far too close to each other, and they often ended up competing for the same distributors in the few areas they shared product. Thankfully, the Touhey Ranch specialized in goats and goat byproducts, of all things, so there wasn’t too much encroachment.
“Well, they were hit last night.”
Benji stared at her, blinked, then stared some more. “They were hit?”
“Yes, two of their barns were lost and apparently both of their sons were hurt in it trying to save the animals from burning to death.”
Benji shook his head. They were all taught that, in the event of an uncontrolled blaze, that their life was more important than any animals. But if he was faced with the same situation, he didn’t know if he’d be able to let horses die right in front of him. Not like that.
“That’s awful. You want me to run them food, or something?”
“No, actually,” his mother shifted from foot to foot which made his apprehension flare again. Why was she acting so… fishy? “I was hoping that, since two of their three children are out for a bit and even their daughter is injured, that you might be willing to dedicate your time to them as long as they might need.”
“Ah.”
It made sense to ask him. His oldest brother Ben was the lead in the day-to-day function of the ranch and had already taken a vacation at the beginning of the year. Bart was still in the middle of his treatment, and while Benji was sure he’d be happy to help from time to time on the Touhey Ranch, he didn’t think his older brother was stable enough or safe enough to help them on his own.
Then there was Bradley, but he was definitely needed for accounting, considering tax season was approaching and they were doing… something that had to do with a… portfolio? Benji wasn’t entirely certain, but it seemed very involved.
And lastly, Bryant was gone again, spending way too much money on things that a good Christian boy shouldn’t spend time on and doing his best to make it seem like Ma hadn’t raised him right.
So that left Benji. The middle of the bunch. The least needed. He felt a bit guilty—thinking that no one in his family ever made him feel lesser on purpose—but it was what it was. Out of all of his brothers, he was just… the middle. Not a leader like Ben. Not sick or strong like Bart. Not smart like Bradley. Not a selfish jerk like Bryant. He was just…
Benjamin.
“Yeah, of course I will, Ma. I wouldn’t leave them to just struggle.”
He didn’t really want to, because the thought of helping a rival ranch seemed like an exercise in shooting themselves in the foot, but he supposed it was the Christian thing to do. And if he couldn’t be the smartest, best or brightest, he would at least be the kindest.
“Oh, thank you, dear. Do you mind swinging by tomorrow? I’ll call up Elizabeth and let her know that you’re on indefinite loan to her. I’ll also have Ben ask the workers who would be willing to volunteer to work days over there once you’re ready for the bigger projects.”
Benji nodded, reaching out to pull his mother in a hug. “No problem. You know you can always count on me, Ma.”
“Yes,” she said with a contented sigh, burying her face in his dirty work shirt.
Perhaps some people would judge him for being a grown bachelor and
being so close with his Ma, but those people could all go kick rocks. He loved his Ma more than anything.
“I do know that,” she said giving him an extra pat on the back.
Benji pulled his truck up to a modest-looking house with an impressive set of flower beds growing all around it and the path leading up to the wraparound porch. It was much, much smaller than his parents’ home, which had once housed five sons and two cousins all at the same time. But it seemed comfortable enough.
He looked around as he got out of his truck and headed up the path. It was easy to see where most of the damage was, with the crumbled remains of two burned-out buildings only a few yards away.
Benji shivered at that. The thought that some sick individual had caused so much damage and hurt made his stomach churn in a way that he didn’t like. He hoped they caught whoever the guy was, because it was very clear that they were escalating, and Benji hated to think of more people getting hurt.
Finally, he was at the front door, painted a pale blue to go with the cobalt of the rest of the house, and knocked.
There was a pause and then it was opening, revealing a plump older lady that didn’t look all too different from Ma. She had long, silvery hair done up in a loose bun, little fly-aways framing her tired face, and wrinkles carved into the corners of her eyes and mouth.
“Benjamin Miller?” she asked, her voice higher than Ma’s with a lighter accent. Their family was newer to the area, so even after a couple of generations, the colloquialisms weren’t as ingrained into them.
“That’s me,” Benji said with a nod. “On loan as long as you need.”
She let out the saddest little sigh of relief, and Benji was surprised by how much the sound made his heart ache. That was the noise of someone who had so little hope left that the smallest thing seemed like a big deal.
Footsteps sounded behind her and then a tall, lanky man approached down the main hall. If Mrs. Touhey looked tired and sad, the man behind her looked like almost all the life had been drained out of him. Dark circles hung under his eyes, and his lids were both puffy and raw. He looked like he hadn’t slept since the day before and definitely hadn’t been drinking enough water.