Leopard's Kin

by Becky Norman

  Noel ran a thumb and forefinger across his beard and re-read several of the passages again.

  “Wow,” he said softly when he was finished. He looked up at the ceiling, where Lori was asleep in the upstairs bedroom, and mused about what the kittens were doing. Was it possible they were actually healing her bones? The thought disturbed him and comforted him at the same time. It was eerie to think of the furry little critters clinging to her hand and pouring out their personal brand of medicine in sound vibrations and yet...if they were able to help and obviously loved her enough to do it, why should he be bothered?

  “Because it seems rather abnormal,” Noel muttered to himself with a laugh. Then he gave a lopsided smile to the room at large and said with chagrin, “And since when has abnormality bothered you?”

  Noel sighed heavily and dug out his journal, recording what had happened since his arrival yesterday and also what he had discovered in his research. He couldn’t wait until Lori woke up to talk with her about it.

  **********

  “That’s just creepy,” Lori said later as she watched the kittens press themselves against her hand and listened to Noel read the computer articles. They were sitting in the living room: she trying to eat with her left hand the breakfast Noel had made her, and he getting excited about the concept now that he’d had time to digest it.

  She had felt badly about sleeping through chores, but she had definitely needed the rest and felt much better about the cast and life in general when she woke up. She vaguely remembered Noel settling next to her on Cody’s side of the bed last night, but didn’t know when he had left – the pain pills had obviously packed a punch.

  “So you think they’re actually speeding up the healing process with their purring?” she asked dubiously.

  “I don’t know,” Noel replied with a grin, “but it’s going to be very interesting to hear what your doctor has to say in a couple of days. Make sure you ask him to take another x-ray and compare it to the first one they did. I’d love to know if it’s healing at an average rate.”

  Lori nodded and concentrated on putting another forkful of egg into her mouth. She was amazed at how much she had been taking for granted until she was confronted with the lack of use of her right hand. She had to think about everything now, since her left hand was so much weaker and uncoordinated, compared to her right. She could feel a headache coming on simply because she had to focus so much on the little things today.

  She swallowed the mouthful and looked over at Noel. He was wearing his hair loose today – it fell thick and glossy-black across his face, the ends just brushing his shoulders. It reminded her of something; she knew she’d have to ask him, but kept putting it off, since it was embarrassing for her in several ways. She sighed heavily and he looked over at her.

  “Something wrong?” he asked.

  She looked at him for a long moment and cleared her throat. “I have to ask you something,” she said reluctantly.

  “Okay,” he said, turning to give her his full attention.

  “I can’t get the cast wet, since it’s plaster,” she began. “The doctor said even when I shower I should hold that arm outside the curtain.”

  She snorted at the likelihood of keeping it dry while showering, but shook off her doubts. She’d deal with that later and would attempt to both change out of her pyjamas and tank top after breakfast, and take a sponge bath, one-handed. Before that, though...

  “Noel, would you mind terribly if I asked you to wash my hair for me? I thought it might be best if I just stuck my head in the kitchen sink...and if you could just...well, I don’t know...lather it up good and make sure it’s rinsed well, I’d really appreciate it. I smell like horse,” she added apologetically.

  She felt acutely shy after asking and looked down at her now-empty plate, concerned at how her request would be received.

  He was looking at her with a gentleness on his face that seemed to be there a lot lately.

  “I wouldn’t mind,” he said quietly.

  Little did she know how uncomfortable that simple request was going to make them both feel. There was an astounding intimacy to having one’s hair washed – especially when you were bent over a sink and a decidedly male presence was brushing up against you as he leaned over to adjust the temperature on the faucet.

  Lori felt her face turning hot as Noel gently pressed her head further into the sink and reached over her to begin scrubbing her scalp. He had a good touch – sure and tender at the same time – and she had to be careful not to lean into his hands too much. When he grew more comfortable with his task, he started to press more firmly with his fingertips, running them in a deep caress from temples to the nape of her neck and she firmly bit down on her lip to keep from moaning in pleasure. Lord, she’d be mortified if he knew how good this was making her feel.

  She felt her body loosening, the tension washing down the drain with the soapsuds and she had to force herself to remain upright and not lean back against his solid warmth. An idle thought flickered through her mind of what his hands would feel like on her hips; she took a sharp intake of breath when she realized where she was going with that and mentally slapped herself. It had been a long time since she’d been touched with any desire, she told herself. That’s all it was. She was missing Cody.

  Noel finished rinsing her hair soon afterwards and assisted her in wrapping the towel around her head since she couldn’t get a good handle on it one-handed. She hoped he put her red face off to the steam and the hot water.

  **********

  Inevitably, Lori had to speak to her parents that night regarding the accident, and just as inevitably, her father was agitated, insisting she return home and give up the attempts to live on her own...while her mother essentially told her to tough it out and get creative with how she managed things. A happy balance between the two would be appreciated, she thought silently to herself with sarcasm.

  Rita’s lawyer had been in touch with them, assuring them that the class-action lawsuit was going according to plan. The airline was making the first tentative steps towards settling out of court with all the survivors’ families. While they still weren’t coming anywhere near what Rita was demanding in compensation, they were willing to negotiate. This was a good sign, according to Lori’s mother – she felt confident they wouldn’t have to testify in court.

  Lori had almost completely forgotten about the lawsuit by this point but felt relief that she might not have to get overly-aggressive about her demands for money. She wasn’t planning on anything coming of it yet, though, either – if she couldn’t make it on her own on the property then so be it. She didn’t want to be forced to rely on the possibility of a lawsuit in order to stay.

  As it was, she was just barely keeping her head above water, but at least she was still in the black at the end of every month. She was eating pretty lean these days, but she didn’t mind that – with how busy she was with the horses, she wouldn’t have had time to prepare steaks and lobster, anyway.

  “Otherwise, how’s it going?” Lori’s mother asked as they were winding up their weekly phone call.

  “Not bad,” Lori responded, turning in her kitchen chair slightly. Noel was sitting in the living room and she didn’t want him to overhear the next part. “I’m not quite sure how I’m going to train four horses with one hand yet, but like you said, I’ll have to figure out a way to make it work. This is my livelihood – I can’t be out of commission for too long or I won’t have a job.”

  “Well, do the best you can, Lori. You may have to switch up the order of things and ease up on the riding for awhile, but I’m sure there are other groundwork exercises you can be doing.”

  Lori laughed in irony. “Actually, the way this cast is right now, riding is probably easier for me than groundwork. I only need one hand to ride – I need two hands to desensitize – one to hold the horse and the other to scare the horse with...”

  She paused, her mind at work
on how to incorporate the cast into her desensitizing, but sighed heavily when nothing came to her. “Ah, forget it,” she finally said. “I’ll deal with that tomorrow.”

  Her mother was just about to ring off, when Lori glanced at the wall calendar and gasped.

  “What?” her mother asked.

  “Oh, no! I just remembered I was supposed to pick up another 800 bales of hay this month! How am I going to do that now?!”

  Lori’s mother – ever practical – told her to calm down. “Can’t you just phone him up and ask him to postpone it another month?”

  Lori shook her head, glancing into the living room as she did so and cringing when she saw Noel had heard her troubled voice.

  “No,” she said softly into the receiver. “I have to pick it up soon – I’ll run out of hay shortly, anyway, but my supplier can’t hold it any longer – he has to start moving his equipment into the sheds for the winter.”

  She paused, trying to think about what could be done. “I don’t suppose you, Dad and my sibs could come help?”

  “Oh, sweetheart...we can’t. Not this month. Your dad’s in full harvest season, remember. He’s starting with the soybeans tomorrow and you know he’ll be going 24 hours’ straight for the next month until everything’s in.”

  Lori sighed in frustration. “Okay,” she grudgingly accepted. “I’ll figure out something there, too, I suppose.”

  “I’m sorry, kiddo. You know we would if we could.”

  “I know.”

  Lori gently disconnected a few minutes later and set the handset on the table. Reality made her feel defeated tonight. She looked up to see Noel watching her from the couch and tried to brighten her posture and expression, even if she was still depressed inside.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, standing up and coming into the kitchen.

  “Oh, nothing really,” she faked. “I’ve just remembered some things I’ve got to do that are going to be a bit more complicated with the cast.”

  “Well,” he said, waiting, “tell me how I can help.”

  She shook her head. “No, it’s okay. I know you have to get back to Jeret and the zoo.”

  Noel sat down next to her. “Not that badly. Tell me what I can do.”

  “I have to get 800 more bales of hay in the next couple of weeks and my parents are harvesting so they can’t help. It’s hard work – even with two hands – you have to throw the bales off the wagons, carry them into the shed and stack them up. And there’s tons of dust so if you have allergies it’s not good...and the hay itself can irritate your skin so you need to wear long-sleeved shirts and pants.”

  “How many people do you need to do it?” Noel asked.

  “Well, two can handle it, but it’s an all-day thing. It’s best if there’s four or five.”

  Noel nodded. “Fancy seeing Jeret and Lynta again? We could ask them to come down one of these weekends and pitch in. Maybe check with Mike and Shannon, too – they might be able to help if you give them enough notice.”

  “But I don’t want to be an imposition...” Lori said reluctantly.

  Noel gave her one of his intense, scrutinizing looks. “Lori, there are times in life when everybody needs to ask for help. That’s what friends do for each other – nobody will think less of you for having to get assistance. It’s not like you ask for it every day, after all.”

  Lori snorted. “It feels like I am lately.”

  “Don’t be silly – call them. Then I’ll call Jeret and Lynta.”

  In the end, everyone could make it the following Saturday so they set the date and Lori phoned the hay farmer to give him notice.

  When that was finished, Noel gave her another piercing look.

  “Now. What else won’t you ask me for?”

  Lori drew her eyebrows together in confusion. “What do you mean?”

  Noel gave her a teasing smile. “I saw you whispering into the phone with your mom. What don’t you want to ask me?”

  She answered with a rueful smile of her own and shook her head. “You’re too nosey.”

  He smiled back at her. “That’s as may be. But answer my question.”

  She sighed heavily when she saw he wasn’t going to back down. “I can’t work the horses from the ground with my cast like this. I’m going to have to stop training until it comes off and that will mean no income for at least a month.”

  “What do you need?”

  “I need a fully-operational hand,” she said in frustration.

  “Well...can I be that for you?”

  She looked intently at him. “What? You mean you’d train them for me?”

  “Well, I can’t promise I know what I’m doing...and I certainly won’t do it as well as you, but what if you coached me and explained how to go about it from outside the pen and I’ll try my best from the inside?”

  Lori’s eyes lit up and she nodded her head slowly. “That just might work.”

  **********

  It must have been the hundredth time she’d reminded him and if she wasn’t getting sick of saying it, he was getting sick of himself for always having to be reminded.

  “Hand over the top of the rope, Noel,” she said again as Rick’s quiet mare cantered a circle around him on the lunge line. “Remember, thumb pointing towards you – pinkie finger towards the horse.”

  Noel fumbled with the rope, trying to get in the proper position without disrupting the mare and he almost stepped on the stick and tripped himself in the process. He laughed ruefully; he had always tended to think of himself as a graceful kind of guy; clearly that wasn’t the case – at least in the roundpen. He got everything coordinated again and followed the mare’s movements around him.

  “How do you keep from getting motion sickness?” he called out to Lori.

  She laughed from her perch on top of the roundpen. “Don’t look at the horse all the time. Every once and awhile, pick a stationary thing – like a post or a spot on the ground and stare at it while she’s going around. Just look at her out of your peripheral vision,” she answered.

  “You don’t have to worry about her,” she continued. “Rick’s mare has done this a lot and she’s good and quiet. It’s why I picked her to start with.”

  “Thank you,” he answered. “This takes some getting used to.”

  “I know, but don’t worry – everybody goes through this when they’re learning. We’ve all smacked ourselves in the face with the rope or the stick a time or two.”

  “Well, that’s not much consolation,” he joked. “Why did I agree to torture myself like this, again?”

  “Oh, hush,” she answered. “Okay, you’re going to change direction with her now. So what are the five steps? Give them to me before you start them.”

  Noel disregarded the feeling of standing in the middle of a carousel and focused on the task at hand. “Okay. Number one – palm up.”

  “Right.”

  “Number two, stick in hand.”

  “Yep.”

  “Number three, slide the free hand down the rope. Number four, step out in front; number five, send her off the other way.”

  “Good. And how do you send her off?”

  “Point with the free hand in the new direction and swing the stick at her shoulder if she gets too close.”

  “Right, but you probably won’t have to do that with her, so keep your movements pretty relaxed or she might try to run away with you.”

  “Okay.”

  Noel followed all the steps correctly, but it was still awkward. The mare anticipated his request far too well, and had stopped to face him before he even got his hand down the rope. There was an intensely funny moment, where horse and human stood staring at one another, not sure what should happen next and Noel turned to look over his shoulder at Lori.

  She was laughing on the top rail, the little imp.

  “A little help here, please?” he inquired, trying to swallow his own grin.


  “Sorry,” she responded. “Point up in the same direction and get her started again, then you can try once more. She’s well-trained – you’re going to have to be quick about it – the second she sees you move the stick to your other hand, she knows you’re going to ask her to yield.”

  Noel turned back to the horse and got himself straightened out with the rope and stick again.

  “Or at least she thinks you’re going to ask her to yield,” Lori amended from the fence. “But the cue isn’t you moving the stick from one hand to the other – the cue is you actually stepping out in front of her and pointing the other way. She’s anticipating too well. So if I were you, I’d ‘desensitize’ her a bit to the stick moving from one hand to the other. Keep her going at the canter on the circle and just move the stick from your right hand to your left and back again. If she anticipates and stops, just send her on. Let’s work on that first before we ask her to change direction.”

  “Right,” Noel acknowledged as the mare began cantering around him again.

  Noel was humbled by how much work and finesse were involved with training horses; he had even more respect for Lori now that he had done the bare minimums of her job the past six hours. He was going to be exhausted by the end of this day – as it was, it felt as though all his energy were draining down through his feet into the arena sand and he still had to learn how to roundpen the grey they’d bought at auction and then help bring all the horses in from pasture and feed them hay.

  Lori had been a tremendous support so far. She was a good teacher – very patient and able to describe a concept several different ways until it made sense to her pupil – and if it weren’t for her enthusiasm and encouragement, Noel would have given up within the first hour. But she had pushed him on and he had persevered…and he felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment because of it, too.