by Sue Hardesty
"Moose?" Willie grunted, pulling another ball from between her knees as Loni cleaned out the needles he left behind as best she could. She knew Flossie couldn't walk far until they finished her legs.
"That moose acted just like this cow." Loni gently moved to her neck and chest. Flossie tried to lean into her, and Loni decided to finish her nose before the cow transferred the needles to her. "I saw him off the side of the road walking in a small circle. When I got out and started talking to him, he lifted his head and trotted to me." She pulled up the cow's lip and yanked a few more needles from her gums. "Scared the bejesus out of me for a minute, but then he stopped and tried to hide his head under my armpit."
Avoiding the ball hanging out of her eye, she worked on Flossie's face. "The more I talked and rubbed his face and neck, the calmer he got." Her stomach got queasy again thinking about the ball in the cow's eye, and Loni couldn't bring herself to look at it. "She's going to lose that eye, Willie."
Willie grunted in agreement. "Balls like fire. Needles gonna make her very sick." He pulled off another ball and tossed it into the growing pile. "What happened to moose?"
"Oh. Somebody driving by told the forest service to bring a horse trailer. Sad thing, it was blind from some virus. Most were dead before they found them." Loni moved to Flossie's back legs, following behind Willie. She quivered. "They take them to the vet school in Colorado, the ranger said, to do research for a cure. As far as I know, that moose became a world traveler."
Flossie began to bawl again. "All balls off but tail and eye." Willie pulled three more from the inside of the tail.
"Wish all the needles had come out with the balls." Loni felt Flossie's pain.
"We go now. Balls gone. Get needles later. Hope she no flick tail onto herself."
"You go get trailer." He coaxed Flossie into a walk. "Take Paint. We wait on road. I ride trailer with Flossie."
Loni put Roanie in a running walk toward the tank with Paint trailing. The trip seemed to take forever, but she knew running a horse in this heat would kill it.
She explained to Bahb about Flossie as he helped her unsaddle the horses. A line of dust followed the fading clang of the horse trailer bouncing through the potholes. She had never seen him drive that fast.
Loni led the two horses over to the faucet hanging on the side of the tank and poured warm water on them, sluicing it down their backs and necks until they felt reasonably cool between their front legs. By the time Bahb and Willie pulled in with the cow, Roanie and Paint had joined Buck in the corral. Slowing the pickup, Willie held the door open so that Loni could jump in.
Loni watched Flossie out the back pickup window as the cow spraddled her legs with her head down for balance and bawled all the way back.
As Shiichoo came out, Bahb yelled, "Call vet." Bahb led Flossie into the barn and Willie helped him tie her into a cross rope so that they could keep pulling out needles.
Shiichoo stepped into the barn, carrying a bucket of water for Flossie. "Vet is on her way." She handed Willie a pair of tweezers.
"Good," Bahb replied. He used a pair of long nosed needle pliers on the obvious cactus needles while Loni pulled tiny ones with Loni's tweezers.
"Woman vet for big animals?"Loni asked, surprised, as she reached to help Shiichoo.
"Good, too, so don't hit on Doc and run her off," warned Willie.
"How come? You want her?" Loni teased Willie as she held the water for Flossie.
"No. She two spirit like you." Bahb cleared another place of the larger needles. "She also have big loss."
Handing the empty bucket back to Shiichoo, Loni followed behind Bahb finding the small needles. "How do you know that?"
"In the eyes," Bahb said. "They full of pain. Be careful with her."
Loni had no answer. She settled in behind Bahb as they carefully cleaned Flossie. The cow seemed to know they were helping her. Loni listened to her grandma talk to the cow. "Such a good girl you are," Shiichoo told Flossie as she fed her rolled oats from the palm of her hand. "Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Yes, you are."
Loni stared at her grandma.
"What?" Shiichoo stared back. "You don't love-talk animals?"
"It's a cow!"
"You talk to Stonewall. He's a cow."
Loni shrugged in defeat. "My bad."
"Get your dog before you leave, child. I hear her barking for you."
"Don't let her out here. She upset Flossie." Bahb moved to the cow's other front leg, still slowly and carefully pulling out the pale yellow elusive needles. Any of the ones left stuck into her would work through her body and come out anywhere. Or end up in her brain.
Loni glanced up at the sound of an engine and saw the vet. Wow! She was pixie cute. Loni understood Willie's teasing as she watched the vet get out of her SUV and walk toward the barn, her purposeful stride causing her short blonde hair to bounce.
The vet frowned as she walked up. "Geez, you meant it when you said a cactus was hanging out of a cow's eye." She stood a minute studying the eye before she looked toward Shiichoo. "Can you bring me a pail of hot water?"
Shiichoo hurried toward the house.
Loni stepped forward. "I'm Loni." She held out her hand. "The granddaughter."
"I heard you came back." The vet took her hand and held it. "I'm Tory. Welcome home."
"Thanks." Flustered, Loni took her hand back and nodded at Flossie. "You can't save her eye, can you?"
Tory shook her head, reaching for her bag. By the time Shiichoo got back with the bucket of water, Tory had her tools laid out ready to use. She filled a plunger full of clear liquid. "Can somebody put a twitch restraint stick on her so she won't move? And hobble her. She's going to have to be still for a while now."
Loni really wanted to hang around and watch this woman, but she couldn't stand to see Flossie's agony. The vet nodded to Loni as she walked way but Loni ducked her head, ashamed.
"Ask Herman to help fix windmill," Bahb said to Loni's back. "Take rod to him."
* * *
Slowly driving the back way to Uncle Herm's house, she followed the single track dirt road around to the back of his house and parked beside Herm's pickup. She and Coco found him in the kitchen with Mae yammering at him. "I can come back later," Loni said.
"No, you sit. I need a referee. She's been ranting for ten minutes."
"How would you know? You never listen to me!"
"If you didn't talk all the time, maybe I would!"
Loni thought about leaving. Mae took a deep breath as Herm handed her a piece of toast. "Here. You need to build up your strength."
It was all over. Mae sat down with the giggles. "I swear, Herman, if you're not two shelves below a dog turd." She turned away from his puzzled expression toward Loni. "How come you're so sad, sweetie."
Mae listened to Loni's story and gave her a good, long hug.
Uncle Herm agreed to pick Loni up in the morning to repair the windmill and then said, "Come with me."
Mystified, Loni followed him into the hall and watched him lower a boot box from the highest shelf in the hall closet.
"Wow! Lucchese boots!"
"No, no boots. It's your grandfolks' letters and notes. Your dad's history. I wanted to give it to you years back, but you were gone before I knew you were even leaving."
Loni ducked her head. "Sorry."
"You might like learning about your grandparents' ways." He sighed. "Then again, maybe not all of it." Handing her the box, he added, "It's not a bad thing, having a soft heart." He reached out his arm and hugged her as they walked to the door. "This belonged to your dad, him being the oldest. Take care of it."
"I'll save it for Daniel's kids."
She caught Mae feeding Coco dog goodies. Her aunt gave Loni another good hug and a spank on her butt.
"Hey," Loni reminded her, "I'm not twelve anymore."
"Really?" Mae grinned and closed the door.
* * *
Leaving Coco to roam and sniff outside the hangar
, Loni carried the box upstairs to her loft and set it on the table. She stared at it for a long time as she sipped cold bitter coffee from the cup left on the table. Finally, she gingerly lifted the lid. On top was an old, faded spiral notebook, its cover inked with hand drawn cattle brands and who they belonged to. Under that were more notebooks, envelopes, and folded pages. She gently picked up the notebook and turned the pages, occasionally reading a few lines. All the notebooks and letters seemed to be recollections of people, pets, school, living on the desert. She stopped at one with a drawing of a windmill like the one on the tank she had seen earlier in the day. The words Ben Wagner were written at the top.
The old windmills have about all gone to join the yesteryears. There were so many famous ones stretching across the Arizona desert. The old Clanton wells. They were so deep he used a tall tower with a big wheel that could be seen for miles. There was the Flowerpot, the Fourteen, the Seven Mile, Burnt Well, Surprise, Volcanic, and Winters Well, just to name a few. At the Winters Well, there were two windmills stood side by side, hooked to a walkenbeam. They all started to fade out of the picture in the thirties. The sagebrush mechanics were getting few and far between and no one knew how to wire them back together. Lots of cowmen went broke then due to low prices and droughts so they didn't need the mills too much.
I really hate to see them disappear. As I came toward them they were fascinatingly silhouetted against the sky, a sentinel, and above all, a beacon. Many an old cowhand going by could get a drink of water for him and his tired horse. The squeak, the squall, the clang spilled out more beauty and rhythm of the windmill and still did not disturb the solitude. The old guys that put up the windmills and pumps were masters at it. They could do more to bring water out to the top with less. When the windmills are all gone a chapter of a grand and glorious way of life will be closed.
Loni felt a connection to the grandfather she had never known before. She wondered how many of the windmills were left now. Maybe she would take some time to see what she could find. He might like that. She'd ask Uncle Herm if he remembered where any of them were. But enough lore for today. She was tired, muscle sore, and rubbed raw from the saddle. If she didn't get an email off to Sandi right now, she wouldn't do it. She pulled the computer toward her and opened it.
FROM: Loni Wagner
TO: [email protected]
DATE: July 5
SUBJECT: Still not looking
My granddad had his cows rustled today. And yes, there are still rustlers alive and well. Tomorrow I start tracking. When I catch them, and I swear I will, I really hope I can keep from shooting them. Since you asked, I'm sending you a list why I don't want to ranch again. These are the first three.
1. Too damn hot
2. Cattle rustling
3. Busted windmills
I am so raw and sore from riding today that I'm hunched over like an old man. I'm glad Maria can't see me now. She'd think it was pretty funny. But I had a great time riding Roanie again. Someday I want you to bring the girls out here so I can show all of you a working ranch. They're old enough to have a good time here.
Met a really cute veterinarian today. What I want to know is where all these lesbians were when I was growing up? I've been back a month and I've already met three. No, make that four.
Love to et al.
Loni
Loni left the door to the loft open, waiting for Coco to get back inside, and fried some eggs and bacon for lunch or supper or whatever it was supposed to be. She had scooped the eggs onto her plate when Coco came back in. "Gag a maggot, Coco! What did you roll in?" Loni ran out the door and down the stairs before she allowed herself to breathe.
"What's the matter?" Daniel asked.
"Did you get a whiff of Coco?"
"Nope. Rolled in something, did she?"
"I think she got a direct hit by a skunk."
"Better get her a bath in tomato juice then."
"You're kidding me? They don't make that much tomato juice."
Daniel laughed. "Not my problem."
"Coco!" Loni called and ducked behind Daniel.
"Get away from me, Coco! Get!" Daniel held his nose while he tried not to laugh. "I'm going home now." He jumped into his pickup and drove away, leaving Loni trying to avoid Coco.
"Stay," she told Coco as she went back upstairs and called her grandma. "Coco got hit by a skunk. What do I do?"
Shiichoo started laughing.
"Not funny!"
"Maybe not to you."
"Why don't I just send this dog to your house?"
"Why don't you just give it a bath?"
"In what?"
"I heard milk was good."
"I don't have any. What else?"
"I don't know."
"Well ask Bahb what his people did."
After a long minute Shiichoo got back to her. "Avoid." That was all she said before she hung up.
Sighing, Loni called Lola, who laughed harder than Shiichoo.
"Well, shit, Lola, do you know?"
"You got any hydrogen peroxide?"
"Hang on. Let me look." Loni tucked her cell phone in her chin and rummaged through her first aid cabinet. "Yep."
"Got any baking soda?"
"You mean for cooking or smells?"
"If it says baking soda on the box, it's the same."
"My aunt Mae put something in my ice box. Hang on." Loni moved food around until she found a yellow box. "Yep. Says baking soda."
"Wonderful!"
Loni couldn't miss Lola's sarcasm. "Well, I don't cook!"
"And I'm not asking you too. Mix some peroxide with the baking soda and liquid soap. Pour it into a bucket of warm water, cover your nose, and scrub. And don't ask me to help." Still laughing, Lola hung up.
It took Loni the rest of the evening to get the smell even bearable, at least to her. And that was after several baths herself.
CHAPTER 6
July 6, 5:00 a.m.
UNCLE HERM PICKED Loni up from the hangar in his ancient Army jeep just before sunrise. They followed the trail to an old gate entrance that led them into what was once a well tended ranch. The sun peeked above the horizon over Saddle Peak as they slowly drove through the broken, disintegrating gate, carefully avoiding splintered boards scattered across the road. "At least I don't have to get out and open this one." Loni scanned the unfamiliar territory. "Where are we going, anyway?"
"Didn't I tell you? Part of the pump rod you brought me was gone." Uncle Herm nodded in the far distance at the remains of a ranch house surrounded by a ring of green salt cedars. "We should be able to find another one on Billy Bain's old place."
Loni tried to remember the mentally slow man who lived there, but all she could picture was a dried up old rubber inner tube, split and cracked from the heat. When he died, it was months before anyone found him. They said he didn't even smell anymore. Only one small room in the large house had been barely habitable when he lived there years ago.
They slowly drove by the rubble of the house before they bumped a mile down the road and drove off the beaten path to circle around a crescent shaped black hill. Hanging on to keep from being thrown out of the canvas covered jeep, Loni wished for a seatbelt and a door as she watched Uncle Herm climb in and out of dry washes even her truck couldn't maneuver. As they reached level ground, Loni was mesmerized by the vastness surrounding her.
Tan, six-inch Indian wheat turned invisible in the tan dirt and rocks. Greens faded to yellows in the shrunken greasewood and catclaw as they protected themselves from the life-sucking heat. Needles on the myriad of cactus left thousands of sharp shadows in double imaged relief. It all reminded her of the last lines from a poem by Shelley, "Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare/The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Uncle Herm stopped beside a stack of wood and metal that had once been a windmill. In front of the pile, a water tank had long ago fallen off its rotted posts. Loni watched her uncle jump up and down on the pile a couple of
times. They both listened for a rattle, a dead sound like no other. Smiling, he pulled on his blue and white-striped work gloves and began throwing angle iron off the top as Loni walked around the tank, searching for writings or drawings. There was nothing on it. She circled back to help her uncle pick through the pile of debris.