Lone Star Woman

by CALLAHAN, SADIE

  She thought about her father sitting at the long dining table eating alone. She decided to go home. Maybe tonight she would eat supper at the family table. She cinched her saddle, mounted Pokey and reined him toward the steep trail that would take them out of the canyon to the old Crowell house. Pokey was a flatland horse. She was sure he had never climbed a steep, zigzag trail. To keep him from panicking, she kept him close to the inside wall, stopping often to let him rest. At the top, just as she always did with Patch, she tied Pokey to the chinaberry tree near the Crowell house, dismounted and walked inside the old walls.

  And that’s where she was when a hard gust of wind brought a faint whiff of something—something burning. Suddenly she noticed that the sounds of nature had stopped—no whirring insects, no calling birds. An uneasiness slithered up her spine. She walked outside the old house’s walls and looked around. Now the smell was stronger. To the northwest, she could see a faint smear of what looked like fog against the sky.

  Grassfire!

  Her eyes darted to Pokey, tied to the chinaberry tree. He was circling restlessly. She had to get out of here. She quick-stepped to Pokey and loosened his halter rope, took the reins to the saddle horn and lifted her foot to the stirrup. On a nicker, he twisted away, jerking his head and yanking the reins from her hands. He trotted off, dragging the reins on the ground. “Shit!”

  She eased toward him, holding out her hand, trying not to add her own panic to his. “Pokey, come back here.” He was only feet away, but he kept just enough distance between them to keep her from grabbing him. She kissed to him, talked horse talk in low tones, trying to coax him to her. He lowered his head and munched, but jerked away every time she reached for him. “Pokey, you’re really trying my patience.”

  Meanwhile, the wind continued to gust and the smell of smoke grew stronger. From the corner of her eye, she saw that the smear in the distance had grown into a billow, and she could tell it was headed in their direction. Pokey’s head began to saw and he began to dance. She said a prayer he didn’t run.

  As if in answer to her prayer, he stepped on the reins, bringing himself to a halt. She lunged for the reins. His rump wheeled and he sat back on his haunches, pulling against her. Now she could see panic in his eyes.

  In a quavery voice she whispered to him, called him sweet names, and at last she was able to calm him enough to get near him. The minute she shoved her boot into the stirrup, he began to twist and nicker, but she hung on and managed to mount. The entrance to the canyon trail was a football field away. She could get there. She urged him to a lope, toward the canyon trail entrance.

  A blast of wind and smoke hit her face and filled her nostrils. Her chest tightened and her eyes teared, but she forged ahead. As she fought Pokey to the top of the hill, a line of fire and a wall of blinding, suffocating smoke met her, and she had nowhere to go but back from where she came.

  A helicopter landed in the Circle C’s parking lot. J.D. climbed out and charged into the clinic. Brady met him at the door. “Fire’s in the north pasture,” J.D. said breathlessly. “Brady, let’s go.” He turned and dashed back to the helicopter.

  Panic darted through Brady as he hotfooted behind J.D. “Jude’s out there!”

  “I know,” J.D. yelled back as they climbed into the four-seated chopper. “I think I know where.”

  They lifted off and headed north. In minutes they were looking down on a creeping fire that had already left thousands of charred acres and dead cattle behind it. J.D. directed the pilot, and sure enough, through openings in the smoke, they saw Jude and Pokey inside the walls of an old rock structure. The walls were surrounded by smoke and fire. The wind changed and the fire moved away at an angle.

  Jude stepped out to the center of the roofless walls and waved frantically. Brady looked around and saw that the structure sat on the edge of a steep rock bluff. “How the hell did she get there?” he yelled.

  “There’s a trail,” J.D. yelled back. “It comes up out of the canyon.” He pointed to the north. “Over there.”

  Brady spotted the trail. The fire had already moved past it and was rapidly closing in on the structure. J.D. leaned closer to the pilot. “Can you set down somewhere?”

  The pilot shook his head. Brady scanned the landscape and spotted a huge rock plateau, the only area not charred. “There,” he shouted and pointed. It was a good quarter mile from where Jude and Pokey were trapped.

  “What good will that do?” J.D. said, all of them gazing in the distance at the rock.

  “Put me down there,” Brady said. “I can get to her.”

  Instantly, the pilot turned the chopper away from the structure toward the flat rock. Brady unlatched his seat belt, preparing to exit the minute the machine touched down.

  “Don’t worry about the horse,” J.D. said.

  Brady leaped from the helicopter and landed on the run. He dashed across the charred ground. Ahead of him, the fire moved away from him, but toward Jude. The air had turned to smoke. It filled his lungs. His eyes teared as he searched left and right for a gap in the flames. Suddenly the wind changed and an opening loomed like a corridor. He dashed through and he was there, inside the old rock structure.

  Jude fell into his arms and he hauled her tightly against him. “Jesus Christ, Jude. I thought I’d lost you.”

  She was hanging onto the horse’s reins with one hand, but she clutched his shirt and buried her face against his neck. Pokey was stamping and nickering and throwing his head. “I couldn’t tell which way to go. What can we do?”

  “We’re gonna get out of here.”

  “Pokey, too. We’re going to take Pokey, right?”

  J.D. had said not to worry about the horse, but Brady couldn’t stand the thought of leaving the horse behind. He spied her shirt. “Pokey, too. Gimme your shirt.”

  Without debate, she whipped the shirt off. Brady grabbed it and approached the anxious horse, holding the garment down by his side and talking sweet. He clutched the horse’s ear, twisted it and brought his head down, eased the shirt over his eyes and tucked the arms through the headstall.

  “Okay,” he said to Jude, grabbing Pokey’s reins and the lead rope. “You hang on to my belt. The wind’s changing directions every minute. We just have to find an opening. Let’s go.”

  He led them back in the direction from where he had come. Pokey whinnied and fidgeted and shivered all over, but Brady kept a tight grip on him. They passed through the creeping line of fire and onto charred ground. Heat seeped through his boot soles and he moved quickly, sometimes leading, sometimes guiding the blinded horse back toward the flat rock where the chopper had touched down.

  Through the smoke, he couldn’t spot the trail that led down into the canyon. As if Jude sensed his dilemma and knew his plan, she came from behind him and took the lead. They stopped at the trail entrance and he breathed easier. They weren’t safe yet, but the situation was no longer dire. He yanked the shirt from Pokey’s face.

  Still hanging on to the horse’s reins, he looped his arm around Jude’s shoulder and felt her body shaking. His eyes locked with hers. Her face was dirty with soot. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and her nose was running. “You know something, darlin’? If I’m gonna have to keep saving you, we need a more permanent association.”

  “Oh, Brady”—her voice broke—“I’m so sorry for everything.”

  He kissed her fiercely. Her arms slid around his waist and she kissed him back just as fiercely. Pokey snorted in his ear. “Let’s get out of here.”

  “The trail’s steep. Pokey’s only been on it once, coming up.”

  “We’ll make it.” He set her away. “You lead the way. Pokey and I’ll be right behind you.”

  Jude pushed herself away from the comfort of his embrace and started down the steep trail. Brady had saved her again. His voice came from behind her. “I’ll always have your back,” he said.

  She knew that. He had just told her he loved her. She knew that, too. She smiled and wiped her
nose on the back of her hand.