Maple Dale ~ My Forever Home (Maple Dale Series)

by MaryAnn Myers

  Everyone laughed.

  “I don’t know. She does look a little hoity-toity,” Uncle George said.

  “Not really.” Shane headed to the fridge for a beer. “She practically lives in a barn.”

  “Right,” his sister Jackie said.

  “Ask her. Go ahead.”

  “Shut up, all of you,” his mother said. “Set the table. Put Mindy down by me, so I can protect her.”

  Shane laughed. “Don’t worry about that, Mom. She can more than protect herself.”

  His mother looked at him and then pulled him aside. “Seriously, son, what does it mean you bringing her here? Who is she to you?”

  “Someone who’s my whole world at the moment,” Shane said, and kissed her on the cheek.

  Dee put her hand to her face and smiled. Her firstborn son was not all that affectionate. This girl must surely have him under a spell, she thought. She liked the happiness she saw in her son’s eyes.

  Mindy emerged from the “restroom” all freshened up.

  “I forgot to tell you about the handle,” Jasmine said.

  Mindy smiled. “I figured it out. We have one at the barn just like it.”

  “Shane says you live in a barn,” his thirteen-year-old niece Lucy said.

  “Practically. Particularly if you ask my mom and dad. I work at an equestrian center.”

  “A what?” Uncle Ted asked.

  “A boarding stable,” Lucy said, answering for her.

  Mindy smiled. “Do you ride?”

  “I barrel race.”

  “Horse is her middle name,” her mother, Aunt Sue, said.

  “Oh, really? Mine too,” Mindy said.

  Everyone laughed and in fairly quick order they were all seated in the dining room around the two tables pushed together and holding hands. “Father, we thank you for this meal,” Dee said. “We thank you for family, young and old and new. I thank you for another birthday. Amen.”

  “Amen,” everyone echoed. Then here came the relay of dishes. No one seemed to notice Mindy passing the meat platters without taking any at first, but then….

  “You don’t like pot-roasts. You don’t like chickens?” Shane’s Aunt Barb asked with a lisp.

  “Um….”

  “She’s a vegetarian,” Shane said. “That’s okay, I’ll eat her share.”

  Mindy poured a glass of iced tea from the pitcher passed to her and filled her plate with all the side dishes coming her way.

  “Do you show horses?” Lucy asked.

  “Lucy, let her eat,” her mother said.

  “No, that’s all right,” Mindy said. “Yes, I do. Hunter-Jumpers.”

  “Do you win?”

  Mindy nodded. “I try.”

  “Yeah, well, Lucy better start trying harder,” Uncle George, her father said, “I’m getting tired of feeding that nag for nothing.”

  Mindy looked at the man.

  “He’s kidding,” Shane said. “He loves that horse as much as Lucy does. Mindy’s an instructor at Maple Dale. Those are fighting words, Uncle George. Look out.”

  “I see that,” the man George said. “Though I would like something to brag about at the station. Lucy needs to show that horse who’s boss.”

  Shane laughed at Mindy’s expression. “Uncle George, you’re getting in deeper.”

  Uncle George laughed.

  Mindy looked at Lucy. “Maybe next time I visit, I can watch you ride and offer some suggestions.”

  “She’s here. I have her here. Can I show you after we eat?”

  Shane played go between. “Sorry, Luce, we don’t have that much time today. We have some of Mindy’s kinfolk to visit too.”

  Mindy observed the disappointment in Lucy’s face. “We’ll find time. Don’t worry.”

  “Eat,” her mother said.

  Between dinner and dessert was the time. Lucy rushed out to tack up her horse, a pretty plump Palomino mare and hopped up in the saddle. Some of the women had moseyed out to watch along with all of the men. Gramps stood at Mindy’s side.

  “You have to warm her up, Luce,” Mindy said, as if she’d known the girl forever and Lucy was one of her students.

  “I did warm her up,” Lucy said.

  “What? Five minutes?”

  “She’s a little headstrong,” Gramps said.

  “That’s all right. So am I.”

  Shane laughed.

  Mindy climbed the fence and walked into the center of the ring. “Is this how close the barrels are in the show?”

  “No. There’s not enough room,” Lucy said.

  “Go back to trotting,” Mindy said, glancing at Lucy’s father as she moved the jumps.

  “Is she dissing me?” Uncle George asked Shane.

  Shane laughed again. “I think she’s telling you that you need to build Lucy a bigger ring.”

  “Trot,” Mindy repeated.

  “I hate trotting.”

  “What equestrian doesn’t?” Mindy moved one barrel off to the side out of the way and moved the other two barrels further apart. Then ignoring Lucy’s giving her the “evil eye” she focused her attention on watching the girl ride. She had good posture, relatively soft hands, and a decent seat. Her mare seemed eager and fit her well. But…. “Halt,” Mindy said, and walked toward them. She patted the horse on her neck, making friends with her, and motioned for Lucy to take her feet out of her stirrups. “They’re too short.”

  “No, they’re not.”

  Mindy looked up at her. She just looked at her. Then she proceeded to drop the stirrups down a notch. She put the girl’s feet back in the stirrups and stepped back. “Trot.”

  “Oh my God,” Lucy said, second time around the ring. “This is too friggin’ hard.”

  “Yeah, it’s called riding,” Mindy said. “Canter.”

  The horse took three strides to break into a canter. “You’re going to have to work on that.” She watched the girl go round and round.

  “Can we do barrels now?”

  The rest of the women had finished up the dishes and joined the spectator crowd.

  “I’m not sure she knows what she’s doing,” Uncle George said to Aunt Sue.

  “I think she does. I just looked up Maple Dale on the computer. She’s called a Phenom.”

  “A what?”

  “Someone that’s very very good,” Jasmine said.

  “Here’s what you get when you don’t have a horse in good stride,” Mindy was saying. “Go back to a trot.”

  Lucy grumbled.

  “And canter.”

  Bad transition.

  “Trot.”

  More grumbling.

  “And canter. Yes! YES!!! That’a girl! Yes!”

  Lucy beamed from top to bottom.

  “That’s riding, girlfriend!” Mindy said.

  “I don’t see the difference,” Uncle George whispered to his wife.

  “Shhh…..”

  “All right. Now act like I’m not here and take the barrels.”

  Lucy cantered her horse over to the makeshift chute, broke, and took the barrels close enough, but with no speed.

  “Again.”

  Second time she had speed, but was way too far from the barrels.

  ”Again.”

  Third time she knocked a barrel down.

  Mindy righted the barrel and had Lucy take her horse back to the chute. “Do you always work her in the same pattern, same direction?”

  “Yes. That’s the way it’s done.”

  “That’s the way it’s done in competition, not in training.”

  “How do you know?”

  Mindy smiled. “A good guess. She’s so stiff on her left side I can pretty much guarantee you don’t work her both ways. Every horse has a favorite side. It’s like us being left handed and right handed. It’s how we’re made. It’s how they’re made. No matter how hard we try, unless we’re ambidextrous we’re always going to prefer our favored side. I’d work her on her off side, not every ride, but every other ride. All right, dr
op your stirrups and let’s do it again.”

  “What?”

  “Drop your stirrups. Surely you’ve lost a stirrup or two along the way.”

  “Yeah, but.” She glanced at her family, the crowd of spectators and supporters.

  “They’re on your side. Don’t even look at them.”

  Lucy hesitated, and then reluctantly took her feet out of her stirrups. “Yeah, well, if I fall.”

  “You’re not going to fall. Come on. Go the opposite direction this time.”

  Lucy’s mother held her breath. Lucy’s father held her breath. Shane held his breath. The whole Thornton clan collectively held their breath.

  “Three …two…..”

  “Uh….”

  “One!”

  Lucy urged her horse into a canter, flew toward the first barrel, rounded it by inches and took off for the second barrel. Yelling go go go, she rounded this one just as tight, and headed toward the chute. She came close to losing her balance at the halt, but that’s only because she was hooting and hollering so much for having done it! The best barrel ride of her young life.

  The crowd hooted and hollered too, her dad shouting the loudest.

  Mindy walked toward her clapping her hands and pointing. Clapping and pointing. “See! See!”

  Lucy leaned down and gave her a hug. “Thank you, Aunt Mindy! Thank you!”

  Mindy glanced at Shane, smiling proudly from the sideline. Aunt Mindy? “Now don’t go without your stirrups all the time. Just every once in a while, drop them. It’ll make you a better rider. Too much and you’ll start losing the muscle tone on the inside of your thighs. You don’t want that to happen. It’ll mess up your seat. If you rely on your stirrups too much though, you’re up too far over her shoulders and you throw her off. ”

  Lucy dismounted, gave Mindy another huge hug, and took her mare to the barn to rub her down. Everyone went back inside for dessert of apple, cherry, and peach pies, including Uncle Jake who finally showed up, as Dee opened her gifts. The majority were rather practical, a new mixer, a new Swiffer. “You can throw the other one away now.” A pair of hand-knit slippers, a bottle of perfume, a bottle of cranberry wine; her favorite, and the scarf from Mindy and Shane. “I love it,” she said. “The color’s beautiful.”

  “Shane said it matched your eyes.”

  Donna looked at her son. “You said that?”

  Shane nodded. “I did.”

  “Thank you.” She stood up and gave him a hug, and then hugged Mindy. “Thank you.”

  Mindy smiled. “Thank you. I thank all of you.” She looked around at everyone. “I was a little nervous about meeting you all. Thank you for accepting me for who I am.” She let her eyes rest on Dee and Blake. And thank you for having Shane.” Everyone laughed, lots of hugs, and soon Mindy and Shane were on their way.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Shane did indeed know the country roads leading to Sassie Susie’s. He took the back way and saved about fifteen minutes. Nothing looked familiar to Mindy until they got to the bridge. “Okay, now I know where I’m at.” Signs dotted the lawns of the farms and houses, so many it was like watching a ticker tape parade. SAY NO TO FRACKING!! FRACK ON! FRACK FOR PROGRESS! FRACK AWAY! VOTE NO!! NO FRACKING!! MY LAND – MY CHOICE!!! FRACK THIS!

  Shane watched Mindy’s expression grow sadder and sadder as they passed each one. The frackers clearly outnumbered those opposing it. Most of the signs were professionally printed courtesy of the local oil company. Some were obviously handmade. Those appeared to protest the loudest judging from the number of exclamation points!!

  Fracking was the talk of the town at the feed store where Mindy and Shane stopped to load up sheep and goat feed and calf manna. Mindy just listened, as did Shane.

  “It’s so sad,” Mindy said, back on the road. Sadder yet, as they turned into the driveway of Sassie Susie’s and Big Dave’s farm, a sign for fracking had been planted in the ground on the right and another one railing against fracking had been pounded firmly into the ground on the left.

  Mindy had phoned ahead to let them know she was coming, but didn’t mention Shane. She didn’t know why. Probably the same reason Shane didn’t warn his family. That or she wanted to see how they took to Shane without advance notice.

  Sassie Susie didn’t recognize the truck but knew it had to be Mindy, as she was right on time. She walked out of the barn, carrying a lamb. Shane stepped down out of his truck and glanced around at the typical West Virginia farm fallen on hard times. The barn siding needed to be painted, the fences mended.

  “Hello!” Susie said. “How are you?” She handed Shane the lamb and gave Mindy a big hug. “How long’s it been?”

  Mindy kissed her on the cheek. “Months. We’ve been saving up feed coupons.”

  Susie shook her head and looked at Shane. “She thinks I don’t know,” she said of the coupon pretense. “Who are you?”

  “Um….” It wasn’t that he’d forgotten his name, but the little lamb had chosen that precise moment to urinate all down the front of him.

  “Oh, wonderful,” Susie said. “We’ve been so worried. She hasn’t peed for days. Follow me.” She led the way to the lamb’s stall with a waddle-like walk, the result of bad knees and a recent hip replacement. Shane put the lamb down in the middle of all the rest of the little lambs and sheep.

  “Are you a farm boy?”

  “I was,” Shane said, assessing the damage to the front of his pants. “I’m pretty sure this is why I got out of it.”

  “Here,” Susie said, handing him an old feed sack to wipe himself off. “I’d wash them but the dryer’s broke. Jeans take days to dry in the cellar.”

  “We only have about an hour,” Mindy said, and just then her cellphone rang. She took it out of her pocket and checked caller ID. “It’s Bethann. Hello. I can’t believe my phone is working again and it’s fully charged. What the hell?”

  Bethann laughed. “Mom said you were going to see Sassie Susie.”

  “We’re here right now. Here, talk to her.”

  Susie took the phone and plugged her other ear so she could hear. “Hello!”

  Mindy looked at Shane and laughed. Whenever they talked to Susie on the phone, she yelled. No one has ever told her that just because she can’t hear them all that well, that doesn’t mean they can’t hear her just fine. Mindy adjusted her phone up higher. Susie nodded. “Thank you. Thank you. Mindy fixed the phone for me.”

  When she walked away, practically shouting her end of the conversation, Mindy took Shane on a tour of the barn. She knew all the names of the animals, knew all their stories, knew their ages. She stepped aside when they got to the end of the barn. “This is the deer sanctuary.”

  Shane looked at the acres and acres of brush, deer paths winding in and out and through like a road map. He sighted deer here and there, mostly does. “I don’t get it,” he said.

  “This is where they live. This is their home.”

  “Do they ever leave?”

  “Only on occasion,” Susie said, waddling up behind them and handing Mindy her phone. “She wants to talk to you.”

  Mindy took the phone and walked away, leaving the two of them. Susie looked up at him.

  “I’m Shane,” he said.

  “I’m Susie. It’s nice to meet you.” She took off her glove and shook his hand and looked him over. “So aside from being Shane, who are you?”

  Shane laughed. “I’m a friend of Mindy’s. I’m one of the Thorntons from Massillon County. I live up by Mindy now.”

  “So you left the farm.” Susie shook her head and then smiled. “Oh look.” There was a tabby cat following Mindy as she walked down the aisleway talking on the phone. “They won’t own up to it, but they brought that one down here with them. It comes and goes a lot. But it’s not a bad cat. I kinda like having it around.”

  Shane looked at the old woman, her faced etched with cavernous wrinkles and chapped skin. He wondered about her age and guessed her to be in her mid-seventies. She remi
nded him of his grandmother Agnes. “Where do you want me to unload the feed?”

  Susie limped along ahead of him to show the way. Mindy waved to them both in passing. They both glanced back at her when she laughed at something Bethann must have said.

  “He’s a sweetie. I know,” Mindy said, referring to Rex.

  “I just took him for a walk and grazed him for a bit. When I was topping off the water buckets he kept looking at me like he was wondering who I was. I figured we might as well get acquainted.”

  “Is Mom worried?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’re only going to stay about an hour.”

  “All right. I’ll see you when you get home.”

  “Give David a kiss for me.”

  “I will. Benjamin wants to call him Da. I said no way.”

  “I don’t know. I kinda like it. It’s like it commands respect or something.”

  “I told him I’d think about it. He’s really into planning the naming ceremony.”

  After Mindy hung up the phone she walked out of the barn and into Big Dave’s arms. “Oh my gosh, little one,” he said. “Look at you growing up!”

  Mindy hugged him tight. He was a Santa-sized man, beard and all, and had the gentlest heart. “I haven’t grown up that much.”

  “Yes, you have,” he said, in his big baritone voice. “You brought home a beau.”

  Mindy laughed. “Well, I guess I am growing up then.”

  Shane had moved the truck over to the feed shed and had it all unloaded. Susie was motioning to something far off in the distance. Big Dave shook his head. “I love that woman, but she’s going to be the death of me.” She was pointing out the proposed fracking site she so vehemently opposed. They could hear her all the way over where they were standing. “It won’t be harmless like the gas well we have now. Fracking poisons the earth.”

  “How about some coffee and cookies for the weary travelers?” Big Dave yelled.

  Susie waved and gripping Shane’s arm for support, headed for the kitchen, talking all the way. Mindy and Dave followed.

  “I just read today where some researchers at the Southern Methodist University have linked the 2009 and 2010 earthquakes in Texas to the injection of fracking waste water into the ground,” Susie told Shane.