Wrangled

by Natasha Stories

  It was lucky that I’d have plenty to keep me too busy to think about him for the next few days, starting with the very next morning when Russ called Celeste and me into his office after breakfast and we all crowded around his desk to choose furniture. Celeste and I tried to be thoughtful and get cheaper things, but Russ would always find a better piece and order it after making sure we liked it. By the time we were done, we had a living room set complete with end tables and lamps, an enormous flat-screen TV and a low, wide entertainment center for underneath that would hold the DVD player and DVDs. Also, two bedroom sets, one to suit Celeste’s taste, and one for mine. He bought a set of bunk beds for the little boys that could be unstacked until Al was old enough to sleep in the top bunk, and one had a trundle bed for Tali. One six-drawer dresser would be enough until they got a little older, so we decided not to crowd the room with more. It would be a few years before we’d have to get a bigger house to separate Tali from the boys. Right now, Celeste’s little Daniel was her best friend because they were so close in age.

  Though the house had all the kitchen appliances, even a microwave over the stove, we needed pots and pans, dishes, bath towels, so many things we hadn’t thought of. We ordered those from another online store, and Celeste started wondering if there would be anywhere for her to work, since Rawlins didn’t seem to have much to offer in the way of retail jobs. Russ asked her what she wanted to do.

  “Well, it needs to be a job I can do in the evening, so Annalee and I can trade babysitting. Are there any office jobs in the evening?”

  Russ said he’d give it some thought, he wasn’t sure about that, at least in Rawlins. He thought maybe a waitress job at a truck stop would have the best chance at those hours. You’d have thought he offered her his own job, the way Celeste reacted. “That’s perfect!”

  We stared at her, waiting for her to tell us why a job that hard would be perfect, but she just said it was because she might could get the hours she wanted. Later, I quizzed her about it, and she said, “Think about it, Annalee! Who comes into truck stops? Truck drivers! Men! I could maybe meet my dream guy if I’m working at a truck stop.”

  I didn’t want to burst her bubble by pointing out that truckers were just passing through, but I had my doubts if that’s where she’d find her dream guy. Still, if she was thinking that and she was happy with the decision, I wouldn’t argue with her. It should be good money, Russ had said.

  That afternoon, Russ took us to buy a used car we could share. He would have bought both of us a car, but we felt bad about all the money he was spending, if he wouldn’t let us pay him back. I figured we could get another one when we’d saved enough money from our pay. While we were in town, Celeste applied for work at several truck stops. Most of them said no, because she had no experience. But one said if she was willing to work the ten to six shift and every weekend, they’d train her behind the counter and then let her serve at the tables. The hours were perfect, so she shook on it and they told her where to go to pick up a couple of their uniforms to start with.

  We got back to the ranch just before dinner, and again all the talk was about our move, since it was mostly Ciara and Janey talking. Amber looked like she might cry, though. After dinner, Celeste and I told her she could come into town to visit any time she wanted, and that we’d be out to visit when we could, too. That cheered her up some. Things were moving so fast, I didn’t have time to miss Cody that day, until I went to bed, and then it came rushing back. In spite of my excitement over my new job and starting a life of my own, my tears soaked my pillow again before I fell asleep, exhausted.

  Two days later was when our furniture was supposed to be delivered, and then we could move into our house and I could start work. Celeste wouldn’t start until the next Thursday, so she’d be able to get the house put together while I worked. Charity took us aside on the last day before we moved and asked us if we’d ever handled money or kept a budget before. Our blank looks must have told her everything she needed to know, because the rest of that day was a lesson in household money management. I thought I had a handle on it when she was done, and though Celeste still seemed confused, I’d be there to help her and we’d manage. It wasn’t like we were moving to the Far East, after all. Rawlins was just fifteen miles from the ranch, and we knew Charity and Russ would both be there for us if we needed help.

  By the time we’d been in Rawlins for a month, we were settled in proper. Celeste was good at food service, probably because as one of the younger wives in Bethel City, she’d been responsible for chores that were very similar back then. She graduated to waiting tables in just two weeks, and was soon bringing home tips that rivaled my salary. I loved real estate school, learning all kinds of things about property that I never would have dreamed of. I finally understood how Russ had managed to run the men out of Bethel City after the Prophet was convicted. Mortgage terms, property, water and mineral rights, how to measure a house and how to figure a commission when the seller wanted a certain net price, I soaked it all up like a sponge. My job was pretty easy, besides going to school. I answered phones, and I organized the paperwork files just so, like Mr. Clark taught me, when he had a listing or a new buyer. Once I had my license, I’d be able to take listings of my own, and Mr. Clark would have me show houses to buyers and do open houses.

  One day, I was putting old files into the archive drawers, when I saw Russ’s name on one. I probably shouldn’t have done it, but I was curious, so I opened the file. That’s when I learned that he’d bought the house where Celeste and I were living, paying probably more than it was worth because the previous owner hadn’t intended to sell it. So Russ was our landlord! When I told Celeste, she said she felt better about the furniture thing, now. If we moved, he could rent the house out furnished, with good furniture. We’d make sure the kids didn’t spill on any of it now, not that we would have let them run wild before. We were just more careful.

  I’d stopped crying myself to sleep the first day of work, because I was too tired to stay awake long enough to cry. I’d get home at about five-fifteen, and find the kids napping and Celeste asleep. When the kids woke up, I’d feed them and try to keep them quiet until bedtime. We kept them up until after nine, so Celeste could kiss Daniel goodnight and so they’d sleep late in the morning, then she’d go to work and I’d go to bed. By the time I got up to get ready for work and get the kids their breakfast, Celeste would have had an hour to nap, and be ready to take care of the kids all day. On weekends, she got to sleep all day and get up earlier, but she found out that didn’t work too well, as the days she went back to the other schedule were pretty rough. Still, it gave us the chance to get out to the ranch for a visit on Saturday or Sunday.

  I was glad that Cody wasn’t there very often when we visited, since weekends were when he’d go to the nearby rodeos. There were enough of them in the small towns in Wyoming, Idaho and Utah to keep him close to home, rodeoing on weekends and staying at the ranch to work during the week. So I didn’t have to see him, and that was fine with me. I’d gone from grief to anger over what had happened between us, and I wasn’t sure whether I’d speak nicely to him or slap him. Celeste would have slapped him, for sure. She had more anger in her than I did.

  Chapter 8

  It was on one of those Saturday visits that I thought my life would end.

  Alma was four years old, now, and a more curious little boy you never met. He was smart as a whip, too. I was thinking of finding a preschool for him in the fall, when we would buy a second car, so he could have something to do with all that curiosity and energy. Most of us were in the swimming pool, or sitting around it, watching the kids. I had been talking to Charity, telling her all about my job and how excited I was to get my license if I passed the exam next week, when I realized Alma wasn’t in sight.

  I jumped up, alarmed and made a quick sweep of the pool with my eyes, while Charity followed me out of her chair and said, “What’s wrong?”

  “Where’s Alma? I can’t see him, oh
God!” My worst fear was quickly set to rest, as we got the rest of the girls involved and made sure he wasn’t under the water. I was asking Celeste to keep an eye on Tali while I went looking for Alma, when I heard his voice from over in the direction of the corral and barn.

  “Mama! Come here.”

  “No, Alma, you come here. What are you doing over there?”

  “I found something, Mama! Come see it!” I started to answer him, when all of a sudden his scream pierced the air. Then I ran.

  I hadn’t yet located Alma visually when he began to scream, but his continued screams drew me straight to him, lying on the ground about three quarters of the way to the corral where I’d watched Cody so many times. As I got closer, I could see that he was writhing in pain, but I couldn’t see what was causing it.

  “Baby, what happened?” I cried, as I reached him. Horrifyingly, his little legs were beginning to swell with big, ugly purple lumps and there was one on his right hand. I was examining him frantically when Charity reached us.

  “Oh, my God. Those are snake bites!” Charity half-screamed, and then screamed in earnest, “Help! Girls, get Russ! Tell him Alma’s been snake-bit! Hurry!”

  “What can I do? What can I do?” I moaned. Alma had stopped screaming, but was still crying and his little body was wracked with a pain that I couldn’t imagine.

  “Keep him still, calm him down. We’ve got anti-venom, Russ will be here with it in a minute. Will you be okay here until he gets here? I need to find the snake.”

  “Charity, be careful!”

  “I know, hon. You take care of Alma, and I’ll take care of the snake.”

  She got up and started scanning the ground, looking for where the snake had crawled off, and I turned back to Alma. He was beginning to twitch uncontrollably, and drool came out of his mouth in bubbles. My sobs mixed with his as we waited for Russ. It probably wasn’t more than a couple of minutes, because the girls who’d been in the pool had just started arriving, their wet kids in their arms, when he ran up. Only Ciara was missing.

  “Back off, girls. In fact, go in the house. If there’s one snake around here, could be more. Watch where you step.”

  They all fled, Celeste last, holding Daniel in one arm and Tali in the other. “Annalee…”

  “Go!” Russ yelled at her, and she ran.

  All the time, he’d been feeling Alma’s legs, trying to get an idea of how many bites there were. He opened the snake bite kit and took out a rubber thing that he squeezed and then applied to each place he could see a hole where the snake’s fang went in. That’s all there was he could do, and I could tell he was worried. “Russ, is he going to be okay?”

  “Annalee, you need to be strong. I can’t say because I don’t know. But we’ll do everything we can.”

  Just then, a loud noise, so loud I couldn’t think, coming from above made me look up, to see a helicopter approaching over the roof of the house. Russ stood up and waved his arms back and forth, until the helicopter started to settle into the flat, empty space between the swimming pool and the corral. Two men with medical bags got out, ducked low and ran from the ‘copter toward us. Thankfully, the noise went down a little, so Russ and the men could talk.

  “What’s it look like?” one asked him.

  “Snakebite, looks like several to the legs, maybe as many as four, and one to the right hand. I suctioned them, and my wife is looking for the snake.”

  “Any idea whether it was a rattler?”

  “That’s what we’re afraid of,” Russ said. Alma’s eyes were open and glazed over, but I thought he might be able to tell us something.

  “Alma, baby, did you see a snake?”

  “’Nake,” he said.

  “Did it make any noise?”

  Alma stuck his tongue out between his lips and blew a raspberry, though it wasn’t very effective.

  “Did it rattle like that, baby?”

  “’Nake rattle.”

  I looked up at the EMTs, who both had concerned looks on their faces. “What’s wrong? Can’t you just give him the medicine? He’s just a baby! Help him,” I sobbed, running out of breath.

  One EMT knelt on one knee beside me and put his hand on my shoulder. “You must be his mother. What’s his name, ma’am?”

  “Alma. Al. Why aren’t you helping him?”

  “Ma’am, we need to be sure Al was bitten by a poisonous snake before we give him anti-venom. Otherwise, it could make him almost as sick as the snake bite.”

  “He said it rattled,” I said coldly.

  “Ma’am, he’s a smart little boy, but it’s clear he’s sick, and you were leading him. We can’t take a chance.”

  “So you’ll take a chance on him dying?” I wished the bitter words back as soon as I said them. These men were doing their best, it just wasn’t good enough. He stood up and consulted in a low voice with his partner, then took off at a trot in the direction Charity had gone.

  In a few minutes he was back. “Prairie rattler,” he said. “Mrs. White followed a clear trail ‘til she could see it.” No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the other man whipped the medical bag around and reached in for a vial of anti-venom. As he got it started, the first one gestured to Russ and they went back to the copter, then came back with a stretcher. They loaded Alma onto the stretcher, and the EMTs carried him to the ‘copter with me trailing behind.

  “Can I go with him?”

  “Yes, ma’am, we need you to. We need to get your little guy to the hospital, and we’ll take a medical history on the way. The sooner we get him fully treated, the better it will go for him.”

  “Is he going to be okay?” I pleaded.

  “We’re going to do our best to be sure he makes it, ma’am.” It was a peculiar answer to my question, that didn’t really answer it. Making it and okay were two different things in my mind, and I wondered what they weren’t telling me.

  While I answered questions that one EMT asked and he recorded the answers on a tablet computer, the other worked on Alma. He drew blood, took his temperature and blood pressure and started an IV. Al babbled now and then, but even I couldn’t understand him. Nevertheless, the EMT answered him as if he were an older child, explaining in simple terms what he was doing. I didn’t know if it was a comfort to Al, but it was to me.

  “I’m sorry I said that, when you didn’t know what kind of snake it was,” I apologized, ashamed of myself.

  “Don’t worry about it ma’am. We’re used to moms being upset, and it’s natural that you would be.”

  “Why did he take Al’s blood, to see how much poison is in it?”

  “That, and to type it, in case he needs a transfusion. Do you know your blood type ma’am?”

  “No, I’m sorry.”

  “No worries. His is going to either be the same as yours, or the same as his daddy’s. Was his daddy back at the ranch?”

  Guilt flooded me as I realized Alma’s father hadn’t heard from me in months. When he went to prison, I applied for sole custody of the kids, and though he was supposed to pay child support, there was no way he could. I had written him off, and we hadn’t heard from him, either. “No,” I answered, shortly. The EMT continued to look at me expectantly, and when I said nothing else, entered a note on the tablet and went on with his other questions.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t answer most of the questions about his dad’s family. Later, I’d realize that the EMT would have thought I didn’t know who the father was. But nothing mattered except getting Al the treatment he needed.

  The helicopter ride was over almost before it began, as it was a short hop to Rawlins, where I ran behind the EMTs as they rushed Al into the emergency department. There were doctors and nurses there already waiting for us, and they went right to work on Al. I sat numbly and watched, unable to summon the thoughts that would lead to any questions, as strangers cared for my baby. I just had to trust that they were doing the best they could for him. I couldn’t take in everything they were doing, measuring aro
und his legs and arm, taking his vital signs it seemed constantly until they hooked him up to a machine that reported them in a constant stream of green pixels on the screen.

  Suddenly, a technician was in front of me, asking for a blood sample. “Why?” I said.

  “We need to type your blood, ma’am. Your son may need a transfusion, and he has a rare blood type that we don’t have on hand. It isn’t accepted practice, but you might be his best bet if we have to send to Casper or even Cheyenne for it.”

  I let him take my blood, and then sank back into lethargy. It was maybe an hour later when Charity entered the area, and came to my side.

  “How are you holding up, hon?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. They can’t tell me he’ll be okay. Charity, what if he dies?”

  “Honey, don’t think like that. It won’t do him any good and it’s doing you a lot of harm. I think you’re in shock, I’m going to get someone to look at you.”

  “No, let them take care of Al!” I wailed.

  “There are plenty to go around, Annalee. I’ll be right back.”

  True to her word, Charity was back in a minute with a technician on her heels. He took my temperature and pulse, nodded, and told me to wait there. In a few minutes, a gurney was wheeled in and he insisted I lie down on it and put a warmed blanket over me.