“It’s nearly 10,” she said, confused.
“Lyle called me. His son-in-law fell, thinks he broke his arm.”
“Well shit, why don’t we tell him to go to Fort Smith?” she asked.
“Because his daughter Steff was panicked, and made him call us first, and I told him to come over.”
“This the whole good fences, good neighbors, mending fences bullshit stuff?” Leah asked.
“Yes,” Dante said with a sigh.
“Oh, that’s ok I guess.” She changed her attitude so fast Dante thought he might be getting whiplash.
“I’m glad you approve,” he said tightly.
Both paused while they listened to the UTV drive up. Andrea came in, her hair pulled into a tight bun, working her crutch like she had been born to it.
“Is our patient here yet?” she asked.
“No,” Dante told her. “I’m going to get a bed ready.” He headed to the area where the roll up door was that they could easily lift stretchers in and out of.
They could probably walk him in with a broken arm as long as he wasn’t in shock, but old habits were hard for Dante to break, even if the location he was doing it in wasn’t exactly the same as the hospital he’d put nearly 20 years into.
“What can I do to help?” Andrea asked.
“Can you get the x-ray in room three ready to go?” Dante asked her.
“Sure,” Andrea said, and started moving.
“What do you want me to do?” Leah asked.
“I want you to do the doctoring. I’m just the muscle,” he said with a grin.
“Good, then I’m glad you have a bed prepped for my patient. When you’re done there, can you get me materials out for putting a cast on if it’s a break we can treat here?”
“Yes doctor,” he said, moving quickly past her.
She tried to slap his butt, but he was too fast for her. She was about to call out something scandalous to him when the intercom went off.
“Hello,” Leah said.
“This is Lyle, I got my daughter and son-in-law with me. He fell off a ladder, and I think his arm is broken.”
“No problem. Is anybody behind you or coming in our direction?” she asked.
“No.”
She confirmed this with the cameras they had installed near the gates, and hit the button to open both sets at once.
“Thank you,” he said, his voice fading from the radio as his truck started moving.
“X-ray is all ready,” Andrea told them, setting her crutch to the side and pulling on a white lab coat.
Dante had his on by the time he came back and held Leah’s out to her. She grinned, pulling it on, and then hit the button to lift the overhead door. They could see Lyle already in front of the building. With the bright lights on inside, they could make out his truck, but Lyle could also see at the overhead door they had a bed waiting. He backed up to that and then shut the truck off. Leah hit the close gate buttons and waited as Steff and Don got out of the back seat of the truck.
“Thank you,” Lyle said as he got closer, “I didn’t know if it was too late and my daughter…”
“We see this all the time, it’s our job and what we’ve dedicated our life to,” Dante told him.
“Don, do you need any help getting on the bed?” Andrea called.
“I got this,” Don told them while cradling his left arm with his right.
“Do you feel lightheaded, dizzy, nauseous?”
“No,” he said sitting on the edge of the bed carefully, then swung his legs over the side.
“Steff, come with me,” Andrea told her. “I have to get a basic history from you and him, but first I think Doctor Weaver is going to x-ray that arm.”
Steff looked torn between the two and then nodded. Andrea led her into the office area that doubled as their secondary monitoring center. Steff’s eyes got huge as she took in all of the LCD screens and camera views around the farm.
“Holy shit,” she said in a soft voice.
The break was a clean one. While Dante helped Leah set it, Lyle kept an eye on his son-in-law. They had asked him to roll a tray of tools and bandages over, and he was only too glad to help. To say Lyle doted on his kids was an understatement. He had gotten into more trouble over his kids than he had over anything he’d started himself, his mouth included. So he watched over Steff’s husband while the two doctors worked faster than he could have believed.
They were almost done putting a cast on him when Steff and Andrea came out of a small nondescript room. They slowly walked over, not wanting to startle anybody, but watching the action.
“Want me to find you a chair?” Andrea asked her. “It looks like they’re almost done casting, and then we have to wait for it to finish drying.”
“I should be asking you that,” Steff said with a half laugh, half sob.
Andrea looked at her casts and shrugged. “I sit down a lot. I won’t be shy if I get tired and need to sit.”
“Fair enough,” Steff said. “Where’s a chair?”
“Room three had a couple of spares,” Andrea told her.
“How’d you fall?” Andrea asked Don.
“I was on a ladder trying to change a lightbulb over the staircase. I couldn’t quite reach it, so I put my arm out on the wall to steady myself. That way I could reach a little bit more. That’s when I fell, right on my damned arm.”
“Well, it’s a clean break, and it was easy to cast. You got here before the swelling was too bad and we’ve been able to cast you up. All in all, I’d say you should be in good shape. We just have to let the cast dry now.”
“Will you three autograph it for him?” Steff asked them suddenly. “So he remembers not to be such a dumbass?”
“Steff…”
“No, Don, I mean it,” she said.
“I don’t mind if they sign it, but I don’t need to be reminded I did something dumb. I think the cast is going to be proof enough of that for a while,” he said with a grin.
“What do I owe you folks?” Lyle asked suddenly, reaching for his wallet.
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Dante told him.
“No really,” Lyle said. “You at least had to use materials, power, supplies. I didn’t come here unable to pay.”
“How about we make a trade?” Leah asked suddenly.
“What kind of trade are you talking about?” Lyle asked.
“Let some of our heifers date big red once in a while?” she asked.
Lyle’s head tilted to the side, a confused look on his face, “Sure, but… why?” he asked.
“Genetic diversity,” Andrea told him. “Someday maybe we’ll trade stud services for some of our sows?”
“You know,” he said taking his hat off and wiping his head, “you folks make it downright difficult to dislike you.” He said the last bit with a smile.
“If it doesn’t sound unfair. I honestly don’t know what the fair market value is on that, so if we’re asking too much—”
“I think Daddy would be happy to get Big Red more girlfriends. He’s been a terror this year and he just keeps getting more and more ornery. I’ve been pushing him to send the big guy to freezer camp, but he just won’t listen.” Steff nudged her father.
“Because his babies turn out pretty big, not always his size, but we’re into the beef game, not milk on our side of the fence.”
“We are too, but we’re thinking of getting a milk cow or two for our own personal use. What do you say, is that a good enough trade or should we negotiate up or down? Without Rob in here we really don’t know,” Andrea explained.
“That sounds good to me,” Lyle reassured them. “Especially if we can tag your heifers and get them to go through the gate. It’ll be easier to take them to him rather than vice versa.”
“Unless Miss Anna is out there with a bucket of sweet feed,” Don said, not wanting to be left out of the conversation.
“Yeah, that one’s a real head scratcher,” Lyle said, confused.
&nb
sp; “Who, Anna? She’s perfectly normal, in fact—”
“Sorry, no,” Lyle interrupted. “I meant how that big bull acts around her.”
Steff snorted. “It’s the whole beauty and the beast thing, I bet.”
“Beauty and the b… Ohhhhh, you think the big stud is soft on a…” Lyle started laughing, startling them all.
If asked before this day, the family that lived on the Langtry farm would have said they’d never heard true laughter come out of the old rancher. This was big belly laughs, guffaws. Steff snickered and Don chuckled at the surprised looks on everybody's faces.
“Even Rob said he’s terrified of that bull,” Andrea said, “but for some reason, she just walked up and made him her bitch.”
Lyle laughed even harder.
“When Rob told me over the radio, I didn’t believe it at first,” Lyle said, calming, “but then I saw it and I had no idea what she did. The big bull had already eaten the feed in the bucket when I’d gotten there, but he was just following her around as long as she had a hand on him, petting him.
“Maybe that’s why he’s so cranky, Pop,” Steff said with a grin. “He’s missing out on some loving.”
Dante and Leah snickered. They all carried on like that until the timer went off. They checked Don’s cast to make sure it had dried and cured, then Andrea produced a sharpie from a pocket and made her way over to Don.
Never trust a ladder - Andrea
She handed it over to Leah who wrote, Watch your step. - Leah
Dante got it last. No more naked headstands - Dante
Lyle was still smiling when they finished the last and put his hat back on.
“You guys need anything, let me know. Have Rob or Miss Anna let me know when they’re ready to let Big Red do his thing?”
“Sure thing,” Dante said, holding out his hand. “Listen, tomorrow morning we’re throwing a pig on the smoker. I figure it’ll be a good eight to ten hours to finish it off, but you and the family are more than welcome to come out and have supper with us. We’ll probably have a small bonfire afterwards and see if we can’t polish off another jar of Dewayne’s moonshine. What do you think?”
Don got up slowly, Steff making sure she had a hand under his good arm.
“I appreciate the offer. Can I call you in the morning and let you know?”
“Sure thing,” Andrea told him, “and I mean all the family, hell, the ranch. Now that Grandma Goldie showed us how to process a pig, we could probably do another one up in the morning and have it ready within an hour of the one we have in an ice bath right now.”
Lyle nodded. “Thank you, I’ll let you know.”
The group watched them load up. The clean up and sanitizing that was normally the job of nurses and orderlies was done by the doctors. They were done in less than ten minutes, then washed their hands good.
“He seemed surprised by the invite,” Dante said.
“I know; think we should have asked the whole group first? With Steven already inviting Luis to come?” Leah asked.
“I don’t think that’ll bother anybody. I know I can speak for Curt, and I think Anna would be fine with it. She’s the one who extended the hand of friendship first, so to speak.”
“What about Rob and Angelica?” Dante asked.
Dante winced. “I wasn’t thinking about everyone,” he admitted. “I’m getting tired. These banker’s hours are wearing me out.”
“I don’t think he’d mind,” Leah told him. “Let’s go to bed. Tomorrow is hopefully going to be a lot of fun, and we have a million things to get ready side dish wise, especially if we have extra guests.”
“You know,” Andrea said suddenly, “we have a farm here. We have critters, grains and soon milk. Why don’t we have a small kitchen garden? We’re in the south, we can grow almost all year long.”
Dante and Leah looked at her, their mouths hanging open slightly. “I um... didn't… I mean, it hadn’t crossed my mind,” he answered.
“Yeah, it’s been a nutso year,” Leah admitted. “We had a garden at our house, but we haven’t been back in forever. Probably won’t be if we can sell it.”
“I think Steven and Anna are in the same boat. I hope we sell ours too,” Andrea said. “It’ll be nice to officially live here full time.”
“All it takes is six months and a day,” Dante told her, then swooped Leah off her feet, holding her close, “and I want to end this day, the right way.” He kissed his wife deeply, making her giggle like she was twenty years younger.
“I’ve got the lights, you two be careful walking back in the dark,” Andrea called, chuckling and happy for her friends.
Six
The roosters in the barn started going crazy at 5am. Most of the group did not hear them crowing, but Goldie did. She loved her new bedroom in the old farmhouse. It had its own small bathroom with a walk-in shower that she would be able to easily get in and out of. Dewayne had installed grab bars for himself everywhere, so when she needed that, it was already there. Steven had stripped the old wallpaper out for her, and the girls had painted the plaster a soft yellow with white trim. To finish it off she had a small closet, small if it was by apartment standards. That was where she kept her husband's old twenty-gauge double barrel shotgun.
She’d had Rob cut it down as much as he legally could, so it wasn’t a burden to carry. She had one barrel loaded with buckshot and one with a slug. She figured farming had always been dangerous, and there was always a critter looking to get an easy meal, so she went out safe, like everybody else did. Just for different reasons. Since it was Saturday, market day, she was going to get the eggs for Angelica and Harry so they could get a little more sleep.
Plus, she wanted to use some of the freshest eggs in her baking today. She put her muck boots on at the door and tried to go out alone, but Ranger had heard her and was now pushing his head in the doorway to go with her.
“Damn dog, you trip me, I’m going to cook you up for dinner too,” she said with a gruff voice.
Ranger gave her a doggy smile and then ran out the door when she held it open for him. He ran to a fence post that no longer had a fence connected to it and did his morning routine. Then he caught up to Goldie as she made her way to the chicken barn, a shotgun in one hand, two buckets stacked together in her other.
The timer had just turned the lights on she saw, so she did not have to fuss with them. The meat pen of chickens looked like they were ready to do a massive harvest. In fact, some of the birds looked a little past their prime time to harvest and were now just eating feed that could have gone to some new chicks. She decided to mention that to Rob, and made her way to the laying side of things.
The birds were up and about, ready to attack the cracked corn and oyster shell mixture in the automatic feeder. The birds might be dumb, but they knew when the dinner bell was ringing, or breakfast bell in this case. Goldie had found that this was the best time to come collect eggs without any of the broody birds going after her. They had to eat, so when the timer went off on the feeder, they all got to it.
Putting the shotgun on a sling over her shoulder, Goldie started collecting eggs. She saw more than a few dozen babies running around the feet of their moms and a few roosters perched, watching everything. One bucket filled quickly and the other went almost as fast. She only jumped a little bit when the feeder turned on and she got pelted in the backside by the feed mix. When she collected all the eggs she was going to, she noted which nest boxes the broody hens were sitting on to pass that on to Rob. If she were lucky, she could get most of these eggs washed and breakfast started before they rolled out of bed.
“Mom, what are you doing?” Rob asked, rubbing his face sleepily.
“It’s market day,” she said.
“Oh shit,” Rob muttered, “the pig roast.”
“Don’t worry, I have things all planned out. Here’s what I want you to do,” she said sweetly, handing him the eggs. “We’re gonna wash these up good and put them in a cleaner bucket. That w
ay you only have to touch them up at the market. Angelica said she usually sells about twenty-six dozen on Saturdays, so we’ll put out say twenty-four dozen. I already got a coffee can to use as an honor box… Angel can take these to the market and put them in crates, put your honor box up, and then come back here if you want. I’ll have Angel call Kerry to see if she can hide the box until next Tuesday. That way you can be here all day long.”
“You know what, Mom?” Rob asked, moving close to her, and kissing her on the forehead. “I wish I was as smart as you some days.” He yawned and pulling back.
“Now, are you going to help me get these washed?”
“Yes ma’am, just as soon as I fill the feeders, make sure the waterers didn’t get clogged and then check on the goats, pigs and cows.”
“I’ll get Angelica up,” Grandma Goldie told him.
“She’s already up, making coffee and getting pancake batter ready.”
“Bless her, ok, I’ll pick on her then.”
Rob waved to her and walked out, headed towards the other barn where he stored the bagged feed for the chickens. Goldie adjusted the shotgun over her shoulder and picked up the buckets of eggs and headed inside with Ranger following closely.
Angel was almost mobbed for fresh eggs when the market opened. She was still setting up the stock she had brought in from Thursday that hadn’t sold and was working on crating the rest of the new stuff.
“Can I get three dozen?” a man asked.
“Sure thing Hun, toss $15 in the box there and grab them off top,” she said with a smile.
“Really? You’re not restricting how much I buy?” he asked, confused.
“No,” Angel told him, both hands working fast to get the eggs in crates.
“Thanks!” he said, and was immediately replaced with three more people who saw the transaction.
“Honor box?” a woman asked.
“Yes ma’am,” Angelica said. “We’ve got a little bit of a thing going on back at the farm and can’t be here all day.”
“No problem,” the woman said. “Honesty, I figured you guys would have everything under lock and key, and restricted, like the stores are doing.”
Behind The Curve-The Farm | Book 2 | The Farm Page 3