The Cow-Pie Chronicles (17 page)

“You know you're always welcome,” the man said. “Tim, let your dad know that Ken said ‘hi.' ”

“I will,” Tim said.

Instead of leaving the way they came in, the two went through a door that led to the plant.

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Chapter 20

Niki led Tim through a maze of pipes, steam, whining motors and steel tanks and Tim was in absolute awe over all the equipment. He wanted to just stand still and take it all in—it was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

“Come on, let's go,” Niki said, pulling him through a door that led outside.

Adjusting their eyes to the bright sunlight, the two stood at the edge of a large hay field with a dirt trail running across the middle. On the other side of the field were more farm buildings. “Short cut,” Niki said.

Tim instantly felt at home in the field of waist-high alfalfa. Bees hovered over the purple blossoms dotting the tall green plants and sparrows occasionally darted out on the trail in front of them. A gentle wind tilted the tops of the plants in sweeping waves across the large field.

When they got closer to the farm buildings, Tim spotted a huge herd of cattle surrounded by an electric fence. “How many cows do you have?” he asked.

“I'm not sure. Four or five hundred,” Niki said.

“Wow, we only had 40 milking cows on our farm,” Tim said.

“Same with us when we had our farm,” Niki said.

Niki led Tim to a white, single-level, wooden farmhouse and they went inside. A woman was inside, working in the kitchen.

“Mom, this is Tim.”

“Hi, Tim. Would you like to stay for supper?” Mrs. Hiller asked.

“Um, sure,” Tim said. He thanked her for her kindness.

“Niki, I need some greens from the garden,” her mom said.

Niki's brother walked in from another room, nearly bumping into Tim.

“Who's this?” asked Frank Hiller.

“Tim Slinger. The dairy bought their cows when they lost their farm,” Niki told her brother. Frank shook his head, understanding what she was saying. “Take him to see Patsy while I help Mom.”

“Sure,” he said to his sister. He extended his hand to Tim and the two shook. “Hi, I'm Frank. Come on.”

The two boys walked down a gravel lane toward a large pole barn. Inside were cattle pens.

“When did you move here?” Frank asked.

“Beginning of summer.”

“Must've been a long summer,” Frank said.

“You have no idea.”

They stopped next to a pen with one young cow in it.

“This one's Patsy,” Frank said

“Are you sure?” Tim asked. He stared at the well-groomed cow. She was three times bigger than the last time Tim had seen her.

“Yep. There's her ribbon from the fair hanging on the wall,” Frank said, pointing to the back of the pen.

“She sure looks great!” Tim said.

“Yeah, I still can't believe Niki worked so hard on her. She never wanted to go near any of the animals around this place until she saw Patsy being sold at your auction.”

“Why would she care about a calf East Dairy bought at our auction?” Tim asked.

“East Dairy didn't buy Patsy. When Niki saw her being auctioned, she made Dad buy it for her,” Frank said.

“I don't understand,” Tim said.

“She said Patsy wasn't supposed to be just another cow in the herd. Dad thinks it was because it made her feel like we were still on our own farm,” Frank said.

“I don't understand. Isn't this a farm?” Tim asked.

“This isn't a farm. It's a milk factory. Come on, I'll show you.”

Frank led the way across the huge barnyard to the milking parlor. They walked most of the way through foot-deep dirt, with the last part being cement.

“Wow, this would be a great place for cow skiing,” Tim said.

Frank stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Tim. “Did I say something wrong?” Tim asked.

“I've never met anyone else who has tried cow skiing. I thought I was the only one!” Frank said. “Seriously, you cow ski?”

“
Yeah. But I haven't done it in a long time.”

“Ever try a double?” Frank asked.

“What's a double?”

“You hold on to two cow tails at the same time. It's like riding in a Roman chariot.”

“Awesome!” Tim said. He could hardly believe he was having this conversation.

“Yeah, until the cows go on opposite sides of a tree,” Frank said. “Ouch!”

“Try landing in a rock pile. I can still feel where that boulder bruised my ribs.” Tim said. Then he asked, “How are you able to get away with cow skiing around here? My dad said he'd kill me the next time he caught me doing it.”

Frank shook his head sadly and looked down at the ground. “I don't. I got hurt real bad once and had to quit.”

“What happened?” Tim asked.

“Dad caught me and beat the heck out of me,” Frank said.

“Sounds familiar,” Tim nodded.

They continued their walk to the milking parlor. Pointing to a huge field of alfalfa, Tim asked Frank, “How much of that belongs to East Dairy?”

“East Dairy owns all of it now, as far as you can see. It used to belong to four different families. A couple of the families now rent the two farmhouses on the side closest to town, but the farmhouse on the far side is an empty wreck. On cold days, I use it to get out of the wind when I'm hunting.”

“It must take forever to harvest all of that,” Tim said.

“No time at all. They hire a harvesting company that has a bunch of machines, and they roll right through it,” Frank said.

Tim was beginning to understand why Frank and Niki said they didn't live on a farm. “So all you guys do is take care of the cows?” Tim asked.

“We only milk them,” Frank said. “Here's the milking parlor. Come on in.”

They entered a large, building made from
cinder block
and stopped a few feet inside the large doorway. Tim stood and gawked. The room in front of him had pipes, black hoses and clear tubes running all over the ceiling and down to each of the 40 milking machines hanging on poles behind the rails that held the cows. In the center of the room was a concrete trench deep enough so the person attaching the milking machines to the cows didn't have to bend over. And the gutters where the cow poop fell had water lines that automatically washed the gook out into a holding tank.

“Whoa. This is nothing like our farm,” Tim said.

“Like I said, this is a big milk factory and we're the hired help.”

Tim looked around at all the equipment as he thought about what Frank had said, about being the hired help. Frank still lived and worked on a farm, and Tim never wanted to leave. “Still beats playing in Little League any day,” Tim said.

“Got that right. Hey, wanna spend the night? I'll bet cow skiing isn't the only thing we have in common.”

“Yeah! Let's go call my mom!”

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Chapter 21

Tim got to spend the night at the Hiller's house and had a great day on Saturday, exploring the land owned by East Dairy with his new friends. He even helped them with some of their chores, which brought back memories of doing his own farm chores.

Much later that day, as the sun was beginning to lower in the western sky, Tim frowned. He knew it was time to go. “I better get home before Mom starts to worry,” Tim said.

“Okay. We had a great time! See you in school,” Frank and Niki said, waving goodbye.

Tim took off running along the road leading into town. He ran part of the way then slowed to a walk—it only took him 30 minutes to get home. While Tim was anxious to tell his mom what a wonderful time he had with his new friends, he wasn't sure how she would feel about him being around the dangers of a farm again.

He went inside to find her, but found Dana first.

“Have fun being a Poop Slinger again?” Dana asked.

“More fun than you, Dee-Dee.”

Dana tossed her hair back. “How would you know how much fun I'm having?”

“Who cares? Where's Mom?” Tim asked.

“Fixing supper,” Dana said.

Mom walked in from the kitchen. “About time you got home,” she said.

“I had a great time. Frank is really cool!”

Dana squeezed her eyebrows together, not sure she heard Tim correctly. “Frank? I thought you went to see your
girlfriend
?”

“Niki isn't my girlfriend. She's a friend who lives on a farm. Frank is her brother,” Tim said.

“So you stayed all night with your
boyfriend
?” Dana asked.

“
Stop it, you two. The yard needs mowing and there're dishes to wash,” Mom said. Tim headed for the back door and Dana
sulked
as she walked into the kitchen.

* * *

The rest of the weekend seemed to drag on forever. Tim looked forward to getting back to school so he could hang out with his new friends. And deep down inside, he tried to convince himself he was excited because he could talk to Frank at lunchtime, but there was no hiding his excitement about seeing Niki again, too.

That Monday morning, Tim got up an hour earlier than normal so he could pick out the best-looking clothes he had to wear. It didn't take long, as he only had one really nice outfit, which was usually reserved for special occasions.
This will have to do
, he said to himself as he got dressed.

He walked into the kitchen trying to act like everything was normal. Dana was sitting at the table while their mom cooked breakfast. Mom turned her head to say good morning, but did a double take before saying anything.

“Is it school picture day or something?” Mom asked.

“No. I felt like dressing nice for no reason,” Tim said.