The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate (16 page)

Then he did what I'm sure was the hardest thing of his young life: He picked up a handful of stones and started throwing them at her, weeping and yelling the whole time. “Go away, you stupid raccoon,” he screamed. “I can't love you anymore.”

The first stone whizzed over her head, and she turned to look at whatever it was behind her. The second one struck the ground in front of her paws, and she flinched. The third rock struck her on the flanks with a faint thunk. It wasn't a very big stone, only a pebble, and it probably didn't hurt, but I couldn't tell who was more shocked, she or Travis. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. She growled like a dog at her former lord and master, turned tail, and disappeared into the bush.

Sobbing, Travis wheeled and ran down the trail toward home. I followed him, helpless, filled with pity and admiration, sending up a silent prayer to the raccoon gods that none of us would ever set eyes on Bandit again.

*   *   *

I
F THE TRIP OUT
had been miserable, the trip home was excruciating. Scratched, sunburned, hungry, weary, and burdened not with a raccoon but a heartbroken brother.

When we stopped to rest, I hugged him and said, “You did a brave thing. You saved her, you know.”

He only nodded and sobbed. He managed to cry himself out and wipe most of the grief from his face by the time we got home, for which I was grateful. We did our best to tidy ourselves before going inside but still were met with quizzical looks at the table. Lamar spoke to me in a voice carefully calculated for me (but not Mother) to hear: “You look like someone dragged you through the cactus patch backward and beat you with buzzard guts. Har.”

I was too tuckered out to come up with a smart retort. Travis and I managed to hold it together through the meal, and I was proud of both of us. But there was one thing we'd forgotten. How to explain the loss of two hens out of fourteen? If I'd been thinking more clearly, I'd have torn an “escape” hole in the corner of the pen to explain their disappearance.

Viola noted their absence the next day when collecting eggs for breakfast. She must have guessed that we had something to do with it but she never brought it up. She must have figured that we had paid a high enough price—whatever it was—for the goings-on, whatever they were.

A week later, the scab healing over Travis's grief was ripped open again when we discovered what we figured was Bandit's former den, a dry hole in the riverbank where she'd been living before he found her. The rank hole was littered with chicken bones and fish guts and even a filthy scrap of cloth that turned out to be part of a man's shirt, filched, no doubt, from some housewife's clothesline.

Travis paled and said, “It's too close to home. If she comes back here, she might come all the way back to the house.”

Our discovery caused him several sleepless nights but—thank goodness—we never saw that raccoon again. I sympathized with Travis as best I could until I had to face an animal trauma of my own.

 

CHAPTER 13

DR. PRITZKER IN ACTION

Many of the remedies used by the people of the country are ludicrously strange, but too disgusting to be mentioned.

D
R.
P
RITZKER WAS NOW OFFICIALLY
in business, with Viola's nephew Samuel as his newly hired assistant. He had rented an office off Main Street that shared a corral and stable with the blacksmith, an arrangement that would increase business for them both. Our opportunity to see the doctor in action came soon enough. The draft horse King Arthur had gone lame and was getting worse. Our family owned six heavy horses, four riding horses, and Sunshine, the vicious elderly Shetland pony that most of us were now too big or too smart to ride, what with her propensity for trying to take a chunk out of your leg and hanging on like a snapping turtle.

Dr. Pritzker and Samuel pulled up in a cart drawn by a buckskin mare. Samuel unloaded a big clanking canvas bag and carried it to the barn. Travis and I trailed along behind, interested in how a veterinarian with only one usable arm could possibly manage.

“How is your hand, Dr. Pritzker?” I said.

“It's getting a little stronger, Calpurnia. Nice of you to ask. I have a ball of India rubber, and I squeeze it as hard as I can for ten minutes every morning and evening. The exercise improves the muscles, you see.” He held up his clawed hand and tried to waggle the stiff fingers.

“I see,” I said doubtfully. It looked about the same to me.

We followed them into the cool depths of the barn where stood King Arthur, a great gentle dapple-gray Clydesdale with feathered hooves and a mild personality much at odds with his intimidating physique. If you wanted to, you could fit half a dozen children along his back. And unlike Sunshine, he wouldn't even blink, let alone try and take a hunk out of you.

Arthur stood on three legs, the left front leg canted off the ground. His head drooped; his eyes were filmy. He looked the very picture of an unwell equine.

Samuel and Dr. Pritzker each put on a leather apron and entered the stall. Samuel secured a rope to Arthur's halter, smoothing his forelock and gently rubbing the long face.

Travis said, “What's wrong with him, Dr. Pritzker?”

“You see how he's standing? He doesn't want to put any weight on that hoof, which means it's either founder or an abscess. Let's hope it's an abscess.”

“Why?” Travis said.

“Because founder is hell—uh, difficult to treat, unlike an abscess, which is easy to fix.”

“How do you fix it?”

“You'll see. Snub him up tight now, Samuel.”

Samuel looped the rope through a tie-down ring and then gently lifted the leg, cradling the hoof in his hands. Dr. Pritzker produced a strangely shaped tool that looked rather like a medieval instrument of torture. Being used to Granddaddy's lessons, I expected him to tell me its name and its uses. But he said nothing, merely started pressing it against various parts of Arthur's hoof.

I spoke up impatiently. “What
is
that thing?”

He glanced up and seemed surprised. But why? Was I just supposed to stand there being decorative? What about learning something new? Granddaddy always said that life was full of opportunities to learn something new about the world, and one should glean all one could from an expert in his field, no matter what that field might be.

Dr. Pritzker said, “It's called a hoof tester. You compress various parts of the hoof with it, and it tells you where the pain is.” He tapped gently. Arthur flinched and whickered and tried to toss his head against the rope.

“Abscess, I think.” He pulled a long curved knife from his tool bag and said, “I'm not sure you should watch this.”

“Why not?” I said.

“Well, it's not a sight for those of delicate constitution.”

Me? Delicate? What a laugh. I said, “I only look delicate, but I'm not. Really.”

“Well, I doubt your momma would approve.”

“She doesn't care,” I lied. I had no idea what he was referring to but I knew for a fact that anything Mother didn't approve of would probably be really interesting.

“I suspect she'll care about this. Better stand back.”

We took a small step back.

“A bit more.”

We took another small step back. He looked as if he was going to order us back again, so I said, “We have to be able to
see
, you know.”

“Don't say I didn't warn you,” he said wryly. I barely had time to think,
Warn us about what?
when he inserted the point of the knife into the bottom of the hoof and twisted it. A great gout of foul-smelling black fluid erupted from the hoof; it fountained all the way across the stall and splattered on the far wall, missing us by inches.

“Yow!” I'd never seen anything like it. It was dumbfounding … disgusting … amazing. I turned to Travis. “Did you see that?”

He didn't answer. He was breathing heavily and had turned an interesting greenish hue.

I said to Dr. Pritzker, “What
is
all that stuff?”

“That's the pus and blood from the infection. He'll start to feel better now that it's out.”

“And he's been carrying all that stuff around in his hoof? Why does it smell like that?”

“That's the smell the germs make when they're breaking down the tissues of the body. That's what produces pus.”

Lucky it had missed us. I could imagine Mother's reaction if I showed up covered in horse pus. Black horse pus at that. She'd never let me out of the house—no, out of my room—ever again. Never ever in my whole life. (Actually that might not be so bad, as long as I could have all the books I wanted, and not just Aggie's dull biographies.)

Samuel left to get a bucket of hot water and Epsom salts from Viola. Travis leaned against the stable door.

“Are you all right?” I said.

He gulped. “Yep. Fine.”

“Are you sure? You don't look so good.”

“Fine.”

I turned my attention back to Dr. Pritzker and watched him run his good hand over Arthur, checking his teeth and withers and fetlocks and hocks.

“He's a grand horse otherwise,” he said. “Should be good for many years of plowing yet.”

Far from bearing a grudge, Arthur actually looked better already and seemed to enjoy the knowledgeable hand moving over him. Samuel returned with the bucket, and the two of them maneuvered it under the infected hoof. Arthur sank his leg into the bucket, sighing in what sounded like relief. I glanced at Travis and noted that his color was improving.

“The heat will draw out the rest of the infection,” Dr. Pritzker said. “Then we'll put a bandage on it to keep it clean.”

“You know what?” I said. “Granddaddy says the days of the horse are numbered. He says that soon we'll all be using auto-mobiles to plow. I can't see it myself. But he's generally right about such things.”

“Well, I think he's right about that. They're using steam tractors in some parts of the country, although I'd hate to see these old fellows go, myself.” He offered Arthur a palm full of grain and thumped his thick neck affectionately.

“All right,” he said, “now we'll put the bandage on.” He pulled a square of chammy leather from his bag while Samuel lifted the foot from the bucket and dried it with a clean cotton rag. He and Samuel secured the leather, finishing up with a binding of thin rawhide cord to hold it all in place. I watched closely and said, “Why are you doing that?”

“It's important to keep it all clean until it heals up. We don't want other germs getting in there where they don't belong. We'll check on him tomorrow.”

That evening Travis and I took a stroll through the barn and stopped at the patient's stall. To my dismay, Arthur was tugging at the cords around his hoof and had managed to pull the bandage halfway off.

“Oh, Arthur,” I said, “you bad horse. What are we going to do with you?”

Arthur gave no answer, but Travis said, “Should I run for Dr. Pritzker?”

“We could send for him, or…” Longish pause while I thought furiously.

“Or what?”

“I could fix it.”

“Really?” Travis sounded impressed. “You know how to do that?”

I couldn't back out now, so I slipped into the stall. “I saw them do it today. It's just a bandage. I can do it. I think. But you'll have to help.”

Arthur stood eighteen hands high and weighed about two thousand pounds, but I would rather have dealt with him than Sunshine the Shetland, shorter of stature and fouler of temper. Better the gentle giant than the nasty midget, to my way of thinking. Arthur nudged me in a friendly way, no doubt thinking of the many apples I'd brought him over the years. Good. I wanted him to remember those apples, every single one of them.

I tied his halter rope short and then tried to pick up his foot. Nothing happened. I leaned against his massive shoulder and pushed. Nothing. I took a deep breath and threw myself against his side. Still nothing. I made a fist and punched him. He took no notice. I might as well have been a gnat.

“Travis,” I wheezed, “get me something sharp.”

“Like what?”

“I don't know, something sharp. A hatpin will do.”

“A hatpin? In the barn?”

“Something, anything, and for goodness' sake, hurry up.”

He ran to the tack room and returned a moment later with a screwdriver. “Will this do?”

I grunted and took it from him. He said, “What are you going to do with that?”

I wondered if, despite Arthur's placid nature, I was taking my life in my hands. I wondered if he would pound me into oatmeal and I would live out my days in the Austin Home for Crippled Children.

“Oh boy,” I muttered, “here we go. Forgive me, Arthur.” I drew my arm back and then let fly, poking the muscular shoulder with a good hard jab, enough to startle him but not enough to break the skin. Travis cried out. Arthur snorted in surprise, pulled away, and … lifted his foot. I dropped the screwdriver, threw all my weight against him, and pulled at the dressing, centering it over the hoof and retying the cords. It was fiddly business and had to be done quickly. It took me only a few seconds but it felt like an hour and I broke out in a light sweat.

“Whew,” I said, easing my weight off his shoulder. Arthur put his foot down in the straw. The bandage did not move.

“Hey, Callie, that's pretty good. Maybe you could be an animal doctor.”

I didn't pay him much attention. I was still breathing hard, happy to have survived my first horse doctoring with all my limbs intact.

The next day was Saturday, so Travis and I hung about until Dr. Pritzker and Samuel returned to check on their patient. Samuel led Arthur out of the stall so that we could observe his gait. The bandage was intact and he walked with barely a limp. Dr. Pritzker picked up the foot and frowned over it.