Tumbleweed (3 page)

“Oh, hello.” I have to admit I was a little disappointed to see Sue standing in my living room. Actually I guess it was my living room, kitchen, and dining room she was standing in to be specific. That thought made me giggle a little, which earned me a sour look. No use trying to explain my amusement, so I plunged ahead. “I wasn't
expecting anyone to be here.”

“Hobbes, the neighbor down the way, was just getting a few of his things. He lived in the place a while back, before Ethan came on,” Sue explained. Something in her voice left me a little unnerved. There was more to this situation than I was let in on. Her words weren't sinister and her tone was polite, but my stomach did a flip-flop nonetheless. I'd learned the hard way long ago to trust that stomach flip-flop and made a mental note to talk to Ethan about it later.

“Oh, okay. I can go catch the guys then,” I offered feebly. I wanted to move in. I had been told I could move in; it made me uncomfortable that his stuff was still here.

“Don't you worry about it; Hobbes'll be leaving soon enough,” Sue assured me and then raised her voice. “Aren't you done in there yet?”

“Sis, I'll be done when I'm done – stop tryin'; to hurry me.”

“You've had five years, Hobbes. This ain't hurryin'!”

“I really can wait outside.”

“She said I'll be done in a bit, sis, hold yer horses.” He appeared to be barking at me. I raised my eyebrows in disbelief and looked at Sue.

She shrugged and shook her head as a burly, hard-looking man emerged from the only bedroom. He had a square, solid look to him with a thin, hard mouth and slightly squinting eyes. Wrinkles around his lips and eyes spoke of days spent in the sun. But it was the look in his eyes that unnerved me the most.

Well, that, and the ancient looking shotgun tucked into the crook of his arm, barrel-up. I wondered if life had made this man hard or if there was such a thing as simply mean-spirited. Either way, I didn't like him. And this wasn't my judgmental streak kicking in; this was self-preservation speaking.

“Can I help you carry anything?” I asked in my sweetest voice, hoping my disdain wasn't noticeable.

“Nah, I got it all.” He actually winked at me as he headed for the door. “Me and the old girl'll just move on down the road.”

With that, he slung a sack over his shoulder and affectionately patted the shotgun, which I assumed to be the “old girl.”

“You've got the safety on that thing, right?” Sue eyed him suspiciously.

“Nope. I keep her locked and loaded or what's the point of having her? If someone steps in my place, they'll be a wishing they hadn't.”

I didn't have time to ponder what he'd been doing for protection these past five years with “old girl” here and him somewhere else, because as he proudly waved the gun in the air – proclaiming it locked and loaded – it went off and shot a hole clean through my roof.

I stood there for a moment blinking and wondering if I had maybe wet my pants just a little. I'd never heard a gun fire before. Not once. Not in real life anyway. And certainly not at this close of range. My ears were ringing slightly, and I was only just deciding that I had not, in fact, peed my pants when my dad and Ethan came bursting through the door.

“Is everyone okay?” Ethan looked from me to Sue to Hobbes.

“I think so,” I shook my head a little to clear the fog from my brain and looked around the room. The only casualty to the demonstration of Hobbes' manhood seemed to be the ceiling. “Where's Aaron?”

“Up at the main house,” Daddy motioned.

“I better get on down the road then.” Hobbes let himself out without so much as an apology.

“Yeah, ‘sorry about the hole in your roof’,” I muttered to the closed door, shoving my hands in my pockets so no one would see them trembling.

“I see you met our neighbor.” Ethan rubbed the back of his neck and eyeballed the new hole.

“Do you think it went all the way through?” Daddy did his own inspection.

“I'll climb up later and take a look,” Ethan shrugged.

“Do I want to know the story behind Hobbes?” I asked warily.

“Probably not,” Ethan admitted. “He worked for Jim a while back.”

“If you could call that work,” Sue huffed.

“Well, I wasn't here to say either way. I just know Jim had some trouble getting Hobbes off the place.” Ethan effectively closed the subject.

“Well, now that the excitement is over, Ethan do you mind helping us pull some of the stuff off the truck?” I marched outside and began unfastening the ties around the furniture. I was still shaking just a bit, and I didn't want Ethan or Daddy to notice.

At this point, I wasn't sure if the trembling was due to adrenaline, anger, fear, or a mixture of all three. I was thrilled Aaron hadn't been in the room. Of course, he probably would have been thrilled with the whole thing.

“Mom! Mom!” Aaron came running down the hill as if on cue. “Did some guy really shoot a hole in our roof? Cheyenne told me the neighbor shot a hole in the roof!”

“Yes, some guy really shot a hole in our roof,” I sighed and pulled a chair off the truck. “And who is Cheyenne?”

“Sue's daughter,” he told me matter-of-factly. “She can ride anything. She has a mustang that she taught to leg-rein. When she got it, you couldn't even get near him without him trying to bite or kick you. Now she can ride him without a saddle or bridle or anything. She and her husband have a cattle farm down the road, but they both train horses. She said she'd teach me to ride if it was okay with you. Is it okay with you Mom? Wow, someone really shot a hole in our roof. Cool.”

“All that in one breath.” I smiled to myself and handed him a box to carry. “We'll talk about the horseback riding later, but that should be just fine. For now, let's get this truck unloaded.”

“Your mom is a regular task-master, isn't she kiddo?” Ethan joined us in hauling our worldly belongings into the cabin. Daddy was right behind him, and in no time at all, we had everything but the washer and dryer inside. I was just about to declare the move a success when I came to the realization that there was no laundry room and the best we could do was to rig the washer on the back porch. That wouldn't have been so bad, but when we went to hook up the dryer we blew a fuse and fried its cord.

Daddy immediately went into handyman mode. “I'll run to the store and see if I can get a cord.”

“It's almost dinnertime. I'll run a clothesline for now and get the cord later,” I half-pleaded. I did not want to deal with this tonight.

“I don't know,” he hesitated, tempted by the prospect of being finished for the day.

“Scout's honor,” I solemnly promised. We both knew I was never a scout and the next time Daddy came to visit, I would still be hanging clothes on the same line. Daddy must've been exhausted though because he conceded.

“Dinner will be ready soon.” Ethan checked his watch. “Cheyenne and David are staying; they wanted a chance to get to know you. I hope that's okay.”

“I hope you told them I'm not that exciting.”

“Are you kidding? You're an accident waiting to happen. I think they're kinda hoping you'll cause some major calamity.”

“Great, thanks. You know that hurt me real deep, Ethan. Real deep.” I made a face at him. “Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to freshen up before dinner.”

“We're supposed be at the main house in thirty minutes,” he called to my retreating back before accepting the cold beer Daddy was offering him. The two men lounged on the couch, obviously not feeling compelled to clean up before the meal.

“Dibs on the bathroom.” Aaron dashed past me and closed the door before I could respond.

It didn't really matter. I was content to wallow in my indignation while I waited. I was not an accident waiting to happen. Well, maybe a little, but to be so blunt about it was just harsh.

“Mom, the toilet won't flush,” Aaron called.

“Are you decent? I'll come take a look at it.” I tapped on the door. That's just what I needed.

“Come on in,” he opened the door for me. I lifted the lid to manually pull the chain and was rewarded by a fountain that shot me in the face and drenched my shirt. At least the toilet flushed. But it left me with a dilemma. If I walked out like this now, it would be fairly humiliating and would pretty much prove Ethan's point. If I sent Aaron out to go to dinner and hid in here, they would eventually start to wonder. That might be a bit embarrassing too, come to think of it, which left me with little choice.

“Not one word,” I growled through gritted teeth, marching straight to my small pile of boxes to find a new shirt. “And don't bother getting up. I'll fix it later.”

“You might want to let me look at this one, honey,” Daddy tried valiantly not to grin. I sighed. This story would definitely get back to St. Louis.

“It's customary to undress before showering.” Ethan didn't bother with valiance.

“Shut up.” I scowled at him. Aaron doubled over with laughter. I knew I'd eventually look back on this and laugh, but now was not that moment. I ignored the hecklers and found a clean shirt. This would be a day for the record books. I sincerely hoped dinner was uneventful. I wasn't sure how much more I had in me.

“Toilet's fixed!” Ethan called from the other room.

“Great!” I called back and then muttered to myself. “Maybe you can walk on water for a parlor trick later.”

“I'm still perfecting my technique on that one. Maybe next week.”

I could hear the smile in his voice. I'd have to remember that paper-thin walls were an attribute of my new home. Splendid.

“I look forward to it,” I smiled sweetly at him when I opened the door. “I'm ready if you guys are.”

“Awesome. I'm starved,” Aaron declared and led the way to dinner.

Gladly, the meal was fun. A glass of wine took the edge off my day, while the company had me genuinely smiling in no time. Cheyenne and David were a sweet young couple with a humbling knowledge when it came to horses and running cattle. They didn't seem to share Sue's reservations about me, and Jim wanted to get my input on each topic.

Back home, I usually sat in the shadows of my much-accomplished siblings. It wasn't really their fault they were larger than life. It was a good thing that they knew what they wanted and went out and got it. It wasn't their fault I was still tumbling through my existence.

But that was there, and I was here, where people talked horses and cattle at the table and nobody groaned when I brought up the
latest agricultural reports. I wasn't met with polite but vacant stares when I brought up a training technique I'd recently heard about. Instead, a lively debate ensued. My father jumped in enthusiastically, and I was a little surprised to realize I agreed with him. I don't know why, but it struck me as funny that even though we'd never talked about this kind of stuff before, we thought the same way.

Take that, Ruth. Daddy agrees with me on something. I did have to acknowledge it was a little sad that even though my sister was hundreds of miles away, I mentally continued to vie for his attention and approval.

Before either of us was ready for it, Aaron and I were both struggling to keep our eyes open, no matter how riveting the conversation was. Ethan offered for Daddy to bunk with him for the night and arrangements were made. Before long, we were all saying our goodbyes and heading home.

With Daddy off to Ethan's for the night, Aaron and I found ourselves alone for the first time since that morning. He looked at me. I looked at him. What now? Fear, excitement, disbelief, freedom, exhilaration all wrestled for their place, and in the end, what won was a giggle.

It didn't take much encouragement for Aaron to join in, and we collapsed into a heap of giggles on our couch. Our new home was ridiculously tiny. I had no dryer and my washer only fit on the back porch. I had been sprayed in the face by toilet water. But it was ours. Blue had run coons and squirrels all day and was now lying contentedly by the fireplace. That was a first.

As the laughter subsided, I leaned back and sighed. From that vantage point, I had a fresh look at the bullet hole in the ceiling and giggles erupted anew. Bet that story would make it back to St. Louis, too. Not everyone gets shot at on their moving day. No doubt about it, we were definitely on an adventure.

“So, what was your favorite part of the day?” I nudged Aaron.

“Watching you get sprayed in the face by the toilet, most definitely.”

“Thanks. Brat.”

“That was a serious geyser.”

“Yeah, well my favorite part was the look on your face when you realized there was no fridge or stove.”

“Some mom. Aren't you supposed to be nurturing or something?”

“Aren't you supposed to be respectful or something?”

“Can't help my upbringing.” He deftly dodged my playful swat.

“Go to bed.”

“Way to pull the mom-card. No fair.”

“Bed.” I pointed towards the room, exasperated.

Once I had him all tucked in and prayers had been said, I realized I wasn't ready to sleep yet. Besides, there was a country summer night beckoning me outside.

I clucked softly at Blue and pulled on my mud boots. Together we slid outside. It was weird. It felt a little like being at a hotel or something. Not like home. Not yet anyway.

I closed my eyes and let it all wash over me, the smell of the horses and hay, the sounds of crickets chirping, the leaves rustling in the breeze. There was a set of wind chimes somewhere in the distance. Just the feel of this place was a balm on my restless spirit.

“You're out late,” a deep voice rumbled surprisingly close.

“Oh my gosh you scared me,” I nearly jumped out of my skin.

“Sorry.” Ethan grinned in a way that told me he wasn't really all that sorry.

“No you are not,” I chuckled. “But good effort.”

“Not my fault you were sleepwalking.”

“It's called enjoying a peaceful moment,” I informed him smartly. “So what are you up to?”

“Checking on horses one last time. We've had a string of mountain lion attacks lately; just wanted to be sure everything was locked up.”

“That's not funny.” I shifted uncomfortably despite my best efforts.

“Unfortunately, I'm not messing with you.” He grew serious. “I lost my mare last week. Now I have an orphaned colt to look after.”