It was hard to pretend everything was normal. I didn’t have any real information, just possibilities, so I couldn’t tell Bailee anything, yet the possibilities were all jumping around like popcorn in my head. What if I couldn’t see the rope when it appeared? Bailee couldn’t go through this without some backup. I only expected minimal support from her mom. Her mom had lost faith. She’d run out of possibilities and now was not the time to let that happen.
Fortunately, Bailee was still in horse mode. Rusty was enjoying the peace and quiet of the ranch. He could frequently be found in the hammock on the back porch. He talked ranch talk with Steve and Randy. He walked up to Jesse’s house and played with the boys. He watched me and Bailee ride. We all enjoyed a relatively trouble free weekend. Only Zack was disappointed and I wondered if anybody actually bet on my side, that I wouldn’t need an icepack.
The clock stood still as I waited for news from my dad.
“Chas? Me ride Mack one more time in morning?” Bailee asked.
“Of course, we don’t have to leave until after lunch. You’ll have some riding time. Make sure you are all packed up before you go to breakfast and the rest of your time can be spent riding.”
She was happy with the answer, though not with the circumstances. I wished I could tell her we’d be bringing Mack back with us but I didn’t know. My dad and Farley were both unpredictable. If Farley was predictable he would have given me his answer over the phone. I suspected he didn’t want to take my word on the condition of the horses if he could talk to a real quarter horse breeder.
Everything seemed to be in slow motion. Rusty and I sat in a tense wait sitting close on the couch in the living room. Despite the warm weather there was a fire in the fireplace. Bailee appeared at the hallway. She stood watching us, just sitting quietly. Rusty tightened his arm around my shoulders and I snuggled closer. Bailee turned away.
“Did you want to talk to us?” I asked.
“No. I just go barn an… an I go now.”
“And what? You can talk to me. You’re not interrupting anything. We’re just waiting for my Dad.”
“I no want talk. I just never saw… me mom, me dad, they never close. I glad see you close. I go barn now.” And she ran off.
“Well, at least now I know she has a dad,” I said and I snuggled closer because that melancholy feeling Bailee left me with was back. I tried to remember if I’d ever seen my mom and dad snuggling on the couch and I couldn’t bring a time to mind, but I’d never questioned their love for each other. Then I remembered last Christmas when Rusty and I made love under the Christmas tree. I’d asked him what he’d do if our kids caught us at it, and he said he’d tell them, “Daddy loves Mommy, get used to it.” I knew he was just kidding but the memory warmed me back up anyway.
“I feel the wheels turning,” he said softly.
“I’ll tell you later,” I answered.
We didn’t get an answer from Dad that night. I knew there was still time but it would be nice to be able to ease Bailee’s mind. When night came I went to the barn and dragged Bailee back to the house.
“But I only see Mack little time!” she complained.
“I know, but you need to sleep, too. You can see him in the morning,” I said feeling like a traitor. How many times had I slept in the barn simply to be with the horses? Many times, but that was different. It was my barn, and my family. Bailee’s mom would not like it if I let her sleep in the barn, so I couldn’t leave her out there.
“Now will you tell me what was on your mind?” Rusty said after I got Bailee safely settled in her room. It was late. I’d given her as much time with Mack as I could. She told me again that she didn’t want to go home and I told her again that I understood but she just had to. The whole time I was wishing I could tell her that Mack was coming too, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t lie to her and so I left her sadly trying to sleep, waiting for the dreaded day to come.
“Are you ready for bed?” I asked.
“Yeah, I guess it’s about time. Now what were you thinking about.”
“Bailee reminded me of last Christmas,” I said as I unbuttoned his shirt.
“With Patrick?” he asked.
“Ummm, yeah, well the part without Patrick. Remember? We fell asleep after making love under the Christmas tree and I woke up worried that he’d seen us?”
We were both topless now. He ran his hands over me gently waking up all my nerves until I shivered pleasantly.
“And what am I supposed to be remembering about that night?”
“I asked you what you would do if our kids caught us making love under the Christmas tree.”
He smiled at the memory. “So what would you do if they caught us at it?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I like your answer even if it was a bit impractical.”
“Daddy loves Mommy, get used to it,” he said with a deep kiss.
“Mmm, Mommy loves Daddy, too.”
“It’s been so peaceful. I wish it would last,” he said. “I’ve got my girl back. We haven’t had trouble in weeks. You’ve got something to work at that’s rewarding to you. We’re all set. You can help Strict. You can teach Bailee. Maybe between the two and an occasional camping trip we can keep trouble away.”
“And what would we do with so much peace and quiet?”
“I bet I could figure out something,” he said, hands straying farther.
“If I stay out of trouble do I get to see what it is?” I asked.
“How about a demonstration, would you like that?”
“I think I’d like to participate more.”
He was perfectly willing to let me participate, in fact after just a few minutes he didn’t have any choice. Once Rusty expresses an interest nothing much holds me back. I never know what the effects are going to be from time to time but I always know it’s going to be quite a ride. If I’ve had a bout of trouble he can me so tender and caring it makes me ache for more action just so I don’t have to watch the worry in his movements. When we are both turned on it can be an all out brawl. Sometimes it is flirtatious, teasing fun. This time it was somewhere in the middle, like a roller coaster ride through daisies. It was soft and fast and filled with good feelings and wild rushes.
“So, that’s what we’re going to do with all that peace and quiet we’re looking forward to?” I asked.
“Every chance we get.”
“And we’re still going to have enough energy left to work?”
“Of course. The more you do it the more exercise you get, so the better your stamina is.”
“Oh, so this is an exercise program now, is it?”
“Babe, you know that’s not it.”
“Maybe I need to work on certain muscle groups? We could start a new fad. Muscle building sex positions. Of course selling the video might be a little risky considering your job.”
He laughed. “And what muscle group should we start with?”
“Abs, everybody wants to flatten those abs. If we can find a position that works we can make millions.”
We kind of lost track of the research aspect of it as the night went on. It started out a playful experimentation and quickly turned into a fit of laughter as one position after another turned out to be either impossible to maintain or too weird to be acceptable. I have to say, I slept like a rock when we finally gave out and I woke to a morning I needed plenty of energy for.
I knew the day would be rough, particularly for Bailee. There was no sense in asking my dad anything until later in the morning so I went to Apache’s paddock and checked on him. His ears perked up when I came to the fence and he pranced around expecting to be fed. I didn’t feed him. It was easier for the hands to just make the rounds with the tractor. One reason I put him in a paddock was he’d be forced to deal with the tractor each morning.
I went to the barn to check on the horses and saddle Shasta for one last ride before I went home. I thought Bailee would be appearing soon, eager to get a start on her last real try at barrel racing but what I saw in the barn stopped me in my tracks.
Mack was gone.
I looked around for a hand. No one was around. There was a barrel on its side with hay stuffed under the sides to keep it from rolling. Bailee’s tracks were all around the barrel, her boots landing heavily as she made her way up and down the barrel trying to saddle and bridle Mack. It was hard to believe she’d managed it on her own. How had she gotten the girth tight enough? Just the fact that she’d done it upped my respect for her.
I searched the barn for anybody who might have seen her. I cornered each hand but they had just been tending to their duties. Shoot, how long had she been gone? She could have been out all night. If no one had seen her take off she probably left in the night. How far could she have gotten? On horseback? Many miles. I couldn’t track her on foot and expect to catch up. I quickly went to the Explorer and took out Rusty’s daypack. I dumped it and gathered up the things I could use. I filled all the water bottles. I was on my way to my room to tell Rusty what I was up to when Dad came out of his bedroom.
“Dad, I need to know what Farley said. It could be important.”
“We talked for a long time,” Dad said, “Mostly about you. McGyver didn’t worry so much about the horses being fit. He trusted you to judge them fair and after talking to me he trusted me to do right by him. But…”
“Dad, I’m kind of in a hurry. Bailee ran away and I need to go find her. It would help me bring her back if I knew what you and Farley decided.”
“Mack and Chet are going to the school. I sent him some more pictures, some that showed the horses taking the jumps.”
“Will he let Bailee do barrel racing?”
“That I don’t know. We got to talking.”
“I really need to go find Bailee, Dad. We can talk later. She took off with Mack and there’s no telling how far she got last night.”
As I entered the bedroom to tell Rusty what was going on he was out of bed in an instant. Cop reflexes. He relaxed when he saw it was just me but he also felt the tension in the air.
“Bailee ran off with Mack,” I told him as I pulled off my boots. I pulled on moccasins. Tracking shoes. “I’ll have to take Shasta out to find her. If she was putting miles in I’ve got a search ahead of me.”
“She should know better than this. She knows she can’t stay.”
“Emotional girls can justify just about anything in their own mind if they try hard enough.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“No, this is going to take some girl talk. It’s going to mean a heart to heart talk and you would just make it harder. If I’m not back by midafternoon you’ll have to call Farley and Bailee’s mom.”
“Cass, don’t go out there alone.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“This isn’t as simple as locating a person and turning them over to Landon. Bailee’s not going to want to go home and you can’t do anything to change that. How are you going to get her back?”
“If I can talk to her, I can get her back. She can’t run forever. She’s got to eat and she’s got a horse to feed. She didn’t think of that when she took off. She’s got more problems than just not wanting to go home. She’ll have to come back or run her horse into the ground and she won’t do that. If there’s one thing I can count on, she’ll take care of the horse. She might accidentally go too far but she won’t hurt Mack.”
Rusty pulled on pants and a t-shirt and followed me downstairs. I went to the kitchen and put several apples and a few carrots in the pack. There wasn’t much in the way of backpack friendly foods at the ranch. They didn’t have a search and rescue pack ready at all times like I did at home. Patrick was in the kitchen getting breakfast. Whether he ate at home or at the ranch depended on what he planned on doing with Elan that day. It was a short walk from one to the other so it didn’t really matter where he was as long as he was somewhere findable. He watched all the goings on with a puzzled look.
“Cass, take Randy or Steve,” Rusty was saying as he followed me around the kitchen.
“If I was going to take somebody, I’d take you. But this is a kid who just doesn’t see reality the way she should. She just needs a girl-to-girl talk. She’ll come around. Bringing a guy with me will just slow down the process.”
“At least bring your cell phone,” he reminded me.
“I’ve got it.”
He followed me down to the barn and helped me saddle up Shasta.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. You know how these things go. If the tracking is good I’ll be back soon. If I have to stop and read sign it’s going to be a while. Horses are easy to track on foot but I need to ride to keep up with her. It’s a matter of balancing speed and readability.”
“Hon, be careful.”
“There’s nothing back there that’ll hurt me.”
“I know, but I have to say it anyway.”
I gave him a kiss before climbing into the saddle. He stood in front of the barn looking lost as I rode away. The backpack thumped against my back as Shasta cantered off. When I got to the back gate of the ranch proper I was amused to see that Bailey had unlatched the gate and closed it behind her without dismounting. She had mastered the gate and the horses wouldn’t get away. I did the same and picked up her trail on the other side.
Mack wasn’t hard to track but I couldn’t ride as fast as Bailee had and still see the tracks. One look at her fast pace and I was afraid I’d be on the trail for days. Even if Bailee got hungry or scared or just headed back because she reasoned things out, I had to finish the trail and right now the trail was heading at a good steady lope straight into the hills. I tried tracking at a lope. I couldn’t do it. The ground went by too fast. I could manage a trot as long as the trail stayed rough and the ground stayed soft. I kept Shasta to the trot, using my legs to ease the bouncing and push me forward where I could watch Bailee’s trail over Shasta’s shoulder.
As I rode along I had plenty of time to think but my mind only found the same little circle of thoughts. Bailee didn’t want to go home. She didn’t want to leave Mack, or Randy. Surely she knew Randy was a lost cause. There was no way a twenty-five year old man was going to be interested in a nine year old girl. She didn’t want to leave the ranch, where everything was right, at least in her mind. She didn’t want to go home to a mother who wouldn’t even talk to her, and a brother who could talk better than her. I could use Socks to lure her back. She knew staying up here was turning her back on Socks. Now that Mack was coming with us that might nudge her homeward.
I didn’t like the look of the sky. Dark clouds were gathering. So far they were in the distance but more were coming. Rain on a search was bad news. It would dampen the spirits of even the most determined runaway, a kid who was tired, hungry and trail worn. The only positive aspect of rain was that it brought water. If Bailey had no water maybe she would try to gather it for drinking. I imagined the trail fading before my eyes and prayed the rain would stay away.
The tracks continued uphill and down. The sun was well up in the sky when I began getting hungry. I knew Bailee must be wearing out, having been up all night. Would she stop to rest? Or was distance a driving factor? Did she bring anything along to eat? Did she even think of bringing water? At least she was riding. She wasn’t using up the resources she would be if she were hiking, but Mack was. Horses need water, too.
I was relieved when Bailee stopped to rest her horse. She didn’t dismount but she slowed him down and let him wander. He tried to wander back to the ranch and his stable full of hay but she pointed him into the hills.
I kept Shasta to a trot while Bailee walked her horse. At least we could gain a little. The trail got a little confusing and I dismounted as I puzzled it out. What was going on here? Mack was stopped. I could tell that easily enough from the tracks. I led Shasta away from the site so I could walk around and study it out. As I did I heard the creak of saddle leather and I looked up and around. In the near distance was Patrick on his little pinto horse, Snoopy. Snoopy got his name because his spots matched the spots on Charlie Brown’s famous beagle.
“Patrick! What are you doing here?” I asked annoyed.
“Tracking!” he said confidently.
“Who are you tracking?”
“Shasta and Mack. I just want to help.”
“Then go home.”
“You’re tracking Bailee.”
“So I am and I need to be able to work without worrying about you.”
“You don’t need to worry about me.”
“Good, then go back to the ranch.”
“I can’t. I don’t know where it is.”
“Good try but it won’t work. If you can track good enough to find me you can track good enough to track your way back.”
“Rats, I think I can help, if you will let me.”
“Yeah, how?”
“I can think like a kid. Bailee’s a kid.”
“Did you bring any food or water? Aren’t you hungry?”
“I have jerky and pemmican.”
“Pemmican? What are you doing with pemmican? How do you even know what it is?”
“Elan and I made it. He teaches me all kinds of stuff. We made it out of venison, cranberries and cherries. He says it isn’t authentic with the cherries but I like it better. You want to try it?”
“I think we better save it for when we really need it. All I have is apples, carrots and water.”
“Does that mean I can stay?”
“Call your mom and tell her where you are.”
I handed him my cell phone and he took it reluctantly. He had been missing for hours. Elan would be able to tell that Patrick had followed me, so maybe they wouldn’t worry, but Jesse and James should still know where he was. I puzzled out the area while he spoke to his dad. I sighed with relief that he’d reached James instead of Jesse. Jesse would have a fit and James would find out the situation, find out Pat was okay and tell him to be good.
Bailee had dismounted, which I assumed meant a pit stop. She kept hold of the reins as she went about her business. Guess she didn’t know the horses were trained to stay quietly by their rider. While she was on foot she continued on her way walking and leading Mack. Shasta followed as I tracked Bailee. I was so focused on tracking that it wasn’t until I heard Shasta behind me that I thought to mount up, but then I noticed a stumble in Bailee’s tracks and that drew my attention again. Maybe I should stay on foot.
“Aunt Cassidy? Why did Bailee run away?”
“She doesn’t want to go home.”
“Why wouldn’t a kid want to go home?”
“Have you seen the books she reads?”
“Yeah, a little. They’re girl books.”
“Yeah, but they are horse books. Lots of girls go through a horse crazy stage, so horse books are really popular for girls. Bailee reads the horse books and when she got to come to the ranch it was the life she always dreamed of, just like a book, so she doesn’t want to leave it.”
“I don’t see what’s so great about it. It’s chores and more chores and when those are done it’s school and after school it’s more chores, then homework.”
“What you see as work, Bailee sees as play. She’d love to have your chores, well, at least for a week or two. The problem is Bailee’s mom thinks she isn’t capable of doing chores.”
“Why?”
“She doesn’t talk to Bailee. I bet she doesn’t even know that Bailee can talk. She thinks Bailee can only read horse books. She thinks Bailee is useless.”
“But that’s not true. She might be a pest but she’s got more going for her than that.”
Spoken like a true boy.
“Bailee can do anything she sets her mind to, well, besides knitting. I bet she’d have trouble knitting. But who needs to know how to knit these days? She could be anything she wants to be.”
“And she wants to be a horse trainer so she can work for Grandpa,” Pat added.
“Yeah.”
“You know how likely that is?”
“Not very. But nothing’s stopping her from being a horse trainer somewhere else.”
“Her hands.”
To me Bailee’s hands were just part of Bailee. I didn’t think of them as a handicap.
“Let me concentrate on the trail,” I said. “Or we’ll never find her.”
Bailee’s feet were really dragging, but if she was tired, why didn’t she ride? I examined Mack’s hoof prints but they seemed normal. She wasn’t walking because of Mack.
“Aunt Cassidy?”
“Let me read. I’m trying to figure out why Bailee isn’t riding. Why would she walk if she could ride?”
“Because she can’t see in the dark,” Patrick said.
“Wouldn’t she trust Mack to see the way?”
“Not if he stumbled in the dark. She might think she was smaller and closer to the ground so she could lead the way. She might be walking to protect Mack’s legs.”
I began watching the tracks and they stayed in the clear, avoiding branches that would have been hard to spot in the dark. Patrick just might be right.
“If she’s a new rider a stumble might have scared her,” Pat continued.
“She’s not a new rider but she has only ridden in a corral,” I told him.
I wondered what stage the moon was at. Was it light enough to see? I was a little bit busy last night. I wasn’t exactly thinking about how much light there was outside. If Bailee did a lot of walking at night we may have a better start than I thought.
“I told her twernt no use runnin’,” Pat said and I swore it was Old Frank’s voice when he said it.
“Pat? Are you sure you’re seven?” I asked, but he just looked at me weird.
“Yeah.”
“I know. You just aren’t sounding seven.”
“That’s what Steve says, too.”
“So Bailee talked to you about this?”
“Not exactly. She was talking to Mack. She said she wouldn’t go away. She’d find a way to stay. I told her you’d make her go back ‘cause she had to be with her family. That you wouldn’t let her quit school, that school was important even if you hate it. She got mad at me, but I don’t care. It don’t matter to me if she’s mad at me. I thought it was more important to get her to listen than win a popularity contest with some kid I might never see again. So I gave her what for. I told her there was no hiding from you. You would find her no matter where she was and you’d make her go back. She doesn’t know you can find anybody no matter what they do.”
“Oh, Pat, she probably thought you were just arguing with her. I hope she doesn’t think you’re mad at her, too. And, it’s not exactly true. The only reason I can find her is she took off into the hills. If she headed for town I’d have to turn it over to Uncle Rusty.”
Bailee walked for a long time. When I was convinced I wasn’t going to learn much from her trail, I rode again, simply following the trail. The sky grew gray but I pressed on.
“This is cool,” Patrick said. “I never got to watch you track before. I mean we tracked animals together, but then you were teaching me. I never seen you doing it jus’ to be doin’ it.”
“So, do I really change into Dangerous Tracker Woman?” I asked.
“What?”
“My partner says I morph from Cute Cassidy into Dangerous Tracker Woman when I get serious about tracking.”
“That’s silly. There’s no such thing as Dangerous Tracker Woman. You aren’t dangerous.”
“I hope not,” I said remembering all too vividly the shot that killed Dirk. Guess I’m only dangerous when cornered. I shuddered quietly to myself and kept going. Now my mind was going a mile a minute. Part of it was tracking. Part of it was worried about bringing Bailee back. And part of it was trying frantically to stuff away flashbacks of that one shot that would haunt me for the rest of my life.
I had other one shots that haunted me, too. I had to do something to stay out of trouble. Trouble didn’t just mean trouble for me. Unfortunately all too often others were hurt. I had lots of training and plenty of backup. When trouble hit I had a defense. That was usually bad news for anybody bringing trouble my way. Yup, somehow I needed to figure out how to keep trouble away. I didn’t know how many more bouts of trouble I could endure and I didn’t know how many bouts of trouble Rusty could stand to watch me go through. Maybe it would be best to settle down. Maybe I should find a nice quiet hobby. Yeah, right. I didn’t think I had it in me to sit quietly at home. But something had to give. And I had a feeling I had to be the one to do it.
But first I had to find Bailee. I could identify with the kid. How many times had I run away, not as a kid, but from life in general? And what was she doing but trying to run from life. Just as I had found out, she couldn’t run from reality even if it stunk. Flight was only a temporary reprieve. Reality had a way of stalking even the most elusive person. The only ray of hope I offered was that reality eventually could change. I was proof of that.
Mack’s tracks were easier to follow than Bailee’s and I knew unless there was a big scuffle the two were inseparable, so I followed the horse. Shasta kept to a trot. Eventually Bailee struggled into the saddle again and rode. She had been out on her own for hours. I was willing to bet she was getting a little dose of reality. She had a horse to take care of. She had very little food or water. There was no place to go to find hay or water. She was lost, or at least she didn’t know how she was going to get along out here. Her rosy picture of staying with Mack wasn’t quite working out the way she hoped.
“Aunt Cassidy, I’m hungry,” Patrick said.
“Then eat something. You knew when you came along we were short on rations. Just keep that in mind as you go.”
“What about you? Aren’t you hungry?”
“Yeah, but I’ve got more important things on my mind than my stomach. I’m used to tracking through the hunger. I think about how my missing person must be feeling and then hunger doesn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. I wonder if Bailee is hungry.”
The tracks went on and every once in a while Mack would attempt to turn back and go home but Bailee pointed him away from the ranch. I had to give him credit. The horse knew where he belonged but he was obedient anyway. I knew if push came to shove the horse would win. Would Mack push?
Patrick slowly chewed on a piece of venison jerky to stave off the hunger and make this food last. Jerky was good for that. You could chew on jerky for a long time without eating much.
As the minutes went by I fell into the tracking. Sometimes the trail pulled me in until I forgot what I was doing. My surroundings narrowed and my focus was only on the ground. I’d been tracking like this in my own little world without realizing it when Patrick said, “Aunt Cassidy? How far are we going? I’m getting all wet.”
I looked up into a fine mist. I was all wet, too, and now that I noticed it I was also very chilly.
“Until we find Bailee,” I told him, eyes straying back to the trail. “A little rain won’t stop me. In fact it usually speeds me up. Rain wipes out tracks so we need to keep going.”
Back to the trail I went pushing Shasta just a little bit harder. Now I was noticing faint raindrops hitting the tracks, each drop a little track eraser. I hoped Bailee was taking shelter somewhere. I hoped this was convincing her she didn’t want to be by herself out on her own. Out on her own was not a rosy kids’ story. The main character didn’t have to live happily ever after with her horse by her side, a blanket of roses over his back or a shining trophy on the shelf in her room. Reality meant feeding yourself and your horse, finding water, getting soaked in the rain, getting lost in the hills with no one to find you because your trail got erased by a storm. Reality meant hiding in the brush, shivering as the rain made its way through and slipped down the leaves into the one dry spot you had left.
“Aunt Cassidy? Don’t you think she’s gone back already?”
“It doesn’t matter. Unless we hear from the ranch we stay on the trail. Turning back is not an option. If the rain erases the trail completely we call in reinforcements but we don’t quit. When you chose to follow me you took on the whole mission, rain, hunger and all. You have to remember that. When you chose to stay you chose to be part of the team and the team is going to bring Bailee back to the ranch. So your purpose is to do anything you can to help, even if it’s something you don’t like. You’re at a good stage to learn what that means. I had to learn it the hard way.”
“What do you mean, you learned it the hard way?”
“Well, the teamwork involved in running a ranch and training horses is mild. You have an unruly horse. You work on his problems. That’s easy. You see that happening on the ranch all the time. When I joined the Marines I joined a team of sorts. When you enter the service you perform their mission, whatever that is. They sent me to boot camp. I thought I was going to die just training for the hard stuff! But there was no backing out. I was part of the team for four years. Four years is a long time to take on a mission whether you agree with it or not. They sent me to Afghanistan. It was hard. Every day was hard. Even the easy days were hard. Some days were hard because of the work. Some days were hard because of the suffering we saw. The violence was all around us. I slept in a tent or a foxhole for six months straight. I can say I ate every day. Can’t say it was good every day. Some days I think I ate more sand than real food. The sand was awful. It got in everything. We longed for rain just to make the sand stay still for a day or two but then the camp would turn to little rivers of mud, flowing downhill however it could, sometimes right under our tents. It was a long six months. I was beginning to think all the color had gone out of the world because everything was sand color. The landscape, the buildings, our trucks and Jeeps, even our clothes. After a while even the people’s faces became sand colored. First we burned, then we tanned, then we gave up on caring what color we were and walked around with a fine coating of dust. Oh, man, I never want to go back there. So you see, a little rain and a little hunger when Bailee’s still out there is a little thing to me. Once you do it a time or two you’ll get more used to the concept, this rain and this trail will feel more like an inconvenience. You’ll know the mission is more important than a lack of comfort.”
Water was running down my hair and dripping into my eyes. Patrick was faring little better. I stuck to the trail. The horses hung their heads but they kept on. I watched as the tracks slowly filled with water. When I wasn’t sure what was tracks and what was puddles we had to stop and wait out the rain. I pulled the horses under the biggest, thickest tree I could and tied them to it, then Patrick and I sheltered nearby.
“Come here, kiddo,” I told him. “Sit facing me and we’ll be warmer.” I pulled him into my lap and we sat together to share some warmth. “I hope Bailee stopped, too,” I said.
“Some missions stink,” Patrick said with a shiver.
I laughed. “You’re right, some missions stink but I don’t count this as one of them. This is just wet. A stinky mission is much worse. It’s when you are tracking for the police and your missing person tries to kill your team. Now that stinks.”
“Did that happen to you?”
“Once.”
“You’re right, that stinks. I’ll stick to rain. I don’t know what I’d do if that happened to me.”
When late afternoon rolled around my cell phone gave a weak ring from the depths of my pack. I dug it out as quick as I could but it quit ringing before I could find it. I looked at the missed call. It was from Rusty. I called back so he wouldn’t worry.
“Hi,” I said. “Just letting you know we’re okay. I just didn’t get to my phone in time.”
“Is it raining where you are?”
“Yeah, we had to give up tracking. We’re holed up waiting for a break.”
“Cass, come home, we’ll figure something out.”
“No, you know, even with the rain, this is the best clues we have telling us where she is. She doesn’t know these hills. She can’t track her way back. Someone’s got to find her.”
“A nine year old kid isn’t going to brave a storm. She’s going to take shelter.”
“Another reason I should stay out here. If she stops I can catch up quicker.”
“Babe, you have no gear. You can’t stay out overnight.”
“I can and I will, if I have to.”
“She’ll turn up.”
“Rusty, I’m going to find her. Part of the reason she’s out here is her parents make her feel like she’s not worth the effort to look for her. Somebody’s got to show her that she’s worthwhile. I’ll do anything I can to find her.”
“Think of Patrick.”
“I am. Patrick knows he signed on for the whole mission. He’s doing fine.”
“He’s only seven.”
“I know how old he is and I know he can make a logical decision. He made it. He had a chance to go back. As long as he could track his way back I’d let him go but that option is out now. He knows what he’s in for. He’s in it until the tracks are gone or we find Bailee.”
Pat added, “Tell him some missions just stink.”
“I heard that,” Rusty said snickering.
“If anybody knows about stinky missions it’s Uncle Rusty,” I said.
“Don’t hurt my girl out there,” Rusty admonished.
“I won’t.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Aw, mush,” said Patrick as I hung up.
“Just wait. Someday you’ll feel mushy about somebody and you won’t think it’s mushy. You’ll want them to know how much they’re loved.”
“Is tracking through a rain storm mushy?”
“What do you mean?”
“You told Uncle Rusty you wanted Bailee to see she was worth the search. Is that mushy, too?”
“Yeah, Pat, it’s mushy too, just a different kind. Bailee needs to see someone cares enough about her to stay out in the rain and look for her.”
“Guess I can see that. I think the rain is easing up. Think there will be anything left of the tracks?”
“I hope so.”
Fortunately the ground was very thirsty. The rain got soaked up and there was very little standing water. If I’d have been tracking a person it would have been a lost cause but I was tracking a horse and the sharp print of Mack’s hooves still stood out, rounder than they were before, but still visible.
“Walk for a while,” I told Patrick. “Watch the tracks. Take note of how eroded they are after a good rain. It’s important, in the long run, that you know what tracks look like after different lengths of time have gone by, after different types of weather. Rain, wind, snow, they all make tracks look different. Things fall onto the tracks hiding them. You have to learn all about the effects of time and weather to be a good tracker. You rarely have to look for someone who just disappeared hours ago. Usually they’ve been missing at least a night.”
“But people don’t get lost up here.”
“You’d be surprised. One of these trips Uncle Rusty will take you to the police station and you can talk to the officers here. They see more action than you hear about. Besides, the police don’t just need trackers to find lost people. Sometimes I get called out just to tell them what happened at a crime scene.”
“Like I did with Big John? I mean, Officer Jankowski.”
“Yeah and you can call him Big John when you’re talking to me.”
It was kind of nice having someone to talk to on the trail. I thought Patrick was learning something from it. I know I would have when I was his age. Plus, we were getting back some of the time I’d given to Bailee. It seemed the more Patrick learned about tracking the more he wanted to pick my brain for facts, stories, anything interesting, much the same way I did with Old Frank as I was growing up. What goes around comes around, I thought.
Mack was giving Bailee a hard time again. He didn’t like the rain. He knew he had a nice, warm, dry barn waiting for him at home, with hay and friends and occasional carrots. Bailee dismounted and led Mack on foot up away from the mud. I realized these tracks were left after the rain stopped.
“Pat! Look. These tracks are recent. How can you tell?”
He bent over the tracks a short time. “They aren’t worn down by the rain. The mud is stuck to Bailee’s boots. So it was after the rain started, probably after the rain stopped. We’re getting close!”
The going was not easy for Bailee. She slipped as she led Mack to higher, dryer ground. When she mounted up again chunks of mud fell off her boots as she rode.
“Look, Pat, see the way the top of the mud clumps is lighter? That’s because it’s had time to dry out. The more of the clump that is dry, the longer it’s been sitting there so you can gauge the age of the tracks by things around them. These have barely started to dry out so we have to be really close.”
The trail was plain as could be. We trotted the horses down the trail of tracks again.
We didn’t need to track Bailee very much farther. Her tracks turned and in the distance there was a house with a barn and outbuildings. In front of the barn there were three police cars. A rescue squad and ambulance stood by, just in case. A group of people crouched behind the cars. A woman and an officer stood beside the house talking. The woman was waving her hands around clearly upset over something. I put my heels to my horse.
As I got closer I could see that officers were flattened against the sides of the barn, high-powered rifles at the ready.
“This is such a peaceful community,” the woman said loudly. “I can’t believe this is happening! He scared me out of my slippers, he did, sneaking around the property like that! I’m just so glad you got here in time! He won’t get away now, no siree!”
“Hold your fire!” I yelled as I came riding onto the scene.
The officers turned. Six rifles aimed at me, then when they saw who approached they lowered their weapons, still wary. This call was getting stranger and stranger for them. Somehow, it didn’t seem odd to me. One thing I forgot, to these officers I wasn’t little Cassidy Michaels, Rusty’s wife. I was just some weird girl riding into a crime scene with a kid in tow. They didn’t know if I was friend or foe, or some insane person with suicidal tendencies.
One officer stepped forward gun at the ready.
“Put your hands over your head!” he barked.
Oh, come on, I thought, but I put my hands over my head. I looked to Pat.
“Pat, put your hands up like they say. It’ll be alright.”
Pat put his hands up nervously.
“Now, dismount!”
I pulled my feet out of the stirrups and swung one leg over the saddle and slipped down, hands still over my head. They looked at me like I’d just performed a great riding stunt. Patrick used his hands to dismount. The officer patted me down quickly and guided me to the house where the civilians were kept.
“Look, you can’t go in there guns drawn, expecting to drag out a prowler. You’ve cornered yourself a nine year old girl. You’ve probably scared her half to death. Let me go in. I’ll bring her out, no problem.”
The officers all looked to the woman and she vehemently shook her head.
“I saw! I saw a man sneak in there!”
“You might have seen someone sneak in there but it was no man. I’ve been looking for a girl. She left my father’s ranch on that horse. She’s not going to hurt anything…”
“Oh, no you don’t!” cried the woman. “Girl or not, they are not to be sneaking around my house and my yards! I want them removed and I want them to be taken in. People these days have no respect for other people! No respect at all! Maybe a trip down to the station and a day in the clink will teach ‘em a thing or two.”
I thought about Bailee in the barn. Frightened of police officers, knowing they were armed, watching them act precisely in the manner she feared them. I ached for her.
“Captain,” I said, “your men don’t need to be armed. Bailee isn’t armed. She can’t even hold a gun. Her hands are bent. She’s only a kid. Let me talk to her.”
He nodded at his men and they rushed the barn entrance.
“No!” I cried. “Don’t shoot!”
There were yells of “Freeze! Don’t move! Put your hands over your head!” All the typical police hype. Then one officer walked out of the barn.
“Brandt? You gotta see this.”
I followed the captain into the barn. There sat Patrick next to Bailee on top of a pile of hay.
“You didn’t do anything wrong so they can’t arrest you. Just be tough. Do what they say and it’ll all work out. Don’t be scared. They just look scary. Most of them have kids, too. They don’t want to shoot a kid.” On and on he went talking to Bailee, keeping her from doing something that would get her in trouble. Being the calm in the midst of chaos. Bailee sat there white as a sheet, hands over her head. Eyes like saucers.
“They won’t hurt you long as you don’t move. Just listen to them and do ‘xactly as they say,” Patrick said.
“How you know dese things?” Bailee asked.
“I watch too much TV, I guess, plus Uncle Rusty takes me to the station. I know the policemen. They like kids. They tell me stories.”
Bailee caught sight of me behind the group of officers. Brandt was half stern superior, half concerned dad. He had a trespasser on his hands and an angry woman who wanted justice. And he saw a scared little girl who just needed to be returned to her family. Bailee looked more afraid of me than she did of the officers surrounding her. Cops or no cops she had something to make right so she began climbing down the stack of hay bales.
“Bailee, no!” whispered Patrick.
“Chas… me sorry.”
She looked like a half drowned rat. Hair in half dried ringlets. Damp clothes still clinging to her scrawny frame. Mud caked boots. She stood before the group of policemen, hands still over her head. She gave them a pitiful look and slowly lowered her hands. She bowed her head readying herself for whatever came at her. They all just stood there rooted in one spot. They knew what to do with a violent criminal. They weren’t sure what to do with a contrite heart.
“Chas… me stupid, stupid girl. Me ruin everything. Mizzur Godon mad wit’ me. You mad wit’ me. I can’t keep… my promise to Mack. Me go jail. Mom be mad wit’ me.”
“You’re not going to jail,” I told her. “You didn’t do anything that wrong.”
“Me a thief. I am. I had to. Mack hungry, thirsty. He tired.”
I looked around. “Call off your men, Captain,” I asked him.
He jerked his head toward the door and they all hung their heads as they filed out. Brandt stayed behind.
“Chas, I no steal for me, on’y for Mack. I worried for him.”
“You should have just brought him home then. You knew I’d find you. I told you my job is to find people.”
“How? How you find me? I no un’er stand. I no tell you nothin’. How you know?”
I pointed to the ground. “See the tracks people leave when they walk? I followed your tracks. That’s how I find people when they are lost. I mostly track people but horses are even easier to track. I think we better call Rusty and let him know everything’s okay.”
I got out my cell phone and speed dialed Rusty. I thought his legal mind would be useful in Bailee’s situation.
“Cassidy, you okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, “Ten sixty-five found, ten forty-five A…” I hadn’t even realized I’d slipped into radio talk until Captain Brandt took a step back and rethought this situation. In my usual choppy mixture of ten-codes, occasional penal codes and plain old English I relayed the situation to Rusty. Half an hour later he pulled up in the Explorer looking every inch the man in charge.
I knew despite the length of a search I usually was only a few miles from civilization but it was still a little aggravating that I spent all that time searching only to have Rusty drive there in thirty minutes. While Rusty dealt with Brandt and Mrs. Farthington I dealt with Bailee. She stood next to Mack, petting him sadly.
“They send me away and I never come back,” she said quietly for Mack’s ears only. “I bad girl they never want back. They send me away.”
“Bailee, sit down. We need to talk. First of all, we’re not sending you away. You and I and Rusty have to go home but nobody’s sending you away.”
“I no go home,” she sniffed. “I promise Mack.”
“Horses don’t understand about promises. They take whatever comes to them and they work at whatever a person tells them to do. Mack has a job to do.”
“I work hard. Mizzur Godon no be sorry he let me stay. On’y now he no take me back.”
“Dad knows you need to go home. Your mom is expecting you tonight. I bet she misses you.”
“Mom no miss me. Mom glad I gone.”
“Bailee, don’t say that. Your mom will be glad to see you again.”
“Mom glad I gone. Mizzur Godon glad I gone.”
“Nobody wants you to be gone,” I told her. “I would be really sad if you went away. I’d be really sad if you didn’t come home with me. Farley would miss you. Mack and Socks would miss you.”
“Oh,” she cried. “Mine horse. Chas, what I do?”
I put an arm around her shoulders.
“Come home with me. Things will be better than you think.”
“I no leave Mack.”
“Mack’s coming with us. He’s going to go work at Farley’s school. You’ll be able to see him just like you see Socks. He’ll be right there at the school. He’s getting a new job to do. Mack and Chet both. My dad needed a young spunky horse for ranch work and Farley needs settled horses that are well trained. They arranged a trade, so Mack is coming home with us.”
She didn’t jump for joy at the idea. She pondered it a while.
“Mack leave your ranch?”
“Yeah, but Farley will be good to him. He’ll do well at the school. He’s worked hard at the ranch. It’s time for him to try something new. If you go home you can help make the transition easier for him. You’re the one who can really put him to the test. You can show Farley what a good horse he is, Chet too. Will you do that?”
She had a purpose. She could do something worthwhile. She looked like she was pulling herself together, readying herself for a tough haul.
“Today’s Monday. Your lesson at the school is supposed to be tomorrow. We won’t be able to get home tonight unless we hurry. As soon as Captain Brandt lets us go we need to head for home.”
“Lady be mad at me.”
“You can’t really blame her. But you can show her that you’re sorry. I’m sure Rusty offered to make things right. The price of a flake of hay and a bucket of water can’t be too steep.”
“I pay her back. Me got money. Me got…” she took a small wad of bills out of her pocket. They were all damp one dollar bills. “Seven dollars.” She got up quickly and dashed to the house.
“Bailee, wait!” I called out “Let Rusty finish first. He knows how these things work.” But she took off.
She went to the front door of the house and rang the doorbell. Captain Brandt answered the door expecting it to be one of his officers. All eyes turned to Bailee. She squared her shoulders. She stepped onto the plush carpeting and made her way through Mrs. Farthington’s designer living room. I cringed at the trail of mud.
“It’s the principal of the thing,” Mrs. Farthington was telling Rusty.
Only I could see the exasperation in his eyes. He maintained a patient exterior.
“A child should not be allowed to take whatever they want whenever they want. A child who grows up like that will turn into a little felon. You of all people know what happens when children are allowed…” then she saw Bailee standing before her looking decidedly unfelonish.
“Ma’am, I sorry me steal from you. I done wrong. I pay back you. Dis my money. If it not ‘nough, I sorry.” She handed Mrs. Farthington the seven damp one dollar bills. Mrs. Farthington looked like they were burning a hole through her conscience. She didn’t need Bailee’s money and she was losing her battle and her demand for justice. Bailee gazed up at her with hound doggy eyes waiting for her verdict. If Bailee had done this to my mother, my mom would have cried. Mom was a sucker for hound doggy eyes.
“You’ll not steal again?” Mrs. Farthington said, arms crossed.
“No, I on’y steal for mine horse. I hungry. No eat today…but I no steal for me…on’y mine horse…on’y ‘cause he need it. I no steal again.”
Mrs. Farthington was a hard-edged old gal. She wasn’t giving in without a fight.
“See this mess you made? There’s a vacuum in that closet.”
Bailee went back to the porch, took off her boots and tiptoed to the closet. She removed the vacuum cleaner and awkwardly began unwrapping the cord. It wasn’t an easy feat for a kid with hands like Bailee’s. We all stood around watching until Patrick stepped forward and took over. He unwound the cord and found a plug for it and Bailee obediently vacuumed Mrs. Farthington’s floor. She wasn’t happy about the job but she seemed to realize it was the easiest way out of her predicament. It took less than a minute to perform the task but each second that ticked by only made Bailee look less and less like a renegade child and more and more like someone you just wanted to take under your wing and love. All she needed was a little warmth, a lot of caring, a smidgen of encouragement and she would blossom and grow. I wanted to be around to see that happen.
When the floor was clean Patrick wound up the cord again and Bailee put the machine away. Everything she did brought focus to her hands and I thought about the email my dad had sent. One sentence sent across the labyrinth of technology to land in the hands of the right person could change a life. Where was that message now?
Rusty and Brandt exchanged a few words and Mrs. Farthington swept her front porch furiously as Patrick, Bailee and I tended the horses. We still had a long day ahead of us. It was a long ride back but before Rusty and Brandt were finished talking the big ranch truck pulled up to the Farthington house with a horse trailer behind. Randy and Zack hopped out. The men loaded Shasta, Snoopy and Mack up. Bailee looked longingly at Mack as he disappeared into the trailer. Mack was out of her hands, she knew. Her only hope was I had told her the truth.
“Cassidy? Patrick? Anyone riding with us?”
Bailee’s eyes lit up at the prospect of riding back in the ranch truck with Randy, but Rusty brought her up short.
“Bailee, I need to talk to you,” he said.
She looked to me for help so I followed her over. Rusty squatted down so he’d be at her level.
“Captain Brandt is going to let you go but I am accepting responsibility for your actions until I turn you over to your parents. Do you know what that means?”
Her big blue eyes passed worriedly from one man to the other.
“It means if you do anything wrong, I get in trouble for it.”
“I no do nothing wrong.”
“No running away, no stealing, you owe Mr. Gordon an apology for taking his horse.”
Yikes, I was glad I didn’t have to do that. I think I’d rather go to jail. Hound doggy eyes might work on Mom but I had my doubts about Dad.
When we got to the ranch I had to give Bailee credit. She took stock of her situation before taking on my dad. She made sure Mack was in his stall, fed and watered.
“Ranny? Mack okay?”
Randy turned to her, arms folded, looking like a pissed off cowboy. Bailee took a step back.
“He’s fine, but you lucked out taking him out in a storm, making Cassidy go after you. You could have gotten you both killed out there.”
Bailee looked like this was a small dose of what she was going to have to deal with in the office of Big Wayne Gordon. Would she have the answers?
As Bailee talked to my dad Rusty loaded the Explorer. I thought Bailee needed my help more than Rusty did so I followed her to the office. I stayed in the background, mostly observing, only there for backup should she need it.
She looked like a little waif standing in the office door. She waited for Dad to finish what he was doing before timidly saying, “‘Scuse me, Mr. Godon, sir.”
Dad stood and I flinched. Did he have to do that? He was intimidating enough just sitting. He walked to the doorway and towered over Bailee.
“You think you can take my horse and make off with him in the night and not face repercussions?”
“No sir, me know there be… I know me in trouble. I hope there would.”
Dad froze. Bailee had taken him by surprise. He’d been walking back into his office, Bailee following. He turned and looked down at the girl again then he reached down and just picked her up. He was gentle. He walked over to his desk and set her on it, then took a chair facing her. He slouched down, crossed one leg over the other, and folded his hands in his lap. This was very strange to me. I was used to the supreme authority posture. I stood in the doorway.
“What do you mean, you hoped there would be? Do you know what that could involve?”
“I not know when I do it. I know now. You send me jail. Maybe you could. I not know this risk. I think you get mad, make me work. You think work pun… punish me. But I want work. I take Mack so you punish me.”
“If work won’t punish you, what will?”
“Dad,” I interrupted. “It’s not your place to punish Bailee. You got your horse back. He’s unharmed.”
“Stay out of this,” Dad boomed at me.
“What punish me? Nothing. You make me work, I be happy. You do nothing, I be sad. You send me away I be sad. I bad girl. I deserve punish. I be sad you no punish me.”
Dad looked uncomfortable.
“Cassidy? Go pack or something.”
I stiffened. He wanted to talk to Bailee alone. But what would he do? I remembered the father from my childhood. Bailee wasn’t ready to face that man. I was grown up and I still had trouble with it. He shot me the look and I knew there was no arguing with him. Still…
“Cassidy, have you ever known me to be unkind or unfair?”
I stuck my hands in my pockets and slouched out. He got up and closed the door. Gulp!
I found Rusty waiting on the porch; truck fully loaded except for a change of clothes for me and Bailee. I’d forgotten all about my clothes.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Dad’s talking to Bailee.”
“Who’s going to win?”
Big Wayne Gordon versus the little drowned thief.
“I don’t know. I hope both of them.”
He put an arm around me and squeezed, “That’s my girl,” he said a little amused.
Bailee came out a short while later. She wasn’t happy. She was very serious. I took her to change clothes and get ready for the trip home. She kept her serious attitude until she began talking.
“Chas, you so lucky,” she said, still serious. I thought she was going to say that I got to grow up on a ranch. I had my own horse. But she said, “You have daddy cares ‘nough to be tough.”
Gulp again. What had he done this time?
“What do you mean?”
“He find punish for me.”
She pulled off the shirt unconcerned about modesty. It was just us girls.
“What did he do?”
“He no do nothin’.”
“Then how did he punish you?”
“He… I have use Mom’s words… he read me riot act.” Then she grinned a little. “He say I no can do bad to get what I want.” I counted the words in that sentence. I was amazed. “He say he no punish to do bad. He say on’y one thing punish me for good. But he say he can’t make me do it. He say me have to want, really want do good.” She gave me a look with those hound doggy eyes she was so good at. “Chas, I no want do bad. He say for punish I have to go school, everyday, get good grades. He ask me I get good grades. I say, no, but I hate school. He ask why and I say kids mean, make fun me. He say I go school, get good grades I be horse trainer. I follow his punish and maybe I be horse trainer. On’y school come first. School most important.”
“He’s a wise man,” I told her. “He’s right, you know.”
She brightened, “He no send me away. I know we go home. He say I come back when school out, if I want. He check my grades. He say I do good school, I learn horses, I be horse trainer.”
“That’s not a promise, you know, horse training is a talent that has to be reinforced. It’s not an easy life.”
“I know. He say kids tease me less more I like them. He say I learn talk like other kids they no tease me. He say to talk like I read in books. I say I try. He say I doing good but he know I can do better. I never hear that. You lucky you dad believe kids always do better.”
I pulled a fresh shirt over her head and she changed jeans. We rinsed off her boots and scrubbed them on the bootbrush out front. She wouldn’t wear her old tennis shoes home. She had to show off her boots to her mom. She found her hat, too. I brushed out her hair.
Her eyes shown when she saw Randy loading Mack and Chet into the trailer.
“I ride here?” she asked, indicating the horse trailer.
“Nope, it’s unsafe and illegal,” Rusty answered. “We’ll stop and eat and you can check on him.”
We walked down to say goodbye to all the other horses then there were hugs all around. Patrick presented her with a lasso.
“If you’re going to be a horse trainer you gotta be able to catch ‘em,” he said. “Aunt Cassidy can show you how it’s done.”
“I learn it, I learn everything,” she said climbing into the Explorer.
We pulled up to Bailee’s house late that night. She left Mack behind in the trailer reluctantly.
“You’ll be able to see him tomorrow at your riding lesson,” I told her.
“Mizzur Mac’s school not be same after your ranch.”
“Maybe not but Socks will still be Socks and Mack will be glad to see you again.”
“Socks really old for horse?”
“He’s too old to be ridden roughly. He likes quiet rides now. Imagine having to run with sore knees. You can do it but it hurts. He’ll do it for you but it would be kinder to let him slow down.”
“Mack old for horse, too?”
“Mack’s good to go for several more years. He’ll give you a good ride.”
She tried the front door but it was locked so she rang the bell. A man came to the door. He was scruffy, dressed in holey jeans, an undershirt and grimy socks. His hair had grown down over his collar.
“You’re late,” he said simply.
“Me have long day,” she said without even thinking about it.
“What did you say?” the man exclaimed in disbelief.
Bailee thought about my father’s words and corrected herself slowly, “I had a long day,” she annunciated carefully.
“Whoa, wait a minute,” he grabbed Bailee by the shoulders and turned her around. “What did you do with my kid?” he asked me.
“She’s had some practice in the speech department,” I explained. “She likes to talk horses.”
“Come in,” he said, still looking at Bailee.
I motioned for Rusty to come in.
“We can’t stay long. We have horses in the trailer that need to be unloaded.”
“Okay. Was Bailee any trouble for you?”
I wasn’t sure what Rusty had told them about Bailee’s little escape.
“Bailee did great,” I fudged. “She rode all the work horses and did a little barrel racing and went on a ride into the hills. She got along well with the ranch hands and my family. She probably ate more chocolate cake than was good for her but I think all in all she had a good time. Bailee, tell your dad what you liked about the ranch.”
I so much wanted her parents to know Bailee could talk.
Bailee thought about it. She said, “Me ride horses every day. Ever’ body friendly. What I like most… is people take care me. No matter what. They take care people.”
I thought she’d say she got to do barrel racing. I never thought about what Bailee really needed, a firm, loving hand.
“I’m glad you had a good time,” I said. “Will you be at your lesson tomorrow?”
Bailee looked at her dad.
“Yeah, she’ll be there.”
“If you have time we can use extra time tomorrow. We have two horses to ride.”
“You wan’ see new horse? Mizzur Mac get two new horses. Mack and Chet. Mack my fren. You wan’ see?”
“Just for a minute. Brandon’s asleep.”
We went out to the trailer and Mr. Roland pet Mack and Chet through the window. He at least seemed a little friendlier than Mrs. Roland.
“They look like great horses,” Mr. Roland said. “It looks like we have some talking to do. Bailee, what do you say to Mr. and Mrs. Michaels?”
Bailee came back and gave us both hugs. “Thank you, Chas, thank you Mizzur Russy.”
“You’re welcome, Bailee. Get a good night’s rest. We have riding to do tomorrow.”
My house seemed extra quiet. We unloaded the horses and put them in the corral. I’d have to get up early and take them to Farley’s school in the morning. After the events of the day I was exhausted and wired at the same time. We lay in bed that night gently snuggling, quietly talking.
“It was so good to see you working with Bailee. You really care for that kid. She’s worked her way into your heart, hasn’t she?”
“Any kid would. I see what they could become and I just want to bring that out in them.”
“I wish the trip hadn’t rebounded on Bailee.”
“It’s my own fault…The whole time I was looking for her I just hoped it didn’t break her. I was so afraid she wouldn’t go home. I was afraid… I was afraid for her future. She’s talking now. She’s got a goal. She’s safely home. We lucked out.”
“We didn’t luck out. You cared enough to give Bailee a dose of what she needed. You have a heart for kids. I so wish you could see it. Patrick, Wyatt, Bailee. Any kid you get to spend any time with comes out ahead for it.”
“You really want kids, don’t you?”
“Babe, we don’t have to get into this again.”
“Show me,” I said.
“Show you what?”
“Show me how babies are made.”
Little laugh lines appeared around his eyes. His mouth closed over mine and he showed me. For the next hour we laughed through a lesson neither one of us really needed but he got the idea. I was making my way over to his side. I was willing. I was his. I was alive and happy beneath him. His happiness was secure. At least for now.