# Car 54

####
© 2005 / revised 2014
K Pelle

### Chapter 19:
Caution - Sharp Curves and Switchbacks

The sound of the cop's voice had actually made me jump, but the effect on the two smart ass twerps was a lot more extreme and it was almost instantaneous. Instantly they tried to get away. Since Carissa was standing between them and the door, they tried to shove her out of their way and run for it, but as she fell backward onto the seat of another booth, her legs kicked out in front of them. The dopes tripped over her. Sid only floundered to his hands and knees, but Ray took quite a fall. He went up and over Sid's back, grinding him into the floor, then lost his footing, bounced off a booth, and planted himself face first on the tiles.

I heard a dull crack and I thought perhaps Carissa had been hurt, but I couldn't get to her. Sid had scrambled away, but suddenly I had two cops in my way. By the time I got to Carissa, each of the cops had taken charge of one of idiots. Then as one cop kept an eye on the two cretins who stood with their hands against a wall and their feet back and spread, the other cop came back to us.

"Are you okay, Miss Coulter?"

"I think so, Officer," she nodded. "Maybe a bruise or two, but I think that's all that seems to be wrong."

"I suppose you'd be the best judge if you're injured or not, but I think you might sit here for a while to be sure. Unfortunately, we're going to have to go over to the doctor's office with this pair. It looks like young Mr. Smithies may have broken his nose and young Parker was walked on rather rudely by his partner, so who knows what could be wrong with him. That means we'll be tying up Dr. McGraths for a short while. It would be a shame to have the victim of an assault forced to stand by while the perp. was treated though."

"Well, we have to go to the hospital to visit someone. Could I have one of the staff there check me out while I'm there?" Carissa smiled weakly.

"I imagine that would be all right. Now I have to ask, do you want to file assault charges on these two? We overheard the conversation and the poorly veiled threat about following you and retaliating for whatever imagined injury you've done them. We'll be charging them for that, but the assault and battery charge is up to you."

"Assault and battery?" I asked in surprise, probably the first words I'd said since the conversation with Sid and Ray had started.

"Why yes," The cop looked at me in surprise. "After all they forced her aside as they tried to push past. Just threatening to touch someone is an assault, let alone shoving anyone around like they did, that's battery. These two can't act like animals and not expect to be treated accordingly, not when they do it in front of witnesses and, in this case, a pair of police officers."

"Oh," A slow smile appeared on Carissa's face and she turned her head to look at Sid and Raymond. "I think that's a yes, but I'd better consult with my lawyer and my father prior to laying a charge. I wouldn't want to do anything that might interfere with the pending civil lawsuit we have against these fools. Besides, I was involved with a bit of banter prior to the actual attack."

I was left staring at her because she sounded so different than usual. Heck, right then she sounded like a lawyer and it astonished me. I don't think I'd ever heard her sound quite that perceptive of the whole situation before. I was almost stunned by that on top of everything else that had happened. For the next few minutes I watched everything around me, but didn't feel that I was part of it. Somehow, everything was almost dreamlike, as if I wasn't part of the action. I'm not certain why, but for the next hour or so I felt as if I was back to watching my life unfold from somewhere outside of myself, almost as if I was watching a movie of someone else. I seemed to have no control of any part of the happenings.

The two officers escorted the two punks outside and across the street to the doctor's office and I finally noticed that old Fong, the owner of the cafe, had moved to the cash register while all the ruckus had been going on. I probably wouldn't have noticed that except that Carissa asked him if she could use the telephone to call her dad before we left for the hospital. I was astonished when Fong personally led her back to the phone in the kitchen. As he left I noticed he scooped up a cleaver to put it away. Damn, he'd really expected trouble and I hadn't even seen him move out of the kitchen. Even more surprisingly he was letting Carissa use his phone. That was absolutely astonishing. For anyone else, he'd have simply shaken his head and pointed to the pay phone. I heard her voice as she started talking to her father, but just then Mrs. Fong came around and offered me a refill of my coffee. It was as if she was trying to get things back to normal, but by then I was no longer in the mood for a coffee or anything else. In fact I was still feeling out of my depth.

When Carissa came out of the kitchen and wanted to go to the hospital, I simply stood, paid for my coffee by leaving some money on the table, then walked out to the car. In the car, she explained that after our visit to the hospital her dad wanted us to drop around his office. At the hospital, Carissa insisted that I should go upstairs to visit Grampa Bender while she went off to find someone to check out her bumps and bruises and see if she was seriously hurt or had any visible marks from the scuffle.

Grampa Bender seemed lethargic and muddled that day, just like I felt. When I mentioned the Collie bitch and her pup, he nodded and smiled, but had no advice on what to do about her. Instead he began to talk about a distant neighbour, Leila MacArthur, who had a small ranch further back in the hills. By the time Carissa came in from being checked over he was falling asleep.

Carissa and I decided that rather than bother him any more we might as well let him rest. We left then, driving directly to her dad's real estate business from the hospital and were shown right into his office. It seemed the police had phoned him only minutes after Carissa had. They were quite insistent that Carissa should lay charges against the dopey duo. They had even asked him if he thought I could be convinced to lay a charge of assault and batter against them as well. I'd completely forgotten that Sid had pushed me back when he'd moved to stop Ray from hitting Carissa, but the two cops had noticed what happened.

"But he just shoved me back into the booth," I protested.

"Ah, but why were you trying to get up?" Mr. Coulter smiled at me.

"Well Ray was trying to hit Carissa and ..."

"And you were going to try to protect her," he smiled. "I have to admire your courage, but how were you going to protect her with one broken arm and one broken leg?"

"I'd have done my best. If my sister could put them out of commission with one kick each, I could do something the same with two casts," I grinned at the stupidity of even trying to tackle the two of them in the shape that I was in. "I suppose when my adrenaline starts to flow, I just react."

"Oh, sure! And when have you ever done something without thinking about it," Carissa came back at me. "By the way, how come you weren't saying anything to those assholes? Oh! Did you know the cops were in the back booth?"

"Well I did see the officers when I came in, but I was just being quiet, hoping Sid and Ray would get tired of ranting and raving then leave."

"Oh, yeah, as if they've ever shut up about anything," she snapped. "But if you knew the cops were there, why didn't you say something to me? I'd have handled it a lot differently if I knew that."

"With you three yowling at each other like tomcats on a fence, when did I get a chance to say anything?"

"Whoa you two, don't get into a fight over it. I've already got one daughter who says she needs her Daddy because she broke up with her guy."

"Oh Daddy, Corinna's in one of her moods again," Carissa sighed. "She managed to get drunk last night and she was a handful. I'm sorry, but I had to bring her back home. She's just too much for me to handle when she's like this. I simply can't take it when she goes off the deep end. It drives me nuts. I think after a couple of days of her stupidity, both Chris and I would have been crawling up the walls."

"Is it bad this time?" Mr. Coulter frowned.

Carissa simply nodded. "I told Mom that it's the worst that I've ever seen her. Last night she was influencing me and at first I didn't even know it. It wasn't until she fell asleep that I even realized what had happened. Then this morning, when I told her I wanted her to come to town to find someone to help her, her temper simply blew. She was just out of this world. She let go with both barrels and screamed at me like a banshee. Luckily, on the way into town she quit yelling. I don't know how we'd have managed to drive nearly thirty miles while locked in a car with her screaming her head off."

"Damn!" Mr. Coulter growled. "None of us need her crap right now."

I realised then that Carissa had started to tell me about the trouble Corinna had, but we'd broken off the conversation before she'd finished. At that time I'd assumed it was a temporary problem, however now that the subject had come up again, I realized it might be chronic condition. Up until then I hadn't thought about either of the twin's tempers, but now I recalled that even while we'd been going to school I had seen examples of Corinna's occasional irrational behaviour. I had to wonder if it wasn't a medical problem of some sort, but at the moment I didn't feel I should pry.

Although the topic seemed to be preying on both of their minds, they set it aside and we had a short discussion about whether or not to lay charges against Sid and Ray. I was willing, but Carissa felt that she shouldn't. She thought that she might have egged them on by trading insults with the two of them. In the long run, she decided to take a suggestion that I made, she'd talk to the cops about what had been said and ask their advice.

So Carissa and I drove to the police station next. When we went inside I spoke to the police first, then made up my mind what charge I wanted Sid to face when he went to court. I signed a complaint of assault, but not battery. I felt that Sid had pushed me back to protect me from Ray more than to hurt me. Even though the police argued for the stiffer charge I felt I was being fair and told them my reasoning. I thought Ray led Sid into almost any of the problems they had with the law.

Carissa talked to the officers for at least fifteen or twenty minutes longer than I had. During that time they managed to convince her that before Ray lost his temper, the verbal byplay had been rough, but she'd been far less insulting than either Sid or Ray had been. In actual fact they complimented us both on maintaining our tempers while we'd been insulted by the two guys. Of course the matter of the use of vile language in public was brought up. Both cops had laughed and said Carissa hadn't use one swear word. I thought she had, but they insisted she hadn't. That's when one officer told Carissa and me where her misquote about the jawbone of an ass came from. I think that was the point of their argument that convinced her to sign another complaint but like mine it was just for assault.

Now the cops had a signed complaint of assault against each of the two twits. On top of that they had written out several other accusations including offering threats in front of a witness, causing a disturbance in a public place, along with three or four other charges. I thought at that point that we'd be able to leave, but they'd heard something else mentioned that they were interested in, the break-ins of temporarily vacant houses on outlying farms. Both Carissa and I had to admit that we'd heard both Ray and Sid mention things that implied they had been there and we'd heard lots of rumours about it, but neither of us could give them any proof. In other words we weren't good witnesses for those crimes. We were able to suggest other people they might ask about them though.

We finally left the police station at almost four in the afternoon. After that we still had to visit the grocery store and I wanted to be sure to stop at the lumber yard for some quicklime and some fly spray to use in the outhouse. It was almost five when we drove out of town and I'd only gone a couple of miles when I almost turned back. It was only after looking at my wrist watch and seeing that his office would be closed that I gave up on the idea of visiting the veterinarian about that darn stray dog and her wounded leg. I wasn't about to pay extra charges for a stray dog and after five I would have been charge evening rates.

As a result by the time we got back to the cabin, unloaded the groceries and did a few chores, it was almost seven o'clock. Of course by then we'd changed our clothes and I'd fed the animals, then shut the chickens and the young stock inside. Meanwhile Carissa had packed away the groceries and made a quick meal. We'd cleaned up after supper, made coffee and were sitting out on the front porch before either of us felt like talking about our day and even then we both agreed that we were tired, very tired.

We were sitting on the old bench and I had one arm around her shoulder when I looked at her and grinned. "Do you have any ear plugs?"

"Ear plugs?" she turned and stared at me with a quizzical look on her face.

"Unh huh. If I kept you awake with my snoring the other night, tonight might be worse. Mom always said that when I was extra tired I snored the most. Wil used to say that I sounded like a chain saw being used by a logger in a fir forest, working on a deadline to cut extra footage."

"Well I'll just poke you in the ribs if you wake me, but if you snore too loudly I can always go sleep in the back porch," she laughed, but her laughter died out quickly.

I looked at her and knew instantly that she was thinking about Corinna. She confirmed that thought a moment later.

"Damn, I feel responsible for Corinna in a way," she sighed. "I wish we knew what her problem is."

"Well, I don't know why you feel responsible. In fact I didn't even know she had a problem, but now I can understand some of the things that I've seen over the years."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh like some of the times at school when she was touchy or the times when she'd get angry. I used to think it was both of you, but after realising that you're so close, I can see how it would affect you too."

"And you still tried to be our friend for all those years?"

"Yeah. Well, sort of. I think I'd really given up, but I suppose giving up was a halfway measure too. I mean I still hadn't written you off, not the way I did some of those idiots."

"Like Sid and Ray?"

"Oh, those dumb assholes? I gave up on them ten minutes after I met them. Do you know that each one of them tried to beat up on me at one time or other? One time the two of them tackled me at once, but luckily it was at recess and Tom was around."

"What happened?"

"We whupped 'em," I grinned, "Do you know they're the same age as Wil? He came along just after they'd given up and cried 'uncle.' He laughed at them and teased them about getting their butts kicked by two kids who were almost three years younger than them. I think his teasing was worse for them to take than being beat up by a pair of younger guys."

"I never knew you had any fights at school," she stared at me.

"I don't think you paid much attention to me," I grinned wryly. "I think everyone in our class thought I was just a brain and the teacher's pet."

"Oh don't be so sure," she snickered. "I always thought you were the brain all right, but on top of that I thought you were a little gentleman, almost prissy."

"What?"

"Well I did," she giggled. "I think if any of the girls knew that you had a habit of beating up on those two idiots you'd have been darn popular. I know I'd sure have reacted differently."

"Darn," I grinned at her. "Just think of all the things I missed out on."

"Well, why don't I try to make up for that, right now," she laughed and stood up, grabbing my hand.

I just grinned, and stood up to follow her lead.

Even as tired as we were when we went to bed, she left me thoroughly convinced that I'd missed a lot by being shy, but it didn't really bother me. Instead, Carissa made me realise that I was extremely satisfied that was she with me at that moment.

We had gone to bed early and for some reason both of us felt the need to be very affectionate, but since we were both tired we weren't exceptionally energetic. Each time we'd had sex before that there had been an urgency between us almost a driving need. This time we simply took our time, not needing sex alone, but instead needing the comfort of someone who cared. For the first time, we truly made love with each other.

It was wonderful!

I think we were both feeling somewhat in need of assurance and we drew that from each other. After all the day had been hard on both of us, yet we'd handled everything without too much fuss and bother. It was strange in a way, but I suppose it was really the first time we'd both felt not only tired, but also relaxed since we'd been involved.

I slept like a log, yet I awoke exceptionally early even for me. Of course we'd gone to bed exceptionally early the night before. Carissa was cuddled against me as we both lay on our side, facing each other. The feel of her arm stretching over me and her breast pressed against my chest tantalized me, but at the same time simply felt very satisfying. I lay there for a moment, looking at her face as she rested her head on my arm, then I sighed softly and carefully slid my arm from under her head.

She looked so relaxed, so beautiful. Even when I could have moved, I still lay there and fought off the screaming demands of my body to move. Instead I smiled as I watched that sweet woman sleep. Somehow my whole world had changed and this delightful person was now central to all of my thoughts. Before yesterday I had liked her a lot, but now she was everything I wanted in the world. I didn't understand how that had happened, but it certainly wasn't something I wanted to fight in any way.

Unfortunately, I had to get up. I really didn't want to, but the habit of years had kicked in. My bladder was screaming about the pressure that had built up overnight and I needed relief. Leaving her lying there as I slipped away was difficult. I wanted to kiss and cuddle her, but at the same time I wanted to let her sleep as long as she could. Finally, I simply had to go.

I reached for my shorts, then chuckled to myself, who was going to see me if I ran outside nude? Instead I slipped on my one shoe as well as the cut down overshoe that protected the foot in the cast and slipped from the bedroom, hurrying out to 'check the weather' for a few moments.

It was a beautiful morning. The sky was endless blue except for a few fluffy clouds over the mountainous horizon, and both the clouds and the mountains were shaded a light pink by the rising sun. As I relaxed and took care of the business at hand, I was once again struck by the beauty of the surroundings. I could hear birds, the sound of the animals in the barnyard and somewhere in the distance, I heard the sound of an engine. That sound alone was unnatural, but even while I listened to try to guess where that noise was coming from it seemed to fade away.

I walked a few feet back toward the cabin and drew a deep breath. There was the smell of wet grass, a trace of the odour of wood smoke, even a soft infusion of the stink from the pigpen, but the overall blend was marvellous. It was what I liked to call farmyard perfume. Then I smelled another trace of odour, a vile stench, there was a skunk lurking somewhere nearby. I just smiled and hoped it wasn't too near. That was a smell I didn't care to even think about having around the cabin. Still, as long as he stayed away from the chicken coop I wasn't going to bother with him, not if I could help it anyway!

Smiling to myself, I walked back to the cabin and stepped inside. The aroma of fresh perked coffee struck me instantly. Carissa must have woken and put it on. Just then she came dancing in through the back door, grinning widely, and not wearing a stitch of clothing.

Damn, she was gorgeous.

"The grass is all wet!" she squeaked in a high voice, grabbing a towel and dancing on one foot as she wiped the other. "My feet are soaked."

"Well what did you expect?" I broke into laughter and lifted a foot to show her my shoe as I balanced on the foot in the cast.

"Don't do that! You shouldn't stand on the wrong foot like that," her grin was replaced by a frown for an instant, but at the same time she reached out to turn down the heat on the coffee.

"Hey, it doesn't hurt," I laughed, then stepped toward her and wrapped her in my arms.

"Mmm," she murmured and snuggled for a few seconds.

"Sorry I woke you," I bent and kissed her forehead.

"I didn't mind," she grinned and twisted her face up toward mine.

Her lips were simply too enticing and I was soon kissing them. For the next moment or two we simply enveloped each other in our arms and sought to express a love that was growing between us, then finally she pulled her head back. Her eyes were soft and staring deeply into mine, a sweet smile tracing her lips.

"Morning, Lover," she whispered.

"Good morning to you too," I grinned.

"Mmm," she grinned. "Looking at you along with the feelings I'm having, perhaps I shouldn't have made coffee yet? Hmm?"

"I've drunk stale coffee before," I grinned back at her.

"No, I really want to talk first," she suddenly looked a lot more serious. "Last night was so good it was scary."

"What is there to be scared about?" I managed to smile although her words put my mind on alert to possible problems.

"Well, I've got to tell you that I'm getting to feel very darn serious about the two of us and it's worrying me," she looked tentative, almost fearful. "I hadn't planned on ..."

I didn't let her finish, instead I covered her lips with mine as I scooped her up in my arms and tried to carry her toward the bedroom. For just an instant she stiffened in my arms, then she was kissing me as fiercely as I was kissing her. After only a second she fought clear of my kiss as I lost balance slightly and bumped against the doorframe to the bedroom. Now she was laughing as I managed the last couple of steps to the bed, then collapsed onto it with her still in my arms.

An instant later the kiss resumed, then we were fiercely making love.

By the time we made our way back to the kitchen and were checking the coffee pot, it only held a horrid looking thick syrup that I poured down the kitchen sink while Carissa laughed gaily.

"I guess we wasted that, huh?" she giggled, snuggling against my side as I rinsed the pot and refilled the pot.

"No," I laughed as I wrapped an arm around her and put the pot back on the little kerosene stove, turning the heat back up. "We invested it."

"Invested it?"

"Unh huh," I kissed her lightly, then pulled her into a tight hug. "I was reassuring my woman that I love her too much to worry about getting closer than either of us had planned."

"But what about our plans for the future? I still want to train as a nurse and I'm willing to bet you still want more education too. Besides, we're still awfully young to be a couple," she had both hands on my shoulders, holding herself so she could watch my face and I could see hers.

"Honey, I am not about to try to predict the future. Right now I want to simply enjoy the present," I smiled and tried to project a feeling of confidence.

"But, I thought we were just going to ... well, explore the feeling of being a couple. I didn't think this was going to get so serious."

"Do you really mind?" I cupped a soft breast in one hand as I held her gently with my other arm.

"Hey, stop that, or we'll end up wasting another pot of coffee," she pushed my hand away from her breast, but at least she was smiling now. "I really don't mind, but it does complicate everything a lot."

"How does it complicate things?" I grinned and moved my hand so I could grasp hers. "You want to train as a nurse and I support that idea completely. No problems at all. I would like to know more about electronics, but right now this ranch is much more important to me."

I sighed and frowned then, because I was changing the subject a bit. "I'll be honest, I don't think Grampa Bender will be coming back to live here. Someone has to look after the place and I've put myself in that position willingly. I volunteered because I've always loved it up here. In fact, if it came down to a choice between having a permanent chance to take over this place or getting more education, I'd make the choice of living here."

"You would?" she stared at me in surprise.

"Yep!" I nodded slowly. "I would."

"But, your grandad has lived here for years and it sure doesn't look to me like he did all that well. I mean, it's nice, but I can't see that he made a killing or anything," she waved a hand to include the whole place.

"Yeah, but Grampa Bender has shown about as much ambition as old Duke. As long as his belly was full and the roof didn't leak, he was happy. I think the only thing he ever devoted much time to was making a little whiskey," I smiled as I explained. "I'm a bit different; I like to work. As well as that, I like to plan for the future. In other words, I'm ambitious. Grampa Bender never had any real ambitions. He saw a great opportunity here, grabbed it, and worked just hard enough to make it a reality, then for some reason he lost his drive. After that he sat on his laurels, watching life go on around him."

"I don't understand? I thought you loved him," she frowned at me.

"Oh, I do," I had to laugh at her frown. "However, he's like a twelve-year-old kid. He's always had lots of dreams and hopes, but he's never been disciplined enough to do anything about them. The smartest thing he did was to establish the lease on the whole valley from here to Dad's and Uncle Tom's place. The rent on that, along with the sale of a few cattle each year and the money from the sale of native hay he sold have been enough income for him to continue living here. All he's ever had to do other than that was to raise enough food to live on. Everything else came easily without him having to work hard for it, so he didn't do much more."

"Well, do you think you could make enough here to support a family?"

"Yeah, I do, even if I have to pay rent on the property," I smiled. "It wouldn't be easy, but I could do it. However, I do know that Grampa Bender's will is bound to treat Tom, Will, Beth and I really well because of the time we've spent with him and helping out over the last few years. Since I seem to be the only one who seems who wants to live up here, I think I might be able to rent this portion of the main lease quite inexpensively"

"Oh, I was wondering if he had a will."

"Oh yeah and I know he had plans to change that and the lease when it needs to be renegotiated, because we talked about it. He really doesn't like the idea that Dad and Uncle Tom actually end up paying the family members who live in the city part of the income from the lease since they haven't done anything to earn their share for years. I know he has plans to change that somehow, but I'm not sure just what the changes will be. Since he's in the hospital now though, I don't know what will happen."

We sat and discussed the future and what each of us really expected to do for a while, but it wasn't long before we decided it was time to do something that was more productive.

After breakfast and doing the morning chores, we decided to work on the fencing again. I decided to work our way around in the opposite direction that we'd driven when we surveyed the job. If I had estimated the work we had to do correctly that would put us at the swimming hole by lunch time. While Carissa made a light lunch to take along, I snuck a couple of towels and a blanket into a cardboard box and put it in the back of the Jeep

In actual fact, we both worked a little harder than I'd expected and we were there early. By eleven o'clock we were both stripping off our clothes and wading into the lukewarm water. Carissa argued about my going in while I was wearing the cast, but I ignored her arguments, telling her that even if I couldn't swim I could wade. It was worth it to me just to see her swimming and enjoying herself as we both really washed ourselves thoroughly for the first time in days. However as I got out of the pool afterward, I was astounded at the amount of water that poured out of my cast.

"I'll bet you'll be sorry you went in the water like that," she pointed at my cast and frowned.

"I doubt it," I grinned at her as I leaned one arm against a tree for balance and swung the leg in the cast back and forth vigorously.

"What in heck are you doing?" she snickered. "You can't shake that cast off, you know."

"I'm not trying to shake it off, all I'm doing is using centrifugal force to drive as much water out as I can," I grinned back at her. "Then I'm going to lie on the bank and let the sun bake it dry, after all, it's just a hunk of fibreglass."

"Eww, you'll get all grubby from laying on the ground."

"No, I won't," I laughed, walking over to the Jeep and pulling out the blanket and towels.

"You smart ass, you had this planned," she squealed, grabbing the biggest towel away from me.

"Unh huh," I laughed again, spreading the blanket on the grass in the full sunlight. "Now, do you want to have lunch first or do I get to make love to you before we eat."

"Now? Out here in the open?" her eyes got huge as she paused her wiping and stared at me.

"Why not?" I tried to look offended, but my grin killed that attempt, so did my developing erection.

I'm not sure what I expected her to say, but I certainly didn't expect to get tackled and knocked back onto the blanket by a wild woman. Seconds later I was on my back and she was straddling my body. If I'd thought she was enthusiastic about making love before, I soon learned better. That afternoon she managed to thoroughly wear me out.

By that evening she had to help me to put away the more easily damaged fencing tools, then help me to do the evening chores. After that she insisted I simply sit while she made something for us to eat. I didn't even have the energy to argue. After we'd eaten, she astounded me by pulling a can of dog food out of the bottom cupboard.

"Want to come down to the creek along with me?" she asked. "I want to see if that female dog needs anything to eat."

"Where did you get that?" I pointed at the can, knowing that Grampa Bender only kept dry dog food around for Duke.

"I bought it," she grinned. "I went to see the vet while you were at the doctor's office and he suggested I try it. If I can get her used to the idea of being fed, then if nothing else I can dose her food with antibiotics to stop any infections that she might get from that wound. Actually he thinks I might even be able to tame her and the pup."

"But what will you do if you do tame her?"

"Well ," she grinned widely, "I've always wanted a dog."

"But ..."

"Shh," she set the can down, then came over and slipped into my lap. "You might as well give up, Buster. This is one argument you aren't about to win."

So, after a short session of necking with her, we called Duke into the cabin and fed him, then closed the door to keep him inside. After that I followed along with Carissa as we walked down to the creek again. She didn't hide this time, even if she did approach the den quietly. Neither the pup nor the Collie bitch were outside the den, but she put down a brand-new dog dish, emptied the can of dog food into it and sprinkled a bit of antibiotic powder on the top. Then we slipped away and went back to the cabin.

We stayed there for an hour or more, quietly talking and keeping Duke inside, then we wandered back down and slipped to our hands and knees to peek down the bank. Carissa gave a tiny squeak as she first looked down and saw that the food dish was now empty. After checking to be sure that both the pup and the bitch weren't out where she could see them, she slipped down and picked up the food dish to take it back to the cabin with us.

We'd hardly gotten inside when Mom was calling on the CB to see how we were doing. It took a while to tell her about everything that had happened in the last few days. She'd already heard that we'd taken Corinna to town. It seemed Corinna had called there the night before. She'd also heard about our little run in with Sid and Ray. The main reason she'd called though was to invite us to come down on Sunday for lunch. Then she suggested we spend the afternoon and invited us to stay for a fried chicken dinner early in the evening, that way we'd still be able to get back in time to do our chores before too late. We agreed, then said good night.

After talking to Mom, we went out on the front porch and had our evening coffee. I was surprised that Carissa wanted to go to bed so early again, but once more after we'd finished our coffees we headed to the bedroom. That night I was too tired to do much more than cuddle my lover, but even Carissa seemed sated. Once more we fell asleep early in the evening.

The following two days were very similar. Each time we woke early, talked for a while, then went to work on the fence. Each day Carissa had a swim and I cleaned up before we had lunch. I didn't wade in the water again, instead I stayed on the shore and washed as much as I could while keeping my cast dry. I'd found that it was really hard to get the cast dried out and the moisture had bothered my foot, so I wasn't about to do it again and make it any worse.

However, both that day and the next, I worked out our time so that we spent most of the afternoon relaxing and making love in the bright sunshine. Actually Saturday was a very short workday. We only worked for an hour or so in the morning because we were done with the fence repairs. Then we took a while discussing what we wanted to do about the other fences I was thinking of building, the one separating the upper ranch from the drop off and the one that would fence off the swampy area. I actually drove the Jeep out across the open area, pointing out the portion of the flat area that was extremely wet for most of the year. After that we spent most of our day lazing in the sun, but Carissa had decided not to go swimming, so I'd driven us up onto the top of the hill on the west side of the ranch again.

We were back to the cabin early and we'd even eaten earlier than normal. On top of that, there was a change in the Collie's actions. By Saturday evening the bitch trusted Carissa enough that she'd hardly started up the bank after setting the food down before the Collie came out to eat. Carissa was actually able to stand and watch as she wolfed down the dog food, then licked the bowl clean. All the time she was eating Carissa was talking softly to her and it didn't seem to bother her a bit. We hadn't seen the pup again until that evening and even then all we saw was its nose at the edge of the den, but that was enough to let us know it was alive and must have still been doing okay.

That evening we sat on the porch far later than the two previous evenings and to our surprise, Duke didn't leave us. He still didn't want to stay inside the cabin that night, but we weren't really trying to encourage him to come inside either. We were much more interested in each other.

Sunday morning we slept in slightly, but since we'd been rather energetic the evening before that wasn't a surprise. After doing the morning chores, we saddled both horses then went for a short ride just to keep them from getting too restive. I knew that if a horse wasn't ridden fairly often it would get frisky and with a busted leg I wasn't up to sitting on a bucking bronc. Actually, my gelding crow-hopped a couple of times when Carissa swung into the saddle, but to my surprise it never fazed her a bit.

"Dammit, woman, we're gonna make a rancher out of you yet," I teased and praised her at the same time.

She just stuck her tongue out at me and grinned.

After that short ride, we cleaned up, changed our clothes and drove down home.

It felt rather strange to drive into the yard at home again. Dad and Wil were out on the front porch with Tom and George, but we'd hardly gotten out of the car when Mom, Beth and the two McAdam twins came outside as well. I'd wondered if Sandy would still be there, but it seemed she'd had to go to work after only staying for a day or two.

When we were almost finished eating lunch, Carissa began to talk about the Collie and the pup. So I thought I'd mention the fact that I'd been telling Grampa Bender about the Collie and how he'd instantly changed the subject to talk about Mrs. MacArthur.

"Oh, but she raises pure bred Collies," Beth said instantly.

"She does?" I questioned.

"Unh huh," Mom agreed. "Uncle Toby has been acting quite friendly toward her for the last couple of years. Perhaps it might be one of her dogs?"

"Does she have a telephone?" Carissa asked instantly.

"Oh she must have one," Mom smiled. "I think her first name is Leila."

"Come on, I'll help you look," Beth suggested to Carissa and they were off with the McAdam twins right behind them.

"Talking about telephones, Jason Dumfries is finally having telephone and Hydro run into his ranch," Dad commented. "The line will run just along the top edge of Grampa Bender's homestead."

"Oh?" I looked at him in surprise, immediately jumping to the conclusion that it might be possible to run power to the cabin.

"Tom and I talked it over and we're willing to argue with the other leaseholders that running a hydro and telephone line down to the cabin should come out of this year's lease. Since it doesn't look like Grampa Bender will be able to come home without someone there to look after him, we'll have to have both electicity and telephone there. With that new line running past the edge of the property, it's now affordable, and the basic cost to get the supply to the cabin will come out of the general improvements budget. We're sure that we'll be able to talk everyone into covering the cost of materials to wire the house and the barn as well, but we think we'd have to get someone else to do the wiring. What do you think?"

"Oh, come on, Dad. Don't be silly. I'm all for it."

"Good," George grinned at me. "Dad and I will be up there to do the wiring sometime next week. The only thing we can't do is hook up the lines from the house and barn to the supply; that will cost you quite a few bucks when hydro does it."

"I'll sure cover that," I offered.

"Oh no, since you're only looking after the place, the farm is still in Toby's name and that's part of the cost of supplying power," Dad shook his head and grinned. "In fact, if we can get Toby to sign for it, we need to set it up at the bank so even the cost of the power used every month comes out of his account. If we can't get him to sign for it, Tom and I do have a limited power of attorney and I think in this case we'd need to use it. No matter what happens, at the very worst all you might have to pay for now is whatever George and his Dad charge for their work."

"Well, I can't say about Dad, but I'm working for nothing," George declared. "I imagine you'll be helping Dad and me won't you?"

"Okay, but what do I have to do other than that?" I asked as I nodded toward George.

"If you want to, you can lay out a straight line from somewhere in the middle of the yard to the road along the northern boundary of Toby's homestead. Then you could clear all the trees and brush for twenty-five feet on each side of the line. That would cut down on the charge from Hydro," Dad grinned again.

"That's easy enough," I grinned. "The only place I'll really have any trees or brush to cut is on each side of the creek, then up the grade on the far side. The road is only a hundred yards or so from the top of the hill."

"Ah, but don't forget, Hydro wants all the trees and brush cleared off of the right of way. You'll have to pile it and either burn it or drag it away somewhere else, but it can't stay underfoot when they come in to raise the poles and string the lines."

"How about crossing the creek, Dad?"

"Chris, I don't know. I'll tell you what, Tom and I are going into town tomorrow to talk to them, do you want to go along with us?"

"You're on," I grinned. "What time will I need to be there and where should I meet you?"

"We planned on being at their office at eleven. Will that suit you?"

"Like I said, you're on. We need some groceries anyway, so I'll get Carissa to drop me off there before she goes shopping."

After that talk fell into a discussion of exactly how the logistics of Hydro's work could be tied in with the work around the farm in the next little while. That was because Tom, Wil and George all wanted to help in any way they could. Dad just looked at me and grinned, then a few minutes later he broke into the conversation.

"Okay everyone, I'm sure the power thing will work out. I thought by now you two young bucks would have mentioned that other thing you have been working on."

"Oh," Tom grinned at him. "That's right. Chris, we've had a surprising development with the stock car and we thought you'd like to see what's happened."

I just frowned and looked at their faces, wondering what the heck was going on. All of them were grinning, even Dad, so I knew it couldn't be trouble of any sort.

"Okay. What's going on?"

All of the younger guys just grinned and looked at Dad.

"Well, it looks like they want me to tell you," he sighed as if it was a problem. "You know I've wanted to build a new equipment shed for years don't you?"

"Yeah, so what does that have to do with the stock car?"

"Well, we got financing from the bank for the new equipment shed and your little shed was right where I'm going to want to build it. So we had to move your shed this week."

"Oh? Where is it now?"

"We really didn't have anyplace to put it here on the farm, but Tom and his father had a suggestion," Dad sighed and waved at Tom. "Tom?"

"Oh? Umm, you know that alkali spot in the bush down near the corner of our place?"

"The one that floods so much?"

"Not any more it won't," George laughed. "We kinda drained that."

"What's this got to do with the stock car?"

"George, I think the best thing to do is to show him," Wil chuckled.

Just then Carissa came rushing into the room. "Chris, that dog belongs to Grampa Bender, but it shouldn't have a pup, it was supposed to be fixed because it was a midget or something. Mrs. MacArthur is mad at her vet about screwing that up."

Of course that spun the conversation off into another direction for a while. But, we were only held up for a few minutes before the whole group climbed into cars and trucks to drive over to Tom's dad's place to see just what they had done. I tried to see the slough they had talked about from the road, but I couldn't see it at all. In fact we had to drive into the farmyard and then down a dusty trail into the bush to see anything. When we drove out of the willows and other scrub brush, then onto the flats.

I didn't even notice the old shed at first. Instead, all I could see was that there was now a dirt track where the old slough had been. My friends and family had built a practice track, but it was hidden in a swampy area and surrounded by scrub willows, snowberries and other native underbrush.

### Chapter 20