# Car 54

####
© 2005 / revised 2014
K Pelle

### Chapter 12:
Steep Grade - Use Lower Gear

The next morning, I opened my eyes to find that Mom was gently shaking my shoulder. That astounded me, first, because Dad usually wakened me by knocking on my door, and secondly, because the second I awakened I knew something was strange and different. I was being cuddled by a warm body, not just any old body either; Carissa was lying at my side. However, after a brief instant I realised that not only was she fully dressed, but she was also lying on top of the blankets that were covering me.

I stared at Mom's face for a few seconds, just long enough to register in my sleep fogged brain the fact that she was smiling. Then I tried to turn my head to look at Carissa, but all I could really see was her hair because of the position she was in. Her head lay on my chest and she was breathing deeply, still sound asleep.

"Holy cow!" I managed to gasp, then Mom chuckled.

"You're not in trouble, if that's what's worrying you," she said quietly. "But, the two of you had better get yourselves in gear and get moving. You have a test to write this morning and so does your girlfriend."

"But, Mom, why is Carissa ..." I barely whispered.

"I don't think she slept much last night," Mom answered softly, almost laughing. "I heard you two go to bed about midnight, but when I got up at five, she was sitting in the kitchen. We talked for a while as I got coffee on the stove and got the rest of the family mobile, then half an hour ago I sent her in here to wake you. When she didn't come back out, I came looking for the two of you."

"Half an hour?" I stared at Mom in surprise. "That's quite a while for you to wait isn't it?"

"Well, I thought you two deserved a few minutes alone, but after sixteen years, I've come to know your habits fairly well," Mom chuckled. "I suspected you were still asleep when I hadn't heard you run to the bathroom. You're a lot like your Dad in that way and I know he needs a bathroom break right after he wakes up."

"Mmmnn," Carissa moaned softly just then, perhaps disturbed by Mom's voice.

She was laying on the arm that was in a cast, pinning it to the bed. I could feel her shift slightly, then suddenly she lifted her head and stared at Mom. I couldn't help but chuckle when she squeaked softly, almost like a mouse.

"Oh, dear," she managed to say legibly, then she was scrambling to sit upright. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Crawford, I was only going to wake Chris with a kiss on the cheek, but when I laid down beside him, it felt so ..."

"It's okay, Carissa," Mom laughed softly. "I think I understand, but you both need to hurry now or you'll be late."

With that Mom left and closed the door behind her, leaving us alone again. I was alone with Carissa and a major hard-on, a hard-on that I tried to disguise by sitting up and letting the covers drop down to my lap. Of course when I sat up, I was suddenly face to face with Carissa and she smiled a thousand watt smile, but even I could see she was still tired.

"Hi," she whispered. "I thought we were in deep doo-doo for a minute, but your Mom is very understanding."

"Well, maybe she understands, but I'm afraid I don't."

"Well, I couldn't seem to sleep, so I was up most of the night. Then when I came to wake you up I made the mistake of thinking I'd snuggle close and wake you up by kissing and cuddling you. Unfortunately I fell asleep and looking at the clock, I guess I actually slept for half an hour or so. Now we're all going to be late if we don't both get moving."

"Hey, I was just thinking," I interrupted her. "You said yesterday that we didn't have any tests today. We both have a history test."

"We've both have such a high average that we could skip the test and get a pass just from our year's average," she laughed at me "But, since we're up and around we should get going and write the darn thing."

Then with a quick hug and a very brief kiss she rolled off the bed and followed Mom out the door.

I was still droopy from lack of sleep, so it seemed to me that it took forever to get ready for school that morning, but my troubles were nothing in comparison to the muss and fuss that the three girls went through. First of all there were three of them and only two bathrooms in the whole house which really slowed things down. Secondly, the twins hadn't really come prepared to dress for school, in other words the clothing they had with them wasn't exactly what they wanted to wear. The surprising thing to me was that not only did Beth get involved with helping the two sisters get ready, but so did Mom. It wasn't that they were physically involved, but they were busy making suggestions and they even lent the two girls makeup, clothing and things of that sort.

To stay out of their way, I grabbed a couple of pieces of toast and a cup of coffee, then went out on the front porch. It was a beautiful June morning, the sun was shining, the birds were singing and I could hear the noises from the barnyard as Dad and Wil did the chores. To be honest the beauty of the day was almost lost on me though, my mind was mulling over all the changes that had happened in my life recently.

At least sitting out there on my own allowed me to calm down and get a handle on my feelings. It also led me to realise that I wasn't completely in control. What other people did had as much influence on my life as what I did and I was going to have to learn to live with it. To put that another way, I made up my mind that I was going to have to try to be patient with others.

It was a good thing I made that resolve because that morning my patience was truly tested.

It seemed to me that it was taking an exceptionally long time for everyone to get ready to leave. Then of course we had to pack the twins' belongings into the trunk of my car since their 'holiday' on the farm was finished. After that Corinna and Wil had to say goodbye to each other before we could finally leave and from the way they were acting you would have sworn that they were separating for a few years instead of a few hours. On top of everything else, not only Beth and the girls were catching a ride with me that day, but so were Tom and George. It was a royal screw up just getting everyone loaded and ready to go, but I finally managed to get them all into my car.

The car was full. Everyone and everything we needed to take to school was loaded and we were underway. In the front seat, I was behind the wheel, Carissa sat at my side, then Tom was sitting at the other window. In the back seat, Corinna sat behind me, then Beth in the middle, and finally George sat near the far window. All of us had tests that morning and none of us was really in a great mood, but I think Carissa and Corinna were the most sober about the situation. At any rate no one was doing a lot of talking. Actually we all seemed to be in a world of our own.

To be honest I wasn't really paying attention. I was quite confident about the history test I was going to write, so my mind was more occupied by other things, mainly the road and my driving. On top of that the situation with Grampa Bender kept coming to mind. I was quite worried about his health and I'll admit I was wondering and worrying about what could or would happen if he was drastically incapacitated.

Once we were parked in the school parking lot I made arrangements to meet the twins after our exam so I could give them a ride home. Beth, George and Tom would be at school longer because they had more than one test that day, which meant they'd be catching the bus to get home. Finally though, everything had been arranged so we all paraded inside.

The moment we stepped in the doors of the school we were met by members of the staff and those of us writing our grade twelve finals were called aside. It seemed they wanted us separated from the rest of the students. I suppose it was meant to reduce any form of stress, but to be honest the way the school staff handled the matter only served to make most people more nervous than they had previously been.

As soon as we were separated we were led into one of the grade twelve home rooms, but to our surprise it was totally cleared of desks and everything else. That's when it was explained that we were going to have to write our exams in the gym, not in our regular classrooms. We were also warned that for the present test all we were allowed to take into the gym were pencils, pens and erasers, no books, no bags, nothing. As well we were warned that if we needed a washroom, we'd better take care of the matter right then; once we were in the gym we wouldn't be allowed to return if we left the room for any reason after the test had begun.

There were several other rules, but to me they were all common sense, so I zoned out and simply waited for the time when we were led to the gym as a group. Once we were there we were seated at individual desks that were evenly spaced about four or five feet from each other. Finally we were given our individual test papers and after a few further instructions we were given permission to start writing the exam.

Writing the test was easy, at least it seemed easy to me. The test period was set up for two hours, but I was done in just over an hour so I had oodles of time to review all my answers. Even then I turned in my paper and left the gym long before the two-hour period ended. Once I was out of the gym I went to my locker, cleared it out and took all of my personal belongings out to my car. Then all I had to was wait for Carissa and Corinna.

When Carissa and Corinna came out of the school they talked to a couple of their close friends for a few moments, then I took the girls home. Although the twins had only been at our house for a few days it was hard to walk away from Carissa. Before I left her, I wanted her to know that I did care a lot for her. However it seemed strange to me to be giving Carissa a hug and kiss in the middle of the day, especially when I knew that both her mom and her sister were aware of what we were doing. In actual fact before I got away from their house I got hugs from all of them, even Mrs. Coulter.

The feeling of strangeness carried on after I left the Coulter house. It seemed very weird for me to be driving through town in midmorning, but while I was in town I wanted to visit Grampa Bender. Unfortunately when I went to the hospital he was having a series of tests done and the nurse in charge wouldn't allow me to disturb him during the tests. She did tell me that he seemed to be progressing well though and I thought that was great news. However at the same time she warned me to pass on to my family that he was likely going to be involved in an extended convalescence, perhaps as long as one or two months.

That nurse hadn't helped my mood at all. I still felt weird as I was leaving the hospital, in fact I felt almost completely lost. I wasn't sure what to do because I had too many things that were changing in my life and I needed some advice. I decided to go home and talk to my family.

Sitting down to lunch on a weekday with Mom, Dad, and Wil felt strange as well, but at least I had the comfort of being in my own home. It was finally dawning on me that part of the feeling of strangeness was being brought on by the fact that I was graduating from highschool and was going to be on my own soon. I was going to be making decisions that were going to affect my life forever and I wasn't certain of myself. Trying to explain to my family was difficult, but think I got my point across after a few moments.

"Chris, I don't think I've ever seen you act so insecure," Mom smiled and reached out to touch my hand. "The one thing you need to remember is that we're here to offer advice and support for your decisions."

"And we're here to offer our opinions," Dad chuckled. "As well as that, your mom is right, we'll try to offer our support in any way we can."

"Just what is bothering you so much?" Wil asked with a frown. "We're so used to you being so certain of yourself that the way you're acting is completely strange to us, at least it is to me."

So I tried to explain.

"I think there are too many changes happening to me at once," I sighed. "I have so many options that I really don't know what to do."

Dad smiled and nodded. "Well, let's hear your take on what you're worried about."

I rolled my eyes and sighed again. "First off that job offer in the city worries me. I know it involves a lot of delivery work and on top of that any time I spend in the shop entails a lot of fine work with my hands. Since I have both one hand and one leg in a cast, I'm not certain I can do the job. The cast on my leg could screw up my driving and the cast on my hand probably screws up my manual dexterity."

"Actually, I was talking to the owner of the electronics shop about that just this morning," Dad smiled almost apologetically. "He called to see how you were and I explained about your accident. He wanted you to know that the job was still there if you wanted it, but that if you felt that you wanted to pass on it for the time being, he could hire a local helper. He wanted me to tell you that he doesn't want to put you under any pressure either one way or the other."

"Well ... I think I might just pass on it for now," I sighed. "I really want to do it, but at the same time I think I should stay around here."

"Is the way you feel about Carissa affecting your thoughts about moving to the city?" Mom asked.

"Maybe a bit, but to be honest Grampa Bender's health has more to do with the way I feel," I admitted. "Somehow his place has to be kept up, but I'm afraid he's going to be in the hospital for a while. For another thing I've talked to him about the sublease on the valley and he was unhappy about the way it was originally written."

"Actually your Uncle Tom and I are a bit uptight about the way that sublease has been handled as well," Dad sighed. "The way it was written was fine sixty years ago when all the family lived on the farm, but now that so many of the family members have moved away to the city it's not as fair. Since our two families are the only ones living on the farm and actually working the land it's rather unfair toward us. What with the profits from working the lease land being divided up amongst the whole family, we feel that we're doing the work and they're getting the gravy."

"Well, Grampa Bender did say he was going to change that," I said flatly.

"So how does that affect you?" Will demanded.

"Right now the sublease doesn't affect anything, not really," I admitted, then I shrugged. "The thing is, I'm sort of screwed up for the job in the city, but you weren't counting on me being around here. Yesterday I mentioned the idea of looking after the place for Grampa Bender while he's in the hospital, but no one really said much about the idea. You and Dad have your hands full here on the farm, so if I did take that extra chore off of your hands it would make life easier for you."

"But could you handle looking after his place?" Dad asked.

"I don't see why not," I shrugged. "He doesn't have a huge amount of chores to do or anything of that sort, not at this time of the year. I can still get around fine and this new pair of casts is great. I can do a lot of the fiddly little things that need to be done without hurting myself, but if I do need help I can easily call you to have someone come and help me."

"I thought you tried to call yesterday and his radio didn't work?" Mom spoke up.

"Well, for one thing the radio here at home wasn't plugged in," I said shortly. "Carissa and I found that out when we came home from the hospital."

"Oh. That was probably either Beth's or my fault," she frowned. "We were cleaning up the table it sits on the other afternoon and we had to move the radio out of the way. Maybe one of us accidentally unplugged it when we moved things around."

"That doesn't matter," I waved my hand in dismissal. "If we made sure the radio worked, and agreed on a time to talk every day that would be best anyway."

"So you're planning on staying up there?" Will frowned at me.

"Well, not for the first while, I've got finals every day this week. I was thinking of spending a fair amount of time up there though. The whole place is a bit run down and there are a lot of little jobs that need to be done, things that would make Grampa Bender's life a lot easier after he gets out of the hospital."

"That brings up the question of how long he'll be in the hospital," Dad looked at me. "They haven't said anything officially, but didn't you mention something about overhearing some of the staff talking about that situation yesterday?"

"Yeah, the doctor and one of the nurses were talking about having a long term bed ready for him after all his tests were done," I nodded. "I asked the chief nurse about it this morning when I was there and she said she expected him to be there for about six weeks or more. From what she said she seemed to think he needed some sort of long term care, maybe he's run down or something?"

"Well, that's not a surprise," Mom snorted. "If you consider how he's been living, it's no darn wonder. I think almost all he ate was either eggs, bacon, and toast or hamburger and potatoes. The man must have scurvy from lack of vegetables. On top of that he's always smoked like a chimney and drank like a fish."

"Oh come now, Liz. He didn't eat that badly," Dad grinned at her. "Besides, I think he's done darn well, after all he's almost ninety years old."

"He's eighty-seven and as stubborn as a mule," Mom snorted again. "Alice and I have said for years that he should be living in town and ..."

"Grampa Bender simply doesn't want to leave his homestead," Will stated flatly and I nodded in agreement.

"I sure can't blame him, that place is beautiful," I added. "That's one reason I'd like to make sure it's looked after."

"I can understand how you feel about his little ranch," Dad nodded. "Actually I think you've done a fair bit of thinking about the situation, which is good and I think your idea has merit. Before we give you our okay for a trial run though, I'd like to talk it over with your mother, and we should ask both Tom and Alice how they feel about the situation."

Mom frowned, then shrugged and called Uncle Tom and Aunt Alice on the telephone. They agreed to talk to us, but Uncle Tom suggested that we drive up to Grampa Bender's place and look it over before any decision was made. Dad and Mom thought that was a great idea, so I suggested we go in my car.

Wil decided he didn't want to go along with us, instead he asked if he could borrow the pickup to go to town. He wanted to do an errand or two and I was quite certain that he wanted to drop in to see Corinna as well. I was quite surprised that Mom and Dad agreed to let him use the truck, but I didn't say anything. It only took a few moments before we drove out of the yard, but Wil had already left. In fact the dust from his passage had settled before we got to Uncle Tom's place.

When we stopped in their driveway, Uncle Tom and Aunt Alice both climbed into the back seat with Mom while Dad rode shotgun and I drove. As I turned to go to Grampa Bender's, Dad started to explain my idea to Uncle Tom and Aunt Alice and I wasn't at all surprised at the debate that broke out amongst the four of them. We were well along the dirt road heading back into the hills and I'd slowed down to turn onto the side trail toward Grampa Bender's before Uncle Tom asked me a direct question about what I was proposing to do.

Since he'd chosen to ask me just before I crossed onto the government-owned lease land and we'd just driven through the cattle gate, I slowed the car and gestured at the land in front of us with my right hand.

"The lease we have with Grampa Bender is really dependent on our two families," I frowned slightly. "Not only do we farm almost two thousand acres of bottomland, but we do a lot of maintenance on the whole lowland area of the valley. In fact we've been maintaining the fences and everything on the lower end of the valley for years, just so we can rent it out. At the same time Grampa Bender has been looking after the upper lease and this upper plateau with a little help from us when he asks for it, but up here we mostly look after the fencing. The rest of our family in the city doesn't help a bit and that stretches us pretty darn thin at times. Right now is one of those times."

"So what are you suggesting?" Uncle Tom asked.

"Well, I know that Grampa Bender was thinking about changing the terms of the sublease when it comes due," I sighed. "I just want to try to make sure that he thinks kindly toward us when he makes any changes."

"In other words you're planning on buttering him up?" Aunt Alice suggested.

"Nope, nothing could be further from the truth. There are jobs that need to be done while he's in the hospital and I can do them so he doesn't have to lay there and worry about them." I shrugged. "Besides I love it up here at this end of the lease, especially after a person gets down out of this dry highland and into the upper valley. I'd actually be happy to live up there."

"What would you do, ranch? You certainly can't do much farming up here on the top end, not unless you go nuts with a bulldozer and clear a few hundred acres of trees and level the place off," Dad smiled at me.

"Oh, Willard," Mom broke in. "Uncle Toby has been ranching for years and as far as I can see he's barely managed to stay alive on the little bit he makes. There certainly wouldn't be enough income to sustain Chris as well, especially not at his age. Besides, he still needs an education and I expect that in not too many years he's going to be starting a family of his own."

"Well, this is certainly no place to raise kids," Aunt Alice agreed with Mom. "I mean just look at this road. How would they ever get to school from way out here?"

Of course just at the time she said that I was driving on the roughest section of the cross country trail, crossing a rough ford in the bottom of one of the deepest gullies on the trail.

"I think it's bit early to worry about kids. Besides, if I do meet someone and end up having kids, I'd like them to be home schooled anyway. However, that's far in the future," I blushed, then plowed ahead. "Right now Grampa Bender is still living here and I'm going to assume that he's just in the hospital for a visit, but the place needs to be looked after while he's away. With circumstances falling the way they have, I seem to be the person who can step in and do that without screwing up anyone else's life too much. The rest of my dreams aren't important right now."

"Well, there are just over eight months left on the old sublease," Dad sighed heavily. "I hate to say it, but one problem we do have to face is the fact that Grampa Bender might not last that long."

"Yes there is that," Uncle Tom admitted. "We've grown so used to him just being here that I suppose we never made plans for that possibility. I know I haven't given it much thought."

I suppose we were all somewhat disturbed by the idea that Grampa Bender might pass on. At least no one spoke about anything for several moments; instead we rode on in silence with each person keeping his thoughts to himself. I know that I had a tendency to shy away from facing that possibility when I thought about his ranch. Somehow, no matter what I was daydreaming about, I had always visualized him as being somewhere in the background. That day though, the very real possibility of his demise seemed to be staring me in the face.

No one had spoken for several minutes as we drove through alternating patches of scrub trees and open patches, not until the car crested the final knoll overlooking Grampa Bender's place. I slowed the car to a stop and we all gazed down at the pastoral scene for a few moments. The scene had changed from the day before and I didn't have the same sense of foreboding that I'd had then.

Today several cattle grazed in the small pasture behind the barn, a fat sow rooted in a corner of her pen, chickens scratched and strutted in their fenced yard and on the front porch of the cabin, a black and white Border Collie lifted his head to gaze at us, then rose to his feet as if preparing to either greet friends or repel intruders. The door to the house was still closed and although no smoke crept out of the old log cabin's chimney, I felt a sense of peace, not one of anxiety.

In actual fact the view right then was almost breathtakingly beautiful. Spread out below us was an idyllic panorama that would have made a perfect calendar scene. To our right and off in the distance, was a small lake, its surface scarcely ruffled by a soft breeze and tiny waves reflecting glints of the clear blue sky of late spring. Nearer to us were the neat and trim buildings of a small ranch that Grampa Bender had built and maintained over the years, admittedly with some help from our family. Everything above the upper lip of the valley was backed by the varied greens of mixed prairie scrub and boreal woodland and that was in turn backed by the verdant slopes of the foothills ranging into the distance. Then on the edge of the skyline we could make out the stoney faces and icy peaks of the Rocky Mountains.

Nearer to hand, Grampa Bender's old cabin rested in the center of the extended clearing below us, its silver grey log walls and shake covered roof almost luminescent in the bright sunlight. Winding down the long slope below us were the tracks of a barely distinguishable dirt road. Most of its surface was hidden under the growth of years of vegetation except for the two parallel tracks made by the wheels of cars and trucks that had driven that trail, but grass and small plants had almost reclaimed that track. The one truly clear area was the deck of a creosoted wooden bridge which crossed over a small stream near the foot of the slope. The bridge was really the only visible sign of the creek from our viewpoint, the water being hidden by the shading leaves and branches of willows and birches that grew along its verge.

Slightly to our left and further away from our viewpoint were the red painted walls and roof of Grampa Bender's hip roofed barn as well as several smaller outbuildings where animals and tools were kept. Pole fences separated several pens, the only exceptions being the small area he had reserved for his huge old sow or the large chicken run, both of those were enclosed by wire fencing, stretched between peeled posts.

At first glance everything looked clean neat and well maintained, but I knew better. Grampa Bender was an old man who was starting to find it hard to keep everything in top condition, so I knew that there were a thousand small repairs that needed to be done. I wanted desperately to be the person to do that job. I'd already made up my mind that when he returned from the hospital everything would really be as neat and functional as the setup appeared from the distance, at least I wanted to try to make that happen.

For several moments we simply sat on the top of the little hill and looked down at the slope toward Grampa Bender's little ranch. Then Mom leaned forward from the back seat until her head was almost resting on my shoulder.

"I'll admit that the whole effect is beautiful, Chris, but you can't eat the scenery. How would you ever manage to make a living if you farmed this?" she asked, her voice right in my ear as she spoke quietly.

"Well, it will probably never be a profitable farm, Mom," I answered calmly. "It has the possibility of being a great horse ranch though. Especially when you include all of Grampa's upper lease, the section above the drop off into the lower valley."

"You know, that's not such a bad idea," Dad said after a moment's thought. "If you included all the land in the upper basin, you'd have almost five-thousand acres of ranch land. With the land conformation being the way it is, it wouldn't take a lot of fencing to do it either. Most of the area is surrounded by steep banks and cliffs, all you'd need would be to fence the draws leading up to the heights and perhaps some fencing across the top end of the lower valley."

"Grampa Toby has already done most of that fencing, Willard," Uncle Tom commented from the back seat. "I remember helping him years ago, when I wasn't much older than Chris. We fenced all of those side draws then."

"I remember that," Mom said as she sat back on the seat. "Didn't Uncle Toby do that partly to fence out the wild horses? I remember coming up here with Kate when we were teenagers to help Aunt Tilly do her canning. One time we came and she was so mad because the mustangs had come down from the hills and had almost wiped out the peas and corn in her garden. We were here to help her for the weekend and there wasn't much we could do, so one day we went skinny dipping in the lake and almost froze. It sees to me that you were here that weekend, Alice. Do you remember it?"

"Yeah, I remember! Kate talked me into coming out with her that weekend. In fact I think that was when I first met Tom. He snuck down to peek at us when we were swimming," she laughed, then her voice changed until she sounded annoyed. "But, there aren't many mustangs to keep out now! The damn wild horse hunters are going after them with planes now and other people are shooting them. I think the hunters are the ones who should be shot."

"Well, mustangs can do a lot of damage," Dad sighed. "I don't agree with killing them out in the wild though or catching them and shipping them to a packing plant to grind them up into dog food either. I think that sort of crap should be stopped."

"That takes government action," Uncle Tom sighed. "The problem is keeping them out of farms and ranches. It takes a darn good fence to keep them out. I know, I helped Grampa Toby build the fences here in the forties, remember. We had a four-foot high fence on one gully and those darn wildies just jumped over it like it was a two-foot high log. We had to make all the fences taller, in fact most of the fences are about six feet high."

"You must have done good work. Most of those fences are still there and still working," I commented. "But my point is that if the wild horses ranged here, then why wouldn't this be good range for Quarter Horses?"

"Oh it could be," Dad agreed with me, nodding his head. "The thing is you'd need to have all the fences in top shape, then you'd need corrals and equipment. On top of that the sublease would have to be modified."

"Where would you get the initial horses for your foundation herd?" Uncle Tom asked. "I'd think that would be the most expensive part of the setup."

"I don't know," I admitted with a shrug of my shoulders. "After all it's just a pipe dream for sometime in the future. Right now I'd just like to be sure that the place is looked after, so when Grampa Bender gets out of the hospital the place is in better shape than it is now."

Everyone fell silent and I decided it was time to drive down the hill for a closer look at everything. I'm not sure what anyone else was thinking about, but I had put my thoughts about the costs of setting up a horse ranch and ways of working out methods of reducing those costs on a back burner. Instead I was looking at the general condition of the little old cabin and its outbuildings, making mental notes about repairs and improvements that needed to be done right away, catching the problems before things deteriorated too far.

As I pulled into the yard of the old cabin, Grampa Bender's old dog got to his feet and sauntered over to greet us, barking loudly.

"Alright Duke, settle down now," I laughed at his noise. "You know me, so what's all the fuss about?"

"He's probably hungry and lonely," Dad snorted. "On top of that we came in a strange car that he probably doesn't recognise."

"He's probably just lonely, Dad," I said as I got out of the car. "I filled his bowl yesterday before we left. Grampa Bender insisted on it."

I paused to pet the dog as I got out of the car, which did settle him down a little. Then once he'd checked everyone out he seemed a lot calmer, but by then we were all out of the car and walking toward the cabin. At a glance I could see that almost everything was in nearly the same condition as when I'd left the day before. Once the fuss over greeting the dog was done, everyone had fallen quiet again as if each of us was looking the place over and assessing the scene for obvious problems.

Since it was a sunny day and the doors of the cabin were closed, it was quite stuffy inside. In fact the cabin had a distinctive odour that I mentally associated with Grampa Bender, but Mom called a 'lonely bachelor' smell. I had to grin, because the moment she and Aunt Alice stepped in through the door I could sense their minds going into 'clean and shine' mode.

Uncle Tom, Dad, and I managed to escape by using the excuse of checking out the animals. Once we were outside we all began to head toward the barnyard. We all knew that if we didn't find something to do in the yard Mom and Aunt Alice would find some way to put us to work in or around the house.

I paused at the car to slip a cut-down overshoe over the cast on my foot just to protect it from getting covered in barnyard muck. While I was doing that Dad and Uncle Tom had paused and were looking around at the yard and the buildings, making comments about the somewhat rundown condition of the buildings, corrals, and fences. I think that they were mostly intent on seeing what needed to be done around the yard in the way of maintenance and improvement.

At the moment I was more interested in being certain that all the animals had enough food and water for the next day or two, so once my cast was protected I went to work. I didn't realise that both Dad and Uncle Tom were watching as I checked the dry feeders and the semiautomatic waterers for the chickens and the old sow. It was only as I was opening the gate to walk out into the upper pasture in order to check the cattle that I felt Dad's hand dropped onto my shoulder causing me to turn and look at him and Uncle Tom.

"Why don't Tom and I go look at the cattle for you?" Dad smiled. "So far you've been the only one doing any work and after we drove all the way up here I'd like to say I did something useful."

"I can do it, Dad," I lifted my fancy fibreglass walking cast, covered in the old overshoe and gestured at it with one hand. "This thing is better than any shoe for protecting my foot and ..."

"And I think you should rest before you stress that foot too much, after all you are supposed to rest it," he interrupted me. "I was watching and you've started to limp more than you were, so you need to take a short break."

"You need to learn to work a while, then rest a while, at least during the time you're recuperating," Uncle Tom added. "Besides, if you plan on doing a lot of walking, you might pick up a cane or a walking stick of some kind."

Since Uncle Tom had spent almost a year recuperating from an accident to one of his legs, I knew he was talking from experience. He'd been badly hurt when he'd gotten tangled in the power takeoff of a tractor a few years ago. Instead of arguing with either of them, I shrugged my shoulders and told them how many animals they should see in the pasture. I made certain that I mentioned one cow and calf that I wanted to check in particular, describing them in detail. I'd noticed that the calf had seemed far smaller than any of the others when I'd let them out the day before. I wanted to be certain that it was doing okay and wasn't sick or injured.

We all stood there for a moment or two discussing the cattle and the pasture, then I leaned against the fence and watched the two of them traipse off through the thick grass. While I was standing there watching them walk away, I had a strange feeling of being 'left out' somehow. At the same time I knew that as far as I was concerned I'd accomplished my main objective by just coming to Grampa Bender's place in order to check that all the animals were okay. Then it dawned on me that the feeling of being 'left out' came from not being directly involved in what was going on and I realized that I was already assuming some responsibility for caring for the place. At the same time though I recognized that I was going to have to accept the fact that my family cared just as much about Grampa Bender as I did.

Instead of dwelling on that feeling, I tucked it into a corner of my mind to explore at a later date and decided that I had to find something else to keep myself busy. Looking around the yard, I was mentally making a list of small things that needed some attention or repair when I heard Mom calling me from the cabin.

When I went to see what I could do to help her, I found that all the doors and windows had been opened as wide as they could go. At the same time there were several large bundles of clothing on the front porch.

"Oh, there you are, Chris," Mom turned from working at the kitchen sink. "Could you please take all those bundles on the front porch out to your car and pack them in the trunk? It doesn't appear that Uncle Toby has been able to do any washing for quite a while. Alice and I are going to take all the bedding and linens home with us and wash it there. Just about everything in this house needs a good cleaning."

I knew better than to comment about that. Instead I headed right back outside and packed the trunk of my car full of clothing and bedding. That wasn't the last of the little jobs they wanted me to do though, jobs like taking out the garbage and sweeping the front and back porches fell on my shoulders as well. When Dad and Uncle Tom came back from their walk to check the cattle, they were put to work too. In fact we all worked like slaves for another hour or more. Both of the women probably would have been willing to work longer, but Uncle Tom and Dad insisted we had to get back home for evening chores.

The last thing we did before we left was to pack up Grampa Bender's CB radio in order to have Bob Grant, George's dad, check it out and repair it if necessary.

I was surprised that everyone was so quiet as we drove up the hill. Then somehow as soon as we'd topped the grade and could no longer see the little ranch, everyone seemed to open up. Dad was the first one to speak.

"I think Chris is right. Someone will have to spend some time looking after the animals every day or two," he said, his voice had a resigned tone that I felt boded well for my idea. "On top of that there are a lot of small repairs that need to be taken care of, otherwise things are simply going to deteriorate."

"Well, I agree," Uncle Tom spoke then. "The problem is that scope of some of the things that need to be done, I wonder if anyone can handle all of them on his own. What do you think, Chris?"

"Well, jobs like fixing the missing shingles on the barn roof would be impossible for me to do. I'll be darned if I want to try climbing up there on a ladder with this cast on my leg, so I'd need help with things like that. Heck, with this cast on my hand I don't even know if I can hold a hammer and a saw, so I'm going to need help to do several jobs," I answered with a snort of laughter. "I think I'd need to bring my horses up as well, that way I could ride out and do jobs like going out to see the cattle and checking the fences."

"Can you ride with a cast on your leg?" Aunt Alice shot back at me.

"Well, I might need a special stirrup on the left side, but I think your son, Tom, could help me weld one up," I grinned into the rear view mirror at her, feeling that I was convincing everyone that I'd seen a lot of the problems and had planned ways and means of handling problems.

"I'm more worried about you having to cook for yourself," Mom spoke then. "I know you aren't the worlds best cook."

"He'd soon learn," Dad answered for me. "I think that for the first while Chris should plan on coming home every day or two anyway. In fact until he's done with his exams, I think he should be home every night."

That was the point when I realised that they were going to go along with my scheme, up until then I hadn't held out a lot of hope that they'd all agree. The rest of the drive home seemed to fly by for me as the discussion raged about what had to be done and how much help I was going to need. My mind was too wrought up to remember many of the details, in fact I was alternating between feeling euphoric that I was going to be trusted to be on my own and worried that I was going to screw up in some way.

### Chapter 13