Page 58 of Final Ride

“Yep. Tammy was found floating in a river in New York State and she’s in a coma in a trauma unit out there. They know all about the charges against her and they’ll call us when she wakes up.”

“Huh,” said Virge. “I guess it’s good to know where she is. That’s one thing less to worry about.”

Travis nodded. “One less thing, son.”

Trauma Unit. Watertown. New York.

Willy crossed the Ivy Lea Bridge into New York state and drove twenty-five miles south to Watertown. Following the directions in the GPS he arrived at the Trauma Unit.

“This is where Tammy is, doggies. Aren’t y’all happy she isn’t dead? I know I am. Maybe someday we’ll all be a family again.”

Using his crutch for support, Willy limped through the hospital. He asked at two different nurses’ stations where Tammy was and finally arrived at the intensive care unit.

Thinking he’d soon get to see her, he stopped abruptly when he saw the guard standing at the door of the ICU. No way he could get in to see her.

Once he explained who he was and why he wanted to sit with Tammy, he would’ve implicated himself and confessed to aiding and abetting a wanted fugitive.

He turned around before anyone noticed him and headed back to the parking lot.

Sad and close to tears, Willy climbed into his pickup. “We can’t see Tammy, doggies. She won’t be better or out of jail for a long, long time. We’ll go home to North Carolina and wait in our cabin until the dust settles around Tammy.”

George and Gracie both had sad faces when they heard the news.

Chapter Thirteen

Monday, August 25th.

Wild Stallion Ranch. Montana.

Three weeks had gone by and today was the day we pulled out of Montana and headed for our new life in Texas. The house movers were scheduled to come tomorrow and pack up all of our furniture and belongings and bring the load to our new ranch in Lincoln, Texas.

Billy had decided to live with his parents in Shelby for the two months until his term was up, then he’d fly down and join us on our new ranch. That made Dad happy. He wanted Billy in Texas with us, and so did me and Virge.

The horses were loaded in the long, rented trailer and that trailer was hooked up to Dad’s big Ford. He wanted to haul the horses because the weight of the trailer would be harder for Virge and me to handle if it was hooked to our Jeep.

Virge didn’t see it that way and he protested a bit when Dad told us how it was going to go, but Virge liked to argue just for the sake of it.

Travis had sold our small two-horse trailer, so we didn’t have to haul it with us. Good move. We had four horses now and more coming when we got to the Texas ranch.

Yesterday, before we loaded the tack and all the rest of it, we all rode together out to the back of our thousand acres. Dad wanted to have one more look at the wild horses that often ran across our land with their tails and manes flying in the wind. Our ranch was named for the mustangs and yesterday, we were lucky enough to spot a couple of them.

While we were way back there, Dad spent a few minutes sitting at his Uncle Carson’s grave. He said his goodbyes and thanked Uncle Carson for the ranch and for giving us a good life because of it.

We were keeping the cabin he gave us up Black Wolf Mountain so we could come back to Montana anytime we wanted and have our own place to hang out.

Dad told me and Virge that we were born in Montana, so we should have a piece of property here for our heritage. Our own little piece of Montana. I loved that cabin, so I was glad we weren’t selling it along with everything else.

After breakfast, we said goodbye to Billy. Dad put him in charge of packing up everything in the fridge and taking it all to his mother’s house. We had the rest of the stuff from the pantry packed in boxes and ready for the movers.

We’d already said goodbye to Molly and Ted at the station and that was a sad time yesterday, with Molly crying ‘n all, but we got through it.

Molly was only staying until Billy was done at the first of November. She’d made up her mind. It was time for her to retire.

“You ready, boys?”

“Ready, Dad,” I said.

“Nice and slow, Virgie, with the bike trailer on behind. You’re hauling precious cargo, son.”

---