Page 75 of Final Ride

Corb laughed and it might have been the first time.

Dad had the horse trailer backed up to the corral but that was as much as he could do. Even driving the truck was a new hell for him.

The horses unloaded a lot easier than they loaded at Annie’s place. Maybe they knew they were finally home. Virge gave them carrots for being so cooperative and they settled right down.

Me and Virge and Corb went into our new barn to see if the previous owners left it clean for us, and it wasn’t too bad. All the stalls were cleaned out and there were no big messes to clean up.

“Looks pretty good in here,” said Virge. “You want to pick a stall for your horse, bro?”

“Don’t think it matters, Virge. The stalls are all the same.”

“Some are closer to the tack room than others,” said Virge.

“That only matters if you’re too fuckin’ weak to carry your saddle a bit farther. That would be you and wouldn’t apply to me.”

“Shut up.” Virge came at me to punch me in the gut, and I got him first. That made Corb laugh again.

Annie and the kids came a while later and brought us sandwiches and Cokes. We were all sitting on the porch steps eating when the huge furniture truck pulled in and parked. That was when the work started for real.

“Wish I could help y’all,” said Travis, “but sadly, I can’t. My stitches will rip out. I’m happy to supervise and be the moving boss.” He laughed.

Maynooth. Northern Ontario.

Bobby took the rifle he found under the bed and made sure it was loaded before he and Cleo searched the forest for Tammy.

“If I have to take Tammy away from a bear, Cleo, it’s not gonna be easy. Truth be told, the bear might have done us a huge favor and put Tammy out of her misery.

“After our last meeting in that fishing shack, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be seeing her again, but it seems like she’s got nine lives like a cat.”

Cleo growled at the mention of a cat and Bobby laughed at her.

“That girl ain’t right in the head, Cleo, and it makes me wonder how many people she’s killed or stole from since I last saw her. And now a new Freightliner? Some poor bastard is crying over that for sure.”

Cleo’s tail wagged the whole time she ran through the woods with her nose to the ground. She tracked the bear smell more than Tammy’s scent, but it worked the same way. Find one and find both.

The dog stopped outside a cave almost half a mile from the cabin. Bobby figured the cave was at the back of someone else’s property. They’d come too far for this to be all Tammy’s mama’s land.

“We’re not going into a cave when we know there’s a bear in there, Cleo. That would be fuckin’ suicide.”

Holding onto Cleo’s collar, Bobby stuck his head in and hollered, “Tammy, are you in there?”

A loud growl came back at him from not too far inside the cave.

“We woke up the bear, Cleo. Come on, we’ve got to run for it.” Over his shoulder, Bobby hollered, “Thanks for the truck, Tammy. I truly love it, girl.”

The growl got louder, and Bobby ran faster.

River Bend Ranch. Lincoln. Texas.

By supper time, all the furniture had been unloaded and taken inside the house but none of it was in place. Just in there, piled and scattered around willy-nilly.

“We’re taking a break for beer and pizza,” said Travis, “and all we’re doing after supper is setting up the beds. Y’all have done enough work for one day.”

“Good call, Dad,” said Virge. “I could eat a large pizza all by myself, I’m so fuckin’ hungry.”

We were about as tired as we were gonna get when we finished setting up the beds and finding the quilts and the pillows. We didn’t bother with the sheets. None of us knew what box they were in. Some of the cartons weren’t labelled. That was on Virge.

Travis didn’t want Corb sleeping in the bunkhouse until there were other boys out there, so he put him in one of the twin beds in Billy’s room. At least for the next couple of months. When Billy arrived from Montana, they’d sort things out.

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