Page 24 of Wishes on Wildflowers
Eden’s goat, Pansy, paced her two-tiered enclosure. Jasmine’s heart went out to the pygmy. When Eden was home, Pansy had the run of the backyard. The place looked like it, too. Not much grew back there, but Eden did have some nice flowerbeds in the front yard, plus she and Jacob had signed up for a vegetable bed at the new community garden next door to Nonna’s house. That was probably a better place for them to raise food.
Jasmine unlatched the door to Pansy’s pen, and the goat bounded out. Was it Jasmine’s imagination, or was the animal limping a little? She watched her play for a moment, but Pansy bounced around so wildly it was difficult to tell for sure. Jasmine hauled the garden hose across the barren wasteland and turned it on. She rinsed and filled Pansy’s water bucket then did the same for the chickens in the coop beside the goat pen. She tucked the eggs into a small basket, which she hung out of Pansy’s reach before measuring out the chicken feed. She eyed the chickens for a few minutes.They seemed healthy and normal.
Behind her, the goat bleated and bumped a deflated soccer ball around the backyard. Jasmine turned, watching her, and grinned. Best to milk Pansy now, then give her a bit more playtime before Jasmine had to lock her back up until morning. Eden had offered Jasmine could stay at the house while she and Jacob were away, but that seemed like an invasion of privacy, which probably was silly. It wasn’t like it really mattered, except maybe Linnea would feel deserted.
Jasmine caught Pansy’s halter and walked her into the stanchion, where she tossed some hay within the goat’s easy reach. As Pansy began to munch, Jasmine situated the stainless steel bucket and began to squeeze milk into it. The goat flinched, one foot coming up to kick the bucket away, but Jasmine caught the hoof just before it made contact. While she wouldn’t mind having a goat of her own someday, she was nervous about all the care of Eden’s animals falling on her shoulders for two full weeks. But she had volunteered, and she’d do it, too. Eden and Jacob had flown off to South Africa this morning so Jacob could show his bride some of the places he’d visited in his work with Global Sunbeams.
Jasmine milked carefully the way Eden had showed her. Pansy’s hoof came up again, and she blocked it. Was the goat usually this twitchy? She hadn’t seemed so this morning when Jasmine had come by. With a few more firm tugs on the goat’s teat, Jasmine finished up the milking. She hung the bucket high on the fence right next to the egg basket and turned to run her hands over Pansy’s back and legs.
“Maaa.”
“What is it, girl?” Jasmine backed Pansy out of the stanchion and had a look at her other side. Her breath stilled. A gash on the goat’s flank oozed red blood. Thankfully itlooked somewhat congealed and was not spurting actively. But, still, how was she to treat a cut on a goat? And not only that, but what had Pansy hurt herself on? Since Jacob had come into Eden’s life, he’d done a lot of repairs on the fences and gates and inside Pansy’s pen. Jasmine would be shocked to discover anything left undone that Jacob could’ve fixed.
She eyed the goat’s side. Call the vet on Easter Sunday evening? Try to fix it herself? She hated the sight of blood, but who was around who could help her?
Adriana and Myles had headed out for the day, not that Adriana would necessarily know what to do, either. She did have chickens, but no goat. The neighbors on the west side were more likely to call animal control than they were to know how to help. Logan and Linnea were at her parents’ house for Easter dinner. No way was Jasmine risking the wrath of Linnea’s father by interrupting. Besides, neither of them were really animal lovers.
Jasmine thought through her family tree and came up with only Peter. He was a biologist by training and a mechanic by hobby, but he seemed to know a lot of things about a wide variety of topics. Surely Peter would know what to do. He could tell her if she was overreacting, for instance.
She kept her eyes on the small goat while she fumbled for her cell and tapped her cousin’s smiling face. Pick up. Pick up. Pick up.It rang the requisite four times and kicked straight to voicemail. Where was he? If the guys were playing three-on-three, none of them would answer.
Pansy bumped her hard head against Jasmine’s knee. Ouch. For something so small, she could do a lot of damage. The goat bounced around a few more times, and the cut oozed again. No, she was going to have to do something about it. Alex? Basil? She doubted either of them knew anythingabout cuts at all.
Aha! Wade Roper, another biologist who lived just down the block. She scrolled through her contact list until she found his number then tapped it. Once again she listened for four rings and then Wade’s cheerful greeting came on his recording. She tried Wade’s wife, Rebekah, but the same thing happened. Where was everyone? Who was left to call? Dad was an airline pilot and out of town. Jasmine’s uncles either worked for the city or ran home-improvement companies. Yeah, no help there.
Nathan Hamelin.
No way. Anyone but Nathan. The only problem was, she’d already gone through everyone she knew that came ahead of him. She remembered Nathan commiserating with Arie over the little boy’s scrape last week. He’d tenderly cleaned the site and applied a steri-strip. Arie had beamed at him as though he were a magical wizard able to fix anything.
Jasmine’s finger hovered over Nathan’s contact information. Should she? The goat didn’t seem to be in a lot of distress, but she was bleeding. Jasmine would never forgive herself if the goat became ill or, even worse, died while Eden was on her honeymoon. Not on Jasmine’s watch.
With a deep sigh, she tapped Nathan’s number, half hoping that he, like everyone else, would let it go four rings and straight to voicemail.
Nope.
“Hi, Nathan here.”
Jasmine pinched the bridge of her nose. “Hi, Nathan? It’s Jasmine.” Although she was pretty sure he would’ve figured that out already.
“Jasmine! Hi. I, uh, wasn’t expecting to hear from you. What can I do for you?”
Jasmine glanced over at the goat, willing her to be hale and hearty, but a miracle had not occurred in the past five seconds. “Do you know anything about goats?” she blurted out.
There was silence for a few seconds, before Nathan spoke. “Goats? Obstinacy on four legs? I could swear you said goats.”
“I did. I’m taking care of Eden’s livestock while she’s on her honeymoon, and her goat seems to have a cut on her side. I don’t know what to do.”
“She really has a goat?”
“She really does. And the goat is really bleeding. Not profusely, but when she bounces around, it seems to open back up again. I haven’t had a chance to figure out what caused it yet, though.”
“Okay.” Nathan still sounded incredulous. “It’s not like I’m a doctor or an EMT or anything, but I take it you’d like to have someone have another look at that goat. Am I right?”
How had it come to this? “Please. Do you know where Logan and Jacob live down by the river? Eden’s house is right next door.” She gave him the address.
“Sure, I can be there in five minutes.”
Just before his phone clicked off, Jasmine heard him mutter, “It took a goat?”
