Page 16 of Snowed In With the Snow Queen
“I don’t know. Not old enough to be responsible. I thought I’d have my life together by now, you know, have a plan,” he says.
“You’re being too hard on yourself. You just went through a huge transition. It takes time to figure out what’s next.”
“Yeah…” His voice trails off as a chorus of grunts and a weird bark comes from behind us. I can’t turn very well in the saddle, but Randy expertly nudges Grace around and sighs.
“Go home, Porshetta,” Randy calls.
I try to twist in my seat and find it unnecessary as the pig family and a small brown creature catch up to us.
“Is that a capybara?”
“Go home,” Randy calls to them again, before answering me. “Yeah, I think the vape guys are still moving forward with their exotic petting zoo plans.”
Exotic petting zoo? “Do they know their zoo is on the loose?”
Randy chuckles. “I don’t honestly know.”
“They seem pretty determined to join us.”
The wind starts to pick up, and snow begins to fall. Randy sighs. “I have an extra stall in the barn,” Randy says aloud to the pigs. “But no pissing off the horses.”
“Do you think they understand?”
He nods. “The pigs definitely understand. The capybara, I don’t know him well enough to know one way or another.”
We slow down for our animal entourage, but thankfully, the journey isn’t much longer. Randy stops us at a gate just past mile marker five and hops down from his horse with a grunt. He opens the gate and the pigs and capybara pass through as if they own the place.
“C’mon, Grace,” he calls, and the horse moves forward, Ramona in tow. He locks it back and stays on foot the rest of the way up the drive to a large barn. Inside, Ramona stops by a wooden table and I use it to get down before Randy can say anything. He looks surprised, but says nothing.
“Do you have a towel or blanket?” I ask him, eyeing the capybara. He walks over to a shelf and pulls down an old towel.
“Can I use it on the capybara?”
He shrugs. “Sure, but why?”
I move over to where the creature stands next to Frigg, the piglet. It doesn’t seem to mind me being in its space, so I kneel down carefully on the ground and start to dry it off. “They’re native to South America. I’m not sure they do well in cold weather.”
Randy snorts. “Of course, those assholes would buy one in the winter and not keep up with it.”
He fills up a large, low pan with water and places it outside the stall. “I’ll leave the door open, but the barn is going to be closed,” he tells the pigs. “If you want out before morning, now is your last chance.”
Porshetta merely blinks a few times before going inside the stall. The rest of her family, including the capybara that I’m still trying to dry off, follow.
“She does really seem to know what you’re saying.”
“Yeah, pigs are smart. I’ve got to get the ladies dried off before they settle down. Do you want me to take you inside first? I don’t want you to freeze.”
I shake my head. “If you tell me what to do, I can help with Ramona.”
He removes their saddles and hands me another towel and brush. “We’re just going to dry them off and brush them a bit before we leave them to rest.”
I watch Randy as he dries off Grace, and then I attempt to copy his movements with Ramona. She watches me carefully, but doesn’t seem to mind my inexperience. I brush her, and then Randy leads them into separate stalls, shutting the bottom half of each door behind him.
“You have to keep them closed in?”
“Yeah, Grace isn’t a fan of Ramona yet. I don’t want them to fight.”
He puts things away, shoulders my backpack, and heads for the door. “Ready?” he asks, pulling open the barn door without giving me a chance to answer. Air blows a blast of snow into the barn. He holds out his hand. “C’mon, Soojin, the cabin’s a bit of a walk and it’s already crazy out here.”
