The King of Clayfield - 01 (30 page)

After I climbed down, the three of us stood in the entrance of the barn and looked out, listening to the rain tap on the metal roof.

"What is our horse count?" I said.

"Sixteen," Sara said. "Not counting the one in the trailer."

"A whole damn herd," Jen said. "Now what?"

"The
 
field behind the house has a pond," I said. "We can either put them all together in that pasture, or we can let them out. If we keep them, I guess we'll have to throw hay out for them every day until springtime and
 
grass starts growing again,
 
but there will be no way to water them except
 
with the pond."

"There must be a reason why they were all separated," Jen said.

"Yeah, I
 
know."

"We should keep some, and let the rest go," Jen said.

"How do we decide?" Sara
 
asked. "And what happens to the ones we let go?"

"I don't give them very good odds," I said.

Sara got a pained expression on her face.

"I know," Jen said, "but it is better that we keep a few and have plenty of food and water for them, than save all of them and they starve."

"Personally, I'd prefer to get rid of all of them," I said. "We have enough to worry about without having to take care of a bunch of horses. If we're going to have animals at all, we should have animals that will provide us with food."

They didn't seem too happy with my input on the subject.

"It's not something we have to
 
worry about today," I said. "I wouldn't mind staying here for a while. If you two want to stay here, lets go back to
 
Blaine's and get our stuff, then we'll get
 
that firewood and come back. By the time we do that it'll be about time to call it a day anyway."

CHAPTER 30

It was late afternoon by the time we returned to the Lassiter house with our supplies and firewood. We didn't have anything to put the chickens into, so we fed them and left them where they were with the intention of coming back for them later.

As I pulled into the driveway I realized
 
it
 
was the only entrance and exit for the property. We'd have to fix that. I wouldn't want to get cornered.

Sara volunteered to start on dinner while Jen and I unloaded the vehicles.

"When we've unloaded, I want to get rid of that horse trailer," I said.

"Do you think we'll need it?" Jen said. "We could always drag the horse out of here."

"No," I said. "There are horse trailers around at other houses if we ever really need one. I'd rather not mess with removing the horse."

Once we got everything into the house, I stepped into the kitchen.

"Jen and I are going to
 
take care of
 
that horse trailer," I said. "Will you be okay here by yourself until we get back?"

"I'll lock the doors," she said. "And I have a gun. I'm not too sure about the temperature outside. I don't know if this food is still good."

She held out a package of hamburger meat. It was cool, but not cold.
 

"Let's not risk it," I said. "Is there anything else?"

"We have plenty of canned goods," she said.

"How much of the cold stuff will we lose?"

"We ate most of it," she said. "There's this meat, and there's a bag of stir fry vegetables. They're kind of mushy. We have
 
some cheese and mayonnaise left."

"I'll feed
 
the vegetables
 
to the goat," I said. "Let's pitch the rest."

I drove the truck and trailer, which was a new experience for me.
 
Jen followed me in the Escalade. It was
 
already
 
dark by that time, and it was much too dark to drive without the headlights.
 
I just hoped we could do what we needed to do without being noticed.

I wanted to get the trailer far enough away from
 
us that when
 
the horse decomposed, we wouldn't smell it. I drove
 
two miles away. I didn't know if it was far enough, but there was a church there with a
 
wide lot, and I didn't think I'd find an easier place to park.

I didn't want to leave the truck, because it was practically new and
 
had a full tank of
 
gas, but I also didn't want to be out there in the dark trying to figure out how to unhitch a trailer--something I'd never done before.

I parked it and
 
got in the Escalade with Jen.

"You know," she said as we headed back to the house, "this might be the first time
 
in a while
 
that I will actually be able to relax a little. It's going to be nice to finally feel safe and be in a comfortable house
 
for once."

"Yeah," I said, "I think this new place will be secure."

In the distance, I saw light. I couldn't tell what it was exactly. It was far
 
away, and it just looked like a glow moving over the trees.

"What is that?" I said. "Is that another car?"

"I don't know," Jen said.

"Quick, turn your lights off, and pull
 
off the road."

"But there
 
isn't a place to pull off," she said.

"It doesn't matter," I said. "Just pull over on the shoulder--"

"There is no shoulder!"

"Just
 
stop the
 
car and turn off the engine!"

She stopped and turned
 
everything off. The light grew and moved. Then bright headlights came over
 
the hill.

"Get down," I said.

We both hunkered down below the dashboard. The lights got brighter as they got nearer.
 

"I left a note for Brian back at Blaine's house," she whispered. "I didn't want him to look for us and not find us. Maybe it's him."

"We don't know who it is," I said. "And we don't know if they are friendly."

The light
 
filled the
 
interior of the Escalade. The vehicle slowed to a crawl as it came by but
 
didn't stop. There were abandoned cars on the roads everywhere, and ours looked like another one.

I sat up and looked out the back window once they had moved on.
 
I watched the taillights disappear around a curve then continued to watch the reflection of the headlights on the trees until they were gone.

"I don't like feeling scared,"
 
Jen said, sitting up. "I should be used to it by now, but I'm not."

"No," I said. "You shouldn't be used to it. No one should."

Dinner was Vienna sausages and canned tomato soup. I was hungry enough that I didn't mind it, but
 
eating like this everyday would get old
 
quickly.

"I don't know why anyone would be out
 
at night unless it was Brian or the Somervilles looking for us," Jen said.

"
We
were out after dark," I said, "but I see what you mean."

"Maybe
 
you should have stopped them," Sara said. "They were probably okay."

"Probably," I said. "But
 
I
 
was being careful.
 
Stopping
 
cars on a dark country road
 
just isn't something you do.
 
I didn't want to lead them back to us here either. Like Jen said in the car, I feel safe here."

After dinner, I tried to start a fire in the fireplace. The smoke came back into the house. I adjusted the flue, but the smoke continued to fill the living room. We were all coughing and
 
had to open the windows.

"I don't understand what I'm doing wrong," I said.

"My grandpa had a fireplace," Sara said. "He never used it, so he sealed the chimney to keep the birds and squirrels out of it."

"Sealed it permanently?"

"I don't know," she said.

"We're going to need a fire," Jen said. "We don't have any kerosene for the heater."

"What am I supposed to do about it?" I said.

"Someone needs to check the chimney," Jen said.

They stared at me expectantly.

"Oh," I said. "So you don't want to be coddled
unless
it is cold, dark, and raining and
 
you need
 
someone to crawl
 
up on the roof."

"You
 
are
the man," Jen said. "It's kind of your job, I think."

"Funny how
 
these gender roles
 
conveniently
 
pop up," I said. "Okay. Let's find a ladder."
 

There was an aluminum extension ladder
 
hanging on hooks on the side of one of the barns.
 
I carried it
 
back to the house while Jen
 
walked with me under an umbrella
 
showing the way with a flashlight. I propped the ladder on the side of the house, took Jen's flashlight, and
 
climbed up while she held the ladder for me.

There was a piece of plywood over the opening of the chimney with a concrete block on top of it to keep it from blowing
 
off. I pulled it off, and the smoke hit me in the face. My eyes burned, and I coughed a little.
 
I left the plywood and block on the roof and climbed back down.

"Problem solved," I said.

"My hero," Jen said.
 

"Whatever."

The rain continued through the next day.

Over breakfast, we'd discussed what to do with the horses.
 
Jen and Sara
 
decided to keep six--one for each of us, and three backups. We had
 
no knowledge about horses, so we didn't know which
 
six would be best. Sara thought
 
we should keep
 
the most docile.
 
She
 
had an idea of calling them and keeping the first
 
six that came to us, which sort of made sense in a childlike way.
 
Jen thought we should keep the healthiest. Once again, I made my point that we should rid ourselves of all of them, but I was outnumbered.

We spent our time that day doing much the same things that we'd done at Blaine's, but we did it
 
in a real house, which made a huge difference in our moods. Plus, we had plenty of room to get away from each other when we wanted.

We also went through the house, trying on clothes, looking through closets and drawers, and being generally nosy.

I found
 
a single-shot .410 shotgun and a box of shells in a
 
bedroom closet. In the drawer of
 
one of the nightstands in the master
 
bedroom, I
 
found
 
a loaded
 
.22 revolver and
 
some racy photographs of Mrs. Lassiter holding the same gun and
 
wearing only a cowboy hat.

The Lassiters' reading selection was limited to The Bible, Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour, and
Good Housekeeping
magazines, but we'd brought Blaine and Betsy's book
 
leavings with us, too, so we had variety.

Around four that afternoon the rain finally stopped.
 

"The sun is coming out. It looks like we can do our supply run tomorrow," I said, standing at the front window and looking out.

"Good," Jen said, coming up next to me.