Chapter 5

The Day before the wedding
Nexus Ranch
Harborton Washington

Ben wiped the sweat from his eyes and swung the posthole digger down into the hole yet again and felt the bone-jarring ‘whack’ travel all the way up his arms as the blades smacked into still another fist-sized rock.

“Goddamnit!” he said out loud for at least the hundredth time that morning.

Why did there have to be a pile of underground rocks pretty much everywhere he had to dig a posthole for the new pasture fence? It must be a law of nature he grumbled. The Nexus ranch had plenty of operating capital and he could have hired one of the crews to do this work for him. But he would’ve felt guilty about having them do something he could easily do himself and besides Kelly had pretty much run him out of the house, telling him to ‘go find a tool and do something with it’. This was accompanied by a look that gave him some idea about what she thought he could do with said tool. Hey- he couldn’t help it if he had no idea about weddings and was only trying to help with his suggestions.

Pretty much every female on the ranch was doing something to get ready for the wedding and pretty much every male had more sense than he did and was trying to stay the hell out of the way. So he had finally decided to get with the program. Now though he was wishing the tool he picked up was a fly rod instead of a posthole digger.

Suddenly he felt the weight of eyes on his back and whirled about abruptly, simultaneously stepping into the hole he had been digging. His arms pinwheeled briefly as he fell backward and ended up on his ass in the loose dirt.

“Osiyo” said an old cowboy leaning on the fence next to the road. “Sorry about that. Dinnit mean to startle you.”

Osiyo, uncle- where the heck did you come from?” replied Ben sheepishly.

“Old Bertha got me here all the way from Idaho. She’s old but she still runs good!” the old cowboy said with a sly grin gesturing behind him to an immaculate turquoise and cream ‘57 short-bed Chevy pickup.

“No, sorry, I mean how did you...” started Ben.

“Oh she can be pret quiet when she wants to play a trick,” said the old guy with a grin.

“Uh yeah, I guess, how can I help you Mr...?”

‘You can call me IC if you like. Well, I’m here because I heard tell of a great warrior from around here...”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that...”

“ ... And you obviously aren’t he,” said the old guy gesturing to where Ben sat in the loose dirt. “But I was hoping you could point me in the right direction. I’d really like to meet ‘im.”

“Yeah, okay, I know I don’t look...” started Ben.

“Hey boss, I thought you were supposed to working, not playing in the dirt. I’ll have to report you to Ms. Kelly,” said Joe with a disappointed shake of his head.

“God ... darn it Joe” amended a startled Ben as he realized Joe wasn’t alone. “How did you and Daisy get all the way out here without me seeing you?” he continued, looking around him at the open pasture as he got to his feet and attempted to get the worst of the dirt off his jeans.

Ben was now seriously thinking about getting a hearing and vision check right after tomorrow’s wedding.

“Easy Mr. Ben we walked, how else? Joe tried but he can’t fly yet,” replied Daisy with the logic of a child trying to reason with a rather dense adult.

Then she realized who Ben was talking to.

“Iceye’ye!” she squealed and in a flash, she leaped off of Joe’s back and clambered over the wooden rail fence.

She hugged the old man about his midsection tightly. Ben swore he could see the old cowpoke’s eyes glisten slightly. Ben would wager that he could get gored by a bull and then stomped on by a herd of wild horses and shed blood but not a single tear. Daisy though was a special child- everyone she met loved her instantly.

“It’s good to see you again Ms. Daisy!” said IC. “And you must be Montana Joe.” he finished with a wave to where Joe stood with what Ben assumed was the equine version of a puzzled look.”

“Boss he can hear me, I know he can, how is that possible?” said Joe to Ben.

“I don’t know Joe, there’s something strange going on though,” said Ben.

“Oh, I know lots about you, Joe. If I’m not mistaken I rode your great-great-great-great-grandsire a very long time ago.” IC inserted. “I can tell you about your people sometime if you’d like.”

Ben’s heart ached for his friend and battle buddy as the normally chipper Joe bowed his head sadly. Joe had never gotten over the loss of his mom.

“I’d like that, my momma died in a lightning fire when I was young and I never got to know about my family,” replied Joe.