A Cry in the Wilderness
Copyright© 2025 by Megumi Kashuahara
Chapter 6
About a week later, Will was walking back to the main barn when he saw his pa crossing the paddock. Will noticed he had a worried look on hus face. Not the usual, but a look of real concern. He trotted the last thirty feet to catch up and called out, “Hey Pa, wait up!”
Angus McLaughlin stopped, turned and gave a half-hearted smile when Will caught up. “Sorry. Son, I didn’t even see ya.”
“Yeah. I noticed. What’s up? You look like somebody stole the prized Morgan.”
“Sorry. Got a lotta things on my mind lately.”
“Like horse sales being way down?”
Angus gave a chuckle. “You don’t miss much, do ya, Boy?”
Will gave a hint of a smile and replied, “Hell, Pa, my heart has been tied to this ranch since I first kissed a horse’s nose at three years old.”
“So, you’ve noticed the drop in business too. Shoulda guessed...”
“Do you think this is something temporary?” Will let the question settle for a moment the added, “Or something else?”
“That’s what I’ve been rackin’ me brain about lately,” Angus said in his distinctive Scottish brogue.
“Well,” Will replied,” you know I’m here if you need me.”
“I know, Son. Never doubted it for a second”
Two weeks later, Angus was returning from town with a wagon full of supplies and he was not coming up to the house at a casual pace. Susan, the matriarch of the McLaughlin family came out thr front door, drying her hands on a dish towel.
Susan McLaughlin was a Bible believing Anglican Christian woman who had unshakable faith, but displayed the strong meekness and peaceful strength given in the Biblical book of Galatians, but she was not a bible-thumping, intolerant and judgmental woman. The McLaughlins tried to live by the Book, but in a practical way where the leather of faith met the road of life. Sarah’s faith made sure they family had Bible study on Wednesday nights, and church on Sunday. Angus named their fledgling horse ranch after her, calling it the Lazy Susan Ranch. She knew Angus and all of his moods, and she could see he was troubled, so when he hopped down off the wagon. She gently but firmly led him into the house.
After sitting her husband at the dining room table. She poured him two fingers of Scotch whiskey and silently slide it to him. As she sat, she quietly asked, “Okay, Hon, what’s got your dander up?”
He opened up about what he had been struggling with the past two weeks and what he had just found out when he went to town for supplies. He gave her the gist of the matter, didn’t go into detail saying. “We need to have a family meeting tonight, and I don’t want to explain everything twice.
“Suit yourself,” she said, “you took me at sixteen, and I have trusted you no mater what and I always will. After Tess and I finish the dishes, we’sit down and talk.”
“Sounds good, Darling.”
At dinner that night, Angus announced that after the dinner fishes were washed and dried, they would be having a family meeting. When everyone was seated, Angus leaned forward on his elbows and in all seriousness started the reason for this powwow.
“In the years from 1850 to 57, our ranch produced $35,000/year net profit ($1.4 million today). That required operating costs of roughly $15 000. That means we were making $50,000 a year in sales of horses and oxen. So far this year, we’re sitting at about $20,000 in net profit. Meaning, we’re barely gonna make a profit this year. We cannot survive another year or two with dwindling profits like this.
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