8 Paying the Price

“RAMIE! Get your skinny ass into my office right now!” Pa yelled at me as he pounded on my door. “Kyle! Same orders. Now!”

Kyle and I stumbled out of our apartments, pulling on our boots with shirttails flying. Pa was already back to the house and we rushed to catch up. One thing you did not want to do was cross Pa when he was mad.

And I knew why. I glanced toward the near pasture and saw the four new horses grazing peacefully with Bells and Bows. Kyle and I got back from the auction with them about midnight. We clattered into Pa’s office and stood at attention in front of his desk. Moms were sitting on the couch. I caught a glimpse of the kids just outside the door where they couldn’t be seen but could hear every word. I couldn’t blame them. This was going to be good.

“You two asked permission to go up to the Casper trail ride this weekend. Is that where you went?” Pa demanded. It was all on me.

“Um ... yessir,” Kyle said.

“For a while,” I added.

“And?”

“All the riders on the trail were new, it seemed like. It wasn’t much fun, so we left,” I said. Pa looked at me waiting. I plunged on. “Well, there was an auction at the stockyards. We just stopped to have a look around. We were just looking. But then these four were led into the ring and they were kind of skinny and looking poorly. We just thought they needed a good home and no one was bidding on them.”

“Except that guy from the slaughterhouse. He offered a penny a pound on the hoof for them,” Kyle added.

“Thirteen dollars a horse, Pa!” I said. My eyes were stinging when I thought of it. “We bought the four of them for a hundred. They needed us.”

“And you just happened to trailer Shadow and Spooky up to the ride that day in the big trailer instead of the two-horse trailer. Laramie Wyoming Bell, are you deceiving your parents?” Oh shit! I blew that. Pa would tolerate about anything but lying. That’s what he was mad about. Not the horses.

“Yes, Pa. I’m sorry. But they were gonna go to slaughter.” Pa sighed. He looked at Kyle and shook his head. He knew darned good and well that if I wanted something, Kyle was pretty helpless to stop me.

“Ramie, we can’t rescue every horse that’s headed to the slaughterhouse. We already picked up two in the spring. And they can’t do anything. They can’t even be saddled. This is a working ranch. Everybody has to pull their weight. Animals included,” Pa said.

“But...”

“Pa, please don’t be mad at Ramie.” That was a new voice. Caitlin and Phile were standing in the door. “We know we’re not supposed to lie, and that was wrong of Ramie. But please don’t send the horses away. We gotta help them.”

Way to go, Phile! I had a sudden and unexpected burst of love and pride for my younger sibs. Over the past summer, since I begged Pa to let us go get the two Pinto draft horses, the brats had changed into ... well, almost into human beings. At thirteen they were tolerable most of the time, and they’d really taken a lot of the responsibility for tending to our orphan horses. But thinking back to the way they were headed before we brought the first two home ... Pa had to see the difference.

“They need us,” Caitlin jumped in before anyone could answer. “Nobody ever needed us before.”

That derailed the conversation. Phile and Caitlin got a lot of hugs. Even from me. I realized Phile was almost as tall as me now.

“Phile. Caitlin,” Pa said. “Come stand by your brother and sister since you are in on this, too.”

“Pa, it’s all my fault,” I said. “I knew it was wrong and I convinced my brothers and sister to go along with me. When I read the auction announcement, I knew those four would go to slaughter and there was something about them that just overrode my good sense. I apologize and I’ll take whatever punishment you say, but please don’t blame my brothers and sister for my lack of good judgment. And please don’t send those poor horses away.”

“It’s not the horses,” Mom Ash said as she came up beside me. “It’s the lying.” She smacked me hard on the butt, careful to hit the side that didn’t have my cell phone in the pocket. I flinched. It wasn’t that it hurt that much, but Mom Ash never hit us kids. At almost seventeen, I figured she was the only one who dared to. I hung my head.

“I’m sorry, Mom Ash,” I said contritely. “We shoulda talked to you and been honest about what we were doing.”

She went back to the couch, curled up, and laid her head on Mom Mar’s shoulder. I loved seeing my moms together. It always made me feel warm inside.

“All right you four,” Pa said. “Ramie, I don’t ever want to hear another lie escape from your lips. And that includes arranging to deceive your parents even when you do it without talking. You’re the oldest and you should know better than to lead your siblings into that kind of behavior. And don’t think you’re off the hook, Kyle. You’re supposed to have your sister’s back. Don’t you think you could have stopped her from making such a foolish decision?”

“Yessir. I guess.”

“School starts in two weeks,” Pa continued. “There will be no dates and no visits for the girlfriend for the rest of the month. You two will have to explain the situation to Aubrey and hope she doesn’t get interested in someone else while you’re grounded.”

“Pa, that’s not fair to Kyle when it’s my fault. He was gonna see her this afternoon.”

“Call and explain. You want a partnership. All partners share the blame. This is a ranch. It’s been a ranch in our family for five generations. You are the sixth. You don’t like cattle. Too bad. I raise beef. Mary Beth and Ashley are active members of the Wyoming Cattlewomen’s Association. We do not intend to stop raising cattle. It’s a profitable business. You might think we don’t need money, but it’s important to have a good business out here. It ain’t a hobby.”

“Yessir,” I answered.

“For the next two weeks, you four will be responsible for the cattle. Rafe and Jess are due vacations. They worked hard this summer. You can meet them on the cattle drive from the upper range tomorrow. You four know the operation. There’s inspections and vaccinations to be done in the next two weeks. That should keep all four of you busy enough you don’t have time to worry about dating anyway.”

I guess we all moaned at that. We knew what had to be done when the cattle came down from the upper pasture. They were coming down early because of the wolves. But Pa wasn’t done yet.