Chapter 22: Runaway Lane Ahead - Use Left Lane to Avoid

When I drove into the yard, Duke was there to meet me and to my surprise I saw the collie bitch and her pup sneaking around the back of the cabin as I pulled to a stop. She wasn’t limping much at all, but instead seemed to be moving slowly so the pup could keep up with her.

“Oh yeah, good reminder,” I chuckled as I climbed out of the car and patted old Duke as he came up to me. “Mama knows its supper time and Carissa hasn’t been down to see her all day. Maybe this is a good thing, huh?”

The way Duke’s tail was wagging, I thought he agreed. Ten minutes later I was dressed in work clothes and was setting Duke’s bowl of dried dog food on the porch for him. As he dug into his meal, I set out for the creek bank with the collie’s bowl of canned food having even remembered to add the medicine she was supposed to have. Since I saw her in the bushes on the top of the bank, I didn’t bother going all the way down to the den area like Carissa had done before. Instead I set the bowl down near the bushes and walked away a few feet.

To my surprise, when I looked back, the collie was already eating. The pup was even licking at her muzzle as if he wanted some solid food too. Of course my immediate thoughts were about trying to get her to come a little closer to the cabin every day until she ate on the porch with Duke. That would go a long way toward taming her and turning them both into farm dogs.

“I guess we should think of a name for you two, shouldn’t we? I’ll have to mention that to Carissa when I get a chance,” I spoke quietly, but the collie lifted her head and licked her lips as she looked at me.

“Well, you’re pretty darn intelligent, aren’t you?” I grinned at her.

Of course now that she’d heard my voice and recognised that I wasn’t about to hurt her, she went back to wolfing down her meal. I just chuckled, then continued to talk to the bitch and her pup while she polished the bowl. When she lost interest in trying to lick the bowl into oblivion, I moved closer. She’d let me get about five feet away, then she pulled back, growling slightly, but I think that was more a warning for her pup than anything else. At least she was looking at him and not me when she did it.

I didn’t let it bother me, one way or another. Instead I still continued moving slowly forward, then picked up the empty bowl and walked back to the house. I was surprised to see her come out of the brush and toward the house as I took the bowl inside. When I called Duke to have him help me herd the young cattle into the barn for the night, I was even more surprised that she followed us. When we went toward the young cattle, she moved along at about the same distance away from me as before, but she did her best to stay outside the fence when she could. The most encouraging sign was the fact that I could see her acting somewhat impatient, but still staying back as Duke worked the cattle, circling them to bring them into the barn. It seemed almost as if she wanted to be involved, but she knew I was the boss and she hadn’t been called on to work.

The other thing that astounded me was the way she kept control of the pup. I hadn’t thought he was old enough to even be out and around, but not only did he keep up to her, he even wanted badly to be out with his daddy, chasing cattle. She was having none of that though. She’d nip at him, knock him rolling, growl at him, even hold him down with a paw. It seemed to me that she was letting him know in no uncertain terms that if she wasn’t involved, he certainly wasn’t going to be involved either.

I always kept a few dog chews in my pocket to reward old Duke when he’d finished helping me with the cattle, but that night he had to share them. I’d toss him one, then I’d toss two over toward the collie and her pup, making sure that the pup got his share. Duke got three treats, the collie got two and the pup got two.

Old Duke had that evening game down to a science. He knew that once he’d been given his cookies and I’d told him “Atta Boy,” then he was done and he was free to go. The collie wasn’t quite so sure though; she actually appeared to be a real eager beaver. She hung back about twenty or thirty feet, but followed me as I fed the old sow. She even stood just outside the fence as I went into the chicken run to feed the hens, collect the eggs and lock them in. Then she followed me back to the house when I took the eggs inside.

I thought she’d disappear then, but when I came back outside with the laundry basket and went around the back to take in Carissa’s laundry, she snuck up even closer than before. Since I was alone and missing Carissa, I talked to the dog. I was astounded again, because she seemed to love that. It was almost as if she wanted attention and loved to hear someone’s voice, but she still didn’t trust me enough to approach too closely.

When I had all the laundry collected in the basket, I went inside and set it by the table, planning to fold everything, but paused long enough to put on a pot of coffee first. I’d left the door wide open because the cabin smelled slightly musty from being closed up all day. Of course to old Duke, that open door was an open invitation to come in and make himself comfortable on his rug. I ignored him, except to remind myself that I needed to install a dog proof screen door as I lit the little oil stove. Once the old stove was burning well, I set the coffee pot in place, then moved back to the table and started to fold the laundry.

It wasn’t more than a moment later that I heard a small whimper and a scrabbling sound at the door. I glanced that way, then had to grin at what I saw. Mama collie was lying with her head just inside the door, watching what I was doing while blocking her pup from coming inside. The whimper and scrabbling sound had come from the pup as he tried to get past her. At the moment she had a paw on his back and he was trying to scramble out from under it. I couldn’t help but chuckle

“It’s okay, Little Lady. He can come inside if he wants to. I sure won’t hurt him,” I said quietly, still folding the clothes and staying well back in the room.

She didn’t seem to believe me though. Instead she continued blocking the door and made sure that the pup stayed outside. I had all the clothes folded by the time the coffee had perked, so I poured myself a cup, but decided I wanted to drink it on the front porch.

“Come on Duke, outside with you. Lets go,” I ordered, knowing that it was better for him to approach the collie at the door than it would be if I did.

I was able to follow after him and kept him outside by closing the door again. It wasn’t so much that I disliked Duke being in the cabin, but right now he stank. When I’d opened the door, I’d wanted to improve the smell inside. He’d certainly defeated that idea in a hurry. It wasn’t as if his stench wasn’t a common problem either. There were days when he simply reeked, but that’s because Duke liked to roll in stinky messes. Grampa Bender had put up with it for years, but I wasn’t as tolerant. It wasn’t as if I was being hard on old Duke either. After all he had a second rug out on the front porch and the weather certainly wasn’t rough enough for him to need to be inside.

As it was he went out and lay on the grass in the yard while I sat on the old bench on the front porch to have my coffee. I’d only been sitting there a moment when the collie and her pup moved over and settled down near Duke. Then a couple of moments later I heard Mom calling me on the CB, which meant I had to go back inside.

“Hi, Mom. I’m here. Over,” I flopped down and had a sip of coffee, preparing for a fairly long chat.

“Hello, Chris. I called the hospital. The nurse I spoke to said Grampa Bender is doing as well as can be expected, but he often sleeps in the afternoon. That’s why they suggested that you not visit him right then. Over.”

“Oh, that’s good. I was worried that it might be something more serious. Over.”

“So was I,” I could hear Mom sigh. “Oh! John Coulter phoned. He’s leaving for Edmonton in the morning, but he’s going to make sure he phones Frank Dolens every evening to keep everyone posted on things. Carissa had phoned him from Edmonton already. Corinna was rushed right into surgery when they arrived, but when she called they hadn’t heard any results as yet. She did ask him to tell you that she missed you already. Over.”

“Well, I miss her too,” I sighed. “It’s a little lonely up here by myself. Over.”

“I’ll bet it is,” Mom sounded sympathetic. “John said she was planning on phoning here, but she didn’t think you’d be down here tonight, so she decided to hold off until tomorrow evening. He said she’d try to phone around six or so. Over.”

“Huh, it sounds to me like she’s planning on having you feed me so I don’t have to cook for myself. Over,” I chuckled.

“Well, you know we don’t mind you dropping in for a meal. Over,” Mom laughed openly.

“Thanks, Mom. So since you know when Carissa is calling and you won’t need to hang around waiting on the phone, are you going to town tomorrow with Dad? Over.”

“Yes, I will be, in fact we might just pop up to see you afterward. Beth has a few questions she wants to ask you about that. Over.”

“Okay, I’ll wait while you get her. Over,” I frowned, wondering what Beth wanted.

“Hey Big Bro, are you really lonely? Over,” Beth giggled.

“What? Are you thinking of coming up to see me? Over?”

“Yes, I am actually, for a few days anyway,” she giggled even more. “I’ve managed to find a couple of Quarter Horse mares and it looks to me like one of them is coming into season. Is your stallion still available for service for my mares and is he in a decent pen? Over.”

“You know he is, but only if the mares are half decent, not some wild broom tail from the foothills or something,” I teased. “Where did you get them? Over?”

“I got them the same place you got your cars,” she laughed. “And darnitall, Frank Dolens isn’t just good with cars, he knows horses too. Over.”

“Today? Over,” I asked in amazement, thinking that Frank was too close to the ‘accident’ to be thinking about horses.

“What? Oh, yeah, real early this morning. I was with him down near the auction yard when we heard the sirens, then he got the phone call about Corinna. Mr. McAdam was there with the twins too,” she sounded a lot more subdued, but she perked up quickly. “Wil and I are going into town tomorrow with Tom so I can pay Mr. Dolens for them. Then Mom and Dad are going to be bringing them out with the trailer afterward. When I noticed one was coming into heat, we thought it would be best to haul them right up there instead of stopping here with them. Over.”

“So did Frank buy them at the auction? Over”

“Unh huh,” I could almost ‘hear’ her nod her head over the radio. “He said there were four mares, but he got the best two. They’ve got papers and if the papers are right, they have decent breeding. I’m sure the papers are good because the tattoos in their ears match up. They look really good, Cris, and they were a bargain. Over.”

“You know how to test for fake tattoos, don’t you? Over.”

“Yes, Chris. We already did the alcohol wipe trick and the other one with the flashlight. It wasn’t dark and we didn’t have a blacklight for the third test though. But heck, at the price I’m paying, they don’t have to be perfect, just good. I’m not that worried about them being purebred. Over.”

“Okay, Beth. If you’re happy with them, I’m sure I will be. Over,” I chuckled.

“Good. I was starting to think you were worse than Dad,” she laughed. “Now, can I stay there for a few days? Over.”

“I suppose, but you get the back porch and the foldout bed. Over.”

“Great, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she squealed, then started a sing song. “I’ve got a horse to ride. I’ve got a horse to ride. And I’ve got a place to ride. Over and out, Big Brother.”

I was laughing as I heard her shut off her CB, so I hung up the mic as well. Then I poured another cup of coffee before going back outside.

I had another chuckle then. Duke had settled on his rug, but he wasn’t alone. It looked like the collie and her pup were moving in. Both of them were snuggled up on the rug with him. I have to say he looked crowded, but proud and happy as well.

I stood outside for a few moments and had a few sips of coffee, but for some reason I wasn’t enjoying it at all. I realized that part of the reason was that I didn’t have Carissa to talk with me. I kept glancing over at the collie and her pup, unable to stop thinking how thrilled Carissa would have been if she’d been there to see the collie becoming so trusting and friendly. Somehow that small triumph simply didn’t seem to mean much without her there to share it. Especially not since she had been the one who had worked so diligently to achieve it.

Finally I tossed away the last of my coffee and went back inside. After rinsing my coffee cup and putting away the clean laundry, I decided I’d just go to bed since I had nothing else to do.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a harder time getting to sleep than I did that night.

I thought about Carissa. I thought about the two of us. I worried about Corinna. I worried about Grampa Bender, then about the future of the ranch. I wondered about the hydro survey. I thought about Mom and Dad, then about Wil, about Beth, about Tom, and about George. I wondered about Frank Dolens, John Coulter and about the McAdam family. I even wondered about ‘Rotten’ Ray and ‘Slimy’ Sid.

Finally I suppose I wondered and worried myself to sleep.

Even though I didn’t think I slept much, I woke early enough that I’d done my chores, overcooked some eggs and bacon, burnt some toast, then had eaten the mess and was done long before the surveyor from Hydro showed up. In fact, I was having a cup of coffee out on the front porch when I saw the bright yellow Jeep coming down the grade into the valley.

“Good morning, Mark,” I called to him as soon as he pulled to a stop and got out of his Jeep. “Did you bring your maps with you today?”

“Good morning, Chris. I have the maps, but I’m still left with a fair sized conundrum. I’ve made literally no progress on this problem from the point I was at when I saw you last,” he sighed heavily. “I’m sure you’ll be dead set against it, but my bosses were asking about regrading that first gully we started to come down yesterday.”

“Well, my family had a look at your problem yesterday afternoon as well,” I grinned. “The difference is that we think we’ve come up with a solution to your problem that could save you time and distance.”

“Well, that’s an interesting idea,” he looked at me curiously. “You’ll have to show me that. I need a lift to my spirits this morning.”

“Sure. Just grab your maps and we’ll lay them out on the table,” I waved him to come inside, then went to pour him a coffee.

Ten minutes later I had shown him Wil and Dad’s idea, even going as far as showing him Wil’s idea of running along the eastern ridge line of our upper valley. That allowed them to tie to their original survey almost where we had planned on having them splice in our feeder line. He stared at it for a moment and then broke into a grin.

“I couldn’t see the forest for the trees,” he chuckled. “I wonder if we can redo our original permits with the crown for crossing their land.”

“I can’t see why not, since we have the lease on the property along the route we’re suggesting you follow,” I chuckled. “I’ll bet you drove along our road coming out to see me this morning, don’t you think it would do for running a hydro line?”

“I certainly do,” he grinned. “It actually solves problems as well as distance and time involved in running the line. Now all we have to do is negotiate a lease cost.”

“Well, Mark, I’ve got no suggestions on that, but looking at the time, I imagine Dad’s gone into town to see your bosses by now. I think they can iron that out between them, don’t you.”

He just laughed and agreed, then he drained his coffee mug. We hopped into his Jeep and drove up to the crest of the ridge, then followed along the whole route, driving slowly from one end to the other. By shortly before noon we were back at the cabin. This time he was all smiles and quite excited about the fact that the new route looked much easier than the old one. By using our trail across crown land as a base, we’d eliminated two huge problems that they would have had to contend with on the other route. It wasn’t flat land, so they did have a few small worries, but they simply weren’t in the same scale as the problems on the other route had been.

I made coffee and a sandwich for myself while he grabbed his lunch, then he joined me to eat on the front porch.

“So you think you folks will likely only want the roadway along your trail improved in return for our getting an easement along your lease?”

“Well, actually we have an easement now for a hundred feet on either side of that trail just in case we have to make any changes to our road,” I explained. “It is tied to our lease and I’m no legal beagle, but I think the folks in your office will know well enough what needs to be done. I can’t see any reason you’d have problems getting permission, because having power and phone here on the ranch will increase the assessment on the place and that increases the taxes. I’d think the government will be in favour of us granting hydro an easement to use our road or dang near any path across our lease.”

“Oh, we both know that,” he snorted. “I’m more interested in what you want over and above what it will cost on paper.”

“Are you talking a bribe?” I laughed. “Now I’m not the guy whose signature you need, but as far as I’m personally concerned if you improve that road so I can use it in almost any weather as well as getting the power into this yard, I’ll be as happy as a cow in a clover patch. I know Carissa sure misses having an electric stove, come to think of it, so do I.”

“Oh, I was going to ask about that, where is your young lady?”

“Carissa is in Edmonton,” I frowned, suddenly, brought back to reality. “Since you were in town yesterday, you must have heard about the young woman who jumped from the church steeple yesterday morning, didn’t you?”

“Well, yes. I did,” he frowned as well.

“That was Carissa’s twin sister,” I sighed. “Corinna has a bunch of problems and I guess she felt they had just gotten to be too much to handle. They flew her to Edmonton for an emergency operation at the University Hospital yesterday afternoon. Carissa went along.”

“Oh, I am sorry,” he held out his hand as if in apology. “Have you heard anything? Oh shit, that’s a stupid question, you don’t have a telephone.”

“Yes, but I have a CB and Mom called last night. Corinna survived the flight fine and they rushed her straight into the operating room. They were still operating when Carissa’s dad called Mom last night. I haven’t heard anything yet today.”

“Oh my. It must be tough on you, just sitting here, waiting for word,” he shook his head as he frowned.

“Better than if I was sitting around the dang hospital,” I snorted, then waved my left arm and lifted my right leg to show him my casts. “I hate hospitals. I went to the hospital with a couple of broken bones, but they gave me some medications for pain, only I was allergic to whatever it was and I damn near died.”

“Jeez, I seem to have a talent for saying the wrong things,” he shook his head again and looked sheepish.

“Aw, don’t fret it,” I snorted again. “Life happens. Sometimes you just have to tough things out.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he nodded, then began to get up. “I think I should get back to town and talk to my bosses about completely changing this end of the route. I and my rodman will have to come out and completely redo it. However, I’m fairly certain that you’ve made my life a lot easier, so if I can help out in some small way, just call on me, huh?”

“Well, if you can get the phone people to get their butts in gear as well, that would be a huge help. I could use it even more than electricity right now,” I smiled getting to my feet as well.

“You’ve got a deal,” he smiled and held out his hand. “I’ll do what I can and hopefully, I’ll see you in a day or two with the completed survey.”

So we shook hands, then he climbed in his Jeep and drove away so I was left alone again. He had just climbed the grade out of the valley when the collie and her pup reappeared. I had to smile at that, it seemed she trusted me, but not others.