Chapter 17

Waking early the next morning, especially considering not going to bed before midnight, I was strangely well rested. It was only five AM but seeing if I could get the pictures out of the new camera without help was on my mind. The first snag was when I discovered it didn't have a place to put memory cards into it, and of course there was no place to take them out.

Going back to the armory for the box I'd taken it out of, I found an instruction book and a special cord too. Back upstairs, in my office, the instructions told me just what came next.

The plainly written details were a refreshing surprise; they were amazingly complete without being complicated. The whole process was simple, and that was saying something, for me.

The interface for the computer was USB, which I was already slightly familiar with, but it described the one on the camera end as proprietary. That struck me as odd for a second but it was probably their way of saying nobody on earth can do it our way.

It was a snap once the connection between the camera and computer was made. A little box popped up in the middle of the center computer screen and asked Transfer Images? and it had a button for yes and one for no. I clicked on yes and one of those progress bars came into the little box, filled itself from left to right and then it all went away.

Another box came up, telling me that the transfer was complete and asked if I wanted to clear the camera's memory. I said yes and we did a similar song and dance. The last little info box that popped up seemed a little odd to me though.

It said, Camera's memory cleared. Two terabytes available. and then it asked if I was done. I clicked on yes and that was it. What I didn't know was what two terabytes meant, it sounded like a lot to me. I decided that Bob could tell me when I went to their place for breakfast.

Taking a quick shower, I dressed and headed for food. I knew Meka would appreciate it if I came in the big truck so I did, blowing the train horn when I got there.

She, Tutsie in arms, came flying out the door to meet me. I scooped her up into my arms and she gave me a kiss on the cheek. Not to be outdone, Tutsie gave me a lick up a nostril. It's the thought that counts.

"What Daddy shoot night?" Meka asked.

"Just another coyote," I said, pointing where I'd thrown it, on the back of the truck, in front of the fifth wheel.

"Good. Now breakfast, please," she said.

We went inside and the whole crew was ready. Ethel was happy that I'd bagged another coyote, but when I mentioned finding a camera that They had supplied she was even more excited.

"Did you bring it up so Bob could take the pictures out?" she asked.

Explaining about the camera was my next trick, and about only getting the one shot of the owl, and about reading the instructions, and then about taking the pictures out myself and putting them on my computer.

"Can you get it from here, Bob?" she asked him.

"Sure, I'll do it as soon as I've eaten," he said.

When we'd mostly finished eating, I asked Bob about the two terrabytes of memory. He looked at me like I must have read it wrong.

"Are you sure it said two terrabytes?" he asked.

"I'm sure. There were only a few words and they were in large print. I know I got them right," I said, maybe a little snottier sounding than I'd meant to be.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to seem like you weren't paying attention. It isn't possible for anything from here though. Two terrabytes is an awful lot of memory to be in a camera. It's more than we have on all the computers here and at your house too," Bob said.

I guess They want me to take more pictures then," I said.

"Me too, I just love 'em," Ethel said.

Bob went to take care of the pictures as soon as we were down to drinking coffee. All of us except Doctor Jorge that is, he'd had his cereal and taken off for his walk before I even got here.

Bob came out about five minutes later with a picture in his hand.

"I thought you took this at night," he said.

"I did, I forgot to tell you that the instructions said the camera could do just as well at night as in the daylight," I said.

"Just as well nothing. This picture is better than the camera you had could ever do. I can't believe you took this at night, it's in full color," he said.

He showed it to us then and it did look great, even if I did take it. The owl seemed to be looking right at the camera too, but I knew that had to be a coincidence. However it happened, it was a great shot.

"Did you get one of the coyote you shot too," Ethel asked.

"No, I'm sorry but I forgot all about it. In my defense, I shot the coyote from probably five hundred yards," I said.

"I think I might have to go with you one of these nights and measure off your after-dark yards. That's sounds like a hell of a shot to me, or a fish story," George said.

"If there's a horse around here that'll let you on its back, you're welcome to come along. I'm not gonna wait on you if you have to walk though.

"Myself, I think it'd be hard to miss with the new rifles. I've never had one that shoots as good as they do. In fact, I've never even read about or heard of one that can," I said.

"Carolyn, what did we do with my hip waders last time we put them up? It's gettin' pretty deep in here and I don't want to drown in bullshit before I finish my coffee," Ethel said, and then the rest of them, Meka included, laughed at me and George.

In payment for her jab at me, Ethel broke out some coffee cake, as if I weren't stuffed already. It was just her way though. If she made a joke at your expense, she paid her bill with food, and it was damned good food too. I took my time with the coffee cake, and even broke Tutsie off a little piece of it when I noticed him carefully watching me eat.

Even though I know Tutsie was full to the neck, he gobbled up the morsel and then, seemingly satisfied that he wasn't being left out; he lay down on his perch, casually swinging his small tail back and forth.

"I guess Meka and I can go out and pick up the last trailer this morning, I don't really have anything else to do today," I said, to the room, after I'd finished my cake.

"I think you should hang around here today, there might be something you need to take care of," Ethel said, sounding unusually tentative, for her anyway.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Well, you have a job interview at ten AM," she said.

"A job interview? I don't even want a job," I said.

"I know that. This ones t'other way 'round."

"Well, I'm lost now. What does that mean?" I asked.

"You're the one that'll be doin' the interviewin'," George said, letting me know that this was a two pronged attack I'd be facing. I probably should have just given up right then, since I was outnumbered.

"But I don't want to hire anybody, and even if I did, I wouldn't have anything for them to do," I said.

"We're the ones that'll be doin' the hiring, we just want you to make sure you can get along with 'em," Ethel said.

That didn't make a damned bit of sense to me. Why should I have to make sure I could get along with a new ranch hand. I did get along with all the ones they had here now, as far as I had contact with them anyway. I couldn't figure out why they had to make sure I'd get along with the new one though. So I just asked.

"Why do I need to make sure I can get along with a new ranch hand?"

"Cause she won't be a ranch hand, even if we hire her," Ethel said.

"That's enough, I like to dance as much as anybody, but not at the kitchen table. You two are up to something and you might as well tell me about it instead of making me try to guess," I said.

"Let me get you another piece of coffee cake, or some donuts. Have you ever had any of my homemade donuts?" Ethel asked.

"If you're trying to bribe me with food, I can already tell you that it's gonna work, so just bring me anything that taste good and I'll consider myself ready to do this job interview for you.

"Maybe after that you and George might even tell me what you're going to want this person to do," I said, giving up and thinking about the coffee cake that was coming, mostly.

"Well, it was kinda Bob's fault," Ethel said.

"My fault, I just mentioned it first. Besides, why does it have to be somebody's fault," Bob said, sounding put upon.

"Ok then. Well, it was Bob that mentioned it first, but George and I both had already thought about it. We just hadn't mentioned it to each other.

"When Bob said it, we all thought that They might have got it started. You know how that goes sometimes," Ethel said.

"It wasn't like it's always been before though," George said.

"No, it wasn't, but it kinda was, and it wouldn't go away," Bob said, agreeing.

"Please. One of you please tell me what it was," I said.

"Oh, that. We think we need someone who really knows about doctoring folks that's hurt. Somebody that's done it before," George said.

"We ain't trying to root you out of the top spot, but we think it'd be easier on you if we could find a nurse, or somebody like that to help ya," Ethel said.