Chapter 30

They fell asleep there on the bed, and slept until Precious started whining to go outside. Jack woke up, carefully got out of bed and slid on his underwear, jeans and boots. He let Ariel sleep while he took Precious out for a walk around the cabin and barn area. They walked around the pond and Precious stopped to take a drink of water while Jack sat on the bank. The pup came up to Jack and sat beside him with her paw on his leg while he was petting her. Jack looked at his watch. It said 6:00 pm. He looked down at the pup and said, "Well Precious, do you think we should go start making dinner for Ariel?" The pup licked his hand in response, so he got up and they went to the cabin.

Jack took the pup inside and went to the stove. He tossed in some newspaper and kindling wood and lit it with a match. Once the kindling caught fire, he added some small chunks of wood and began cooking dinner for Ariel. He took 2 steaks from the basket, along with 2 large potatoes. He took the roll of aluminum foil from the shelf and wrapped the potatoes, placing them on the back of the cooking surface of the wood stove. He put a large skillet on the stove and poured a little cooking oil in it. He let it heat up for a few minutes, then added the steaks to cook. While the meat and potatoes were cooking, he looked through the canned foods on the shelf and selected a vegetable, a can of peas and carrots. He opened the can, poured the veggies into a small pan and put them on the back of the stove by the potatoes.

He looked around to talk to the puppy, but she wasn't in the room. He looked through the door into the bedroom and saw Precious curled up on the bed beside Ariel, sound asleep, her head resting on the back of Ariel's hand. Jack smiled and went back to the stove to flip the steaks over and turn the potatoes over. He set the table and went out to get more wood from the pile by the cabin, and to refill the water bucket so Ariel could wash up when she woke up. As he was walking back to the cabin, he looked over toward the trail. He had heard hoof beats of an approaching horse coming quickly. He stood there watching for a moment, before Andy came riding into the clearing on his black gelding, Apollo.

"Hey Andy! How are you?" Jack asked as Andy rode toward him.

"I'm good, Jack. How are you?" he replied.

"Doing great, thanks. So what brings you out here tonight? Is anything wrong?" Jack asked.

Andy dismounted and said with a nod of his head, "Yeah Jack. I have some news for Ariel. Is she here with you?"

"Yeah, she is. Why, what's happened?"

"The daycare center caught fire tonight. The fire department is there now, fighting the blaze and it looks like a total loss." Andy said sadly.

"Oh my God! I better go in and wake her up. Come on inside and have a seat, Andy." Jack said as he ran into the bedroom.

"Ariel, honey wake up! I need to tell you something important." Jack said firmly as he shook her awake.

"What is it, Jack? You sound worried. What's happened?" she asked as she sat up quickly, her voice anxious with worry.

"Come out to the other room, honey. Andy is here with some news for you, and honey, it's not good." he said. Ariel quickly got dressed and ran out to the kitchen. Andy was sitting at the table. She sat on the other chair and Jack moved to stand behind her, his hand on her shoulder offering comfort and support. He knew she would need it.