Page 18 of The Cowboy Who Came Home
“It was the mantra of our childhood.” Edith smiled to herself. “And I gotta say, I’ve felt like God has given me some really heavy things that I can’t possibly carry.”
“Not without Him, at least,” Alex murmured.
“Yeah.” They fell into silence then, with only Gumbo meowing every so often around them. The dogs gathered at their feet, circling until they all found a space to be, with the littler dachshunds up on top of the collies. Edith found such comfort with them, and she knew by their calm demeanor that she had nothing to fear.
If something truly horrific was about to happen, the canines wouldn’t be nearly so docile. They’d be pacing, especially the collies, so despite Gumbo’s refusal to be quiet, Edith relaxed a little bit.
“You want to lay down?” Alex asked, and she jolted back awake. “Sleep a little until the sun comes up?” He helped her move over to the corner of the barn, and he covered her with one of his jackets.
Edith dozed, not sure what she’d find when the morning came. But no matter what, she knew another morning would come, because they always did. Even after the worst day of her life, the one where Levi had taken his last breath and passed from this world to the next, morning had come.
The day got lighter and lighter, and eventually Edith opened her eyes for good again when Alex unlatched the lock on the window and opened the two halves outward. “Still raining,” he said as he pressed his palms into the wide windowsill and looked out. “Not as hard, though.”
Edith groaned as she got up. She shook the hay from his jacket and laid it on the bale before joining him. “The weather report said it should be gone by ten-thirty.”
“There’s a loooot of water down there.”
She took in the enormity of the ranch, and yes, the ground straight down was nothing but a giant puddle the drops continued to plink into. Water ran past the stable in a rivulet that shouldn’t be there, and she wished this side of the barn faced the farmhouse and her she-shed.
All she could hear was water. Water falling. Water landing. Water rushing. “The river is loud,” she said.
“It’s got to have taken out a ton of fences,” Alex said.
“But not our barn or stables.”
He nodded to their left. “The chicken coop is gone.”
Edith’s heart plummeted to her sneakers. “The chicken coop is gone,” she repeated, her voice much more haunted. “What about the hens?”
“They’ll have gotten somewhere safe,” he said.
“But how do we get them back?”
He didn’t answer her then, and Edith went back to taking in the ranch. She couldn’t see the horses, nor any of their cattle. No chickens at all, anywhere. They didn’t have much more than that—no goats, or sheep, or donkeys. Just horses, cattle, chickens, and their dogs. Oh, and Gumbo, who was almost hoarse from all the meowing.
She turned and picked up the feline, stroking him to try to calm him. Miraculously, Gumbo did quiet, and Alex turned from the window. “I think it’s tapering even more.” Sure enough, the raindrops didn’t even register on the roof anymore. Edith had grown so used to the noise, that the absence of it left behind a void she hadn’t experienced before.
“I think we should head out to the river and see where it is,” he said.
A vibration of fear strummed against her heart, but Edith wasn’t going to let Alex go alone. As he went down the ladder first, she put Gumbo in the middle of the dachshunds and said, “Let’s go down and go potty. Everyone. Alex?”
“I heard you.”
It took several minutes to get the animals down the ladder and outside, and thankfully, Frankie, Otto, and Gumbo only went a few feet, took care of their business, and came rushing back into the safety of the barn.
Edith half-climbed the ladder and took the wet pets from Alex again, setting them all safely in the loft once more. As she dropped Gumbo in the middle of Frankie and Otto, she said, “You guys take care of each other, okay?”
Bandit and Olive waited with Alex, and together, the four of them faced the nearly-gone rain. “There’s so much water,” she murmured.
Alex’s phone started to bing! and bing! and bing! some more. Distracted now, he looked at it, and while Edith waited for him to read and then fill her in on who was messaging, she took out her phone and texted Finn.
The rain’s stopping, and we’re headed out to check on things.
My daddy’s texting faster than anyone his age has a right to, Finn said. You should see him! It’s incredible.
She smiled, because she’d always liked Finn’s daddy. My brother is too.
Probably on the same thread, Finn said. He’s talking to all the ranch owners around town, because they’ll do the rounds and come help anyone who needs it.
