I shut the door tight. This wasn’t over. He could think whatever he wanted. I would not sit idle and let our debts go unaccounted for to the Masons. I would pay them all back; I just didn’t know when or how, I just knew it would happen. Someday, I would repay every so-called miracle. I would not be a product of charity.
Pulling out a piece of notebook paper, I drew columns down the page with a ruler. I numbered in the left corner and tried to picture the first day I met the Masons and every item that was delivered.
I turned the pencil over and applied the eraser. This list needed to go back even further than the first day in Arlis. I wrote number one as Momma’s Hospital Bills. As Jess had pointed out when we first came to the ranch, the Mason-funded hospice wing was the reason for us even moving to Arlis. My fingers cramped as I printed in tiny letters down the first column. I sat back, reflecting on each item.
I glanced at the film strip from the carnival; our laughing faces side-by-side. My friendship with Jess was a difficult thing for me when it came to the Masons. It was the one thing that had my feelings completely divided. My eyes shifted back, contemplating the items. It needed to be called something. I guess it was pretty simple. I printed the name in large letters across the top of the page for The Mason List.
Chapter 12
When I was ten…
The next Saturday after the carnival, Jess showed up at the farmhouse. He said today was the day for horse riding and refused to take no for answer.
“Are you sure I can touch them?” I looked at the two horses and shuddered. I was a tall girl, but these beasts towered over my head.
“They’re really nice, you just have to give ‘em a chance,” Jess said over his shoulder as he tied the lead rope to the fence. “Here’s some carrots. Feed ‘em to Blue Bonnet.”
“Which one is Blue Bonnet?” I looked back and forth between the two tan horses. Maybe they had name tags like a dog.
“That one’s BB,” Jess said, walking to the other horse. I was surprised he could even stand up straight with the excitement. Once we got here, he’d switched over to pancake-syrup talk, slurring every syllable into Texas gibberish. I knew me riding horses meant the world to him.
“I think BB is bigger than the other one. Maybe I should get the smaller one.” It was only a few inches but a few inches seemed a little less terrifying at the moment.
“No, you don’t want to ride Clive. You need BB. Here, take the carrots and feed her one. Like this.”
My eyes grew wide as I watched Jess shove the carrot into Clive’s mouth. I didn’t know horses had such big teeth. Jess moved his hand up Clive’s neck to scratch behind his pointed ears. I knew Jess loved his horses. He desperately wanted to share his pretty animals with me.
Looking at BB’s silky hair, I reached up to touch her neck. She lunged forward, and I screamed. BB knocked the carrot from my hand to the ground. Her big teeth scooped it up. The horse chewed with her big brown eyes fixed on me.
“What are ya’ll doin’ back there?”
“I’m not going up. I can’t even feed the carrots right.”
“You’re goin’ up. Stop chickenin’ out! You said you would do it!”
We stared at each other for a few moments. I took a deep breath and offered a compromise. “Fine, but I’m only sitting on her. No walking. Just sitting tied to the fence. Promise?” I needed a firm understanding with that boy before I ever got on top of his horse. I knew how he worked.
“Promise,” he said with a grin.
After several attempts to boost me up, Jess finally got my behind on top of BB. Jess climbed up on Clive. He leaned over and untied them both from the fence.
“Hey! What are you doing?” BB followed along behind Clive. My fingers trembled, clenching the rein in one hand and the saddle in the other.
“You’ll be fine! We can just go down the fence row!” Jess yelled back.
“You promised!” I was so angry but too scared to say anything else. I managed a few deep breaths and let them out slowly through my mouth. Each step jarred me sideways a little in the saddle. My thighs clung to the horse.
We traveled at a steady pace in a single line down the fence. Maybe Jess was right. I was doing ok. I wasn’t upside down on my head. Feeling brave, I glanced around the fence. It was a different experience than a four-wheeler. So peaceful and quiet.
I released my tightly-clenched hand from the saddle and patted BB’s neck. Her hair felt really soft against my palm. I calmly stroked her until suddenly, a loud yapping came from my right. One of the cattle dogs chased a small orange cat around the stables then through the grass directly toward us. I felt BB move faster and then like a flick of a switch, she broke off from the fence row and out toward the meadow.
I screamed and yelled. I grabbed a hold of anything my hands could grasp as I bounced along on top of BB. My screams got lost in the wind and the barns faded from view. The trees and grass flew by in a blur as the horse continued to gain speed. In the distance, I saw a fallen tree directly in our path. I panicked and felt the horse go airborne. She cleared the massive tree trunk, but I couldn’t stay in the saddle.
I hit the ground with a hard slam that sent my body rolling for several feet. Everything hurt and I couldn’t catch my breath. I wanted to scream but nothing came out. I thrashed around on my back, trying to breathe. I heard the sound of pounding hooves.
No! BB was coming back to trample me. As I tried to move away, I saw Jess ride up on Clive. He jumped off and ran toward me.
“A…lex…a…are you ok?” He was out of breath and his words came out in spats. Leaning over, his black hair flopped into his blue eyes. “I don’t know…what…happened.”
“I’m… going to… kill you!” I tried to rise up and throw a swing at Jess. My left foot gave out, and I crashed back onto the ground.
“Alex, you have to calm down.”
“This is all your fault!”
“No, Alex. Be still.”
“Jess!” I snapped with anger.
“There’s a snake.” His voice remained steady while his blue eyes darted to the left again. I looked over my shoulder to see the tan and dark brown shape about a yard from my hand. The tail rattled just a little, sending prickly fear down my spine.
“What do I do?” I whispered through clenched teeth.
“I wish I had my gun. It’ll take too long to go get it,” Jess whispered back.
Since moving to the ranch, I had listened to numerous tall tales involving rattlers. Right in that terrifying moment, I recalled the photographs Davey Rawlins had brought to school of his uncle’s foot half-rotted off from a snake bite. Davey said it struck his Uncle Skeeter straight through his boot.
The images spread fear through my body. It would hurt as the snake sunk the sharp fangs into my skin. The venom would burn as it ate away the tissue and then my hand would gradually fall off. Very simple.
“Alex, you listenin’?” His voice sounded like a hiss. Beads of perspiration dripped down the front of my pale, clammy face. I saw his eyes move to the snake then back to me.
“I’m gonna move in slowly to the left. Then I’ll toss a rock over in the other direction as a distraction then pull you real hard. You gotta push off with your good foot. We only got one shot at this.”
“It might bite me,” I whispered.
“Yup.”
“But…”
“Let’s go,” he whispered, giving me no time to think any more.
Jess tossed a baseball-sized stone in the opposite direction and then yanked my arm, pulling me up from the ground. In the dusty air, the sound of rattles played like background music. His body held me up, dragging me along to keep the weight off my throbbing ankle. For several yards, we stumbled through sage bushes and vines cursed with thorns. The sharp spikes dug into the legs of my denim jeans.
“Are you sure it’s gone?” I peered through the grass for signs of the scaly body.
“I think he went the other way when I threw the rock.”
“You think?”
“No. I’m sure.” Jess lowered us both to the ground. The muscles in my legs felt like Jell-O.
“That was really scary.”