Page 41 of Grounded
“That old gate slipped its hinge and spooked Nutmeg. When she saw Annie wasn’t in control, she just took her for a ride.”
“Are you all right? I looked out the back porch window and saw you on the ground.” Beulah’s eyes went to Annie’s shoulder where her hand massaged the muscles.
“I don’t think anything is broken,” Annie said. Annie fixed her eyes on Woody, sorting out what he said. “She was trying to see how much she could take off of me. You mean she did that on purpose?”
“Did you hit your head?” her grandmother asked.
Annie stood and waited for Woody to respond.
“Well, yeah, I’m afraid so. Nutmeg is kind of bad about that. She sensed you weren’t in control and took over.”
“I can’t believe it. Now I’m betrayed by a horse?”
“ She might be a little addled,” Woody said to her grandmother as if she weren’t there.
“Does your head hurt?” Her grandmother looked worried.
“Annie, I sure am sorry about all this. I guess you won’t feel like riding for a while. I’ll bring the trailer over tomorrow and take Nutmeg back home.”
“We’ll get some Bengay on you, and I’ll put the kettle on for tea.” Beulah turned to the house.
“Oh, no, I’m keeping her. We have some things to work out.”
Annie was done being a victim.
Chapter Sixteen
Beulah sat at the kitchen table, sorting through two drawers and finding things she didn’t even know she had, like an old-fashioned cherry pitter and a cheese grater she had never even taken out of the box. Now that she had a date for her surgery, it seemed time was flying by, despite all the things she wanted to get done beforehand.
The operation was set for late June, but the surgeon’s office had called and said he’d had a cancellation. Could she come on June 15th instead? She was sure there was something wrong with that surgeon for him to be having cancellations. When she called her family physician, Dr. Bright, to voice concern about the change in dates, he laughed.
“Dr. Wylie is the best for knee replacements in the region,” he had said. “We’re lucky to have him in Rutherford.”
Beulah wondered about that. Maybe Lexington would have been a better choice. But she believed in buying local, and as much as possible that went for her medical needs too.
Beulah wondered if Annie might be laid up in a hospital bed too, after that fall from the horse. She had suggested that Annie go to the doctor, but she would have none of it.
“There’s nothing wrong. I got the wind knocked out of me, that’s all,” she had said that afternoon after Beulah poured several cups of hot tea into her.
Annie was exactly like her: stubborn and hard-headed the girl was, unlike her mother who went any way the wind blew. The only things Annie seemed to get from her mother were her looks, her love for faraway places and her taste in men.
Sure enough, she seemed fine and was back on that horse by the weekend. Determined not to let that animal get the best of her, she finally mastered trotting the old mare around the pasture after first getting the hang of it in the barn lot. Woody was a good teacher, Beulah had to give him that. But he was awful attentive to Annie for more reasons than his love for horses, or so she thought.
Annie had finally gone to church on Sunday morning and Beulah had preened like a rooster at Somerville Baptist, showing her granddaughter off to all the churchgoers. Annie looked real pretty. She wore a red dress that set off her dark hair and brought the color to her face. They sat in their normal place, six rows from the back on the organ side. Even the preacher commented on Annie’s presence, right from the pulpit.
They had gotten a lot of attention on Sunday, what with Annie there and Beulah’s upcoming surgery. They were already passing around a sign-up list in her Sunday school for folks to bring supper to them the week after she came home from the hospital. It was mighty hard to think about being on the receiving end of charity, but she reckoned it was all right this once.
Sunday dinner had the whole group gathered around Evelyn’s table. Annie fell right into the conversation, laughing and talking with Scott, Mary Beth, Lindy and Woody. Even Evelyn commented on Woody being there on such a prime fishing day.
“Went early this morning,” Woody had said. The question of why he couldn’t do that on other spring Sundays hung in the air, but no one pulled it down.
The days seemed to fly by and here it was Monday. Beulah pulled a garlic smasher out of the drawer and put it in the Goodwill pile. Rarely did she ever use garlic in her cooking—it didn’t sit well on her stomach. She was an old-fashioned cook, and to her all these kitchen gizmos were a waste of time and money. They were bought at these home parties when Beulah felt sorry for some young woman trying to make a little extra money to help out her family. And here they sat in the back of her drawers, most never even used. Who needed fifteen gadgets for chopping when a knife did the trick?
Going through these drawers and cabinets was something she had wanted to do for a long time, but looking at the job made her tired. Annie tackled it with a vengeance, climbing down on the floor and pulling Tupperware bowls out of the dark recesses of the cabinets. With a Clorox mixture, she wiped out the dust and dirt from crevices Beulah hadn’t seen in years.
A scream pierced the air making Beulah jump as if she had been shot. The metal gadgets dumped onto the floor.
“Heaven help us! What in the world?” She grabbed her cane and managed to stand and slowly make her way to the back door.
