Page 12 of Saving Veronica
“Will do, Miss Ronnie. So, when exactly will you be home?”
“Depending on what I find with Paige. If she hasn’t foaled yet, I might wait and watch. If she’s already foaled, then I’ll be back with her. If not, I should be home by Thursday. I havestuff I need to do Friday. But, I’ll definitely be home for the BBQ.” She grinned when his jaw dropped.
“You know?”
“I do now.” She laughed when he turned red, and chuckled.
“Actually, I told Grandma I’d see her for the BBQ, hoping there was one, but not knowing for sure, until she reacted just like you did.”
“Brat,” Hector said, without any heat.
“That’s what she said too.” Ronnie laughed and hugged him. She quickly went out the side of the barn, and saw her horse all saddled, and ready to go. She wasted no time getting mounted, and she waited until Hector opened the gate, then went through. She turned, and said, “I’ll be back, soon... no later than Thursday.”
Hector laughed, and said, “Yeah, right. I know how you get when you get to that meadow. So, when do you want me to send out the search party?” He joked like he did every time she left for the upper meadow.
Ronnie laughed, because she did have a tendency to lose track of time while in her meadow. “Send out the search party if the horses return without me, or Saturday... whichever comes first.”
“Will do. You be careful, Miss Ronnie.”
“Always.” Ronnie waved behind over her head, and kicked Sarge toward the east trail from the barn. Just before she reached the path she wanted, she paused and pulled her phone out. After she dialed, her call kicked over to voicemail, so she left a message.
“Lorna, it’s Ronnie. I’m going to have to cancel our plans for Sunday. I’m sorry, but I have a horse that ran away. She’s due to foal any day now, so I want her home. I’ll call you when I get back. Better yet, why don’t you come out to Grandma and Grandpa’s at ten o’clock a week from tomorrow, on Saturday. There will be a huge BBQ. Tell Grandma I invited you and to have her show you how to cook. Sorry about not being there. Make up your list of what you want and we can study it. Plan on spending the night at my house after the BBQ. Thanks, friend. Gotta go. Oh, there’s no signal where I’ll be, so you won’t be able to call me back. See you at the BBQ.”
After hanging up, Ronnie turned her phone off and started forward again. She knew the meadow was several miles up from her barn, and it was actually a pretty easy, but steady, uphill trek. Her horse knew the way and it was pretty mindless, so she let her mind wander to what happened in the elevator at work earlier.
“I was so stupid, Sarge,” she said to the horse at one point. “Oh, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the kiss, and he was absolutely gorgeous, but I was so stupid. Why would I change like I did in front of him? I know, I know, I was in a hurry to get home to Paige, but still...” When the horse didn’t answer her, she tuned into her surroundings, and noticed they were halfway to the meadow. The going would get a little bit rougher until they reached the top. At one point she stopped, dismounted, and walked to the edge of the trail. She looked down and shivered.
After mounting again and starting up the hill, she told the horse, “Whatever you do, don’t spook and dump me. That ravine has a lot of rushing water at the base. I can only imagine how cold it is with the mountain runoff and all this rain we’ve had.” She shuddered and edged the horse further away from the side of the ravine. An hour later, she saw the entrance to the meadow, slowed Sarge’s pace, and calmly entered.
She stopped the horse to look out over the meadow, and sighed. No horses present, so she made her way to her usual camping spot, dismounted, and set up camp. She looked at the sky and didn’t like the darkening clouds. “Well, Sarge, with any luck, we can get undercover before this storm hits. Maybe we can find Paige and get us all home.” After she set up camp, she removed Sarge’s saddle and tethered him out to get some of the grass to eat. She wanted to start a fire, but the wind had picked up, so she didn’t chance it. It was going to be a long, cold, wet night.
Around seven that night, she ate a cold meal and washed it down with some of the water Hector had packed for her. She had just put everything away, when there was a quick flash of lightning, and a huge boom of thunder. Ronnie looked up and saw that the storm was directly overhead, and grabbed Sarge’s reins to bring him in under her makeshift tent. It was crowded, but he was safe, and so was she.
The storm lasted for several hours and it seemed to hover above them the whole time. The winds howled, the trees were whipped, several branches broke, and fell to the ground, or in the ravine. The worst part was the rain coming down heavily and at a sideways slant. Even though they were under a tarp, there was hardly any protection from the blowing rain and wind. The cover only managed to keep their heads and shoulders dry, so from the waist down, Ronnie was soaked. At times she could stand on the other side of Sarge for some blockage. If she hadn’t held onto him, he would have abandoned her when the storm started. It was almost daybreak when it finally moved off, and she noticed it headed in the direction she had come the previous afternoon. She let Sarge out from under the tent, tethered him close, but not too close and she was able to get a couple hours of sleep. When she awoke, she made a small fire and started the coffee. As she waited for it to brew, she pondered the next steps she would take. When she was ready to head out, she packed up, and made sure she put the coffee in her empty thermos for the day.
After placing a red flag off to the side from the trail she’d come up, Ronnie turned to the left and began walking along the edge of the meadow. She saddled Sarge up, and put her supplies back on his back. It was slow going through the high wet grass, but she had the time, so she took it. Late afternoon, after not finding any sign of Paige, or any of the wild mustangs for that matter, exhausted from the lack of sleep from the night before, she put a white flag at the entrance to the West trail, and went about a mile further, before she stopped, and set up camp for the night.
Several hours later, relaxing next to the small fire she’d made, Ronnie looked out at the meadow and sighed. “Wonder where all the horses are,” she said out loud, and was surprised when Sarge came to her and put his head on her shoulder.
“I know, buddy, you’re worried about Paige, so am I. Let’s settle in for the night and get a good night’s sleep, then we can get up and start fresh in the morning.” She knew she was crazy talking to a horse, but she liked to believe he understood what she said and it kept her sane.
Several days later, according to her calculations, it was late Thursday when she set up camp for the night. She had things to do the next day, but she wasn’t leaving her meadow until she found Paige. Ronnie would explain everything to the powers that be once she returned. She began at the East trail and walked around to the West one, each coming from the south, then she’d made her way around and marked off the Northwest entrance. She was now halfway between that and the Southeast entrance. Luckily, each main trail led to a different ranch. She’d physically walked around the perimeter on foot to see if there was any indication that Paige had gone over the side and into one of the ravines. Her goal was to continue walking all the way around and if the other horses or Paige didn’t turn up by the time she returned back to the trail she came up, then she’d go through the forest and see if she could get to the meadow on the other side. But she couldn’t give up, until she’d walked it all.
The biggest problem was that this meadow was huge. Around a hundred acres and she’d walked the perimeter on foot. Sighing after removing her boots, she settled back, and the sun was just going down when she fell asleep for the night.
The next morning, Friday, she knew she had to hurry. So, she decided to ride Sarge around the rest of the meadow. She kept him close to the edge, but not close enough that he would go over with her on his back. After dismounting and putting a flag in the last entrance, she continued on, then paused before the beginning of a huge stand of trees. Knowing she couldn’t get close enough on the back of the horse, she dismounted, then holding Sarge’s reins, she continued on.
Mid-afternoon, Sarge started backing up and trying to pull his head away from her, but she tightened her grip on the reins and proceeded cautiously. She had her slicker on due to the heavy cloud cover and a cold front had moved in. Plus, she was walking through tall, dense, waist-high, wet grass. The more Sarge started resisting her, the harder it was to fight her hold on him. Several yards further down, she saw evidence of something going over the side. She hurried over and slowly, cautiously looked over.
“Oh, Sweetie,” she sighed, when she saw Paige lying on her side, her head facing down the hill, and she was fighting to get to her feet, but was in active labor. Paige lay fifty feet down. With her labored breathing, she was either hurt, or in the process of giving birth.
“Stay here, Sarge. I’m going down to help her.” Ronnie loosely looped his reins over a tree, and studied the terrain before she started down. “It’s okay.” She talked to Paige the whole way down. Keeping her voice smooth, she also didn’t make any sudden movements to startle the horse. When she arrived, she soothed her the best she could. Paige’s breathing evened out. Ronnie whipped off her slicker, and flannel, leaving her in her tee-shirt and red vest, and went back up the hill to the horse’s backside.
“It’s going to be okay, Paige.” Ronnie laughed softly, as she reached down and grinned. “One more big push and you’re going to be a Mama.” She helped deliver the foal, and as soon as it was out, Paige was up and trying to turn to get to her foal. “Let’s get you and your baby up to the meadow,” Ronnie said, and actually picked up the still-weak foal, and began slowly, carefully, working her way to the top. She was halfway up when she heard something that made the blood freeze in her veins, and every hair on her body stand on end. Before she could take another step, all hell broke loose.
Paige had just breached the brim of the ravine, and turned to watch Ronnie bring up her foal, when a scream rent the air. Several wild mustangs came running out of the forest on Ronnie’s right, and rushed her. They were screaming, and Ronnie used everything she had to get the foal to her mother. She knew Paige could protect her better than she could. She had just set the foal down, when there was another scream, but this one sounded different. She looked back and sat frozen when the horses streamed by her, but closely following their heels was a mountain lion.
“Fuck,” she said, and turned to hurry up the hill to Sarge and Paige, but there were screams, beating hoofs, and teeth snapping ahead of her, behind her was the scream of the large cat. She knew her life was in danger, especially when she felt a swipe of claws on her thigh. She screamed along with the cat and the horses. The last thing she saw was seeing Sarge and several of the wild mustangs standing on the rim with their hind legs toward her and they were kicking. She could only assume they were lined up to try to kill the cat and protect the new mother and foal.
