“Amigo, it’s time to check the cattle. They gettin mighty restless out there. This storm makin them jumpy I guess.” He went on to explain how the storm was growing in ferocity. “Be careful out there Billy, lots of wind and real cold, bundle up and we’ll have de fire stocked and de coffee boilin when you get back.”
Billy grinned at his friend. He had come to enjoy the company of the two hired hands. They were hard workers and very down to earth. They admired Billy for his work ethic and never asked him about his past or taunted him about his father’s actions. It was a rare thing these days to have such good friends.
Billy hustled out to the barn. The wind had in fact picked up. It drove the fine snow horizontally. The icy pellets felt like grains of sand beating into his face. He pulled his wool jacket up as far as he could. He knew the wool would scratch his neck, but it would also keep him warm and dry while he was exposed to the elements. He found a head lamp and tightened it around his forehead. It would serve as his only light in the storm. Samson snorted nervously as he approached. Billy figured that the storm had him feeling uneasy. The wind continued to howl through cracks of the barn. It sent the fine snow sifting onto the dirt floor. Billy finished saddling his horse and made the cinch strap tight. He paused and waited until the horse breathed out and tightened the cinch one more notch.
“We’ve got to make sure your saddle doesn’t come loose tonight buddy!”
He then grabbed the loose bridle and led the horse towards the main door. The door was big and heavy. It was on rollers and had to be manhandled to slide open. As soon as he had opened it just a fraction, the wind hit him. He heaved with all of his might as he fought both the power of the wind and the heaviness of the door. At last the door yielded and he and Samson were out. He jumped up on the horse and they started on the long cold journey.
By the time they had reached the south pasture he could barely see past Samson’s nose. The great northern blizzard blocked out everything that would normally be easy to see. In order not to get lost they followed the fence. It acted as a slight break from the wind and snow. The cattle also knew this and as he rode along the fence he found them huddled against it. Their pitiful mooing let him know that they hated being in the storm as badly as he did. Their bodies appeared in the gloom as huge white snowy lumps only becoming cows when they shook themselves of snow and mooed at him. Eventually he came to a spot where the snow had been driven from the ground and swept into the next county. The ground was bare of snow, and with nothing to stop the snow it streaked past leaving a patch of brown on the white landscape. Billy could hear Samson’s iron shod hooves pounding against the frozen ground.
Billy rode on further and found no more cattle. He guessed that they had stayed out of this windswept area. He decided to ride a little farther and check a gully at the end of the fence line. In the past he had sometimes found cattle bedded there. The wind in this area was especially fierce. Billy shivered, thinking of the warm fire and strong coffee that awaited him back at the ranch. Samson trudged up to the lip of the gully, intent on nothing more than getting to the shelter that it might bring. Billy was thinking to himself how good it would feel to get out of the hurricane like wind. Because both the horse and rider’s minds were solely on gaining shelter from the wind, neither was watching ahead very carefully. Maybe it was the lack of sleep or more likely the wind drowning out all sound, but Billy was completely unaware of the danger until it was leaping at Samson. Billy caught only a vague streak in the beam of his headlamp. It bounded out of the night and came upon them before they had time to think. It was the wolf. He’d been holed up in the gully waiting for the storm to blow over when Samson had nearly stepped on him. In almost every other instance both animals would have been more alert and recognized each other’s presence in time to avoid conflict. However this time was different due to the blizzard which all but shut off both creatures’ senses.
Samson reacted as his instinctive fear of wolves had taught him. He reared high up on his back legs and began to kick out viciously in the direction of the wolf. The wolf though had already disappeared into the storm. Due to the suddenness of the encounter, Billy had no time to hold on. He was violently pitched into the rocks of the windswept gully. The last thing he remembered before he lost consciousness was the sickening thump his back made as it connected with a watermelon sized rock. After that he saw only stars and blackness as he pin wheeled into unconsciousness.
CHAPTER 15
Back at the house, Rey and Pedro began to worry about Billy when he didn’t show up at the end of his shift. When they went out to the barn to saddle up their horses to go look for him they found Samson, riderless, standing obediently at the door. The storm had finally started to abate, but the wind had blown away whatever tracks Samson may have left.
Rey looked thoughtfully at the few tracks still left under the eve of the barn. They appeared to be going towards the fence line. It would be logical for Billy to follow the fence when checking on the cows, but he could easily have gone in several directions.
Rey looked up from the ground and said to Pedro, “Git those dogs. We see if they can help us find our amigo.”
Pedro hustled off while Rey saddled two horses and rustled up headlamps and some warm clothes. After Pedro returned Rey explained, “We split up, and each of us will take one dog. They ain’t gonna want to follow, so tie the dog up and drag him along if you have to. We gonna need their noses to sniff out Billy.”
The situation was very obvious to both men. Billy was missing and most likely in trouble. With the freezing temperatures and brutal wind, it was imperative that they find him now. There was no time to get the sheriff or the local search and rescue team. Both would take hours to organize a search and Billy could freeze to death in that time. The two men rode off in to the storm knowing that their efforts could mean life or death for Billy.
The searchers separated at the first intersection of the fence. Rey took Pete and headed north to the back pasture. Despite the howling wind, Pete ranged ahead along the fence. Perhaps he could sense the gravity of the situation. Occasional marks in the snow appeared that could have come from Samson but because of the terrible conditions, tracking anything or anyone was out of the question.
Pedro and Max were equally unsuccessful in their search. Pedro had given up trying to get Max to help search. He’d boosted him into the saddle and now cradled him in his arms. Neither beast nor man should be out in this storm he thought.
The fruitless search had taken its toll on Pedro and he was tempted to turn around. For the last half hour he had seen no sign of anything other than a few snow coated cattle. Suddenly he felt Max tense up in his arms. The dog scratched at the saddle until he pulled himself clear and leapt down. Pedro lost sight of him as he disappeared into a low spot in the ground. When the dog failed to reappear and started barking excitedly, Pedro suspected he had finally found Billy.
CHAPTER 16
A terrible dilemma was laid straight at Pedro’s feet. As he surmised he had indeed found Billy. His friend lay unconscious with his body bent backwards at an awkward angle. Pedro had been around long enough to know that any animal or person lying in a position such as this must have a serious back injury. Pedro also knew that a victim with an injury of such magnitude was not to be moved. This all flashed through his head as he knelt by the boy. He could see tiny puffs of Billy’s breath curl up and then get torn away by the relentless wind. Seeing this, he knew there was at least some life left in his friend. He noticed that the young man’s body was trembling and realized immediately that he needed to get Billy warm or he would freeze to death. With the horrible wind, there was no hope of kindling a fire so Billy would have to be taken back to the ranch regardless of further injury to his back.
Pedro was at a loss as to how he would ever get Billy back to safety. There was no way that he could ever get Billy off of the ground and into the saddle. Even if he could somehow be lifted into the saddle, he’d just quickly fall over. Pedro pound
ed his fists against his thighs. If only he could think of a way!
Suddenly an idea came to him. He covered Billy with his own coat and tucked it tightly under the unresponsive body. He jumped on his horse and guided it around back the way he had come. What he was looking for turned out to be a very old truck whose rusted remains had been abandoned along the south fence for as long as anybody could remember. His horse almost ran into the hunk of metal but stopped just in time. Pedro quit the saddle and ran to the front of the truck. He lifted the hood and ripped it open. Moving to the side he gripped it carefully and tugged the hood back and forth. After thirty seconds the old metal could take the force no longer. The entire hood wrenched free into his grasp.
He dropped it and raced to his horse. Grabbing his catch rope off the saddle he threw it out allowing it to uncurl quickly. In a flash, he attached one end to the pommel of his saddle and the other end to the stainless steel hood ornament. A small grin came to his face as he jumped on the horse and rode back to Billy. He now had an instant sled!
With the old hood bouncing behind his horse, Pedro hurried back to Billy. When he arrived he was relieved to see that Billy was still breathing and that the coat was keeping the wind away from the boy. Pedro was starting to get cold himself but he decided to leave Billy covered with his coat. As carefully as he could, he rolled Billy into the concave side of the old hood. He whistled to Max and pushed him in beside Billy. The dog seemed to sense the seriousness of the situation and lay beside Billy without protest. With a dog and extra coat to keep him warm, Billy just might make it, thought Pedro. The Mexican cowboy then jumped onto his horse and gave it a kick. He moved out slowly with the sled pulling along steadily through the snow. The curve of the top of the hood kept most of the snow from rolling onto Billy.
Pedro hurried as carefully as he could but the “sled” occasionally hit rocks or sagebrush in the snow. Several times Billy groaned loudly as his back was jolted by the rough terrain. Pedro knew he had no choice but to hurry, regardless of the obstacles. He continued his ride through the storm towards the safety of the ranch house. He knew a jolting ride through the snow could cripple or even kill his close friend, but he had to hurry. Luckily the horse knew the way and at last the vague silhouette of the ranch house came into view.
Without his own coat for warmth, Pedro’s entire body had become numb. His mouth was too cold to yell and his hands too cold to move. The grim reality was that he might die before he could fumble with the latch and get the barn door open. His mind imagined that the falling snow would make a wonderful bed. He shook his head to clear it. He had to get the barn door open and get Billy and himself out of the cold. With a final supreme effort he threw his shoulder against the side of the door and was immensely gratified when it moved grudgingly aside and yielded to his effort.
Later Rey found his two amigos frozen, but alive, in the barn. Incredibly the unconscious men lay in a bed of hay which Pedro had somehow managed to cover both Billy and himself with. It was an extremely brave man who showed so much courage and determination to save the life of a friend that night.
CHAPTER 17
Brilliant white light beat down into the slits of his eyes. He heard voices that were speaking, but they were vague and fading in and out. There was a constant aching throb from his head but nowhere else. But what Billy felt most of all, was a jumble of confusion and a desperate tiredness. How many times he faded in and out of consciousness, Billy didn’t know. Finally though, a single word got through the cobwebs and made it into his consciousness. It was his own name being called out over and over again by a female voice. Mom? he thought. The voice persisted, tugging at him, willing him to respond. He tried to ignore it because sleep was so easy, but the voice was like a vacuum sucking him in. He opened his eyes half way and made an attempt to see who was tormenting him. For a brief moment he thought he saw his mother’s face. “Mom?”
“No Billy, it’s me!” A face materialized out of the brightness and leaned over him. The vision gained in clarity.
The shock of recognition gave a jolt to Billy’s lethargy. “Carolyn!”
He settled back down in his bed and a slight smile came to his face as he felt her hand grasp his.
“What happened?” was all he could manage to say.
Through the course of the next hour Carolyn told Billy everything about the accident. He lay there and silently listened. She told him of how Pedro had found him injured and nearly frozen to death. She went on to tell him about how he’d been in the hospital for a week, and that he’d nearly died the first day there. His heart had been shocked by this ordeal and as he learned later, if he hadn’t been a young man in good shape, he would never have survived.
With all the tubes in his body and his daily dosages of pain killers, Billy liked sleeping most of the day away. He’d wake up periodically and see Carolyn’s face. Sometimes he’d talk to her softly, other times he just fall back to sleep within seconds. As the days passed, Billy began to become acutely aware of one important thing. Although he felt very sore in his upper body, his lower body was completely numb.
Finally a day came when he awoke with more energy than usual. He was also ravenously hungry. Carolyn was nowhere to be seen but eventually a nurse came in to check on him, “Good morning Sunshine,” she said, “How’s my favorite patient doing today?” Billy was unsure how he could have been her favorite patient when he didn’t even recognize her.
Nevertheless, he managed a smile and simply said, “I’m hungry!”
The nurse, whose name tag said “Joanne” smiled and said, “Tired of eating from a tube, eh? I’ll see what I can do for you.”
She whisked in a few minutes later carrying a tray with pudding and a glass of ice water. She adjusted Billy’s bed so that he could sit up and eat.
“No solids for you for a while. This will keep you going for a little bit though,” she said with a grin. She looked on silently as Billy ate eagerly. When he was finished she asked him how he felt.
“I feel tired and sore, my legs are numb but I’m sure I will be back to normal, right?” Billy ended the sentence with a question in his voice. Joanne caught on at once. Instead of answering, she turned and quickly left. Billy thought her behavior was odd, but surmised that she must have lots of work to do besides waiting on him.
He began to acquire a pattern of longer periods of wakefulness. Usually when he awoke, Blake, Carolyn, or a nurse was there. Once he awoke and found his father sitting by his bedside with a look of great concern on his face. Billy said, “Hi.” But his father only leaned in closer as if to study Billy with intense scrutiny. Later Billy wondered if he had dreamed it but during another time of wakefulness Blake confirmed that his father had been visiting him regularly. “He was sober every time,” Blake reported. Billy grinned as he fell back to sleep.
Finally a day came when Billy awoke feeling very refreshed. He looked up and Carolyn was sitting by his bed reading a book.
She quickly put it down when she realized he was awake. “Hey stranger, how are you feeling?”
Billy managed a grin. “Other than feeling like I got squashed by a tank, I don’t feel too bad. I remember you telling me what happened, but why won’t anyone tell me why I can’t feel my legs? They don’t hurt but when I move in this bed, they don’t move with me.”
The pleasant look that had been on Carolyn’s face now turned into an expression of pain. Immediately Billy knew something was very wrong and that Carolyn hadn’t told him everything.
Carolyn’s lip trembled. She started to speak and said simply, “I’m not the one who can best tell you about your legs, the doctor will have to do that.”
Her lack of an answer infuriated Billy who in his mind had been patient far too long. “Well, if you won’t tell me what the hell is wrong with my legs, why don’t you explain to me why you wear a P.E.T.A. jacket and why when I drove up your driveway you were holding hands with another man?”
Tears streamed down Carolyn’s face. “Is that how
you feel about me? For starters my jacket says PET “A” on the back. The clinic was given PET “A” dog food to sell. Billy, they gave us the jackets free if we would display their product. PET “A” dog food has nothing to do with P.E.T.A.! Secondly, the man who you saw in my driveway was my brother. He is in the army and was scheduled to ship-out overseas. He was good enough to spend three days with me before he left and I am grateful that he did! And one more thing Billy, you really need to do a better job of appreciating those who care! If you’ll excuse me now, I’ve got to go to work.” With that, Carolyn turned and left.
Before Billy had time to ponder the events that had just unfolded, loud laughter filled the room.
Blake strode in with a grin on his face. “Nephew, it looks like you have not lost your touch with the girls!”
Billy wasn’t buying into his uncle’s joke. “Blake, everyone here including you, has been talking in riddles. This all has to stop now! I want, no I need to know what is wrong with my legs.” Blake’s grin immediately disappeared. Blake slowly shook his head and said simply, “I’ll get the doctor.”
Billy fretted for the next five minutes. He realized that the matter was entirely out of his hands. True to his word Blake returned with a man Billy assumed was the doctor.
The man smiled and offered his hand to Billy. “Hi, I’m Doctor Barter.”
He took a seat on Billy’s bed and began to speak. “Billy you’ve been through a terrible accident that would have killed most men. The only reason you are alive is because you are young and in great shape. Your body was able to overcome most of what occurred but I’m afraid it can’t overcome what happened to your legs and back. You see Billy, when you were thrown from the horse your pelvis was crushed on the rocks. Getting drug back to the cabin on the old truck hood made matters much worse. When the back is injured it is imperative to stabilize the victim before transporting him. What I am saying is that the fall severely injured your back and the ride back to the cabin paralyzed you. We still have more tests to do, but it is very likely you will spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair.”