Standing at the edge of the mud hole Scott slowly rolled up his sleeves; never taking his eyes off of Kinsey.
“Do you recall the conversation we had about you not knowing the countryside, think before you act and wait….what was that now?
Scott looked thoughtful.
“Oh yes. Like. Glue.”
“Scott, do you honestly think this is the best time to give me one of your lectures?”
“Yes Kinsey. Yes I honestly DO think this is the best time to give you one of my lectures, however, I feel sorry for the calf so the lecture will need to wait. But rest assured, it will be given and you will be listening.”
Johnny dug deep into his pocket to produce a coin. “Heads or tails?”
“What are you two DOING?”
“Flipping a coin, darlin’. Loser goes all the way in to get you and the calf. Call it Scott.”
“Heads.”
Scott examined the flipped coin on the back of his brother’s hand and rolled his eyes. Johnny smiled.
“Well half pint. I’m guessing the outcome of this coin toss only added to the length of that talkin’-to you’re gonna be getting.”
Struggling through what seemed like thick tar or Jelly’s coffee, Scott made it out to Kinsey while Johnny stopped halfway. The plan was for Scott to retrieve the calf, hand it off to Johnny and then go back for Kinsey. With the cousins on each side of the calf and their arms in mud up to their elbows they began the rescue.
“Lift!”
“I am!”
“Try HARDER!”
“I AM!”
The mud gradually released its hold and the protesting calf was in Scott’s arms. Scott doubled back to Johnny who in turn took the calf and finished the journey to solid ground. The boys returned to their original positions in the mud to repeat the process with Kinsey.
“Can you move your legs?”
“Scott, if I could move my legs I wouldn’t be standing here.”
“Kinsey, if you could use your brain none of us would be standing here.”
Positioning himself in front of his cousin, Scott reached down to wrap his arms around the part of her legs that were still above the sludge. With one big lift Kinsey was out and over Scott’s shoulder.
“I lost a boot!”
“Too bad.”
“ Go back. I love these boots.”
“You’re in no position right now to be challenging my patience.”
As Scott got closer he held his out his free hand for Johnny to grab and pull. Eventually all three tumbled to solid ground, lying on their backs and catching their breaths.
“I have mud in places that it has no right to be in on the female body.”
Johnny wanted to ask Kinsey if she could please elaborate on her comment; perhaps when older brother wasn’t around.
“Ok.” Scott stood up and held out his hand for Kinsey and pulled her up. “We all need to get home and get out of these clothes.”
Johnny stayed on the ground to ponder that statement along with Kinsey’s.
“Scott wait! What about the calf? We need to find his mother?”
“Kinsey… look….earlier one of the men found a cow that had wandered off from the herd and encountered a wild animal. She was probably the mother to this fella, which is why he got lost and ended up in the mud.”
“Well, we can’t leave him here. He’ll die”
“There’s a chance he’ll make it.”
“Liar!”
“Kinsey, this is just the way things are out here.”
“I’m not leaving him.”
“Honey, I understand how you feel. But Murdoch has this rule “No Strays Brought Home” and Murdoch calls the tune.”
“Well, I believe Murdoch is a bit tone deaf when it comes to this situation”
Scott couldn’t argue that one as much as he needed to.
As the silent stand-off between the two cousins commenced Johnny offered an observation. “Scott...she’s covered in mud. If we don’t get her out of this hot sun soon she’s going to turn into one of those statues from Medusa.”
Scott sighed. God help them. It had come to this. Johnny was the voice of reason.
Staring up at the sky and then back down at Kinsey, Scott relented.
“We take the calf home but I’m not answering to Murdoch and Johnny is not answering to Murdoch. So who does that leave?”
“That’s fine. I’m not afraid of Murdoch.”
Scott smiled. “Well, you will be.”
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