(This is Part 10 of Fortune Cookie: A Christmas Tale)
The light of a nearly full moon found Rosalyn’s still house, inside of which she lay, sleeping off the dog parlor disaster.
Nearby, the homeless man pulled his old sleeping bag tighter around himself, and watched construction of a different kind. Beavers plodded in and out of Rosalyn’s pond, carrying sticks and muck. He smoked his pipe, patiently waiting for daybreak. When it was near, he stretched, picked up his pack, and headed toward the river humming, “while shepherds watched their flocks by night ...
Fortune Cookie
Part 1: Will it ruin Christmas and a chance at love?
Part 2: The crunch of metal on stone
Part 3: Blood covered her hand
Part 4: 'Heads up! Loose horse!'
Part 5: Blood dripped onto the tablecloth
Part 6: The ground loomed up at the woman
Part 7: Something fuzzy and wiggly tickled her neck
Part 8: The duo cast a long shadow on the leaf-strewn ground
Excalibur watched from his pen. The man waved.
By the time the sun rose over the tops of the trees, Rosalyn had a new job: ace telemarketer. Cup of coffee in hand, she picked up the phone and made her first blind call. Before the second ring ended, she disconnected and slammed the phone down. I can’t do this.
Not a woman to waste her rage, Rosalyn flung open the closet door and grabbed the Sears vacuum. She yanked the plug out of its spring-loaded keeper and jammed it into the wall. Soon, the only sounds in the house were the roar of the vacuum and the crashing sounds it made as Rosalyn rammed it over and over again into walls.
Two rooms later, it occurred to Rosalyn that horseback riding, or any other activity for that matter, would be more fun. She went out to the horse pens.
Excalibur looked at Rosalyn out of the corner of one eye as she haltered him, and refused her offer of a treat. “Fine, be that way,” she muttered. The horse tossed his head. “You’re getting worked anyway.”
Rosalyn clipped the gelding into the grooming stall ties and began currying. The horse twitched and swatted his tail. “OK, not so hard, I’ll be nice,” she said.
It had been a dry fall, and the trees were brittle. A breeze stirred, and something, probably a branch from one of the poplar trees, hit the barn roof and skittered off. Faster than she would have believed possible, Excalibur lashed out with a hind leg and slammed Rosalyn in the knee. She fell backward and hit her shoulder against the wall.
"I hate you too!" she shouted. Rosalyn jumped up and slugged Excalibur in the neck. The blow wrenched her wrist. "Oh, Excalibur,” she sobbed. “I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It's not you. It's me!"
A shadow fell across the doorway. “Everybody all right in here?” Once again he managed to be in all the wrong places at all the wrong times.
“Fine. I’m fine.” Rosalyn rubbed her wrist behind her back. “Something you want?”
Bodie strode in. "You told me this place was stable, and I don't mean a stable. Yet, I find this." Bodie thrust the notice in her hands. "I could help you."
“I don’t need your help. I don’t want your help. Leave it be.”
Rosalyn looked at Bodie. His eyes blazed. His hair fell in a fiery gold lock over his forehead. He pushed it out of his way, and blasted a huge gust of air through his nostrils. Bodie looked at the ceiling and uttered one word: “Women.”
Rosalyn caught herself salivating. She wanted to touch those angry lips, and feel that breath of air against her own mouth. Instead, she blurted, “Anything else you want?”
Another of the cleansing breaths.
“I suppose I could help you with that fence out there. Oh, wait. You don’t need help from anybody. Never mind.”
“What fence?”
Rosalyn looked past him, through the entrance of the barn. Two sections of new fence between turnout pens Number 3 and Number 4 lay in shatters. The horses had gone through that fence just last month. Rosalyn remembered the hours it took to saw boards and hammer them together in biting wind, not to mention the smashed thumb of the day.
"That just makes me want to spit," she said.
Instead, Rosalyn wept.
(Next: "Shoot, that ain't nothing but a little speed bump")
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