A Horse's Tale, Chapter 12, Its a lion, Its a lion.
Rob pulls back into the Ranch, and goes into the house. "Steph?" Steph answers back "I am in the rain closet, cleaning up from feeding." She yells back toward the front of the house, to be heard over the rainfall. "Did you find out anything?" Rob answers back, "Yes, but I need to load up the beer and take it back to the store." Steph gets out of the rain closet, "What store?", Rob answers "Oh Jiffy Mart." Steph puts on her plaid PJs and her bunny slippers, and walks up front. "Jiffy Mart sold 30 cases of Bud to a horse?" Rob nods, "Yes. And help load them in the wagon, kid on the counter thoughT it was a person dressed up as a horse." Rob looks at Steph, "I wouldn't go outside dressed like that." Steph looks down, "Why?" Rob answers, "Spirit will really want a plaid winter coat after he sees you dressed like that." "Pffft, he would like the bunny slippers for sure." Steph continues, "Are you going to need any help taking the beer to the store?", Rob answers, "No, but I need to wait til its dark, the owner of the Jiffy Mart doesn't want anyone to see him getting beer from someone other than the distributor. I had a hard time talking him into taking the beer back, he said the best he could do was $10 a case. About 50%." Steph says, "that is some deal for him, he gets to sell the same beer for 150% of what he would have gotten. No wonder he doesn't want anyone to see."
"Oh, found out about the wagon. You remember that old fellow that lives out in the desert, Brenner, I think his name is." Steph replies, "You mean that guy who didn't come into town for like 3 years?" "Yeah that’s the one. He brought the wagon into Shadow Mountain to sell it. He wanted $200 for it, and it appears the horses left a Wal-Mart bag full of coins." Steph asks, "Did Patti and Ron know about this." Rob says "Yeah, appears the horses left a business card that said, from the horses at MHR." Steph shakes her head. "Well at least they covered their tracks." Rob smiles. "Do you know someone named Mark Flannigan?" Steph thinks for a bit, "Not sure, there is a retired doctor south part of town, I think his name is Flannigan. Why do you ask?" Rob says "Appears he may be the one that fixed up the wagon." Steph says, "Oh, Oh, that is the one, I remember someone talking about him being a carriage Wright, his hobby since he retired, it must have cost a fortune to fix that old wagon up." Rob answers, "Don't know, I didn't make it down to his place, since I spent most of the afternoon arguing with the owner of the Jiffy Mart. Oh, also found out about Fred." Steph looks over, "You did, tell me." Rob answers "Well seems that a fellow named Pete Wilson, down on highway 372, she is a pygmy angora goat and again, I didn't have time to run over there and ask. I will do that tomorrow."
"Well I think it’s dark enough now, I am going to load the old truck up and see if I can make it over to Jiffy Mart." Steph smiles, "What do you want for dinner when you get back?" Rob doesn't really have to think about that. "Been a hard day, how about a steak and potatoes?" Steph replies "How long do you think you will be?" Rob says, "Hopefully only an hour or so." Rob turns and grabs the keys and walks out. Steph thinks to herself "Glad he didn't ask for half a cow. I can start a steak grilling. That will work."
Rob starts the old truck up and parks it next to the wagon, "Dang, this is going to be a lot of work.", Rob turns back to the house and yells at the top of his lungs, "STEPH, PUT ON HALF A COW." He gets to work moving each case of beer from the wagon to the bed of the truck. As he finishes up, he looks around for that old tarp he has, finds it in a corner, and ties down the load of beer. Rob looks over at the wagon, "Looks at the detail, new wood, brass fittings, and the harness, it is actually very beautiful, it must have cost a fortune to fix up." He jumps in the truck, and heads out. Rob gets to the Jiffy Mart, and per the direction of the owner pulls up to the back door. He walks up to the back door, and knocks three times, waits. He hears one knock, Rob knocks twice and the door opens. "Let’s get to it." The truck is unloaded, and Rob gets $300. The owner looks around to make sure that no one is looking at them. Rob gets in the truck, and drives off, "I wonder how often he makes deals at the back door?"
Steph standing out on the patio, in her plaid PJs and bunny rabbit slippers, turns a huge steak over, "He will like this.", Rob turns in to the ranch, opens the gate up, and pulls in to the ranch. Steph thinks "That is perfect timing, I am good." Rob walks up, "I could smell that at the gate, thanks." Rob hugs Steph, picks up the long fork, stabs the steak, and places it on the plate, "This will be so good. What you having?" Steph says "Oh a salad." As they sit at the table, Rob says, "Do you want to spilt the investigation tomorrow, you can check on the goat, and I can look in to the wagon." Steph says, "Sure. We need find out the details of this adventure."
As Steph and Rob settle in to watch some television, the dogs go out for their nightly patrol, Rob falls asleep within minutes, Steph grabs her blanket, and begins to watch, 'The best of ice road truckers versus swamp people, "Well at least it’s not a rerun." Slowly the dogs come back in and settle in their beds, and fall asleep. As Steph begins to nod off, there is a bang of the doggy door, and Truffles and Moo run in, yelling "Its a Lion, Its a Lion." and head to bed room, and hide under the bed. All the big dogs jump up, except Mama Dog, and head for the doggy door, being well trained they don't start barking until they are outside. Mama Dog looks over to Steph, "Stupid Dogs, there are no lions here, probably only a cougar." and she lays back down. Steph started to jump up and slows down a bit, "A cougar?" Mama Dog, nods, "or a jaguar, but it has years since one of those have been around." The dogs are barking from all directions, and as she opens the door to looks out, she see's dogs running all over. Bruno is running in circles yelling "Lion, Lion." Adrian is yelling "Where Where?" About the same time, all the dogs relax and come back towards the house. Bruno, "No lion" each dogs goes in the house. Steph looks up and towards the chicken coop, Tootsie the feral cat is sitting down watching the coop. Steph mumbles, "Dumb dogs."
Steph goes back inside, slides down on the couch, pulls up the blanket, "Bruno what is all this about a lion?" Bruno finishes stomping his bed into shape, looks over, "I guess the little dogs saw a lion, but we couldn't find it." Steph nods, "Where did you guys learn about lions?" Bruno looks up from his bed, "oh, National Geographic channel on the TV." Steph nods, "Bruno we don't watch National Geographic channel." Bruno replies, "We do late at night. They have lions and tigers, and elerphants, and other animals. We have learned a lot." Steph nods, "Well I guess I need to check on Truffles and Moo." She get up and walks back to the bedroom, bends down and looks under the bed. "Are you two ok?" she looks closer, each of them have claw marks on their nose's. "Ahh poor babies, you need to leave the cats alone." Truffles says "That wasn't a cat, it was a lion, it roared and spit at us, and attacked us, we fought back, but had to retreat." Steph smiles, their noses will heal up, "Well it was a cat, but it was dark, so you need to be careful when you are outside." both Truffles and Moo both nod. Steph stands up, "You both need to get to your beds, it’s ok now." Truffles and Moo slowly climb out from under the bed and head out front, Steph follows them.
Truffles and Moo, get to their beds and settle in, all is quiet now. Rob rolls over, Steph reaches for a blanket, and drapes it over Rob. She lays back down on the couch, pulls the blanket up, "Ahhh, another quiet evening at MHR."
Bruno jumps up, yells, "It’s an Elerphant!!!!" and runs for the doggy door. Mama Dog looks up, "Oh Lord of Dogs, that is the dumbest dog I have ever seen." and rolls over. Bruno hits the doggy door at full run. is gone.
To be continued.
Author: Samm
MHR PMU horses
