Wanderlust

My best friend Starr Ann (hi, Starr Ann) came to my room last night. Actually, it was about an hour before daylight.

Once she got snuggled in all warm and comfortable, Starr Ann said, "Planets looked real pretty up there tonight."

I said, "Cold as it is, you've been out looking at the sky?"

She said, "Got restless."

Well, I just had to wrap her up a little tighter, thinking how the wind had ripped right through us when we'd gone down to the barn to top off the horses' buckets with hot water.

Then Starr Ann said, "You're pretty sweet on Destiny Jane, aren't you?"

I said, "Pretty sweet."

"Sweet as on Celia Susan?"

I had to think a second before saying, "Different sweet."

Starr Ann's eyelashes are so thick, I can always hear her blink when she's lying beside me in the quiet like that. After a few minutes she said, "Let's just take off for the day."

I said okay, but she acted like she still had some convincing to do.

She said, "We could get on the horses and just ride off. Ride about halfway 'til dark then turn around and ride on back."

Again I said yes, and that time it got through.

Starr Ann threw back the covers and slipped back into her chaps and things before raising my window. When she was half in it and half out, she said, "I'll break the news to the horses. Meet you in the barn."

Even with the cold, we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful sunrise to ride into. It was getting pretty light by the time we turned into that stretch of road where Destiny Jane's truck broke down last year and left that big rut. That was on a kinda long straightaway and before we got to the rut we could see another horse and rider approaching - way out there in the middle of nothing, at that hour of the morning.

A good ways before she reached us, before we could tell by sight, we knew she was a woman because her voice was carrying so far and clear on that crisp air. Then when we got closer, we could see she was talking on her cell phone. That lady passed right on by us with just a little nod of her head, like it's the most natural thing in the world to meet up with people on horseback practically in the middle of the night, but to be too busy talking on the phone to even say hi.

About the the time we were getting over that, we reached the rut and Starr Ann asked, "Has Destiny Jane ever let on her feelings about you?"

I said, "She hasn't made herself real plain, but last time she was leaving she was sitting sideways in her truck with the door swung wide open, facing out at me, and she wanted to know if I ever felt like we'd known each other all our lives."

"So what did you tell her?"

"I said no, I couldn't say as I had."

Starr Ann got that one look on her face, the one where you just know she wants to make a remark, but instead of actually saying it, she's real obvious about how she's holding it in.

I said, "What!"

Starr Ann said, "Margo, next time somebody asks where you fit on the butch-femme continuum and you've got no idea how to answer, just say you're not even on that one, that you've jumped clear over to the cool-clueless scale."

"Well, Starr Ann, what was I supposed to say? What's so clueless about telling the truth?"

"Did I say you're on the clueless end?"

"Am I?"

I didn't really get an answer to that because all of a sudden Starr Ann got all innerested in re-situating her hat. Then for some reason, she had to take her gloves off and put them back on. And apparently her butt was trying to go to sleep, because she had to shift her weight a few times, real deliberate. Anyway, I never did get an answer to that.

After taking good long rest breaks for the horses and a leisurely breakfast on the cinnamon bagels Starr Ann brought, we still got all the way to the Salt River before eleven o'clock, which is when we'd figured we should turn around. I doubt we said eight words the whole way back. But with Starr Ann, sometime that's the best way to figure out what's really on her mind - just stay real close without talking and let the information come through at it's very own angle.

When we got all the way back to that rut spot again, Starr Ann spoke up. "Jodie's just about finished with her book, you know. Things're starting to feel like we're getting to some kind of juncture. Know what I mean, Margo?"

I sure did know what she meant. I said, "No, I don't. Tell me."

Starr Ann said, "I was kind of hoping you'd tell me."

Dang, that girl has a knack for making me feel real important and real apprehensive at the same time.

We just kept on riding, and when we made that turn where you can look down on our whole place and see our sweet house sitting there a little ways up the hill from the barn, we could see smoke rising from our chimney. Without saying it, we both realized Jodie was there and prolly had a nice supper waiting for us.

I pulled back on Trickster and Starr Ann stopped Oatmeal so we could just take in the sight of our place for a minute.

I said, "Know what else I said to Destiny Jane when she asked me that question?"

Starr Ann leaned sideways in her saddle, waiting for me to go on.

"I told Destiny Jane that you're the only forever thing in my life so far, and nothing could really rewrite that."

Starr Ann got that one look on her face, the one I'm not a good enough writer to ever capture in words, and said, "I bet you Jodie has hot bean soup and corn bread waiting for us down there."

I kissed to Trickster to get her moving and said, "Nah. Jodie knows I'm partial to chili on a day like this. It'll be chili."

For the little bit of ride we had left, and all through putting the horses to bed, Starr Ann and I felt light as feathers.

When we got to the house, it was bean soup and corn bread.


That gorgeous image is courtesy of artist Jessica McMahon.

Like Wet On Water

I went for a long, easy ride this morning, just letting Trickster meander wherever she wanted, picking up a couple of neighbor dogs along the way, getting lost in thoughts about nothing at all.

When we came up out of the woods over by that big beaver dam on Salt Creek, Trickster's ears flicked forward and she cut left, toward that old road everybody used to use for a bypass before it got too rutty. As we picked our way along the grass shoulder, I caught sight of the white top of a pickup truck just over the next rise. Juno, one of the neighbor dogs who'd been following us, took off trotting and got over the hill first. By the time I got up where I could see good, the woman beside the truck was sitting there having a real involved conversation with Juno. That struck me as awfully cute.

Riding up, I could see what the holdup was. I called out, "Hey, there," in my friendliest voice.

She just nodded once.

I took my hat off and pushed my bangs back. "Looks like you're stuck."

She stood and turned a little pirouette, picking her feet up all lively. "Nope, ain't any more stuck than a six-inch shovel in two inches of dry dirt." Then she looked down at her front tire. "Now, my truck's about as stuck as a full-grown hummingbird in a baby bullfrog's throat, if that's what you're talkin' about."

"Um, yeah, I meant your truck. Anyway, my name's Margo Moon. Happy to be of any help you might need."

Isn't it funny how sometimes a real irrelevant thought creeps in? All of a sudden it hit me that I've never really been intimate with a blonde before.

She looked back the road for a second, then turned her head and looked forward, kinda squinting her blue eyes in a way that reminded me of something or somebody I couldn't quite put my finger on. Then she offered her hand. "Destiny Jane Cavanaugh. Pleased to meet you."

I think I shook her hand too hard. And a little too fast. "Mighty pleased to meet you, Destiny Jane."

There's power in the ability to just stand there not saying anything and looking like you don't mind how long it takes for the next sentence to come out. I think Destiny Jane coulda been happy to wait all day, so I had to give in. I said, "Do you happen to have a spare tire?"

She smiled so bright, I knew the answer was going to be yes. She said, "Did Evel Knievel know how to pop a wheelie? Question is, do I have a jack."

Dang. I said, "Okay, do you have a jack?"

"About like a butterfly has a suitcase."

I took a deep, cleansing breath. "So, no?"

"You're a mighty perceptive little thing, Margo."

Who the heck was she calling little? We were the same height. Exactly. I said, "Well, I guess the only thing to do here is get you back to Happy Hands Ranch and see about fetching a jack that won't slip in all this mud. You hungry?"

There went that smile again. "Is cornbread for soppin'?"

Trickster stood nice and still while we got on, and somehow, without me even telling her, she knew it was time to go directly home.

When we got there, Starr Ann was out by the front gate, and I could see Jodie's horse, Amelia, in the paddock with Oatmeal. I waved big at Starr Ann from pretty far across the field, and seeing I had somebody with me, she waited for us to ride up.

I said, "Destiny Jane Cavanaugh, this is my best friend Starr Ann."

"Hi, Starr Ann."

Well, that kinda disappointed me, the way Destiny Jane greeted Starr Ann so normal.

We slid off Trickster and I explained the situation to Starr Ann. She told Destiny Jane, "Unless you're in a hurry, probably be best to wait until that mud hardens up before trying to jack your truck up. You're welcome to stay here for the night, and I bet things dry out by tomorrow."

Dusting off the seat of her pants, Destiny Jane said, "I'm no more hurried than a jackrabbit in two acres of carrots on a sunny day in July."

I thought the games were about to begin, but Starr Ann just said, "Perfect! Now let's go see what Jodie's cooking for breakfast."

Breakfast was real good. Jodie makes better hashbrowns than just about anybody in the world. Sitting around the table full of empty plates afterward, Jodie asked Destiny Jane how she happened to be driving along that old road anyway.

Destiny Jane rocked onto the back two legs of her chair and said, "Might as well ask how it happens that userid DestinyJane88green was already taken on Yahoo."

I could hardly believe Jodie nodded in complete agreement, and said, "Know what you mean."

A little while after we got the kitchen put back together, Jodie and Starr Ann announced they were heading out for a ten o'clock meeting downtown with Jodie's publisher. Starr Ann said, "Hate to rush off from such nice company, Destiny Jane, but we're already about as late as a pregnancy clause in a contract full of loopholes."

Destiny Jane said she knew how that was.

Destiny Jane and I were sitting in the porch swing watching Jodie and Starr Ann fade in the distance across the fields. She said, "So, are you spoken for, little Margo?"

"About as spoken for as a slice of fruitcake on a platter full of sugar cookies. And I'm as tall as you are."

Destiny Jane smiled real big and scootched over to my side of the swing some. "Well, just so happens I prefer fruitcake. And I bet ya'll make it with bourbon here in Kentucky, for that nice bite I like so much."

Right then, I started thinking that road prolly won't be dry by tomorrow. Might even take several days to get safe enough to jack up that truck.