Home To Copper Mountain

Do you hear me, windshield rancher?

Thanks to you I’m alone.

The light has now gone out,

I can’t see in front of me,

There’s no home to go back to,

Fear is my destiny.

The past is gone forever,

It walked out the door.

What once excited, excites no more.

In light of David Jarrett’s announcement at lunch about the sale of his ranch, combined with certain tragic revelations from the lips of Audra Jarrett in the kitchen, those lyrics had just taken on even deeper personal meaning for Rick.

By tacit agreement he and his father rode to the edge of where the giant carpet of lavender blue began. Rick dismounted, then hunkered down to examine a bluebonnet. It was about a foot high with a tiny white top.

“The flowers on the stock are supposed to resemble a woman’s bonnet.”

He nodded at his dad’s explanation, but for some odd reason the shape of the individual blossoms reminded Rick of Audra’s curls. When she moved to Austin with her uncle, she’d be a displaced bluebonnet…

“Pam’s from a great heritage. Her great-great-grandfather Thomas Jarrett came out here in 1897 from Middlesex, England. He built his holdings to six hundred thousand acres and erected the main ranch house. But in time there were problems, droughts, other tornadoes, wars.

“The land got carved up into smaller homesteads and sold off to extended family and nonfamily. Some of the ground was maintained for deer and wildlife to flourish, but even that had to go whenever there were hard times. Slowly but surely the land began to fall into other hands.

“Everything dwindled until there was only a thousand acres left, plus the bungalow and the ranch house. I’m sure that by giving Audra and her cousins those hundred and twenty acres of land in common, Pam’s uncle is down to the bare bones, financially speaking.”

“Audra’s indebted to you for helping Pam keep the ranch house,” Rick said.

“Audra’s a sweetheart.”

A wealth of emotion accompanied his father’s words.

Resisting the urge to pick the bluebonnet he’d been studying, Rick mounted the mare once more and looked around. The sun had fallen below the horizon. It would be dark soon. He wondered if Audra dreaded the coming of night.

“We’d better get back.” Clint’s words broke into Rick’s thoughts.

The horses knew they were going home and made a beeline in the direction of the ranch house. When they eventually came to the creek, Prince forded it first.

To Rick’s surprise, Marshmallow balked. He didn’t understand and urged her forward with a clicking sound. The next thing he knew, she neighed violently and reared back on her hind legs.

He glimpsed a snake wrapped around the mare’s right foreleg, silhouetted against the sky. It had to be at least five feet long. The horse came down hard on the snake, screaming and stomping.

“Get Marshmallow out of here, son. Prince will finish it off!”

“I’m doing my best, but she’s fighting me!”

He pulled on the reins, encouraging the horse to turn left. But she was just as determined to kill the viper as Prince was. Snorting hot air, she reared back and struck at the snake again and again.

Suddenly Rick felt the mare’s hooves slip in the shallows. He jerked his feet from the stirrups to jump off, but he wasn’t fast enough. They went down together with a huge splash.

The horse landed on her side on top of him. Pain ripped through his left arm and shot to his jaw. Bile rose in his throat.

Damn—he couldn’t tell if he’d broken something or been bitten. Some venom was so potent it worked immediately. All he knew was that the slightest move he made was excruciating.

He grabbed for the reins with his right hand. It was a struggle to get up and help the mare to her feet. The poor thing finally stood on all fours, shivering and snorting while water dripped off both of them. She seemed to be all right. It was a miracle.

On rubber legs Rick led her to dry ground where his father stood next to the bay, gentling him. The muscular snake lay inert in the grass. Prince pawed at it.

“Thank God that water moccasin didn’t get a chance to sink its fangs into you.”

“You may have spoken too soon, Dad.” Rick was weaving on his feet. “I’m in pain from my arm to my cheek.”

“Then you’ve broken something, because Prince pounded that snake to death before you fell in the water.”

At this juncture Rick was weaving. His dad had to support him.

“Marshmallow has settled down. Let’s get you up on her and we’ll head back to the house. I’ll call Pam for help.”

Rick closed his eyes tightly. He would love to tell his father it wasn’t necessary. However, this injury wasn’t like any of the ones he’d received at the track over the years. He didn’t know if he could climb onto the mare. Yet the thought of walking sounded equally untenable.

If the doctor were to ask what level of pain he was in right now, he’d have to tell him there wasn’t a number high enough.

AUDRA SAT in one of the living-room chairs with her cast propped on a footstool while her uncle David took charge of the family conference. The kids were in the small parlor off the kitchen watching TV. Greg and Jim and their wives had found places on the couch and love seat.

Pam kept looking at the grandfather clock.

Clint and his son had been gone longer than Audra would have expected, but she wanted to tell her cousin Pam not to worry. They were grown men who’d been taking care of themselves for years. Clint was probably giving it one last try to steer his son away from a profession that could wipe him out in seconds.

Too bad Tom, the angry mastermind of the three, had stormed off after dinner with his family, not waiting to find out what possessions their uncle was going to give him.

Uncle David might be one who was slow to make up his mind about something, but once he did, he moved like wildfire racing across a Texas prairie.

“To begin with, each of you will receive your own Jarrett-family memorabilia in the way of books, pictures and mementos. I’ve got them sorted in boxes with your names on them. They’re in the study.

“Two of the five bedrooms upstairs contain furniture from the turn of the century. I’m giving those things, the baby grand piano in the living room and the dining-room table and chairs, which had been made expressly for the dining room, to Pam, to help get her bed-and-breakfast started.

“You boys can take everything from your old bedrooms, including the beds, tables, lamps and one piece of period furniture from the living room.

“I’m giving Tom the grandfather clock, Greg the rosewood writing desk and Jim the teacart, all of which were precious items your great-great-grandfather had shipped over from England.

“After the tornado changed our lives, I had the front parlor on the main floor converted into my bedroom. It has a couch and chairs. I plan to take everything from that room to furnish my new condo.

“As I said earlier, Audra can live with me as long as she wants. I’m giving her the old upright piano in the parlor and my wife’s quilts. They include some she made and some her grandmother gave her. Audra has always admired them.