Finally Home to Yellowstone: Yellowstone Ranch Series

9

Rip left in a hurry back down to the barn. Then I watched him and Lloyd ride off quick into the woods.

I made my way down to the barn. Jimmy was coming in on a horse. He jumped off and walked him into the barn.

I started walking his way but the smell of smoke overwhelmed my nose. Jimmy had black soot on his cheeks and his light grey hat had multiple dark spots on it too.

"Jimmy, what's going on?" I asked quietly.

He coughed and lead his horse into the stall,"Rip didn't tell you?" He coughed more and more then spit whatever came up into the ground.

"No. He didn't." I reached into the fridge in the corner of the barn and pulled out an orange Gatorade then tossed it to him.

He caught it with a loud snap,"Thanks." He twisted the cap and gulped down the liquid quickly. I watched and waited for him to finish so he could tell me what had happened. He sighed loudly and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Well you know someone dropped fire down, you were there last night. It covered pasture 7 and part of 8. All the fence from 6-11 is ripped out of the ground and mangled." He paused and let out a deep breath.

"Go on." I nodded. There was more.

He took another long drink,"They killed every cow in pasture 9."

My mouth hung open. That was nearly 300 cattle. "H-how?" Probably alfalfa.

He shrugged,"Don't know yet. Half of 'em are burned up now." He looked at his boots then back up at me,"It's a mess out there, man. I've never seen anything like it." He shook his head.

I released a deep breath. "Because this is exactly what my father needs to worry about now." I kicked a five gallon bucket that was laying around,
"Goddamnit." I cursed. "Who the fuck would do this to us?" I mumbled.

"Probably the people that wanna build that casino and airport." Jimmy started to unsaddle his horse. The sounds of the buckles and straps echoed in the unusually quiet barn.

"Who wants to build what?" I snapped around back to him.

He pulled the saddle off the horse and tossed it onto a saddle rack. "Some Indian wants a casino and hotel on the reservation."

My jaw dropped. I stared at him. "You're fucking kidding me?"

"Uh, no. No I'm not. No ones told you?" He coughed up some more congestion.

"Obviously fucking not." I rolled my eyes at the stupid question.

"Huh." He nodded. "I guess I probably shouldn't have been... the one to do it." He put his tongue between the ride side of his mouth. I could tell he was regretting and thinking of every word he said.

But the way he said it made me chuckle.

"It's okay. I won't tell anybody you were the one who told me." I gave him a small smile.

He gave me a look I hadn't seen from him before. It was a caring look. Like he had finally listened to the words I was saying and he believed them. For the first time, I felt like I was getting a real emotion out if Jimmy. I just didn't know which emotion it was.

"Thank you, Mary." He tossed the Gatorade bottle into the metal trash bin. "I'm gonna shower. I feel like haven't taken one in forever. And I smell like smoke. So bad." He chuckled and started to walk off.

"Jimmy?" I called after him. He turned around. "Rub an orange peel on your face, it helps with the smoke smell. And get some rest." I nodded at him. He nodded back.

"You had to deal with that a lot over seas?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I did. Lotta fires, not a lot of good soap to get the smell out. Oranges were easy to get though."

He started coughing again,"Thanks."-

It wasn't the smell of the smoke I wanted out. It was the smell of what was in the smoke. Bodies.

I saddled up a horse and started out for a long ride.

*****

I could see the smoke from miles away and started to smell it shortly after. As I rode closer I could smell the cattle that had burnt up. The smell of burned flesh made my stomach flip and my vision foggy.

"Whoa." I pulled back the reins on my horse. I took a deep breath and looked out at the mountains. The beauty all around me. And I breathed slowly, trying to keep myself here and not let my mind wonder back to Afghanistan. "Pick up what's left." I mumbled and took another deep breath. "I'm at the ranch. With Dad. And Kasey. And Beth."

When I was overseas I told myself this at the time at night when I tried to sleep. Im home. I'm at the ranch. With Dad and Kasey and Beth and Lee and Jamie. Expect now Lee is dead and Jamie's not around.

"I'm at the ranch. I'm home. With dad and Kasey and Beth." I closed my eyes and really made myself focused. "With Rip and Llyod and Jimmy and Walker and Clint and Colby and Ryan."

I opened my eyes. I was okay. So I took off again and trotted over the hill. I saw my dad sitting on a horse next to Kasey. I rode down to them. They stopped their conversation immediately.

"I thought I told you to take a break from wranglin'." Dad grumbled.

I sighed,"I ain't wranglin'. I'm here as a Dutton."

He nodded. "Good. Then there's something we need to talk about."