The House That Built Me

Long Black Train

"Mornin'." Rip says as me and Dad walk up next to him. He hands Dad a coffee mug "What does the day bring us?"

"No tellin', Rip, but I know... I know this is the best it'll be." Dad says as he takes a drink from his cup as he looks out onto the horizon.

"Well, I guess it's all kind of downhill from here, huh?" Rip replies .

"Let's go to work." I say from my spot next to Dad.

"Yes, ma'am." Rip says before turning to get the cowboys ready to go.

"You can't get mornings like these in Texas" Dad says to me, eyes still looking towards the mountains.

I chuckle "I'll see you out there Daddy" I say before leaving to saddle Sundance.

\

After gathering up all of the cows from the rez, we started pushing them back towards the house where they can be sorted and sent back to their respectable ranches. Over the radio, Dad tells Rip about the stragglers in the trees. I ride over to Rip just as he was relaying the information to Jimmy. "We got stragglers in the trees. I want you to come with me."

Jimmy looks at Rip "Uh..."

"I ain't asking your fucking permission, Jimmy, I'm telling you. Now let's go. Keep up, let's go." Rip demands as he turns his horse.

"I'll come too," I say from behind Jimmy.

"I thought you said running the horses makes the cattle nervous?" Jimmy asks.

"What do you think that chopper's doing?" I say.

"Let's go, keep up. Come on." Rip says before taking off.

I follow closely behind Rip as we watch Jimmy cut his horse to the left and fall off.

"Go catch your horse. Get up!" Rip yells as he trots by Jimmy. "Clara! Help shit-for-brains with his horse."

I ride over to Jimmy's horse and steer him towards Jimmy. After Jimmy fails to catch him I take my rope out and gently catch the horse. "Get a hold of the reins before you take the rope off," I say to Jimmy as he finally limps over to the horse.

"Okay." He replies as he grabs the horse's reins and slowly takes the rope off.

"At least you're starting to walk like a cowboy." I joke.

"I don't think I'm cut out for this." He says.

I start to gather my rope back up "Nobody is, Jimmy. It's gotta be cut into you. Where's your hat?"

He looks over to where he fell off but says nothing as he turns back to me.

"Well, find it. Don't come back without it. They'll never let you live it down" I say as I took my rope back onto my saddle and take off to rejoin the others.

\

"Mr. Dutton. Mr. Dutton! Let's get that bald-faced bastard." Rip shouts to Dad.

"Hey, Lloyd. Lloyd! Let's start moving these red-tag heifers into the trailers!" I yell from my spot next to Rip on the fence. The stallion Kayce gave Dad starts to buck under him. Clearly in pain, Dad mutters something about having to make phone calls to the others and heads to put his horse up. I jump down and follow behind him without saying anything until we were in the privacy of the barn. "I told you this morning that you really shouldn't be riding," I say with a stern face.

"I'm fine Clara." He says as he crossties the stallion.

"No you're not Daddy, you had two feet of your colon cut out last week and your incisions are still healing. You don't need to be on a horse that's gonna buck. Hell, you shouldn't be on one at all" I whisper yell.