Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) (6 page)

Angela wanted more than just a meager living. She needed land but with her greenhouse and her green thumb her parents always told her she had, she felt like the sky was the limit. As her business grew, she could expand. She expected that her ambition would be what drew the line in her profits.

With her decision made to find a job, Angela needed to find her dad and explain her line of reasoning. She felt that he would understand her needs. She didn’t want him to think that she was abandoning her project after him putting so much time and expense of his own in building her greenhouse.

CHAPTER SIX

Danny spent the
first part of the summer caring for his calves, and potty training Frisker. He made every effort to acclimate the kittens to live in the barn but their favorite place to sleep was on his bed when they weren’t frolicking around or scratching his furniture. At night he made them go to their own bed in the barn. He explained that it was his turn to use his bed.

Frisker
became his constant companion and followed him everywhere he went.

One summer day Danny and Frisker went to buy some supplies at the feed store
. Jim Trogdon, a short muscular man in his mid-thirties walked up to Danny and stuck out his hand with a friendly smile on his face. He wore faded blue jeans with a hole in the knees and a used-to-be white tee shirt with the arms torn off displaying his strong bicepts. “Danny Ray, I’m Jim Trogdon. I heard you were back in town. It’s good to have you back.”

Danny shook his hand and replied, “Thank you. It’s good to be home.”

“I heard you had bought the old home place back. I’m glad to hear it. Your Dad always brought his business our way.” Jim announced nodding his head. “We were real sorry to hear about his heart attack. A good man, he was.”

“I appreciate that.” Danny cleared his throat needing to change the subject
. “I bought some calves so I’ll be around.”

He selected the products that he needed and as he paid for them
he saw an ad on the bulletin board ‘Feeder pigs for sale.’ He asked Jim, “What do you know about the man who put up that ad?”

Jim turned around and looked at the bulletin board to see which ad that Danny meant, “Oh,
ol’ Sam Mitchell put that up there this morning. He’s a good man, as good as they get. Yeah, ol’ Sam’s been raising pigs since I was knee high to a grasshopper. They’ll be good pigs. You can count on that.”

With Jim’s recommendation, Danny
called the number using Jim’s phone, “I saw your ad about feeder pigs for sale. Do you still have them?”

“I sure do. I just put that a
d up this morning. Would you like to come take a look at them?” Sam asked.

After directions were given, Danny drove to
Sam’s place. He lived three miles west, two miles south and a quarter of a mile west again, not that far from Danny’s own farm. Sam met him at the driveway. He wore a short sleeved shirt with some sort of indescribable color too faded to tell. Old overhauls that had seen a lot of washings hung over his rounded belly with the side buttons hanging open. A cap covered his bald head and his congenial smile revealed teeth yellowed with tobacco and a few missing teeth.

Danny introduced himself and they walked back to the pig lot. He had several sows with small pigs which looked to be about two to three weeks old. A big boar roamed around in a pen by himself off on the other side away from the
mother sows. Danny tried to count but finally asked, “How many piglets do you have running around in there?”

Sam grinned and spit over to the side, he pulled up his pants leg and propped his foot up on the fence, and said proudly, “I reckon there are close to sixty little ones. See
ol’ Girty over there?” He pointed to the third pen.

Danny nodded slipping his hands in his back pockets and lean
ed against the corner post.

“She delivers thirteen baby pigs every time.” He grunted and cleared his throat. “Yep, she’s a dandy. I can always count on her. Usually ha
ve to put some on another momma pig to feed what she can’t.”

Sam walked around the barn to another pen where twelve little just weaned feeder pigs lined up against the fence curiously looking up at them just in
case some treat might be coming their way. Oinking sounds came forth as they vied for position.

Sam grinned at the pigs and said, “These are the ones I had in mind when I put up the ad. I could take them to the sale barn but no more than there are of them I thought maybe some other farmer might take them off my hands without the hassle.”

Danny assessed the size and health of the pigs. He walked around looking at them from different angles. Considering Jim’s recommendation, he made an offer that Sam immediately accepted. Arrangements were made for transportation to Danny’s farm.

By the end of the day, he proudly owned twelve just weaned little
Hampshire pigs. Danny stood outside his pig pen with his hands stuck in his back pockets proudly admiring his pigs. Frisker frolicked around giving little yips causing the little pigs to run to the other side of the pen.

He wanted to call Angela to tell her about his pigs, but he didn’t want to give he
r false ideas so he called Aaron instead. Aaron congratulated him but didn’t offer to drive out to see them. Danny shrugged when he set the receiver back on the phone; apparently he wasn’t all that interested in pigs. Aaron was a city dude after all.

Danny thought a minute and remembered hearing s
omeone hammering nails. It sounded like Greg was out working on Angela’s green house. He probably could use some help. He grabbed his hammer and got in the truck.

When he pulled into the Dodd driveway, he became surrounded by five children from the ages of three to eleven from the looks of them. The German
shepherd dogs ran loping around the house grinning and wagging their tails giving a woof occasionally just in case somebody else needed to know that someone had arrived.  Aimee Dodd stuck her silver haloed head out the door and yelled over the commotion, “Come on in, that’s just the grandchildren.”

Danny gave a nod and started toward the house after greeting the children. He was almost to the door when Greg stepped around the house. “Howdy, Neighbor.
Haven’t seen you for a few days.”

“I bought me some pigs today,” Danny grinned. “I have been keeping busy taking care of all my animals. It seems like I get more every day.”

“Yeah?” Greg asked. “What kind of pigs did you get?”

Danny
said, “I bought them from Sam Mitchell this morning.” He told him all about how he got them and what kind they were.

Greg pulled his cap down to shade his eyes better, “You got a good deal if you bought them from
ol’ Sam Mitchel. He’s a good man.”

“Would you like to go in the house
?” He offered, “The wife just made a pitcher of tea.”

Actually, I thought I heard you hammering on the greenhouse this morning. I wondered if you could use some help. I brought my hammer.”

Danny looked down at five curious faces looking back up at him. “Who are all these busy little people?”

“Belong to my
son, Jerry. All five of them.” He named them off touching each one on the head as he said their names. “Oldest one is Brad. Next is Tim. Here is Sarah, This one’s Janie, and the little one’s Tommy.”

Danny in turned shook each one of their hands and repeated their name
as he did so. As Danny and Greg headed off for the greenhouse, Danny asked, “Is Angela home?”

Greg shook his head and said, “Nope, went and got her a job working with Samantha at the flower shop.”

“That’s good. Samantha can help her make lots of contacts. Did you know that Nora, my sister is married to Samantha’s son Jeremy?” Danny asked.

“Well, now that you mention it. Seems like I did know that, but I forgot.”
Greg scratched his two day old beard, “A doctor, right?”

“Yes, that’s right. She is
in her last phase, residency specializing in heart surgery,” Danny bragged proudly.

Greg adjusted his cap before climbing the ladder, “An ambitious woman.”

Danny smiled in acknowledgement, “That’s my sister.”

Th
e older two boys had followed them all the way to the green house. Greg winked to Danny and said, “These boys have been a lot of help to me today.” He turned to the boys and put a hand on the back of each of their necks.

The boys grinned acknowledging his praise. “Grandpa, now that you have help, may we please play with Tammy?”

Greg wanted to tell them no, but hated to see the disappointment in their faces.

Recognizing his hesitation, both Brad and Tim begged, “Please, we’ll be real careful. I promise.”

When he relented and gave them permission, the boys took off in a run to the barn. During this time the girls and little Tommy brought the little kittens down out of the loft to play with them. They sat in the shade of the barn to play.

Danny and Greg climbed to the top of the greenhouse to install another rafter.

The older boys brought Tammy out to the pen in front of the barn. They only had a halter on her with a short lead rope but they climbed up on a barrel and hopped on her bareback.

Tammy walked slowly around the pen. The boys were congratulating each other on what good horse riders they were. Brad envisioned himself as an old time cowboy with a lasso ready to toss on the neck of some unsuspecting steer.
Tim saw Indians in the distance heading his way. He reached behind him to grab his imaginary gun to ward off the Indians and kicked Tammy with his boots.”

She took off in a run almost toppling the boys off. Brad pulled back on her halter
rope that he had in his hand but it only turned her in a circle. She took off in the direction she was headed when he stopped pulling. Brad grabbed her mane and Tim held on to Brad. She ran along the fence line and the boys could see a tree that grew over the fence. They could see that Tammy was headed straight toward the large limb that barely was high enough for Tammy to run under. They ducked as low as they could but she peeled them off her back like the skin off a hot baked potato.

The boys fell on the ground
into the leaves piled under the tree next to the fence. They got up and shook themselves and decided that was fun. They saw Tammy down in the pasture standing under the apple tree eating apples off the tree.

“Come on, Tim,” Brad said. “If we climb up the tree, we can jump on her back.”

The boys ran for a ways and then cautiously approached the tree hoping not to spook Tammy. They carefully climbed the tree edging out on a limb close to the horse. When they were almost to her, she moved. They picked an apple and sat down to eat. Finally Tammy moved into position and they managed to get on her back. This time Brad held on really tight to the mane and Tim held on to Brad. The halter lead was hanging to the ground so they waited for Tammy to move. When Tammy finished the apple that she was chewing, she walked under another limb and slid them off her back again.

“That really hurt,” Tim said rubbing his behind.

Brad was twisting around trying to stretch his back. “I’m through riding Tammy today,” Brad firmly stated. He grabbed Tammy’s lead rope and began walking her to the barn.

As they approached the big sliding doors of the barn,
the dogs ran around the end of the barn barking and chasing a squirrel that ran up the same tree where the boys fell first.

The noise spooked Tammy and she broke
her lead rope loose from Brad’s hand and ran into the barn to her stall, which in turn spooked the baby kittens that Sarah, Janie, and Tommy were holding. The children all got scratch marks on their arms and Tommy cried rubbing his arms. The girls found their kittens and got them calmed down, but Tommy’s kitten climbed a tall oak tree in the backyard.

Three year old Tommy stood crying under the old oak pointing to the kitten high up in the tree. The frightened kitten cried back to him. The five children all stood under the tree now trying to figure how to get the kitten to come down.

“Here, kitty, kitty,” Sarah called.

“Down here, boy,” Tim called then whistled.

Brad thumped him on the arm and said, “You don’t whistle to a kitten, Silly.”

Tim replied reasonably, “You would have thought it was okay if he had come down.”

“Here, kitty, kitty,” Tommy called motioning with his hands.

The dogs s
at panting at the bottom of the tree by this time and also looked up into the tree with their tongues hanging out of their mouths to the side which didn’t encourage the little kitten to come down at all.

The tree was at least
twenty-five inches in diameter and the first limb was more than twelve feet from the ground. There was no way they could climb up there. “I think I’ll go find a ladder,” Brad decided.

By this time Danny and Greg had climbed down from on top of the greenhouse and came to see what the commotion was about. After
explanations Danny and Greg went back to get the ladder that they used to climb up on the greenhouse. Brad and Tim went in the house to get themselves a drink. Sarah and Janie went back to the barn to play with their kittens.