Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) (8 page)

Danny smiled to himself. Too bad he didn’t have his camera with him. He drove several
more posts.

The next time Danny glanced their way, he saw Tim walking quickly toward him swinging his arms with an angry look on his face. He stopped to see what had upset Tim. “We used up all our worms that we dug. Every time we threw out our line, your dog jumped in the water
and brought the bobber back to us. We can’t catch any fish with him there.”

Before Danny could say anything, Tim continued
, “Then we were going to get our liver to use after we ran out of worms, but your dog ate the liver.”

Tim would have cried if he hadn’t been so angry.

“Oh, Tim. I’m so sorry. If you want I’ll lock Frisker in the house so he won’t bother you.”

“No,
we’re tired of fishing,” Tim said restoring his usually happy mood. “We just want to play with the kittens and calves for a while.”

“Okay, Tim. You’re welcome to stay as long as you want.”

Happy now that he had told on Frisker, Tim turned and skipped back to his brother who had been picking up the fishing equipment.

Danny had finished driving in the posts and started rolling out the fence wire to attach to the posts when he heard screaming and then laughing from the boys. The sound seemed to be coming from the back of the hay barn. Frisker ran around the hay barn scooting on his behind yelping and the boys followed laughing and pointing at Frisker.

Danny dropped his post driver and ran toward the boys to find out what happened.

Brad and Tim were laughing so hard that they were bending over every few steps. Though Danny was worried about Frisker, he couldn’t help picking up on the contagious laughter of the boys. Frisker did look funny scooting on his behind.
“What happened?” Danny asked trying to hold in his mirth.

“There was this hornet’s nest hanging on a limb up behind the barn,” Brad began between breaths.

Tim’s eyes were big and round. “It was a big one,” he stated holding both hands out forming a circle.

Frisker still whimpered when he came up to Danny, so he reached down and picked him up. He comforted the pup in his arms as the boys continued their story.

“We hid behind the pile of old lumber that you have up there so the hornets couldn’t see us and we threw rocks at the nest to knock it down,” Brad stated bending over to demonstrate their strategy.

“We threw only about five rocks before Brad hit the nest,” Tim bragged.

Brad made an explosive sound with his mouth, “The hornets flew everywhere.” He burst out laughing again. He pointed at Frisker, “That’s when Frisker ran and snapped at the hornets.”

“Yeah,” Tim
said laughing too. “One bit him on the rear.” Both boys bent over in another fit of laughter.

“Okay, guys. Are you ready to have a sandwich in the house or do you want me to take you home.”

“Grandma said we had to be home for lunch.”

“I’ll take you home then. Let me know the next
time you want to go fishing. We’ll do something really fun.” Danny had in mind that the next time they wanted to fish he would have a little more reinforcement, like Uncle Ted or Aunt Angela.

CHAPTER EIGHT

He woke up
Saturday morning to find that during the night Frisker had chewed up one of his tennis shoes. Since it had rained all day on Friday, he had left his muddy shoes on the back porch. Frisker shredded the right shoe and little Bit had crawled in the left shoe sleeping with his little head sticking up and Kibbles lay sprawled on his belly across the toe with his four legs spread eagle sound asleep.

He scolded Frisker and dumped the kittens out of the other shoe.
He took the shoes and tossed them in the trash. Frisker might have ruined his shoes but he wasn’t giving them to him for a trophy either. Frisker hung his head all morning every time he saw Danny.

Danny
put on a blue and gray plaid shirt with his new jeans he had bought this afternoon to wear to the dance. Since he had to replace his shoes, he had grabbed a pair of new jeans, too. He combed his hair and patted his freshly shaven face with some after shave Lisa bought him one time and decided that this would have to do.

While he was in town t
his afternoon, he had washed his pickup at the car wash so it gleamed in the late afternoon sun. It had been a while since he had been on a date, he didn’t know if he was happy about it or not. Angela was a really nice young woman; he didn’t want to give her false hope.

Angela came to the door wearing jeans and a feminine version of an orange plaid Western shirt, or maybe it just looked feminine on her. Whatever it was, he liked it. She picked up a couple of grocery bags to bring with her.

“What do you have?” Danny asked.

“
We bring our own food and drinks to the barn dance. People bring their own instruments to play the music and sing whatever they know to sing.,” Angela explained.

“Okay,” he said, wondering what kind of dance this might be
, certainly nothing to which Lisa would have gone to.

When they drove up, Danny saw an old barn that had lost its paint years ago sitting about a block back from the paved country road. Several cars and pickups sat along the road and in front of the building. When they stepped inside the barn
there were folding tables lining the right side of the dirt dance floor. Folding chairs sat all along the edge of the dance floor on the left side and in the back a roughly build wooden stage had been placed for the musicians on which to play their instruments. Electricity was accessible because electric guitars and amplifiers belted their mournful sounds to accompany the country songs. Also a tambourine, a mandolin, and a fiddle lay available.

They found a place to sit not far from Angela’s parents.
Ted brought his date to meet him. She was a pretty girl probably a senior in high school like Ted, Danny figured.

Laura
, Danny’s mom, waved from the dance floor where she danced with Art to a slow dance.

Danny wondered if Harold and Mary came to these dances
since his mother and Art were here. Sure enough with a little more neck stretching he saw them sitting across the room. He watched the dancers and noticed that the prevalent dance was the two step, other than that anything went. He held out his hand to Angela, “Would you like to dance?” There was nothing here to intimidate him.

As they stepped out on the dance floor, another slow dance began. Danny brought her close, she fit him perfectly. It felt so nice to dance with someone who wasn’t a foot shorter.
Angela leaned the side of her face next to his. He sighed and enjoyed the dance.

After several more dances he managed to introduce Angela to his parents, but they already knew her.

The music started again and people lined up for a line dance. Angela and he got separated and danced with several other partners. After a while Danny managed to cut in on her partner and claim her again. Her eyes sparkled with joy having a good time. The next time they finished one of the fast swinging songs, they both were ready to sit down and catch their breath.

Angela brought out s
andwiches and chips along with two quart jars of ice water. Danny greedily reached for the water. “Thank you. That’s exactly what I need.” She smiled and opened hers, too. They ate their food and returned to the dance floor again. Danny was amazed at Angela’s stamina; this was the first date he ever had when the girl didn’t want to sit on the side lines half of the time.

By midnight, most of the dance
rs had left. Danny wondered if he should suggest that they leave, until he heard them call out that they were ready to start a square dance. Danny had never danced a square dance before but Angela pulled him out, “It’ll be fun, Danny. You’ll do just fine.”

Reluctantly he lined up where they told him to stand. The music started with a fast tempo and he watched the others and tried to keep up with them. By the time the dance was over, he understood the calls and didn’t make too many miscues.
He would never forget ‘swing your partner and do-si-do.’

He and Angela walked off the floor hand in hand laughing. Danny suggested, “Angela, let’s go get some ice cream or something.” The food she brought was good, but it ran out a long time ago.

“Sounds good to me,” she replied as she gathered up her empty bags. The music was still going strong. They were allowed to play music at the barn dance as long as anyone wanted keep playing.

He drove straight to Pat’s Café, thankful that she stayed open twenty four hours a day. They decided to order hamburgers and French fries before the pie and ice cream. After their appetite was appeased, Danny asked, “How did a pretty girl like you never get married yet?”

She winked and said, “I never met a man tall enough?”

“Really?”

She sobered a little and replied, “I dated some in college. Once I thought about getting engaged to a guy. He asked me to marry him but after some serious thought, I decided it was too risky. He wanted different things in life than I did. If I can’t have a happy marriage like my parents, then I’ll find another way to be happy.”

Glancing up at him, Angela asked, “What about you, Danny?”

Danny twirled his glass on the table, watching the water marks spread. Finally he answered, “I guess that’s a fair question since I asked you. I didn’t date much in high school. The only thing I thought about was football.”

Angela nodded in acknowledgement, “I remember. There were lots of girls wanting to date the football hero.”

He smiled and went on, “I dated around a little in college but I met one girl who I wanted to marry, eventually it didn’t work out.”

Intuitively she thought because of the accident, but their relationship was too new for h
er to ask him. She replied, “Life does throw us curves.” She smiled trying to lighten up the conversation, “It keeps us from being bored.”

They talked about the experiences of her nephews at his house when they went fishing. He told her abou
t Nora going to Medical School and Jeremy and his work in biochemistry.

When they reached her house it was well after two in the morning. Danny
and Angela walked to her door hand in hand. Until tonight they were only friends but after tonight it seemed that their relationship had moved into a different level. It felt good to walk holding her hand. Something he wouldn’t have done before. He leaned in to kiss her. To his surprise, the kiss turned into much more than he expected.

He drove back to his house in stunned silence. Whatever happened at Angela’s house with that kiss was beyond him right now. He felt too tired and his knee throbbed from the extra exercise he had tonight. Frisker greeted him enthusiastically. Danny put his new shoes up on a shelf Frisker couldn’t reach.

He went into the bathroom to take a pain pill and stretched out on the bed.

Toward morning he could hear the music playing, but the face of his partner kept switching from Angela to Lisa. He woke up feeling very tired.
After taking care of the animals, he took another pain pill and piled up on the couch for a nap. His leg still throbbed from so much activity last night.

Frisker woke
Danny by licking him on the face. When Danny could get his eyes open, he saw Frisker walking from him to the front door whining. Danny realized that Frisker wanted him to let him out for his late morning ablutions.

“Sure Frisker. Good boy!” Danny bragged on him
as he dragged himself off the couch. Finally Frisker was getting this potty training stuff. He let him out the door. It was hot in the house since Danny’s only source of air conditioning was opening the windows. He felt hungry. Sandwiches were getting really old. Soon he would have to invest time in learning to cook more than fried eggs and bacon.

He reached for his phone and called Laura, “Mom?”

“Yes, Danny,” she answered.

“Do you have something good for dinner? I’m hungry.”

Laura chuckled, “Come on, we’ll have something to eat.”

When Danny walked in the door, he sniffed the air filled with the aroma of pork chops and apple pie. “I think I’m in heaven,” he said savoring the taste
in the air.

Laura noticed Danny rubbing his leg occasionally and asked, “Is your leg bothering you?”

Danny looked down at his offending member and acknowledged, “I’ve overdone it a little lately.”

“You did seem to enjoy the dance last night,” Art put in.

“It has been so long since I have socialized with people instead of pigs and calves. Frisker and the cats are a lot of fun, but the conversation is a little lacking.” Danny stretched and stood up after eating all he could hold, “Uncle Art, is there a ball game on TV?”

When Danny turned his back toward Art to walk into the living room, Art winked at Laura and raised his eyebrows
expressing his delight, which she acknowledged with a nod and a smile.

Laura watched them walk into the living room chatting about which game they wanted to watch. She felt her heart soften
with something similar to joy to hear Danny ask to watch a ball game. Any ball game regardless of whether it was football, baseball, basketball, or any other sport marked a psychological step in Danny’s wellness.