The Cow-Pie Chronicles (12 page)

What Tim didn't realize when he had attended an auction with his dad was that the family holding the auction was losing their farm—that someone's way of life was disappearing right before his very eyes. But this time, things were different. This time Tim knew exactly what an auction was all about. It wasn't an end-of-the-year sale. It was a going-out-of-business sale and this time, it was the Slinger's turn to be the
host
.

The family spent the days leading up to the auction cleaning their farm equipment and parking the items where
bidders
could easily inspect everything. The night before the auction, they left the cows in the milking parlor after their evening milking so they would be clean and presentable the next morning. A truck stopped by and the driver unloaded long tables that would be used for holding food, doing paperwork and other auction tasks.

The next morning, the Slinger farm looked just like what Tim had seen at other auctions. There was a long table full of food for the taking, lots of people and a man—who was the
auctioneer
—on a platform yelling things to the bidders so fast that Tim didn't understand a word he said. And there were the kids who rode the school bus with Dana and Tim—they came to the auction with their parents.

Everything seemed to be going well until Tim heard a familiar bark. He pushed his way through the crowd until he could see the platform where the auctioneer was working. There the man stood with Bell, who was on a leash. Tim suddenly realized that fast-talking man was going to sell their dog!

Tim ran through the crowd, shouting for his mom. He spotted Dana sitting at a table, munching on an ear of corn.

“We have to find Mom!” Tim said. “They made a mistake. They're selling our dog!”

“Which one?” Dana asked. There were two dogs on the farm—Skipper and Bell—and Dana only cared for one of them.

“Bell!” Tim said.

Dana jumped up from the table, shouting, “No! They can't sell Bell!”

They ran into the house and found their mom making more lemonade.

“They're trying to sell Bell!” Tim said “You have to tell them it's a mistake!”

Mom stopped what she was doing and sat down.

“It's not a mistake,” she said. “We can't take Bell with us when we move into town.”

“But you said we're not moving now!” Dana said.

Mom reached out with one arm, put it around Dana's waist and pulled her in close. “It would be a lot harder to sell Bell later.”

“
But she won't even hunt! She's
gun-shy
,” Tim said. “Is that man telling everybody that?”

“Not so loud,” Mom said, afraid someone outside might hear Tim and no one would buy Bell. “That's not important right now.”

Dana started to sob. Bell was her favorite dog. “Why can't Bell move with us?”

“I'm sorry, honey,” Mom said. “We won't have room for two dogs. Skipper will still be with us, though.”

Dana and Tim looked at each other, not knowing what to say. At that very moment, Tim finally knew what this day was all about—they had to get rid of everything that wouldn't fit into their new life in town.

Dana saw it a bit differently. “Mom, you're going to have three kids. Is there enough room for all of us or do you need to sell one of us, too?”

“Of course not!” Mom said. “I wouldn't sell one of my children!”

“What about one kid and two dogs?” Tim asked, giving Dana a dirty look.

“That's enough! Our lives are changing and you two are going to have to deal with it.”

Mom stood up, picked up the pitcher of fresh lemonade and headed out the door. Tim went to his room and stayed there the rest of the day, not wanting to see anything else he had spent his entire life with disappear.

* * *

The next morning, Tim and Dana were quietly standing at the edge of the road when the school bus arrived.

“You're not late! What's the special occasion?” Mr. Horner asked as Tim slowly climbed into the bus, with Dana following him.

“Chores done early,” Tim said without looking up.

“Done forever,” Dana said, following her brother onto the bus.

“So I heard. Sorry,” Mr. Horner said.

Tim and Dana took their seats. Everyone on the bus was quiet—it was as if a family member had died and no one knew what to say. The silent treatment lasted all day in school, too. Tim couldn't wait to get out of there and back home.

After school, Tim and Dana stepped off the bus and into a different world. It was quiet. No cows mooing, no tractor engine roaring. There wasn't even any wind blowing.

Tim took his things inside then went to the barn. He felt a little lost with no chores to do. Since the cows were gone, the barn was lifeless. The stray cats had already figured out the free milk was history and they, too, had disappeared. The milk cooler was empty and shut down. There were still a couple of rows of hay bales in the loft, but the tools that used to hang on the walls were gone. Even the junk piled up in the back of the toolshed had vanished.
Who the heck would buy a pile of junk?
Tim wondered.

The strangest feeling came over Tim. He wasn't sure what it was at first, and then it hit him. He was lonely.

Tim went into the house where Dana was eating Jell-O at the kitchen table and his mom was washing dishes.

“Want to come out and play with me?” Tim asked.

Dana stared at Tim. “Play what?”

“Anything you want. You decide.”

Dana froze, her spoonful of Jell-O suspended halfway to her still-open mouth. Mom stopped washing dishes and turned to look at Tim, also.

“What?” Tim asked

Dana and her mom exchanged looks. Mom knew Tim was upset, so his offer to Dana to come out and play was not what she expected.

Dana made a suggestion to her brother. “Rope swing?” she asked.

“Okay, you go first.”

Dana dropped her spoon and jumped up from the table, smiling.

“Be careful. I wish your father had never put that thing up there,” Mom said to her children as they ran out the back door.

Dana and Tim burst out laughing as they raced each other to the barn.

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Chapter 15

It didn't take long for Tim to get used to not having hours of chores waiting for him every day. The farm quickly became a huge playground where he roamed at will, usually with Skipper, scouting likely hiding places for the upcoming hunting season. But he pretty much avoided the farm's lifeless, empty buildings. With all the animals gone, it felt like they were playing inside coffins.

While Dana and Tim tried to stay outside as much as possible, the weather was beginning to turn bad and there were days too cold, too wet or too something to go outside. That left the old, creaky farmhouse as their only refuge.

A few weeks after the auction, as Tim and Dana rode home on the school bus, an early winter storm rolled in and covered the ground with
sleet
. It came down hard and pinged on the roof of the vehicle.

When Mr. Horner turned the bus into the Slinger's driveway, he asked Tim and Dana, “Want to wait until it lets up?”

“It's not that bad,” Tim said, jumping off the bus with Dana.

They ran to the house, laughing all the way, bumping each other, slipping and sliding on the icy pellets. They headed straight for the kitchen, hoping to find something hot to drink waiting for them, but didn't find anyone there.

“Where's Mom?” Dana asked.

Tim spotted a note on the refrigerator from Mom. He read it out loud: “In town getting groceries in case we get snowed in.”

“I'm guessing she'll be home soon,” Tim said.

“Do you think Dad will be home before the storm hits?” Dana asked.

“
I don't know. I think he's still out of town, driving a truck for the
feed company
.”

“It's cold in here,” Dana said, shivering. “I'm going to my room.”

Tim ignored his sister. He dropped his books onto the kitchen table and headed for the basement to check on the
furnace
. He had to go out the back door, which was attached to the mudroom. A door at the back of the
mudroom
 
opened to creaky wooden stairs that went down into the cave-like darkness of the basement.

Once he was at the bottom of the stairs, Tim flipped on the light switch and two small overhead light bulbs glowed, casting a dim and eerie light on the can-shaped furnace. On one side of the big furnace was a large, heavy metal door. The door faced a pile of black, jagged chunks of
coal
 
in the coal bin. A thin film of black coal dust covered everything in the underground world.

To protect his hands from the heat of the furnace, Tim put on a pair of heavy gloves and pulled the large door open. A bed of glowing red embers, with a few small flames popping up here and there, was all that was left of the fire that had been burning all day. Tim picked up a small shovel, loaded it with fresh chunks of coal and tossed the shovelful into the furnace. A spray of red, glowing sparks flew up then disappeared up the chimney. Since heat rises, it kept the rooms above it warm, and more importantly, it kept the Slinger family from freezing when it was cold outside.

Tim tossed three more large shovelfuls into the furnace until the fired roared, like a monster. The heat spilled out the door and onto Tim's face. The warmth felt good.

* * *

When Tim was warm enough to get rid of the chill in his bones, he shut the furnace door and headed back upstairs. He saw Dana sitting in her room.

“Is that all you're going to do—just sit—until Mom gets home?” he asked.

“Yes. My room is the warmest room in the house,” she said.

“Because it's the smallest,” Tim said.

Dana reached out and pushed her door shut. Tim knew she was right about her room being the warmest room in the house. The heat
ducts
from the old furnace only went to four rooms in the house—the kitchen and bathroom to keep the water pipes from freezing and the two first-floor bedrooms, one that was his parents' room, and the other, Dana's. Tim's bedroom was on the second floor. It took five blankets to keep him warm when snowflakes blew in around his
drafty
 
window.

The only way any heat made it to Tim's room was through a large, round iron
grate
 
right in the middle of his bedroom floor. The grate was directly above his parents' bedroom.

Tim decided to inspect the grate to see if there was a way to get more warm air to come through it. That's when he made a startling discovery—he could lift the iron grate right out of the hole in the floor!

He set the grate next to his bed then got on his hands and knees, crawled to the edge of the hole and looked down. He was directly over his parents' bed, which was roughly six feet below him.
What an opportunity for some fun!
Tim thought.
I can drop to the first floor through the hole!