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“Like yours,” she said softly. “Did you take a lot of heat for it, at home?”
He shook his head. “I was very small when my mother and I came back here to the rez.” He smiled. “My people don’t have the same attitude toward special abilities as some people off the rez do,” he added. “We think of the supernatural as, well, natural. We have people who can dowse for water, people who can talk out fire. We have people who know more about herbs than laboratories do. We’re a spiritual people in an age when it’s frowned upon to believe in a higher power.” He shook his head. “Nobody who’d been in combat would doubt there’s a higher power, by the way. No atheists in foxholes, and that’s a fact.”
“You were in the Army?” she asked.
He nodded. “It was a bad time. I saw things I wish I could forget. My old sergeant works near here. He’s just taken in a three-legged wolf that was stalking calves over at the Denton place. Poor old creature was almost blind and couldn’t hunt. They gave him to Sarge. He’s a rehabilitator,” he explained. “Except that you can’t rehabilitate a half-blind, old, three-legged wolf. So the wolf lives with him now. Even watches TV, we hear,” he added with a chuckle.
“My goodness! We had packs of wolves up in Montana who were predators. We lost cattle to them all the time.”
He nodded. “It’s hard to coexist with wild animals. But the earth belongs to everything, not just to humans. Starving creatures will eat whatever they can catch. That’s nature.”
“I suppose so.”
“Now, let’s get those steps fixed before one of you breaks a leg on them,” he said, and started ferrying lumber to the house.
Teddie spotted him and came flying out the door. “Parker!” she exclaimed. “Are we doing Horses 101 today?”
He chuckled. “Nice. Yes, we are. But first I have to fix your steps.”
He put down the load of lumber and went back for another one. “Still got that fancy toolbox?” he added.
“I’ll go get it,” Teddie volunteered.
“Good girl,” he said.
She brought the toolbox while Katy went in search of the coffee can where the nails were kept. Then Parker got to work with a skill saw and a pencil over one ear.
* * *
He was methodical, but quick. In less than an hour, he had the steps replaced.
“We can’t stain them yet,” he said. “That’s treated lumber. It will last a long time, but you have to let it season before you can stain or paint it.”
“That’s fine,” Katy said.
A truck came down the road and pulled up beside Parker’s. A tall, well-built man in jeans and a denim jacket and a battered old hat came up to them.
“This is Jerry Miller,” Katy said, smiling at the newcomer, who smiled back and offered a hand.
“Hello, Parker,” he greeted.
Parker shook hands with him and smiled, too. “Nice to see you. I’m doing a few repairs.”
“Looks good. I’d have offered, but I can’t even measure, much less do woodwork,” the other man said ruefully. “All I’m good for is nursemaiding cattle.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” Katy instructed. “You made us a nice nest egg with that crop of yearlings you took to auction for us. Which pays your salary, by the way.” She laughed.
He grinned, tipping his hat back over sandy hair. “And my wife’s hairdresser bills,” he added.
“Your wife looks pretty all the time,” Katy said. “And she’s sweet, which is much more important than pretty.”
“Yes, she does,” Jerry had to agree. Then he asked, “Is there anything I can do to help?” He chuckled. “Well, except for offering to cut wood, which I can’t do.”
“Not a thing. All done,” Parker said. “But we have some leftover lumber. If you’ll help me get it in the shed, it may come in handy for another job later on.”
“Good idea.”
The men moved the lumber into the building. Katy and Teddie put up the toolbox and the nails.
