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Just then, he felt something bang into him from behind. No! Peach!
He jumped out the car, running back to her, making sure she was okay. She was open-mouthed and fuming, yelling something at him that he couldn’t hear while she was in the car. But seeing her like that was a relief. She looked pissed rather than hurt. Which meant he had something more pressing to attend to.
He ran over to the front of his car and was shocked to see a cow lying on the road in front of it. As far as he could tell, his tires hadn’t hit the animal. It was at least a couple yards away. But if that was the case, why was the animal just lying there?
He crouched down to take a closer look. His heart was racing and his breath was shallow, but he stayed as quiet and still as possible so he didn’t scare the creature. Moving around to the back of the animal, his eyes widened when he saw what was happening. The cow was giving birth! There was something sticking out of it. Hard to tell what it was, since it was encased in fetal membranes, but it looked like the start of two front feet.
“What’s going on?” Peach was right behind him, whispering. “Did you hit it?”
He turned and put his finger to his lips. “Call 911,” he whispered back to her. “She’s giving birth. We need a vet. Or the farmer. Or both.”
Peach took out her phone, and he turned back to the cow.
“It’s alright, girl,” he said, keeping his distance, staying calm and quiet. He could tell from the tag in the cow’s ear that it wasn’t one of his aunt’s. That was obvious, anyway. His aunt’s cattle weren’t healthy enough to be giving birth. They were half-starved and riddled with disease, poor things.
As he took in the cow’s situation, memories bubbled up in him from a distant past. His father’s voice, soothing and kind. “If the presentation is normal, you can let the cow labor for forty minutes to an hour. No more.”
He had no way of knowing how long the cow had been in labor, but he was pretty sure it had only recently started. Its breath was steady, it didn’t look too exhausted. The water bag was still in place around the calf.
“There’s no signal,” Peach said, her voice a little raised.
“It’s okay,” Isaac said calmly. “We don’t need to panic.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and saw that he had no signal either. Damn. They were too far away from Aunt Meg’s ranch now. He was just going to have to get the delivery done here.
“What should I do?” Peach asked, wringing her hands. “Should I stroke the cow? Try to pull out the calf?”
“No,” he said firmly. “She’s doing just great like this. She knows what to do. We need to give her space.” He paused. “There are some shirts and jackets in the trunk of my car. Get them, would you?”
He tossed the keys to Peach, keeping his eyes on the cow. She was still breathing normally. That was good.
Alright. Time to check the fetus.
He didn’t have any surgical gloves, but he always carried a small bottle of alcohol hand rub with him. A lot of businessmen did that these days — all the handshakes and meetings you had to go through in a day. He cleaned his hands, just in case, and then he took the shirts and jackets from Peach and laid them down at the cow’s rear. The road was dirty and rough, and his shirts were clean and soft. The perfect landing spot for a calf.
“Wait,” said Peach. “Those are designer jackets. They say Gucci on the label. Won’t that ruin them?”
Isaac smiled up at her. “Plenty more suits out there. But only one of this little calf.”
He examined the part of the sac that he could see, being careful not to get too close to the cow in case she got scared. He could see two hooves. His heart raced. He could hear his father’s voice again.
“If the hoof pads are facing upward, son, you have to pull the calf. Don’t hesitate.”
He looked more closely and saw that the pads were facing downward.
Thank god. He could breathe again.
“Is everything… alright?” Peach whispered.
“It’s all good, babygirl,” he replied. It took him by surprise that he just called her that, but then this whole situation was taking him by surprise. “Now, listen carefully. I want you to walk to the top of that hill over there, and I want you to try to get a signal. I want you to check the location on GPS and then relay it to emergency services. I think this cow’s gonna be just fine, but we need backup.”
Peach looked into his eyes, taking in his every word, and then she nodded. “Yes, Daddy. I can do that.”
Isaac looked back at the cow and was delighted to see that the contractions had pushed even more of the calf out of it out. Everything looked normal. Healthy. Kind of amazing, actually. As Isaac watched the cow do exactly what nature intended her to do, he became aware of something. The feeling of his father’s hand, pressed down on his shoulder, just firmly enough to let him know that he was there.
“Dad?” he whispered, with tears in his eyes.
“I’m here, son,” said his father. “And now you’re here too. Back where you belong.”
