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Lights blinked on overhead, illuminating the interior of the large barn. Hay was stacked in one corner. Several stalls lined each side, and there was a room with a door.
“This is the tack room. I have saddles, bridles and leads. We used to have horses, but I don’t have much time to ride.”
“Understandable.”
“I sold the horses after Ray died.” She pointed to a four-wheeler parked in one of the open stalls. “I use the ATV when I need to get around when it’s too muddy for the truck, like now. I keep hay and feed in here as well as my store of seeds I use to plant my produce.”
A three-legged cat limped out of the shadows and rubbed against Bernie’s leg.
“This is Eileen.” Bernie grinned. “Get it?”
Gerard looked at the cat. “Did you name her after a famous actress?”
Bernie sighed. “Not many people pick up on her name.”
Gerard thought harder.
Meanwhile, Bernie slung her leg over the seat of the ATV, twisted the key and pressed the start button. The engine chugged for a moment, then engaged, roaring to life.
His focus on the three-legged cat named Eileen, Gerard walked slowly toward Bernie.
When it hit him, he laughed out loud. “I get it. Not E. I. L. E. E. N. You mean it to be ‘I lean.’”
Bernie grinned. “She came to me as a kitten. I don’t know how she was hurt, but she was dragging one injured leg. It was badly infected, and the bone was crushed. To save the kitten, the vet amputated her leg.” Bernie leaned over to scratch the cat’s chin. “She’s the best mouser we’ve ever had.” She tipped her head over her shoulder. “Hop on.”
Gerard swung his leg over the seat and settled behind her.
“Hold on,” she said and gave the ATV some gas.
The vehicle shot forward, almost unseating Gerard.
He flung his arms around Bernie’s waist and held on as she drove the four-wheeler out of the barn and into a field on the opposite side of the barn from the pasture. She slowed as she passed long rows of green, growing things.
“That’s my produce garden. I grow four kinds of squash, three kinds of lettuce, mustard greens, okra, corn, purple-hull peas, onions, tomatoes, asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries and figs.”
She nodded toward the field ahead. “The big field is full of watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew melons.” She slowed. “What the hell?”
Gerard leaned around her. “What?”
“How did she get out?” She stood on the footrests. “No, no, no!” Bernie dropped down, gunned the throttle and raced along the side of the field, stopping when she came even with a large hulk of an animal, standing in the middle of the field of watermelons.
Bernie leaped off the ATV and ran toward the animal that had to weigh ten times as much as the woman.
Gerard ran after her, leaping over vines crowded with large, fat watermelons. Some of the melons were broken open, the vines uprooted.
“Penelope Pitstop!” Bernie yelled. “Back to the pen.” She waved her hands at the pig, circling her and then urging her toward a pen on the far side of the watermelon patch.
The huge pig moved slowly, rooting her nose through the vines and stopping to break open yet another melon to gobble up the juicy insides.
“No, no, no.” Bernie slapped the animal’s hindquarters. “Go to the pen, you greedy pig.”
Penelope grunted, finished the melon and moved on.
Four melons later, she reached the pigpen and grunted a greeting to the other animals contained inside.
Bernie unhooked a heavy chain and opened the gate wide. The pig trotted through, happily joining her swine family while Bernie closed and secured the gate with the chain. “I don’t understand,” she said as she walked around the pen, inspecting the thick bull panels. “How did she get out? The gate was closed, the chain in place. There aren’t any holes or trenches beneath the wire.”
Gerard followed her, looking for any signs of damage to the enclosure but finding none. The smell was overwhelming. When they’d completed a full circuit around the pen, they stopped at the gate.
