Fred's Blog
  • Fred's Blog
  • Guest Blogs
  • Memoir Showcase
    • Shane Joseph 2022-1 (M)
    • Roger Knight 2022-1 (M)
    • Leslie Groves Ogden 2022-1 (M)
    • Valerie Fletcher Adolph 2022-1 (M)
    • Shirley Read-Jahn 2022-1 (M)
    • Patsy Hirst 2022-1 (M)
    • Ronald Mackay 2022-1 (M)
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2022-1 (M)
    • Sharon Hayhurst 2022-1 (M)
    • Syd Blackwell 2022-1 (M)
    • Syd Blackwell 2022-2 (M)
    • Patsy Hirst 2022-2 (M)
    • Roger Knight 2022-2 (M)
    • John C. Rogers 2022-1 (M)
    • Thomas Laver 2022-1 (M)
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2022-2 (M)
    • Sue Bavey 2022-1 (M)
    • Ronald Mackay 2022-2 (M)
    • Lally Brown 2022-1 (M)
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2022-3 (M)
    • Ronald Mackay 2022-3 (M)
    • Susan Mellsopp - 2022-1 (M)
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2022-4 (M)
    • Ronald Mackay 2022-4 (M)
    • Susan Mellsopp - 2022-2 (M)
    • Jackie Lambert 2022-1 (M)
    • Valerie Poore 2022-1 (M)
    • Ronald Mackay 2022-5 (M)
    • Susan Mellsopp - 2022-3 (M)
    • Mike Cavanagh 2022-1 (M)
    • Mike Cavanagh 2022-2 (M)
    • Malcolm Welshman 2022-1 (M)
    • Nick Albert 2022-1 (M)
    • Denis Dextraze 2022-1 (M)
    • David McCabe 2022-1 (M)
    • Lizbeth Meredith 2022-1 (M)
    • Jill Dobbe 2022-1 (M)
    • Mary Mae Lewis 2022-1 (M)
    • Valerie Fletcher Adolph 2022-2 (M)
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2022-5 (M)
    • Jennifer Rae 2022-1 (M)
    • Jennifer Rae 2022-2 (M)
    • Mitos Suson 2022-1 (M)
    • Patsy Hirst 2022-3 (M)
    • Jennifer Rae 2022-3 (M)
    • Therese Marie Duncan 2022-1 (M)
    • Carolyn Muir Helfenstein 2022-1 (M)
    • Carolyn Muir Helfenstein 2022-2 (M)
    • Kelly Reising 2022-1 (M)
    • Ronald Mackay 2022-6 (M)
    • Syd Blackwell 2022-3 (M)
    • Susan Mellsopp - 2022-4 (M)
    • Denis Dextraze 2022-2 (M)
    • Patsy Hirst 2022-4 (M)
  • Fiction Showcase
    • Shane Joseph 2022-1 (F)
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2022-1 (F)
    • Valerie Fletcher Adolph 2022-1 (F)
    • Keith Moreland 2022-1 (F)
    • Lindy Viandier 2022-1 (F)
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2022-2 (F)
    • Robert Fear 2022-1 (F)
    • Lindy Viandier 2022-2 (F)
    • Janet Stobie 2022-1 (F)
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2022-3 (F)
    • Philippa Hawley 2022-1 (F)
    • Daisy Wood 2022-1 (F)
    • Valerie Poore 2022-1 (F)
    • Lynn C. Bilton 2022-1 (F)
    • Sue Bavey 2022-1 (F)
  • 2022 Showcase Guidelines
  • Info
  • Author Page
  • 2021 Authors Showcase
    • John L. Fear 2021 - 1
    • Sue Bavey 2021 - 2
    • Valerie Poore 2021 - 3
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2021 - 2
    • Mitos Suson 2021 - 1
    • Mary Mae Lewis 2021 - 1
    • Donna O'Donnell Figurski 2021 - 1
    • Dolores Banerd 2021 - 1
    • Lynn C. Bilton 2021 - 1
    • Sverrir Sigurdsson 2021 - 1
    • Sharon Hayhurst 2021 - 1
    • Liliana Amador-Marty 2021 - 1
    • Sue Bavey 2021 - 1
    • Karen Telling 2021 - 1
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2021 - 1
    • Liesbet Collaert 2021 - 1
    • Susan Mellsopp 2021 - 3
    • Ronald Mackay 2021 - 6
    • Shirley Read-Jahn 2021 - 1
    • Jackie Lambert 2021 - 1
    • Valerie Poore 2021 - 2
    • Carolyn Muir Helfenstein 2021 - 3
    • Jennifer Rae 2021 - 1
    • Chris Calder 2021 - 1
    • Valerie Poore 2021 - 1
    • Mike Cavanagh 2021 - 1
    • Ronald Mackay 2021 - 5
    • Roger Knight 2021 - 3
    • Carolyn Muir Helfenstein 2021 - 2
    • Joanne Guidoccio 2021 - 1
    • Valerie Fletcher Adolph 2021 - 1
    • Ronald Mackay 2021 - 4
    • Carolyn Muir Helfenstein 2021 - 1
    • Shane Joseph 2021 - 2
    • Susan Mellsopp 2021 - 2
    • Denis Dextraze 2021 - 2
    • Syd Blackwell 2021 - 2
    • Ronald Mackay 2021 - 3
    • Roger Knight 2021 - 2
    • Margaret South 2021 - 1
    • Denis Dextraze 2021 - 1
    • Ronald Mackay 2021 - 2
    • Susan Mellsopp 2021 - 1
    • Roger Knight 2021 - 1
    • Shane Joseph 2021 - 1
    • Syd Blackwell 2021 - 1
    • Ronald Mackay 2021 - 1
    • Adrian Sturrock 2021 - 1
    • Cherie Magnus 2021 - 1
  • 2021 Showcase Guidelines
  • 2021 Guest Blogs
  • 40 years ago today
  • 2020 Authors Showcase
    • Vernon Lacey 2020 - 1
    • Carolyn Muir Helfenstein 2020 - 1
    • Liliana Amador-Marty 2020 - 1
    • Alison Alderton 2020 - 1
    • Lizzie Jewels 2020 - 1
    • Robyn Boswell 2020 - 4
    • Lally Brown 2020 - 1
    • James Robertson 2020 - 2
    • Ronni Robinson 2020 - 1
    • Ronald Mackay 2020 - 6
    • Denis Dextraze 2020 - 5
    • Syd Blackwell 2020 - 2
    • Susan Mellsopp 2020 - 2
    • Robyn Boswell 2020 - 3
    • Val Poore 2020 - 1
    • Mike Cavanagh 2020 - 3
    • Helen Bing 2020 - 3
    • Neal Atherton 2020 - 1
    • Susan Joyce 2020 - 1
    • Leslie Groves Ogden 2020 - 1
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2020 - 4
    • Elizabeth Moore 2020 - 2
    • Denis Dextraze 2020 - 4
    • Patty Sisco 2020 - 1
    • Ronald Mackay 2020 - 5
    • Syd Blackwell 2020 - 1
    • Frank Kusy 2020 - 1
    • Malcolm Welshman 2020 - 1
    • Mary Mae Lewis 2020 - 1
    • Susan Mellsopp 2020 - 1
    • Ronald Mackay 2020 - 4
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2020 - 3
    • Denis Dextraze 2020 - 3
    • Robyn Boswell 2020 - 2
    • Ronald Mackay 2020 - 3
    • Helen Bing 2020 - 2
    • Roger Knight 2020 - 3
    • Amy Bovaird 2020 - 1
    • Patricia Steele 2020- 1
    • Elizabeth Moore 2020 - 1
    • Helen Bing 2020 - 1
    • Mike Cavanagh 2020 - 2
    • Ronald Mackay 2020 - 2
    • Denis Dextraze 2020 - 2
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2020 - 2
    • Roger Knight 2020 - 2
    • Mike Cavanagh 2020 - 1
    • Robyn Boswell 2020 - 1
    • Irene Pylypec 2020 - 1
    • Denis Dextraze 2020 - 1
    • James Robertson 2020 - 1
    • Andrew Klein 2020 - 1
    • Ronald Mackay 2020 - 1
    • Roger Knight 2020 - 1
    • Tina Wagner Mattern 2020 - 1
  • 2020 Guest Blogs
  • 2020 Showcase Guidelines
  • 2019 Authors Showcase
    • James Robertson 2019 - 6
    • Val Vassay 2019 - 2
    • Syd Blackwell 2019 - 6
    • Dawne Archer 2019 - 1
    • Susan Mellsopp 2019 - 3
    • Ronald Mackay 2019 - 6
    • James Robertson 2019 - 5
    • Sarah Owens 2019 - 1
    • Syd Blackwell 2019 - 5
    • Dolores Banerd 2019 - 1
    • Val Vassay 2019 - 1
    • Helen Bing 2019 - 4
    • Ronald Mackay 2019 - 5
    • Tina Mattern 2019 - 4
    • James Robertson 2019 - 4
    • Robyn Boswell 2019 - 3
    • Helen Bing 2019 - 3
    • Syd Blackwell 2019 - 4
    • Adrian Sturrock 2019 - 2
    • Jill Stoking 2019 - 1
    • Ronald Mackay 2019 - 4
    • Tina Mattern 2019 - 3
    • Cherie Magnus 2019 - 1
    • Roger Knight 2019 - 3
    • Susan Mellsopp 2019 - 2
    • Robyn Boswell 2019 - 2
    • Syd Blackwell 2019 - 3
    • Catherine Berry 2019 - 1
    • James Robertson 2019 - 3
    • Nancy McBride 2019 - 2
    • Tina Mattern 2019 - 2
    • Ronald Mackay 2019 - 3
    • Susan Mellsopp 2019 - 1
    • Mike Cavanagh 2019 - 1
    • Helen Bing 2019 - 2
    • Nancy McBride 2019 - 1
    • Malcolm Welshman 2019 - 1
    • Mary Mae Lewis 2019 - 1
    • Patty Sisco 2019 - 1
    • Syd Blackwell 2019 - 2
    • Adrian Sturrock 2019 - 1
    • Tina Mattern 2019 - 1
    • James Robertson 2019 - 2
    • Ronald Mackay 2019 - 2
    • Roger Knight 2019 - 2
    • Liliana Amador-Marty 2019 - 1
    • Celia Dillow 2019 - 1
    • Helen Bing 2019 - 1
    • Syd Blackwell 2019 - 1
    • Ronald Mackay 2019 - 1
    • Robyn Boswell 2019 - 1
    • Kelly Reising 2019 - 1
    • James Robertson 2019 - 1
    • Roger Knight 2019 - 1
  • 2019 Showcase Guidelines
  • 2019 Guest Blogs
  • Competitions
  • 2018 Travel Highlights
  • 2018 Travel Stories
    • Robyn Boswell 2018 - 5
    • Apple Gidley 2018
    • Lindsay de Feliz 2018 - 5
    • Helen Bing 2018 - 3
    • Julie Watson 2018
    • Anisha Johnson 2018
    • Philip East 2018
    • Mary Mae Lewis 2018 - 2
    • Mike Cavanagh 2018 - 3
    • Ronald Mackay 2018 - 5
    • Malcom Welshman 2018 - 2
    • Celia Dillow 2018
    • Syd Blackwell 2018 - 5
    • Lee P. Ruddin 2018
    • Cat Jenkins 2018
    • Anierobi Maureen Ogechukwu 2018
    • Dede Montgomery 2018
    • Valerie Fletcher Adolph 2018 - 2
    • Parishka Gupta 2018 - 2
    • Angie Clifford 2018
    • Emma Yardley 2018 - 4
    • Roger Knight 2018 - 2
    • Mark Boyter 2018 - 2
    • Laurel Casida 2018
    • Mike Cavanagh 2018 - 2
    • Alison Galilian 2018
    • Colleen MacMahon 2018
    • Zahra Makda 2018
    • Ronald Mackay 2018 - 4
    • Susmitha Subramanya 2018
    • Lindsay de Feliz 2018 - 4
    • Aleksandra Krysik 2018
    • Swarnabha Dutta 2018
    • Delores Topliff 2018 - 2
    • Sourabha Rao 2018
    • Valerie Fletcher Adolph 2018
    • Swatilekha Roy 2018
    • Syd Blackwell 2018 - 4
    • Robyn Boswell 2018 - 4
    • Mary Mae Lewis 2018
    • Parishka Gupta 2018
    • Helen Bing 2018 - 2
    • Madeline Sharples 2018
    • Joe Dodkins 2018
    • Andrew Klein 2018 - 2
    • Roger Knight 2018
    • Rob Johnson 2018
    • Anu Devi 2018
    • Lu Barnham 2018
    • Amy Bovaird 2018 - 2
    • Helen Bing 2018
    • Emma Yardley 2018 - 3
    • Lindsay de Feliz 2018 - 3
    • Robyn Boswell 2018 - 3
    • Alan Passey 2018
    • Ben Stamp 2018 - 3
    • Susan Mellsopp 2018 - 2
    • Alyson Hilbourne 2018
    • Sunny Lockwood 2018 - 2
    • Syd Blackwell 2018 - 3
    • Ronald Mackay 2018 - 3
    • Brigid Gallagher 2018 - 2
    • Martha Graham-Waldon 2018
    • Mark Boyter 2018
    • Kristen Caven 2018
    • Neyda Bettencourt 2018
    • Robyn Boswell 2018 - 2
    • Logan Wood 2018
    • Ben Stamp 2018 - 2
    • Emma Yardley 2018 - 2
    • Wenlin Tan 2018
    • Tom Czaban 2018
    • Claudia Crook 2018 - 2
    • Lindsay de Feliz 2018 - 2
    • Dolores Banerd 2018
    • Piyumi Kapugeekiyana 2018
    • Stephanie Dagg 2018
    • Gabrielle Chastenet 2018
    • Bonnie Jean Warren 2018
    • Rasa Puzinaite 2018
    • Patricia Steele 2018
    • Ronald Mackay 2018 - 2
    • Syd Blackwell 2018 - 2
    • Louise Groom 2018
    • Malcom Welshman 2018
    • Delores Topliff 2018
    • Claudia Crook 2018
    • Robyn Boswell 2018
    • Amy Bovaird 2018
    • Emma Yardley 2018
    • Ben Stamp 2018
    • Jesus Deytiquez 2018
    • Ria Chakraborty 2018
    • Brigid Gallagher 2018
    • Jules Clark 2018
    • Nancy McBride 2018
    • Susan Mellsopp 2018
    • David Greer 2018
    • Lindsay de Feliz 2018
    • Aditi Nair 2018
    • Mike Cavanagh 2018
    • Frank Kusy 2018
    • Andrew Klein 2018
    • Ronald Mackay 2018
    • Syd Blackwell 2018
    • Sunny Lockwood 2018
    • Robert Fear 2018
  • 2018 Guest Blogs
  • 2017 Travel Highlights
  • 2017 Travel Stories
    • Matthew Dexter - 2
    • Sandra Walker
    • Rishita Dey
    • Lisa Baker
    • Patricia Steele - 2
    • Sue Clamp
    • Debbie Patterson
    • Jill Stoking - 2
    • Robyn Boswell - 2
    • Cherie Magnus
    • Mark Boyter - 2
    • Rita M. Gardner
    • Alex Curylo
    • Graham Higson
    • Jill Dobbe - 2
    • Amy Bovaird - 3
    • Elizabeth Moore - 3
    • KC Peek
    • Lucinda E Clarke
    • Nancy McBride - 2
    • Frank Kusy - 2
    • Yvonne Kilat - 3
    • Mike Cavanagh - 2
    • Susan Mellsopp - 5
    • Mather Schneider
    • Syd Blackwell - 5
    • Gundy Baty - 3
    • Elizabeth Moore - 2
    • Jill Dobbe
    • Heather Hackett
    • Bob Manning - 2
    • Mark Boyter
    • Jackie Parry
    • Matthew Dexter
    • Amy Bovaird - 2
    • Gundy Baty - 2
    • Susan Mellsopp - 4
    • Susan Joyce - 2
    • Syd Blackwell - 4
    • Yvonne Kilat - 2
    • Bob Manning
    • Elizabeth Moore
    • Yvonne Kilat
    • Olivia-Petra Coman
    • Susan Mellsopp - 3
    • Gundy Baty
    • Syd Blackwell - 3
    • Paul Spadoni
    • Phil Canning
    • Jill Stoking
    • Robert Fear
    • Anna Coates
    • Kelly Reising
    • Syd Blackwell - 2
    • Susan Mellsopp - 2
    • Sine Thieme - 2
    • Alison Ripley Cubitt
    • Angie Clifford
    • Philippa Hawley
    • Nancy McBride
    • Robyn Boswell
    • Mike Cavanagh
    • Amy Bovaird
    • Susan Mellsopp
    • Patricia Steele
    • Susan Joyce
    • Peggy Wolf
    • Sine Thieme
    • Syd Blackwell
    • Frank Kusy
  • 2016 Travel Highlights
  • 2016 Travel Stories
    • Robyn Boswell
    • Elizabeth Moore - 5
    • Susan Joyce - 3
    • Bob Manning
    • Jackie Parry - 2
    • Mike Cavanagh - 2
    • Lisa Fleetwood
    • Mark Boyter - 2
    • John Rayburn - 5
    • Mark Boyter
    • John Rayburn - 4
    • Elizabeth Moore - 4
    • Mike Cavanagh
    • Graham Higson
    • Philippa Hawley
    • Jill Stoking
    • Nancy McBride - 2
    • Susan Joyce - 2
    • Lucinda E Clarke
    • Elizabeth Moore - 3
    • John Rayburn - 3
    • Jill Dobbe
    • Richard Klein
    • John Rayburn - 2
    • Jackie Parry - 2
    • Elizabeth Moore - 2
    • John Rayburn
    • Jackie Parry
    • Elizabeth Moore
    • Kelly Reising
    • Susan Joyce
    • Nancy McBride
    • Stewart Brennan
    • Frank Kusy
  • Behind the Scenes
  • 2015 Travel Highlights
  • 2015 Travel Stories
    • Val Vassay
    • Doug E. Jones
    • Matthew Dexter (2)
    • Beth Haslam
    • John Rayburn (4)
    • Susan Joyce (2)
    • Jackie Parry (2)
    • Lucinda E. Clarke (2)
    • Jill Dobbe
    • Francene Stanley
    • Richard Klein (2)
    • John Rayburn (3)
    • Julie Haigh
    • Frank Kusy (2)
    • Nancy McBride (2)
    • Anne Durrant
    • Lucinda E. Clarke
    • John Rayburn (2)
    • Nancy McBride
    • Sarah Jane Butfield
    • Jackie Parry
    • Kelly Reising
    • Gareth Nixon
    • John Rayburn
    • Jeremy Parris
    • Matthew Dexter
    • Susan Joyce
    • Richard Klein
    • Frank Kusy
    • Robert Fear
  • Daily Diary
    • February Archive
    • March Archive
    • April Archive
    • May Archive
    • June Archive
    • July Archive
  • Reviews

Sixteen in the belly, below the belt by Carolyn Muir Helfenstein


Instinctively her ears  pressed back against her skull as she hissed at imagined enemies. Her tail twitched erratically. Saliva, oozing from between her pin-sharp teeth  settled momentarily on her swollen gums and then fell to the cold, damp, cement floor of the passageway. Her eyes blinked and blinked again as if she were trying to comprehend all that was happening to her.


It was 6 a.m.  

Harry slipped from the warmth of the family kitchen, closing the door tightly as he stepped out into the hundred-year-old back kitchen with its dirt floors and smells of things old, very old. The cedar plank walls of this original structure stood firm despite the century of winter storms; and, as yet another storm raged that morning, those planks rattled and shook with the maddening enthusiasm of a belly dancer.

The wind howled and pressed against his chest as he pried open the side door and leaned into the blowing snow. He knew Carol’s day would soon begin, no alarm clock necessary; their three-year-old twins, nestled in their beds a few feet down the hallway, were her wake-up call.

A sudden veil of wind-borne snow obscured what should have been the large hip-roofed barn. He stepped out, braving the bitter cold, his six-foot frame plunging thigh-deep into heavy snowdrifts that ribboned their driveway until he reached the refuge of the barn  and he could actually breathe again.    

The gray cat’s ears registered the thud of boots on the packed snow.

Harry strained with the weight of each huge shovelful of snow as he cleared the barn doorway.  

The dim light coming from the yard lamp brightened the entranceway just enough for him to find the light switch. He listened to the barn sounds. Everything seemed OK.

 A projectile now, the gray cat launched her rigid body. Her outstretched claws and needle-sharp teeth dug deep through thick jeans and flesh.

She hung on, her jaws locked in final satisfaction.

Harry froze in shock; but with the spontaneous need to retaliate, even as the piercing pain from all those teeth and all ten claws deepened, he grabbed the cat and hurled her down the barn passageway all the while releasing his anger, “Damn, damn you, cat! What the hell!”

Harry leaned against the barn wall taking stock, fearing the very worst.  But she did not reappear. What did register was the pandemonium of the clanking of metal-on- metal as the bodies of forty Holstein milking cows were banging into their stanchions, their eyes rolling in fear, and their their feet lurching out in all directions on their rubber mats. Their normal, quiet morning routine turned into an uproar.

Harry surveyed the barn and the cattle; he sucked in a deep breath to calm his beating heart and automatically began the simple chore of sweeping away the remnants of the previous night’s feed. That done he began the ritual of morning feeding: enough sweet-smelling corn silage to land three feet square on the concrete floor before each cow’s waiting muzzle, and then an ample scoop of ground oats and barley running down the sides of each pile of silage, like chocolate syrup over a sundae. The cows eagerly stretched their long, skilled tongues, reaching to the very corners of their space to seize the tiniest morsels. That simple daily chore of the morning feeding helped Harry ease the throbbing fear as he considered the events of the past half hour.  He took time then to disinfect the wounds. 
​
 
As he adjusted the first milking machine, Harry leaned against Patsy’s warm, familiar, pungent black and white body. She turned her head to stare at him with those knowing eyes of hers and almost ashamedly, he patted her neck and as she listened, he whispered, “What if that cat is rabid?”  


*****

“Good morning, Kiddo.  A coffee for a weary man?”

 Knowing the answer, Carol poured the freshly made coffee into a mug and walked over to her husband, placing a friendly kiss on his rough cheek. His blue eyes shone and he kissed her ear. This was their morning ritual; she turned and leaned heavily into him, feeling him close.

Desperate to get it over with, Harry stepped away and blurted out the words, whispered, really, so the children wouldn't hear. "The gray cat bit me in the leg this morning. It was pretty bad. I think she may be rabid.” 

 Carol spun around, her fingers touching his face as if to be assured that he was all right.

“Hang on, hang on!” He wrapped her familiar body in his strong arms and then looked into those deep brown eyes.
​
“I’m making some phone calls, right now. OK? I’m fine.” 


*****

Carol heard  Suzie howl in anger from the family room just a few feet from the kitchen table. Robbie had stolen his sister's blocks and she was furious. Carol settled the dispute with a stern look and a kiss to each - even as the word rabies was ringing in her ears. 


*****

Harry made the necessary phone call to Health of Animals.

“We have to save the head?

“Yes, I can, Steve.

“Well, I have to find her first."

 Carol listened intently.

“Pardon? Kill the other cats too? 

"No, our dog has been inoculated."

 "Yes, I’ll phone back.”

He had almost hung up. “Oh, really? But in this storm?"

"Oh."

"Today.”

He placed the receiver back on the hook without a word.

​Husband and wife turned and stared at the snow-splattered kitchen windows and their hearts sank; they knew only too well that when the snow on those windows obliterated any vestige of their outside world, the storm was very bad.


*****

At the other end of that telephone call the agent for the Health of Animals knew exactly what was ahead for this young man. Sixteen needles in the belly. One a day, for sixteen days. And if he missed one needle, he would be advised to start over. That was the best the Health of Animals could offer in the sixties, for someone bitten by a rabid animal.


*****

 “Hi kids, who’s going to give Daddy a kiss?”

Peals of laughter filled the room as the two grabbed Harry’s legs hugging them and kissing his knees.

“Whoa! Ouch, that hurts. Careful. Daddy has a sore leg, Sweeties!”

With their morning greeting over, the two raced back to watch TV's Friendly Giant.

Harry looked directly into Carol’s eyes. “Kiddo, we have some things to do, some things to talk about. That was the Health of Animals, of course.  I have to find the gray cat and kill her and as you may have guessed, save the head. They will examine it for rabies.”

When the phone rang the next day, they knew the worst. “Harry, we advise you of the importance of continuing the needles. The cat was definitely rabid.” 

A relentless new routine began. After the morning milking, but before breakfast, Harry would steel himself to clear their laneway of snow with their tractor and snow blower. More chores followed; and then next was the harsh reality of the drive to the hospital through snow driven by unrelenting westerly winds. And then? One more needle in the belly, below the belt.

With each needle his strength waned.    

 Nine days into the treatments, with five needle marks on the left side of his belly and four on the right, always below the belt, Harry struggled to continue the milking and the after-breakfast chores. In a gesture of good will, the milk truck driver drove in and out the laneway three times in a row one morning, pounding the snow into a paved highway.  However the winds continued.  

By Day Ten, Harry could no longer face the routine work in the barn and to Carol’s great relief, he called around until he found a replacement. With that settled and his bed drawing him to surrender to the need for rest, nature played one more trick.

It was Day Twelve and even as the weather seemed to be improving, a second storm that had been brewing over the lake for days, unexpectedly dropped tons of heavy new snow on the entire area over night. Thankfully, Albert, the relief help, never missed a morning at the barn but he made it clear to Carol, “This is man’s business.”

Carol knew enough to leave him alone.

It was Day Thirteen.  Harry rose from his bed to face the plugged laneway as Albert tackled the barn work. Four more trips to go. Making it to the shed that morning was a victory in itself. He fought his way up and unto the seat of the tractor and turned the key.  With relief he listened to the diesel motor chugging to life, but what followed was a sickening shudder and a silence that cut through his heart. He willed the motor to catch again. Nothing. Nothing. He crawled down from the big red machine, rolled the shed doors across and hooked them. Dejection was written all over his bent form and he reeled back toward the house.

"The tractor’s dead,” was all he could whisper to Carol.

Carol watched Harry disappear upstairs. She moved fast to the phone.

“Pat, I really need your help,” she explained to her neighbour. 

 
When Harry surfaced with a start twenty minutes later, he heard the roar of a powerful tractor and he realized who it was and who had made that call for help. With visions of Pat's machine making short work of his laneway, he collapsed back into bed. Now all he had to do was get to the hospital and back. That he could do. He slept.

Highway patrols were on standby during this second storm.  A young man with a broken arm was rushed to the doctor along the same highway on Day Fourteen, and on Day Fifteen a young woman, ready to deliver her first child, made the same long journey. During those final harrowing drives, Harry’s determination never faltered. Carol stood firm. She and the children watched out the window as Harry left each day.    

“There goes Daddy to Wingham,” said  Suzie.

“Daddy’s got a sore tummy,” added Robbie.

“Yes, Robbie, Daddy has a sore tummy.”

“Why is it so sore, Mommy?”  Suzie asked.

“Well,” she sighed. No use hiding the truth. “One of the barn cats was sick, and she bit Daddy. Now Daddy is sick. The doctor needs to see him every day until he’s better.”

“Does he give Daddy a needle?”

“Yes, he does, Robbie.”

“Is Daddy better now?”

The twins, almost mirror images of each other in their cozy, red flannel sleepers, reached up to their Daddy. One set of blue eyes, one set of brown. Even at their tender age, they could see their Daddy was better.

 “Yes, I am better.” 

He scooped his son and daughter into his arms and he kissed each on the nose. They giggled. He ignored that their toes dug into his sore belly and he twirled them around and around and they laughed and they yelled, “More Daddy; more circles.”

He twirled them again, enjoying their warm bodies against his chest, their soft, freshly-washed hair tickling his nose, the smell of baby oil and the music of their endless giggles as he twirled them gently some more.  


*****

A year later, someone asked him, "Wouldn't it have been safer for you to just stay in Wingham until the needles were finished?"

Harry gazed at the man who had asked the question. He took a moment to think back to that evening when he held his children so close to his heart. He heard their giggling once more; he smelled the baby oil; he felt their baby toes digging in. He could see Carol.

He was about to answer.

Instead, he just shook his head and he smiled.



Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

​Copyright © 2022
Proudly powered by Weebly