Lucy Went Missing

Lucy and Shadow came outside with me this morning when I fed the horses. But I did not take them to the Meadow. Instead, I left them at the door where they could stay dry if they wanted to.

When I came back, there was Shadow at the door. But no Lucy. I looked everywhere. At least I thought I did. I looked downstairs in the basement, and upstairs in all the bedrooms, and downstairs in every room, and even in the stalls in the barn to see if she had gotten stuck in with one of the horses or with the cow or in the empty stall. No Lucy. So I went and got Rocket and got on him and rode off looking for her. It was raining, and although I had planned to ride last night, when I saw the weather this morning I had decided against going. But Lucy missing is a serious event and so off I went in the rain.

Riding in the rain is fun once you get into it. You do have to dress right. You have to have wool on one of your outer layersand you have to have a bunch of layers. When you walk outside, if you can feel "weather" anywhere on your body, you have to turn right back around and go inside and add yet another layer, or a scarf, or a hat, or gloves, or whatever. But having done all that, you can have a lovely riding experience. Horses don't mind the wet. Sometimes, I'm pretty sure they like it. Having watched my horses for a while, I have come to believe that they mind heat and sun much more than they do a nice long downpour.

Rocket and I trotted down the road and encountered three separate vehicles with hunters in them. You can spot a hunters vehicle from a half-mile away. It is usually a beat up jalopy, and as they get closer you can see one head in the driver's side, one head in the passenger side, and usually another silhouette of one or more heads in the back seat. Then when you get level with the car you see that it is stuffed full of burly men. None of them has shaved in a long time. They all have dark tans and startling pale eyes. And usually at least one tooth missing. I have no idea why this is the case. I'm very sorry to all you hunters out there who tell me that you have excellent teeth,  no tan at all, and hunt all by yourself. I'm just telling you what my experience is. Each one of the vehicles stopped and at each one I was greeted with a quasi-toothless grin.

I have to admit, these hunters scare me. They look inappropriately gleeful and when I see that, I think of alcohol and guns and cars all in combination. Then throw in the fact that I am on horseback on a road where many of these hunters go by every day. Having said that, everybody that I saw and talked to was very nice. And since they were cruising up and down our dirt roads, I figured they would be pretty good at spotting Lucy. If they didn't hit her first.

No luck from the hunters, though. Just as one of the vehicles pulled away, Rocket tensed and looked off to the left. I peered through the trees to see what he was looking at. It was a herd of deer. The car that I had just left coasted forward to the next driveway, backed into it, and came back towards me. They stopped and looked at the deer. I trotted back to them.

"Just so you know," I said. "Last year, somebody willshot a deer right here in this road. Those deer go across this road all the time. But you should have seen the woman who lives in that house." I indicated the house near the field where the deer were. "I thought she was going to kill somebody."

Expressions within the car wavered between glee at what they thought might have been a funny story, and surprisingly, fear.

"So I would not advise you to try to shoot one of the deer that are in that field. I don't know what she'll do this year if somebody shoots a gun that close to her house."

They nodded sagely. As I trotted away, feeling a bit smug, I heard them turn the car around again and head back the way they had been going in the first place.

But of course, as I trotted down the road, I began to think about the possibility that Lucy had been shot.

Rocket is walking very nicely these days since Cordell trimmed his hooves and made a few adjustments to the shape of his foot. He's less choppy. He really did not want to pass the Meadow and keep going, but I pushed him across the covered bridge and to Elizabeth, Magic, and Allen's house, looking in the woods all the way for Lucy. When I got there, I rang the doorbell and Elizabeth came out, followed a little while later by magic. Elizabeth offered to come over and help look for Lucy. Magic was on her way to a riding lesson but said she would watch the road as she went.

So Rocket and I went home through the woods, me a little bit nervous (and yes, Mom, I know you're nervous now too), and Rocket in a bit of a hurry. The paths there are winding and narrow and have many overhanging branches, so I practiced some of the bareback moves like ducking under branches (it's kind of fun: you close your eyes and hug your horse's neck and rely on him to carry you forward) and leaning into turns just exactly when his shoulder and foreleg were ready for me to. He seems to enjoy threading his way between trees that grew closely together.

Rocket swam across the creek. And then I discovered another advantage of bareback riding: when your horse is getting ready to go deep into a creek, you just pull your feet up and perch on top of him, and then you will not get water in your boots.

So, although I was worried for our lives and Lucy's, still, we had a pleasant ride through the woods and home. Elizabeth was there, but she said that although she went into the house, she didn't find Lucy there. I was disappointed. I had hoped that Lucy would come back to the house on her own.

I took care of Rocket and then Elizabeth and I talked about what to do next. She said, "did you check down in the basement?" I said that I had, but I hadn't checked the laundry room. I said, "I have never known Lucy to go into the laundry room and I can't imagine why she would, but I suppose I will just doublecheck."

I went into the house and took off my boots and walked around and down into the basement. No Lucy. The laundry room was dark. I switched on the light and looked at the pile of laundry. One of the towels raised its head.

"Lucy!" I said, joyfully. She lumbered to her feet and greeted me as happily as I greeted her. "I found her!" I called to Elizabeth.

Everybody celebrated: me, Elizabeth, Shadow, even Mimoka. We had a little dance party in the kitchen. I made tea and Elizabeth and I drank tea and planned Danny's special day next Sunday. (And yes, Danny, I can tell that you're interested now even if you weren't before). We decided that hot cider, hot chocolate, cider donuts, and Apple pie would be in order.

Then we chatted about my lunch with Scott yesterday. We talked about the horses, and our dogs, and the party that Elizabeth was going to tonight for somebody at her work. The rain pitter pattered outside and the tea was warm on our hands and steamy in our noses and comforting as we sipped it.

These are the moments, I thought. These are the moments that a busy life obliterates. And I vowed to myself always to have time to have tea with friends.

So Danny, obviously you will be wanting to know what exactly is up for next Sunday.

But that is for later...