She was sad for Opal who looked all of her eighty-odd years tonight. Her pert pixie haircut drooped, and the spidery lines in her face seemed deeper. This next year was going to be hard on her, and Fiona hoped she’d make it through okay. If there was anything she could do for Opal, she would.
She put her hand over Opal’s lying on the table. “I want to help. What can I do to help you?”
Opal looked at Fiona’s hand on hers then looked away. She smoothed her eyes with her fingertips. “Just look at me, getting all teary. I feel pretty alone right now. I got the family, but I can’t ever confide in them. They’d be at each other throats thinking I was playing favorites. Of course, if it wasn’t for this ranch, I don’t know that they’d be so interested in me. It’s been helpful having you here to talk to.”
Fiona smiled, but it was a sad one. “You know, we haven’t known each other a year, and you’ve been through a lot in that year. Your brother Albert dying, you having to deal with his relations and the estate, and Cody serving time now for illegal gun dealing. I know you were counting on him, and he didn’t turn out so good. You’re not young, Opal. This would be hard for a younger person.”
Opal’s smile was bittersweet. “To tell you the truth, Fiona, I know I’m slowing down. I look around at all there is to do on this place, and I feel overwhelmed. I didn’t used to feel like that. I’ve been feeling really tired lately. My energy has gone off somewhere and left me. I used to glory in making this a prime cattle production ranch. Henry would have been so proud.”
“I know him only from the photos you’ve showed me, but he looked like a man who would want his wife to enjoy her golden years.”
Opal laughed at that one. “Hay farmers and cattle ranchers never retire.” At that she launched into a rich cowgirl tenor of the old cowboy song, I Ride an Old Paint. “When I die, take my saddle from the wall, put it on my pony, and lead him from the stall. Tie my bones to his back, turn our faces to the west, and we’ll ride the prairies we love the best.”
Fiona laughed and clapped. “You have a beautiful voice, Opal.”
She laughed, too. “Music has helped keep me sane all these years. I always enjoyed playing guitar with the Old Time Fiddlers in town when I could get to their jam sessions. The older I get the more I seem to have to do, the less time there is for fun. Having to deal with Albert’s estate has put me on tilt this past year, I swear.” She looked around like she’d find help for all her problems coming through the door at any minute.
“Listen,” said Fiona, “I know something about computers. I could help with that.”
Opal got up to fix another drink. “Jake’s pretty good keeping our records on the computer. You wouldn’t know it to look at him, but he’s real good with numbers. He’s been keeping the books for this place for a long time. I look them over, and he tells me what he’s been doing. But he does the bulk of the computer work, and he’s good.”
“I’ll ask him if he needs help. There must be something I can do.”
Opal smiled. “You do that. He likes your kind of help.”
She put another drink in front of Fiona, who hadn’t finished her first yet, and sat down. “Gracious, I’m tired. I just can’t seem to get my strength back. It’s all this worrying. It’s worse than calving and branding.”
Fiona slid her drink glass in circles on the table then looked up when Opal didn’t say anymore. She sat looking out the screen door into the descending night. Cows were mooing in the distance, and one brayed in an other-worldly bellow.
“What’s that noise? It sounds like something from the living dead,” asked Fiona.
“That braying? That’s a bull telling the cows what a stud he is. Fortunately for us the cattle thieves didn’t get any of our bulls.” She paused. “Yet.”
“Those bulls look mean and dangerous. Wouldn’t they be hard to handle?”
“You bet, if you don’t know what you’re doing. We lease them out, and we have a pretty good line. They bring good money. I may have to sell off some to cover the loss on the cows.” She heaved a mighty sigh. “Another thing to worry about.”
A flock of birds buzzed the door and set up an angry chatter. Opal rose to let in one of the ranch cats. “Those King birds devil the life out of the cats. Of course, the cats deserve it because they kill the birds’ young.”
A big black fluffy cat meowed its way into the kitchen and promptly jumped up on the table to investigate.
“Off of there, Midnight,” said Opal, swatting the cat from the table. She reached down to rub Midnight’s head, and the cat yeowed her contentment. She bumped and rubbed against Opal’s leg.
“I like it here,” said Fiona, watching the antics of the cat.
“It grows on you, the high desert does. What about Jake?” asked Opal, sitting down again. The cat had moved on, probably to see if there were any mice that needed catching.
That question caught Fiona off guard. She reflected and then said, “I like Jake, too.”
“He wants to marry you, you know.”
“He hasn’t said anything to me.”
“I know him. He hasn’t said it outright, but I know he wants a wife even though his first one was a disaster.”
“Jake’s been married before?” said Fiona. “I didn’t take Jake as the marrying kind.”
“Yes, he was married. It didn’t last long. She left him for a carnival operator.”
“You’re joking.”
“I’m not. She got in with one of those fly-by-night boys that come through with the fair and just up and left. Took the little girl with her. Jake has tried to find the girl, but they seemed to have evaporated into thin air.”
“How sad. He never said anything about his family or having a family for that matter.”
“What relations he has are back in Oklahoma. They don’t bother with him. Jake was pretty wild and unruly before he came here to work. I think the family disowned him. He had another gal he liked a while back, but that one didn’t last long either. She was from the city and couldn’t adjust to life in the country. You remind me of her. That’s why I said I didn’t want you breaking his heart.”
Fiona finished the first drink and started on the second. This might be a drinking evening for both of them. She could hear the faint noise of the TV in the background and every once in a while a loud laugh from Olympia.
“Opal, I can’t give him a family and a happily-ever-after kind of life.”
Opal smiled and picked up the cat that had come back for more attention. “I don’t think he’s looking for that anymore. It’s just that, well, rural life can be lonely, and Jake isn’t the recluse type you often see out here. He genuinely likes people. He likes ranch life, and he’s a hard worker. He’s come a long way from the cowhand with a chip on his shoulder like he was when he arrived here. He’s my biggest success story. He has turned his life around and made something of it.” She paused, scratching the cat’s ears then lowered her voice. “I’ll tell you a little secret. He’s saved up enough money to put a nice down payment on a place of his own. He’s good with money, not extravagant. You could get a lot worse.”
“I’m not looking for better or worse.”
“What are you looking for?”
“I’ve been asking myself that same question for a while now. I must be having a mid-life crisis or something.” She looked into her drink to see if the answer was in a bunch of ice cubes and a little whiskey.
“I can tell you one thing,” Opal said. “Ranch life can be lonely, and it’s nice to have a partner. There isn’t anything better than sitting on that porch in the evening and gazing out over land that you own and a place that you have worked and nourished and made grow. There’s something tremendously fulfilling in that. You aren’t going to find that in the city.”