Nickel-Bred by Patricia Gilkerson

job at Sam’s
office. She’s pretty excited about it.”
    “I know! Sam told me. I’m glad for them both.
He was worried that he wouldn’t be able to find anyone that wanted
it. I’m having them both over for dinner tonight to celebrate. You
should come, too, Piper. I told your mom to ask you if you wanted
to come.”
    “Um, this is my night to eat at Dad’s house,
but I could talk to him and see if he minds that I eat here
instead.”
    “Whatever works for you, Piper. I would love
to have you come over, but I’ll understand if you don’t. I have to
go get some groceries now. See you later, maybe.”
    “Okay, ‘bye.” We went opposite directions,
her into the house and me to the horse pasture.
    Dotty was happy to see me, especially since I
had remembered her carrots. She nibbled and drooled until they were
all gone and my hand was coated with carroty slime. When she had
swallowed the last mouthful, I went into the barn and got her tack.
I tied her up to a post, saddled and bridled her, then led her
outside. I mounted and we began walking down the dirt lane that led
back onto the farm. We went through a grove of oak trees and out
into an open field that was previously used to grow crops. Miss
Julie had decided to have it cut and baled every summer, so we
never had to buy hay. She told us it would be her contribution to
Dotty’s upkeep.
    I could have called my dad and talked to him
about dinner that night, but it was so peaceful and quiet out there
on the farm that I didn’t want to use my phone. I just wanted to be
quiet and enjoy my ride. Dotty and I moseyed along for a couple of
hours. We cooled off walking through the woods, me wondering what
birds made the calls and twitterings I heard. We came out into the
open field and passed an old shed and paddock. That was where Addie
and I had hidden Dotty so her mean owner, Jake, wouldn’t find her.
We had turned around and started home. I was trying to tell from
the sun what time it was. I’m not very good at that, but it seemed
like the sun was straight overhead, which would make it around
noon. My phone rang. It was Dad’s ring tone, so I got my attitude
ready.
    “Hi, Dad,” I said.
    “Hi, Piper, are you still mad at me?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Look, your mom called and told me about her
new job and wanted to know if you could have dinner with her and
Sam and Miss Julie tonight. Do you want to go?”
    “Yeah, I’d like to go.” Miss Julie was a
great cook and any dinner at her house would be delicious.
    “Well, you go ahead and we’ll have dinner
together another night. Maybe I can trade nights with your mom.
This works out better for me because I have a lot of calls to make
later today.”
    “Okay. Thanks, Dad.”
    “Have you thought about the horse
anymore?”
    “I still want him.”
    “That’s what I thought. Listen, we’ll talk
tomorrow okay? I have a herd health meeting in an hour and it’s
pretty important.”
    “Okay, see you tomorrow sometime.”
    Dotty and I rode into the barn, where I
unsaddled and brushed her. I gave her a big hug for being a good
girl and let her out into her paddock. Willie Nelson sat on Miss
Julie’s back porch like a little ball of gray fluff in the
sunshine. When he saw me, he came mewing, looking for attention. I
cuddled him for a while and told him what a good life he was going
to have here with Miss Julie. I set him back down gently on the
porch and kissed his head goodbye.
    Miss Julie’s car was gone, so I didn’t stay.
Instead, I walked back home and fixed myself a sandwich. Mom was
gone somewhere and I was cleaning up the kitchen, when Dad called
again.
    “Hi, Dad,” I said.
    “That woman is insane! She should be put
away!”
    “What woman? Who?”
    “Angel. Do you know what she did?”
    “Dad, what?”
    “She barged into the back room of the clinic,
when I was meeting with Roger Smith about his herd health program.
She walked right in and wanted me to give her a hug in front of him
and his