Changing for Love Chapter 2

Changing for Love

Chapter 2

Thomas

In two more weeks I’ll finally be 18 and starting my senior year in high school.  I am so ready to leave this part of the country behind.  This time next year I’ll be in Annapolis, Maryland at the United States Naval Academy and all this will be a distant memory.  The only thing I like about living out here is being able to ride my horse Whiskey in all of this open country.  Whiskey is going to be the only thing I’ll miss when I leave, but I doubt either one of us will miss days like today when we are out here rounding up stray calves that broke through the fence on the back side of our property last night.

The temperatures out here have been hovering in the low 90’s for the past couple of weeks, so it’s very hot and very dry.  Most people think of Colorado as always cold and snowy, but here on the Roan Plateau, in late-July, it’s a whole different world. 

Whiskey and I left home about six a.m. this morning and we’ve been going at it ever since.  So far we’ve only rounded up about twenty-five of the forty or so missing calves that we are out here to find.   Its right at noon and both of us are tired and I’m still mad over the fight I had with my dad this morning before we left, so right here in this clearing is the perfect place to stop and rest for a while.  Those other calves should be just over the way a little at the small creek that runs down from the mountains.  There’s plenty of grass here for the calves and Whiskey to graze on while I take a short nap.

I climb down off of Whiskey’s back and loosen the girth strap a little and pull the canteen off of the saddle.  Whiskey won’t wonder far away from me at all.  He always stays within sight of me whenever we are out working like this.  He takes a few steps forward but that’s as far as he goes.  I find a nice place over near a huge rock to lean up against.  So I quickly take my shirt off and sit down in the grass.  I take a drink of water from the canteen, and lean back against the cool rock.  I take one last peek over at Whiskey and the calves then I tip my hat down over my eyes.  I think I’m going to miss moments like this too when I’m no longer here.  And then I drift off…

I hear the sound of a twig breaking and sit straight up in a shot.  My hat falls down on the grass and I leave it there.  As I look around everything looks like it’s supposed to.  Whiskey is about twenty feet away from me and the calves are about ten or fifteen feet in front of him pretty well bunched together.  I have the strangest feeling that I’m being watched but I don’t see anything or anyone other than the cows and one buckskin horse.  I scan the area a little more and the longer I look the more the hair on the back of my neck stands on ends and I get this real feeling that something is not quite right.  As my eyes scan the edge of the woods, just beside this huge tree I see eyes.  They are bright, golden, and feline.

All I can do is sit and stare.  As my eyes focus more I see more than just eyes.  It’s a huge cat of some sort.  It kind of looks like a cheetah but there is absolutely no way that a cheetah would be in or around the Rocky Mountains.  Must be where I am still half asleep.  I try to think rationally but that is really not working at the moment.  It’s just standing there staring back at me, not really in a predatory sense, but I don’t like the way it’s looking at me. 

Very slowly I stand up never breaking eye contact.  It’s just standing there not moving and not looking away either.  I know I cannot run because it will chase me.  I cannot draw its attention toward Whiskey and the calves.  I know I’ve got a rifle in the holder on the saddle but there’s no way I can get to it without causing major problems.  So I just stand there.  The longer I look into those golden eyes the more relaxed I feel.  I don’t think it’s going to attack me and eat me for lunch.  There’s something that feels like its drawing me to the cat.  I can’t explain it, I feel like down deep in my gut that this cat won’t hurt me that it’s as curious about me as I am about it.  It’s more than curiosity for me though. For some strange reason, standing there looking into these golden eyes my heart skips a beat.  I don’t know how long we stand there staring at each other, but it feels like forever.  Finally, it takes a step forward and I try to make a run for my gun.