Cowboy Comes Home

The deputy took longer than ten minutes to get there. More like twenty, actually. Anna was just grateful that Nate had sent a woman. Sara Ironheart apologized profusely for the delay, but said she’d had to stop at an intersection to help get a car out of the way.

“Don’t you live all the way out at the west end of the county?” Anna asked her. “How did you manage to get in this morning?”

Sara flashed her a smile. “I never got home last night. I’ve been on duty since three o’clock yesterday afternoon.”

“You must be exhausted!”

Sara shrugged. “I caught a couple of catnaps at the office.”

“Well, I hope the roads clear soon, so you can go home.”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen. It looks like snow is moving in, and unless some of the other guys manage to find their way in, Nate’s going to need every one of us still here to stick it out.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an ice storm like this.”

“I don’t recall us ever having one here. Usually it’s just snow. Funny weather yesterday. Really funny.”

The chains on the tires of the Blazer clanked loudly as they drove down the ice-coated streets. The trees looked like something out of a fairy tale, encased in ice and icicles. If the sun had been out, the world would have glittered and sparkled, but overhead, leaden clouds dulled the day.

“How’s Joey doing?” Anna asked, referring to Sara’s eighteen-year-old brother. When she had first moved here, Joey had been in the youth group and going through some hard times.

“Glad to be away at college, I think. I’m so glad my husband was able to talk him into at least trying it. I’d sure hate to see him miss the opportunity.”

“Gideon seemed to have a good influence on him.”

“He’s been a good influence on all of us,” Sara said. “And he’s sure taken the load off my grandfather’s shoulders.”

“You board horses for people at your ranch, don’t you?”

“Board some and raise some. Gideon’s a wonder with those ponies.” She shook her head and smiled. “The man is magic with horses. You ought to come up sometime and watch him work with them. It’s well worth seeing.”

“Some day I’d like to ride a horse.”

Sara smiled at her. “We can arrange that, too. We have some really gentle ponies that are good for getting started on.

Gideon’s thinking about giving lessons to town kids who don’t get the chance to ride like the ranch kids. I’m sure he’d love to practice on you.”

“I’ll think about it.” But Gideon Ironheart, pleasant as he was, intimidated her. He was so big and muscular, and so exotic looking with his long black hair. She didn’t think she would ever feel comfortable enough to take riding lessons from him.

They pulled up at last in front of the sheriff’s office, and nervousness washed over Anna. It was no worse than stage fright, she told herself. Just do it. Just walk through it and do what needs doing.

Lorna was still sitting at the dispatcher’s desk, working with Velma. When she looked up and saw Anna, she broke into a wide smile that nearly broke Anna’s heart. This child looked so different today from yesterday. So much more alive and hopeful.

“Hi, Miss Anna!” Lorna said cheerfully. “Did you get stuck, too?”

“No, I just wanted to see you, so Sheriff Tate had Deputy Ironheart pick me up. Have you tried walking out there? You need ice skates!”

Lorna laughed and tossed her long blond hair. “I fell on my bottom this morning at the sheriff’s house when I was helping put down salt on the driveway. And now it’s going to snow. I hope it snows so deep that nobody can go anywhere.” She looked suddenly wistful, and Anna identified with the feeling. How many times had she hoped her stepfather wouldn’t be able to make it home from work?

“This child,” said Velma, through a cloud of cigarette smoke, “just wants to be stuck here at this desk forever. Can you believe it? She actually likes talking to all these deputies and answering the phones. Next thing you know, they’ll be retiring me and giving her my job.”

Lorna grinned at her.

“You shouldn’t give them such a hard time.”

“Child,” said Velma, “giving deputies a hard time is my stock-in-trade. Somebody’s got to keep them in line.”

Nate Tate came down the hallway and greeted Anna. Then he turned to Velma. “Let Lorna go visit for a while with Miss Anna. We can’t have you working the girl too hard. We’ll run afoul of the child labor laws.”

“Working her?” Velma snorted. “Boss, this child is having fun. Now scoot, Lorna, and go visit with Miss Anna.”

Nate led Anna and Lorna to an empty office and left them alone with the door closed. Anna sat on a creaky office chair, while Lorna went to the window to look out.

“Did you have a good time at Sheriff Tate’s last night?”

Lorna nodded. “He has a nice family. He didn’t even make me wear handcuffs like I thought he would. I just had to promise I wouldn’t run away from him, so I did.”

“That was a wise promise to make. And he does have a lovely family.”

“They’re all so happy,”

Lorna said wistfully. She kept on looking out the window. “We made popcorn after dinner and watched some funny movies. It was really fun.” She paused. “I bet his daughters don’t think about running away.”

Anna drew a long breath to steady herself. “Do you think about running away?”

“All the time.”

“Why?”

Lorna didn’t answer.

Anna hesitated, wondering whether to keep beating around the bush or to just charge right in. For the first time in her life, she wished she had some formal training in psychology. At last she said, “I used to think about running away when I was your age. Finally I did.”

Lorna turned from the window, looking at her with evident interest. “Did you make it?”

“That depends on what you mean by making it. I got away. But I paid a terrible price for it. There isn’t much a fourteen-year-old girl can do on the streets. Nobody will hire you. I wound up having to do things I’m too ashamed to talk about.”

Lorna came closer and sat, facing her. “I won’t tell anybody. I promise.”

Anna shook her head. “I don’t like to talk about it. But running away is never an answer, Lorna. I found that out the hard way.”

The girl nodded. “I kind of figured that out myself. Did they catch you and make you go home?”

“They caught me. But no, they didn’t make me go home.”

“How come?”

“Because I finally told them the truth about what was going on. After that, they made sure I didn’t have to go home.”

Lorna caught her breath but still didn’t say anything. Her look was one of painful yearning in the instant before she averted her face. Silence reigned for several minutes.

Finally Anna spoke. “I talked to Mary Jo last night. She’s worried sick about you.”

Lorna nodded but didn’t reply.

“Killing yourself isn’t the answer, either, Lorna.

Honey, you’ve got to trust one of us enough to tell us what’s wrong. We can’t help you if you don’t tell us.”

“I can’t. I can’t.”

“Of course you can. Don’t you see?

Nobody can hurt you anymore if you just tell us what’s wrong. I’ll protect you. Sheriff Tate and the judge will protect you. Nobody will ever lay another finger on you.”

“You don’t know. You can’t promise that.”

“Yes, I can. And I’m promising it right now. But we can’t do anything unless we know what’s going on.”

Lorna kept her head down and didn’t answer.

Anna rose and went to the window, searching for the courage to bare her soul. The words didn’t want to come. They lodged in her throat, stuck like glue. She dug her nails into her palms, then forced the words out past lips that felt like wood.

“Mary Jo said you sleep with a plumber’s wrench under your bed.”

“So?”

“I used to sleep with a hammer under mine.”

She heard Lorna gasp, and part of her wanted to go to the girl and wrap her up in a tight hug. But she couldn’t move. She kept staring out at the alley and the gray day. A solitary snowflake drifted down and vanished on the ice below.

“I know what’s going on, Lorna. But I need you to tell me yourself. Nobody can do anything if you don’t tell us yourself.”

The girl sounded breathless. “You…you could be wrong.”

“I’m not wrong. I slept with a hammer under my bed for too long to be wrong. I ran away from home and lived on the streets. I’ve been there, Lorna. I’m not wrong.”

“You…you promise…you won’t tell anybody?”

Anna hesitated. She needed Lorna to tell the sheriff or the judge about this. On the other hand, the first and most difficult step was getting Lorna to speak about it at all. One step at a time.

“I promise,” she said, and turned to look at the girl.

“I won’t tell unless you say it’s okay. But you’d better tell somebody fast, before that man leaves town and takes your sister with him.”

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