Make Me Smile

Vaughn took wonderful care of the animals. I was especially delighted by the fact that he rode the horse all over the farm throughout the day. Not only was it great exercise for the horse, who had been a little bored under my care, but it was incredibly sexy to watch him galloping expertly around the farm. My little doggie, Chip, liked to run around after them, so he was getting exercise and fun out of it too.

Vaughn had used the east side of my farm as an outdoor animal area. He had built a fence, and divided the area up in four sections. There was a small, barren area that housed the chickens. Then there was a very large grassy area that housed all of the female animals, both sheep and cows. Vaughn explained that it was fine to pen them all together. They wouldn’t bother each other. It was a different story with the male animals. So, the third area was a small grassy pen for the ram, and the final area was for the bull.

I did my farming on the west side of the farm. It was actually rather convenient, as it was closest to the water source. We were getting into the last days of summer, and I tended to my tomato and corn. My onions and pumpkins had already played out their time in the season, and had all been harvested and shipped.

One day, after dumping a basket of ears into the shipping bin, I caught a glimpse of some pretty wildflowers in the ram’s pen. I walked over, glancing at the ram. He was turned away, kneeling down on the ground. I figured it was safe, and I hoisted myself over the fence. I recognized those flowers, and if I wasn’t mistaken, they weren’t just flowers.

I grabbed and tugged them by the roots out of the soil. I nodded. Sure enough, they were wild carrots. I lifted them in the air and shook them vigorously, shaking the dirt free. I became aware of a loud pounding noise behind me. I turned to look –

And that’s all I remembered.

Pain. I was only aware of pain as I fluttered my eyes open. I groaned softly, reaching my hand up to shield my eyes from the light. I was surprised to feel something soft wrapped around my head. What was going on?

Suddenly Vaughn appeared in my field of vision, his face lined with worry. I heard another man’s voice come from somewhere else. “Oh, she’s awake?” the man said. Vaughn nodded silently, then kneeled down beside me, taking my hand and squeezing it.

“Are you okay?” he asked, his face still stricken.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “I’m not even sure what’s going on.” I tried to sit up, but grimaced with pain, and fell back on the bed. “I feel like I was hit by a truck.”

“That’s pretty close.” The other man came into view then. He had short black hair, and kind eyes. His hands were rolling up a piece of gauze, and my mind stirred, telling me somehow that he was a doctor. “You got rammed by your ram, no pun intended. He knocked you over the fence, and your boyfriend here found you unconscious. I’m Dr. Trent, by the way. I’m here on vacation. Anyway, like I was saying, he brought you inside and then went to get Taro, who got me.”

I nodded painfully, trying to absorb all this information. Dr. Trent cleared his throat. “I just need to do a few tests to check you for damage.” He proceeded to make me follow a penlight with my eyes, and several other silly seeming tasks. When he was done, he nodded approvingly. “It might be too soon to say, but I think you’ll be fine.” He looked at Vaughn. “Just keep an eye on her. If she starts acting strangely, don’t hesitate to call for me. I’m staying at the hotel.”

Vaughn just nodded, mumbled “Thank you,” and then Dr. Trent departed.

Vaughn turned back to me. He gazed at me, expressionless, as he stroked at my arm. He looked exhausted. He furrowed his brow. “What were you doing in the ram’s pen, anyway?”

I struggled to think. “Oh…I saw some flowers in there.”

Vaughn frowned. “You know better than that. The ram is really volatile. You should never have gone in there, especially not for such a silly reason!” He sounded angry, and I cringed.

I turned away from him slightly, and a tear rolled down my cheek. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “The ram was all the way over at the other side, and I thought he was sleeping. I thought it would be fine if I just went in for a second…” I trailed off as I started crying harder.

I heard Vaughn sigh, and he climbed in the bed next to me, wrapping his arms around me. “Don’t cry, Chelsea. I’m sorry. I’m not mad at you.” He kissed my temple. “You just don’t know…what I felt like when I found you.” I could feel him trembling, and I was surprised. He took a deep breath of air, and then continued. “I thought you were dead, and I felt like I was dying too. It was like the whole world suddenly got black.” He hugged me tighter, nuzzling his face into my hair.

We lay there in silence. Then, I stirred and spoke. “Carrots.”

Vaughn made a disgusted noise. “What about carrots?” he asked, lost.

I turned around to face him. “The flowers. They were wild carrots, and I wanted to pull them up.”

Vaughn closed his eyes and shook his head. “I told you that carrots weren’t worth a damn.” That made me giggle, and I moved in closer and kissed him. I winced with pain, and he pulled away. “What’s wrong?” I just shook my head, and he continued. “Should I go get the doctor?” He made a movement to rise, but I stopped him.

“I’m okay,” I said softly. “I just want to rest for a little while.” Vaughn nodded and got out of the bed, then smoothed out the covers and made sure I was comfortable. I drifted off to sleep.

When I awoke, it was just past sunset. My eyes slowly opened, and in the dim light, I could see that Vaughn was sitting by the bed, watching me. He smiled as I opened my eyes. “Hey, sleepy head,” he grunted.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. Vaughn went to answer it, opening the door to reveal Taro standing there with a small carton. “Good evening, good evening,” he said, bustling inside and raising the box up to Vaughn. “That’s dinner, courtesy of Felicia. I figgered that you weren’t much of a cook, and the little missy here needs to rest and not be banging pots and pans around.” Taro made his way over to me. “And how is the little missy doing?”

I smiled weakly. “I’m fine, Taro.”

“Goddess be praised, Goddess be praised! I was really worried there for a while, sure was, I sure was. I knew you had to be hurt something bad for a cowboy to be bawling his eyes out like that.” I widened my eyes, and I heard Vaughn give an embarrassed cough. “But at any rate, it was a good thing that Dr. Trent was on vacation here. Yes it was. We really need to get ourselves our own doctor here, yessirree, we do. Now, what could we do to get a doctor to come live here?” He excused himself, mumbling and lost in thought.

Vaughn avoided my gaze. I was still in shock. “You… you were crying?” I asked, unbelieving.

He cleared his throat, turning away. “That old man’s just exaggerating.”

Still, I smiled a little to myself. I was happy to know that he cared about me that much.