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Date Posted: 14:04:31 04/16/04 Fri
Author: Sunny
Subject: Rainy Day (a companion piece, written completely out of space & time ;P)

A booted, size 12 foot found its resting place on the top rail of the newly repaired paddock fence. Dust had dulled the calfskin leather. A hard day's work had popped a stitch or two along the inner ankle. The heel was caked in cow pie and mud. The sun was low. The old wooden bench had never been so comfortable. He closed his eyes. Just for a moment...

************************************************************

The dinnerbell rang once and then, immediately, again. Robert Sr. never had been one for patience and a day of honest work, paired with the scent of chicken-fried steak, had him eager to take his place at the head of the long pine table in the ranch kitchen. He rang the bell a third time but the booted figure in the paddock paid him no mind. His son was as still as the landscape around him...and just as stubborn. The setting sun behind him had his hair afire. Fitting really, with the mood Rob had been in of late.

"Wake up, Son!" Robert called, raising his freshly scrubbed hand to shield his eyes from the sun. "Dinner's up!"

Rob didn't move. The sun set lower in the sky. Robert made his way down the gravel lined path.

"Boy...don't make me get the cattle prod."

"Mmmph," was all the response he got.

"Oh...so you do live? Then get up and give me a hand with setting that table so we can get us some grub. Jessie's fixed her chicken-friend steak."

"Don' wanna."

It was like the boy was five again.

"Look here, Son. You're a forty year old man now. I won't say it again...up!"

The word hung in the air like the setting sun, a challenge unanswered. Robert shook his head and spun on his heels.

Let the boy starve! He'd been no good to anyone lately. Truth be told, nothing had been any good in Studs in quite some time. It was as if the whole town and all the people in it were frozen, written on a piece of parchment that had been rolled up and put away for a rainy day.

Plop!

A single drop exploded on the toe of Robert's boot, then another...and another.

The clouds had come from out of nowhere. The skies opened. Robert ran for the house, hooting with laughter all the way.

"Looks like, maybe, that rainy day has come! Yaaahooo!"

Rob turned his eyes to the sky and pulled his hat down tight around his ears against the rain. He didn't move.

Let the rain come.

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