Bull

I have no siblings so my cousin has become a surrogate sister. Gailie and I were as close as two peas in a pod, as mischievous as two little girls could get. What one couldn’t think of the other could or would… the words we shouldn’t do this weren’t in our vocabulary… I blame this partly on the funny stories we would hear our parents tell about their youth while living on the farm and it is obvious to me that my mischievous side was genetically formed. Special instructions were given to us by our Grandpa to stay clear of the cows. I have a mean Bull. Simply stated. Hot Deep South, on a farm no air conditioning that is a mix for a problem with Gailie and I. We tried the shade tree with no luck. We tried going back inside the farm house and lay in front of the fan which did work for a minute until the sounds of our singing face first into the fan with all the tiiinnklleee tttiiinkkklleee lliiittlleee starrrr became annoying and we were chased back outside. Hot as hell to coin a Southern saying. We watched as the cows came into drink at the trough. Slurping and drewling and dipping their noses into the water. I watched carefully trying to pick out which was the bull by the expression on its face. Being young and from the City I had limited insight to check elsewhere. The cows left the trough one by one after getting their fill of the water. Gailie and I started pumping water into the less than half full trough… splashing in the water as much as we could from the other side of the fence. I think it was the heat that made us decide to swim in that trough…. So we pumped and pumped until we filled it all the way up and looked out for adults of any kind and there were none around… So bending the barbed wire fence down we made our way to the forbidden side. As soon as we climbed in we knew it was the Right thing to have done. It was great. Cold water from the deeply dug well cooled us instantly. Amazing as it seems I don’t remember any cow slobber while I was diving under water in that trough. I do remember coming up for air spurting and spitting right in the face of the Biggest Cow I ever saw!! Gailie was still underwater when I pulled her up by her hair. We both plastered ourselves against the far side of that trough with our legs tucked under us like frogs. To this day I am unsure of how or why we hopped out of that trough and took off running away from the fence into the cow pasture. Which scared that “cow” named MIKE…. And He decided we were an invasion. Barefoot running through cow pies both fresh and not with that “cow” on our heels. Gailie had quite a set of lungs on her and let out some of the most blood-curdling screams I had ever heard. Then I heard the loudest scream of all and it was from me after that “cow” had my ponytail and was lifting me off the ground. In the background I heard voices, voices of distressed people yet familiar voices and then I saw this Red Studebacker truck come flying by me. Like a knight in white shinning amour on a stallion my Grandpawas driving that truck through that cow field bouncing airborne. My dad and my two uncles were in the back waving their undershirts wildly and screaming something that sounded like Harooona BULL. It was at that point I knew this cow was the BULL and he was pushing on me. I saw the truck make a big circle and my Dad yelling some kind of instructions to me that I couldn’t hear over the pounding of my heart in my chest through my ears. I didn’t want to look back I really didn’t need to, the BULL was knocking me along wanting me to fall so he could trample me to death. (Just like it would have happened on the Rifleman). The truck swung around and my uncle hung over the side and grabbed my ponytail and one arm then flung me in the bed of the truck. Saving me gave me more bruises than the BULL could have. Then came the LOOKS… those LOOKS that only parents and adults who love you can give. Those I am so disappointed in you LOOKS. Those I am going to punish you within an inch of your life looks. Getting out of the truck and trying to seem sweet and innocent was NOT working. My mother and my Aunt walked up to us and gave each of us a paring knife and said. NOW MISSY you go out to the Willow tree and get a switch. Picking a switch was a hard task to manage…