Рита Браун - Pawing Through The Past

Pewter, on her back, rolled over. She crawled out of the cart to join Mrs. Murphy, who wasn't wildly happy about it but she wasn't selfish either.

"Are you going to add a small-animal practice to your equine practice?" Mrs. Hogendobber laughed.

"No. I get freebies from feed companies. Which reminds me, I've got a bag of rich alfalfa cubes. I'm wondering if you'd help me, Harry? If I give you a feed schedule, three cubes per day along with your standard timothy, will you keep weight charts for me?"

"Sure," Harry happily agreed.

"You don't put your horses on a scale, do you?" Mrs. Hogendobber, not a horse person, inquired. "That would be awfully difficult, wouldn't it?"

"Miranda, the easiest way to keep track of gain is a tape mea-sure. Just the kind you'd buy from the five-and-dime."

"Except there are no more five-and-dimes." Miranda wrinkled her forehead. "When I think of the times I ran into Woolworth's with a quarter as a child and thought I was rich . . ."

"You were." Fair smiled, which only made him more handsome. He strongly resembled the young Gary Cooper.

At six feet four inches, with blond hair, a strong jaw, kind eyes, and broad shoulders, Fair was a man women noticed. And they usually smiled when they noticed.

"Those were the days." The older woman rolled up the blue nylon belts used to hold large quantities of mail. "Do you know, Fair Haristeen, that this year is my fiftieth high-school reunion. I have to pinch myself to realize it."

"You don't look a day over thirty-nine and no one in Crozet can hold a candle to your gardening powers."

She smiled broadly. "Better not say that in front of Mim."

"If I had three gardeners I'd be on the garden tour, too." He tossed catalogues in the garbage can. "You do it by yourself."

"Thank you." She was mightily pleased.

"Almost lunch hour." Harry flicked two letters into Susan Tucker's mailbox.

Fair glanced at the clock. "Want me to go with you to Art's?"

"Why, you think I can't make a deal?"

"No. I think you'll cry if you part with that heap out back."

"I will not." Color came to her cheeks.

"Okay." He winked at Miranda when Harry couldn't see him, walked to the door, then turned. "I'll drop the alfalfa cubes off tonight."

"I don't know if I want to talk to you. I can't believe you think I'd cry over a truck."

"Uh-huh." He pushed open the door and walked into the breezy air. It felt more like late September than the tail end of August.

"He gets my goat," Harry mumbled as she rolled up lingerie catalogues and slid them in Little Mim's mailbox. "Why does she get all these underwear wishing books?"

"Because she's wishing," Miranda answered.

Little Mim, divorced a few years back, was lonesome, lonesome and carrying a torch for Harry's neighbor, Blair Bainbridge.

"Oh." Harry blinked. She never thought of stuff like that.

"It's noon. Are you going to the Ford dealer, or not?"

"I'm going. I said I was going. I know none of you think I can count beans, much less make a deal."

"I never said that."

"You didn't have to."

"Harry, calm yourself. I think you have a good head for figures. I admire your frugality. After all, I'm still driving my husband's Falcon and how many years has my poor George been called to heaven? Really now, I'm on your side."

Harry regretted her crabby moment. "I know you are, Miranda. I don't know what made me cross."

"Your ex."

She shrugged. "I think I can do better without the three musketeers. Mind letting them work through lunch hour?"

"Take me?" Tucker wagged her nonexistent tail.

"I'm staying right here." Pewter put one paw on the collapsed foil packet.

"I'll stay, too. Good luck, Mom."

Twenty minutes later Harry rolled downPantopsMountain , for she'd driven down on I-64, turning left on Route 250 at the Shadwell exit. The Ford dealership, spanking blue and white, covered the north side of the road just before the river. In the old days there had been a covered bridge over theRivannaRiver , calledFreeBridge , since there was no toll to use it. A big storm would find horse and buggies lined up in the bridge waiting for the worst to blow over. Today such chance encounters and sensible acceptance of Nature's agenda had been pushed aside. People thought they could drive through anything. The covered bridge gave way to a two-lane buttressed bridge, which in turn gave way to a four-lane soulless piece of engineering. People zoomed across the river with never a thought for stopping and looking down or having a juicy chat with a friend while the thunder boomed overhead.

Harry pulled in front of the plate-glass windows at the older part of the Ford building.

Art Bushey walked out to see her. "Hi, beautiful. Did I ever tell you, I have a thing for postmistresses. I like that word 'mistress.' Just gives me chills."

"Pervert." Harry punched him, then hugged him.

"Knew you were coming. Half of Crozet called me, including your ex-husband. Still loves you, Harry. But hey, men fall all over you."

"You are so full of it."

"Love hearing it, though, don't you? You're a good-looking woman. I want good-looking women driving Ford trucks." He ducked his head into the 1978 truck to look at the speedometer. "How many times has this thing turned over?"

"Over two hundred thousand."

"We build 'em good, don't we?" He patted the nose of the blue truck. "Come on, let me show you what I've got, and Harry, don't panic about the money just yet. Let me show you what's here. You drive them. I'll work something out. I want your money, now, don't misunderstand me. I love money. But Busheys, Minors, and Hepworths"-he mentioned her mother's maiden name-"go back a long way. I remember when your father bought this truck."

"I do, too. His first new truck. You still had your mustache." Harry recalled the flush on her father's lean face when he told his wife and daughter he'd bought a brand-new truck.

"Come on." He opened the door to a red half-ton 4 x 4. "Thinking about growing my mustache back."

"I guess you were expecting me-got the plates on and everything." She smiled. "About the mustache: do it. Makes you look dangerous."

Art liked that. "They're all ready for you and I've got two used ones for you to look at as well."

She hopped in the cab, turned the motor over as he clicked on his seat belt in the passenger seat.

"Now this truck is maxed out. AC over here, tape deck and CD, speakers everywhere, captain's chairs-nice on the back-plush interior, which your cats will enjoy. Cats are fussy."

"Yeah, I'd hate to disappoint them." Harry hit the accelerator, they backed out, and in a minute they were heading toward Keswick. "Jeez, this thing drives like a car."

They roared down the road and as she touched the brakes, the machine glided to a smooth stop.

By the time they returned to the dealership she was amazed at how the truck felt. One by one they got into the different trucks, different trim packages.