A Stranger Named Becky

 By Emma Moody, age 11

FINALIST (ages 9-13) Writing Contest Winter/Spring 2024

Carter Ranch - Spring 1881

“Why can’t you stop bossing me? I am NOT a five year-old, you know!” 13 year-old Andrea Carter had been getting into fights like this with her brother, Chad, as long as she could remember, but never one as heated as this.

“Well maybe if you would show me a little respect, I would treat you like a 13 year-old. If you can’t act like one, maybe you shouldn’t be treated like one.” With these words, Andi’s brother slammed out the back door.

Andi turned on her heel and raced out the front door straight for the barn. She knew he was right. She had been acting like a five year-old this week. All because of that lousy horse, she thought, while running into the barn.

Unlocking her mare’s stall door, Andi stepped inside and buried her face in the horse’s mane and let her tears come. “Oh Taffy! Why am I such a nitwit? Why didn’t I just keep my big mouth shut?”

Andi moaned and sank to the floor as she thought back on how it had all transpired. It started when Andi had asked, like any girl would, if she could help break the new maverick that Chad had just bought, with the hope of turning him into a rideable stallion.

That was the first day of this feud between Andi and her brother. “Sometimes I wish I didn’t have a brother,” Andi uttered. Deep down she loved Chad, but all she could think of was how miserable she was. “I will never speak to him again for treating me like that,” she vowed.

 “What in the name of Sam Hill is this??” Andi pulled her mare Taffy to a bone-rattling stop next to a gray huddled lump on the ground. Taffy tossed her head and whinnied at the sudden interruption to their Saturday romp around the Carter range land settled at the foot of the beautiful white capped Sierra Nevada mountain range. Although the memory of last week’s encounter with Chad was a fast fading memory, she had kept true her vow and hadn’t spoken to Chad for a whole week.

“Whoa girl. I’m sorry for the sudden stop, but you were inches from running over this...lump.” Andi swung out of her saddle onto the lush green grass of spring and hurried over to the lump that was looking more lifelike than it had atop her perch on Taffy. In fact it was a lady’s figure lying on the ground in an unladylike heap.

“Hello? Ma’am wake up!” Andi knelt down and gently shook the woman’s shoulders.

The mystery woman groaned and tried to sit up, but fell back with a yelp of pain. Pain-filled beautiful hazel eyes stared up at Andi a minute or two later. Her face was framed by the blackest hair imaginable, that had escaped her tightly pinned up bun. Or at least, it WAS tightly pinned up hair when she had started out from wherever she might have come, now it looked like a horse had run over it at full gallop.

“My horse. Where is she?”

These words brought Andi back from her musing. What horse? The only horse around was Taffy. Then Andi spotted her. A large black horse lay on its side gasping and wheezing for air. Her sides were cut in long jagged lines and were slowly seeping blood. A lot of blood. The crowning punishment to the poor beast was the heavy piece of tack strapped down tightly on her back. There was no hope of getting it off of herself without her mistress’s help. Since the young woman had fallen back into unconsciousness after speaking those five words, Andi took it upon herself to relieve the horse of her burden.

As Andi knelt down to loosen the girth, the mare let out a weak nicker.

“Easy big girl. I’ll have this saddle off you in a flash.” Another nicker as the saddle slipped off.

“Miss.”

 Andi spun around at the soft voice behind her, only to see that the mystery lady had somehow managed to prop herself up at the base of a nearby tree and was staring at her.

 “Hello Miss. Thank you for caring for my horse. Her name is Lightning.”

Andi snapped her jaw shut, which had dropped when she saw how quickly the stranger had gone from a total blackout to sitting up with the help of a tree. Ignoring the thank-you, Andi went right to the basics.

“Hello to you to, what is you name, how old are you, and where are you from?” Andi was taking no chances after her encounter with her brother-in-law, Troy, almost six months ago.

“You don’t skip a beat do you? Well my name is Becky, I’m 17, and if I may be as bold to ask the same of you?”

Very bold, Andi thought, after I just basically saved you and your horse, and Andi realized, you didn’t answer where you are from      “I’m Andrea Carter, 13 years old, and this is my family's ranch. What happened to your horse? Her sides are absolutely sliced. And you look like you’ve been sick for weeks.”

Acting like she hadn’t heard Andi, she weakly remarked,

“Well are you going to help me get to a doctor or not?”

“How long have you been ill young lady?” Doc. Weaver looked down on Becky with worried eyes.

“I don’t know. Maybe 8 weeks.” Gasping, Andi stared at Becky.  Eight weeks? I’ve never been sick that long even with scarlet fever and that seemed like ages!

“Andi, would you please leave the room so that I can more closely examine Miss Becky?

25 minutes later, Doc Weaver stepped out of the guest bedroom on the second floor of the sprawling Carter ranch house settled about an hour from Fresno, California.

“So,” Elizabeth Carter wrung her hands with a nervous expression in her beautiful blue eyes. “What’s the verdict?”

Sighing he, carefully closed the bedroom door, and walked toward the stairs.

 “Well Elizabeth, the good news is I think with plenty of rest and good food, her health and vigor will be restored.”

“The bad news?”

Another sigh as he started descending the stairs. “She has been severely sick for the past 8 weeks with pneumonia, but no matter how many times I asked her why her parents did not take her to a doctor, she would not tell me. She kept avoiding my questions.”

“What should we do?” Elizabeth, looking worried started after the doctor.

Stopping, he looked up at her and said, “Elizabeth, the only thing we can do is pray.” Turning, he added, “And, don’t drill her for answers.”

“We will not. And thank you for coming out at such late an hour.” It had taken Andi almost two hours to gallop back to the ranch with the stranger. Well, she had tried to gallop, but it turned out to be more like a mix between a bouncy trot and a slow lope, so it was nearly dark by the time she trotted onto the dusty ground beside the hitching post near the house.

“Of course Elizabeth. That is precisely what I am here for.” Reaching the bottom step, he offered,  “I can let myself out.”

“It’s been nearly a week now. Don’t you think we should ask Becky a few questions? She is pretty much fine now.” Miraculously Andi had restrained herself from asking this question that had been #1 in her mind since she found the unfortunate stranger and her unfortunate horse. Ahh yes. The stranger’s horse.

Sadly, Lightning had been so cut up and bruised that Andi’s brothers almost had to put her down, but as if someone had flipped a switch, she was now on the mend. A true miracle considering her injuries.

“I don’t know Andrea. I’ll admit she has perked up a bit since you found her, but Doctor Weaver said that we shouldn’t ask her questions until she was completely well.” Stressing the word “completely,” Elizabeth answered the pleading look in her daughter’s blue eyes.

“Why not?” Andi rarely questioned her mother, but she was about bursting to know why Lightning looked like she had been beaten. If she was the one who beat that poor horse, I am marching right up there and demanding an answer

This was not the first time those words had wormed their way into Andi’s mind. If I did that, mother would take a piece outta my hide These words also found their way into her mind, which saved her from marching into Becky's room. Correction, OUR guest room that little miss princess is staying in It was understating it to say that Andi was more than a little annoyed at the gentile way everyone was treating Becky. Free room and board and she doesn't even have to work And we don’t even know who she is and why she collapsed onto our ranch

 “Andrea, ask me again in the morning will you? I am dead tired from staying up and tending to Becky.”

 Meekly Andi replied, “Yes mother, I just want to know why her horse looks like a sliced up, beaten old nag. And who in the world she is.”

   Andi woke up with cold sweat trickling down her neck. What had awakened her from her lovely dream about romping about with Taffy? Then she heard it. A horrible heart wrenching scream coming from the direction of the occupied guest room.

Jumping out of bed, Andi’s feet hit the cold floor running.  As Andi reached the closest room to hers, the door flew open and revealed Justin, blurry eyed and hair tousled. He hardly glanced at Andi before he started running down the hall toward Becky’s room. Andi followed at her oldest and favorite brother’s heels.

“Becky! What is wrong?” Striding quickly across the room, he shook her and repeated his question. “Becky!” Andi was joined in the doorway by the rest of her family. Mother pushed past Andi and fell at the side of the bed, gently stroking her hair. Finally, Becky stopped screaming and a long shudder went through her.

“Melinda. Go get a rag and a bowl of water.”

Andi’s sister took off like a shot.

“Tell me what’s wrong honey. You’re safe. You can tell us.” Andi recognized the soft voice that her Mother had always used when one of her children was sick.

“Oh Mrs. Carter. I am sorry to have awakened you all. Please forgive me. I can explain.”

“Please do,  you’ve waited long enough.” Andi muttered under her breath, then quickly looked around to see if Mother or Justin had heard her, letting out a relived sigh when she saw that no one had. Scratch that. The amused look Mitch passed her said that he had.

“I’ll start at the beginning.” Taking a deep breath, Becky plunged into her story. “I got sick about two months ago. My mother died a couple of years ago, and my father was a horrible drunk and died a few months later, leaving my brother Frank and I orphans. My brother followed in father’s footsteps and also began drinking. We had no money to take me to the doctor. Even if we did, my brother was more concerned with his whiskey supply than for me,” Becky’s voice caught at the same moment Melinda appeared with the rag and bowl of water.

“How did Lightning get so beat up?” Chad took advantage of the pause and asked the exact question that Andi was opening her mouth to ask.

“Frank,” was the simple one word answer. “My brother has a horrible temper and he beat both of our horses. I couldn't stand it anymore so I ran.”

“Where are you from?” This time it was Andi who asked the question.

“Liden. It’s about a 7 hour ride from here.” Andi had never heard of Liden, California before, nor had she heard such a sad and heartbreaking story as the one Becky had just related. No wonder she had been reluctant to share about herself. Andi didn’t blame her. No one spoke. Mother shattered the silence with, “Why don’t you all go back to bed while I talk a little more with Becky.”

Turning, Mitch said goodnight and went toward his room. Justin and Melinda followed suit. Chad started toward his room and tossed a goodnight over his shoulder.

Becky’s story had gotten Andi thinking about Chad. Without even saying goodnight, Andi raced toward Chad, threw herself into his arms, and started sobbing. “I am so, so sorry Chad for the way I treated you a couple of weeks ago. Can you ever forgive me?”

 Chad, gathering Andi up in his arms, and said, “I forgive you little Sis. Can you forgive me?”

“Of course big Brother. And thank you.” Andi hopped down and made a beeline for her room, stopping at the doorway only to bid Chad goodnight. Something she had not done since their fight two weeks ago. “Goodnight Chad. I love you.”

“Love you too Sis. And, well, I’ve been thinking. Would you like to help break the new maverick I got?”

As Andi drifted off to sleep that night, she thought how blessed she was to have such a wonderful loving family, and how blessed she was to have such a good big brother. Even if he was a tad bossy.