So Long As It's Wonderful
chapter 1 continued
She squatted behind the heifer and tied the second rope around the calf’s exposed hooves. She gripped the rope tight and pulled with all her weight, leaning back until she fell back clumsily. She let the rope go slack and waited, praying that natural contractions would begin. A moment later, she saw the sign she’d hoped for. Rose’s abdomen swelled as her back end tensed. Willie began to pull the calf when Rose pushed, and then they rested together between contractions. After three rounds of pulling, the hooves had scarcely moved, and the head still wasn’t visible.
“I know you can’t appreciate this now, but you’ve got to trust me,” Willie told Rose as she rolled her sleeves up to her shoulders. She repositioned herself behind the heifer and cupped her hands as she’d seen her father and grandfather do in rare cases when a calf was lodged in its mother’s narrow pelvis. She slid her hands in over the wet hooves, past the calf’s head, and down the neck, reaching inside until she had a hand on each of its shoulders. She tightened her grip and pulled down with a twist.
The calf came with a whoosh and a slurp and landed in her lap. A rush of amber liquid spilled out and splashed onto them both.
The calf didn’t move.
Willie noted its stillness with horror. It should be twitching and gasping. Here was evidence she’d done her job correctly, but not quickly enough. Her throat tightened and her eyes burned. Anger and frustration clouded her thoughts, even as she wiped the calf’s face and stroked its shiny coat.
Rose got to her feet and started licking the calf’s face and body. Her movements weren’t gentle, but it struck Willie as tender all the same. Willie scooted back and watched, irritated by the new mother’s rough persistence. They both needed to accept the reality of their failure. A tear ran down Willie’s cheek, and she brushed it away. If she was going to be taken seriously as a landowner and business woman, she had to learn to control her emotions.
In her lifetime on the farm, she had seen many still births and animals that needed to be put down. It was never easy, but she had never felt the weight of responsibility before today. She considered the financial loss. At least she’d saved the heifer.
Rose abandoned all tenderness now and nudged the calf forcefully, lifting its slick hind end and tossing it inches above the ground. She was determined to bring her calf to life, not for financial gain or a man’s approval, but because it was in her nature to give birth. She knew it wasn’t supposed to end this way.
Willie wiped tears away, but more filled her eyes. She grieved for the mother in front of her, and it seemed right to do. A new life was gone from the world before it ever drew a breath. If there was anything worth crying for, surely this was it.
Through the blur of tears, Willie saw movement on the ground, a trick of the eyes. Then she saw it again and was certain it was no illusion. The calf shook its head suddenly and gasped, filling its chest with new air. The heifer gave another rough nudge, and the calf bawled.
Abandoning any regard for composure, Willie continued to let the tears roll down her cheeks as she stood up. Then she held her arms out wide as she yelled, “They made it! They both made it!”
Rose looked at Willie. Willie recognized it as a warning and backed out of the pen, leaving the mother and baby to get acquainted.
When her father arrived, Willie was still at the fence watching, unable to take her eyes off the living, breathing calf she’d thought dead.
“How ‘bout that?” he said. “No matter how often it happens, it’s always a miracle.”
They stood together then, enjoying a rare moment of stillness rather than moving on to the next task. The heifer continued licking and nudging while they watched. Finally, the calf lifted its back hooves and after two lurches forward, stood on all four feet. Its body swayed from side to side while its feet struggled to stay underneath. It stumbled to its mother’s side and began nursing.
Jim Tollett gestured at his daughter’s clothes and said, “Looks like you had a hand in this one.”
“More than my hand,” Willie said. She spoke loudly and gestured as she spoke, wanting to make sure her father heard and understood, despite his hearing loss. “Nearly to my shoulders.” She explained what had happened while he was gone, and smiled in anticipation of her father’s commendation.
“Whoa! Is that a brand-new calf?” Willie turned around and saw Thurston standing barefoot outside the pen wearing his Sunday clothes.
“It is,” Father said. “Could be yours someday.”
Willie winced at the reminder. For nine years, she had been their father’s only interested beneficiary. Her sisters wanted nothing more than to be married off and have babies clinging to their skirts, but Willie wanted the farm. She’d been given a man’s name, and she wanted a man’s life.
Willie had been working beside her father and learning the business for as long as she could remember. He was agreeable to giving her a quarter section of his land when she finished school.
Even as a child, however, Willie had sensed the shift after Thurston was born. Jim Tollett had continued treating Willie like a son regarding the work she was expected to do, but when it came to talk of inheritance, Thurston became the new heir apparent. Willie knew their father was inclined to hand over the farm she’d worked so hard for to a boy who’d been in long pants a shorter time than she’d been in high school. Still, she clung to her father’s promise of the first one-hundred sixty acres.
Now, her brother had shown up at the moment of her greatest accomplishment and stolen her father’s attention. Thurston stepped forward for a closer look at the calf, belly full and sleeping on the ground with its mother standing nearby.
“Thurston!” Willie yelled. “If you get your church duds mucked up, Mother will have your hide!”
“Oh yeah!” he said. “That’s why I came out here. Edgalea sent me to tell you both it’s time to get to the social.”
“Great day in the morning!” Willie said. “Run and tell Edge we’ll be right in!”