On the Lamb

Fog rolled in from the mountains early that night; thick enough to to blur the treeline a mere 20 feet away. Pouring down rain and a full moon loomed over the forest and wind whipped through the tree branches. I sat in an old chair; two dead rabbits lay on the table glistening with fresh blood. I’m thankful I came back from hunting when I did. If I hadn’t, who knows if I would have made it back in this retched weather. Suddenly, I heard a thundering knock at the door and then another and another. Quickly I leapt up from my chair and raced to the door. I turned the knob and opened it. Standing on my doorstep was a tall man with a beard and a leather hat. He was wearing sheepskin pants and a warm fur coat. “Come in, come in” I said and the strange man crossed the threshold into my home. I welcomed him to sit down as I gesture towards the now empty chair and does. “So who are you” I ask with a hint of surprise creeping into my voice. The man stood up and said “I'm James Peaterson form the sheep ranch.” “I'm Jaxson- Jaxson smith” I said as I reached out my hand for James to shake. As we shook hands I noticed a scar running down one of James’ fingers. I looked him over and saw another one right above his left left eye, one on his chin and three more close in proximity on his right cheek I can’t help but think a man with this many scars can’t be up to any good. “One of the lambs got out. I realize now it was foolish of me the go out searching for it that close to dark. That fog, well it just came out of nowhere. It was fine one minute then that fog rolled in and it and it started raining.” “It did!” I exclaimed. “I’m glad I got in from hunting when I did. The rain started about 10 minutes after I got back.” “Did ya have any luck” James asked. “A bit. I’ve done better,” you say as you gesture towards the two dead rabbits on the table. “ah they’re fine” remarks James. “Yep there’s some pretty nice one in these woods” I say. “If the weather doesn’t get better in a few hours you’re welcome to stay the night” I told James. “Oh I couldn’t ask that of you” James remarks. “You didn’t ask, I’m offering” I say and put an end to it. “Well thank you. I really appreciate it” says James. “So, you said one of your lambs got out” I asked? “Yeah it slipped right through the fence” James answered. After a couples hours of small talk, I said “well its getting late I say let’s head to bed and look first thing tomorrow. I can help you for a few hours but then I have to run some errands in the town”. “Sounds like a plan but where will I sleep” says James. Follow me there’s an extra bed upstairs. I led him up the stairs and showed him to his bed. “Thank you very much” James said. “You’re welcome” I exclaim. As I was heading back down the stairs I accidentally misjudged a step and nearly fell but I quickly recovered. I heard James yelling “are you okay?” from upstairs. “Yes I’m okay” I replied and I continued down the old and creaky steps. When I finish my descent I walked straight to the bedroom, flopped onto my bed and closed my eyes. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t shake the thought that James was up to no good. Sure, his story made sense. He says he got caught in the weather looking for a lamb. He has sheepskin pants on so that part makes sense. But all his scars and the way he kept looking out the windows, as if he was expecting something had me thinking something wasn’t right. Maybe it’s nothing, maybe I’m just overthinking I told myself. My thoughts kept me tossing and turning for hours. Eventually I fell asleep and soon I opened my eyes to a ray of sunlight creeping through my window. I forced myself to get out of bed. I stood up, got dressed. When I opened the bedroom door and was greeted with the sight of James sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette. “Good, you’re awake” he says as he pinches the tip of the cigarette to extinguish it. “Well let’s not dilly dally. Let’s start looking.” he said as he got up. “It probably didn’t make it through the night with this weather and the coyotes and foxes.” I agree, “You’re probably right.” He continued, “but I want to try to find it because if we don’t it’s mother will escape to go try to recover her lost child. If that happens her other lamb could die without her care.” “well we will do our best” I said and I reminded him “I can only help search for about four hour then I have to run to town.” “Sounds good” James remarked. I walked to the door, I firmly grab the cool metal knob with my hand and quickly twist it. We both stepped outside as I shut the door behind you, “where do you think the lamb went” I asked James. “I think it was somewhere over there” James replied as he points to a field about 400 yards away from me, so we headed towards the field. I noticed a few trees that fell down in the storm last night but apart from that the land is mostly untouched. As we reached the field me and James separate. James looked in the brush around the perimeter of the field and I looked in some of the surrounding woods. About 15 minutes later I see a small pond in the distance. I decide to go look if there are any lamb tracks near it because the creature would be thirsty by now. I yelled over to James “I see a pond down there. I’m going to go see if there’s any track near it. Okay?” James nods. I start walking toward the pond but then a thought pops into my head; “how did James’s cigarette light? He was in the pouring rain for a while last night.” I snap back to reality. By now I’m at the pond. It is mostly covered in lily pads and surrounded with bulrushes. I see a family of geese. I make a mental note to stay away from them since they can get pretty aggressive especially when they have goslings. I started searching for tracks around the perimeter of the pond. I looked in the mud but I didn’t see much at first. As I continued looking, I suddenly see something out of the corner of my eye. I crouched down to take a closer look but it was just deer some tracks. I stand back up a little disappointed but determined to keep searching. I take a few more steps and then I noticed something else. A patch of about 20 Queens Ann’s Lace. I think it’s neat but not what I’m looking for. “I wonder if this pound has any fish in I,” I think to myself. I decided to give a quick look so I walked over to the bank to take a long look in it. After a few minutes my eyes adjusted and I saw a few fish swimming around. I couldn’t tell what species they were so, I took another step forward. At this point I was right on the edge of the bank and if I took one more step I’d fall in. Suddenly, one of the fish darts a few feet farther away along the bank. I took a few steps to watch where it went. I was lost in my thoughts, thinking it looked a bass but I wasn’t sure. It kept swimming along the bank away from me and I kept taking steps to watch where it was going. Then I heard a loud HONK HONK. It was the goose and it was swimming right toward me, Startled, I stumbled back, almost tripping but I caught my balance. I started running back towards the hill. Once I reached it I don’t stop for a second. I just kept running straight up it. When I was at the top, I checked to see if the goose is still chasing me but thankfully, it gave up its pursuit at the bottom of the hill. The goose was now swimming back to its family. I think I’m not going back down there I’ll just look in some of the nearby brush, and that's exactly what I did. I walked over to walk over to the edge of the forest and see a pile of brush. I crouched down, leaned in, and parted the sticks and dead leaves with my fingers but I didn’t see anything. Nevertheless, I kept searching. I searched in the forest for the next few hours. At midday, I walked over to the field where James was looking for the lamb and said “okay, I’m going to go to town. I’ll be gone for about an hour. Are you going to continue looking in this field or search somewhere else so I know find you?” “I’m going to look over in that field” James replies as he points his index finder to a larger field about 200 yard away. “Okay” I yelled back as I started walking back to the house. I waste no time hopping on my horse, Tom. Once I got on the road I started galloping faster and faster. Dirt, dust, and stones were getting kicked up as Tom ran along the long winding road. It was exhilarating to feel the wind in my hair. It wasn’t long before I saw the town up ahead so we raced forward. Tom slowed to a trod as we came to a stop next to the gunsmith. I dismounted and hitched Tom to a post outside. I opened the door and walked in. As soon as the cashier heard my boots coming across the wooden floor, he looked up and said with a smile on his old looking face “why hello Jaxson! What brings you in today?” He always seemed happy to see me. I say “hey John, I just need some shotgun shells” “You’re in luck, I was just restocking some” John said. He turned around grabbed a small but heavy box of shotgun shells “is this the right kind” John asked. “It sure is” I replied. John takes them and sits the gently on the counter top then roughly pressed some buttons on the cash register. “Your total comes to 52 cents today” he tells me. I put two quarters and a nickle on the counter then slide them over to John take. He gave me 3 cents and throws the coins in the register. I shake his hand and say “thank you. Have a nice day” I grab the shotgun shells off the counter, shove them in my pocket and walk out the door and it falls shut behind me. I mount Tom and head for home. As I start to exit town I think I see James’s face out of the corner of my eye. Quickly, I snap my head back but its just someone reading a newspaper. I was going too fast to turn around and get a better look at the person, so I convince myself I probably just imagined it. I start speeding up again. I haven’t ridden Tom for a few days and he needs the exercise. We are soon home and I decide instead of hitching Tom to his post I’ll ride him to the field where James said he would be. I race down the hill and to the field but I don’t see James anywhere. I ride around the perimeter but he is nowhere to be seen. I look in another field and another. Eventually, I have looked in all the fields in the 800 yard radius with nowhere else to look so I decide to start searching in the surrounding forest. I was about to give up, but then I heard two voices, one familiar and one not, coming from somewhere near by. I quietly trot toward the voices. Suddenly, I heard two loud booming gunshots, a scream of pain then, a bounty hunter riding a white Arabian horse came riding out of from behind a tall bush.