A Place to Call Home: Chapter 2

Mindy and Warren emerged from their cabin hand in hand, ready to face the aftermath of the storm. They paused at the door to survey the farm. Branches and leaves were scattered all about and a milk pail was laying in the middle of the yard. Warren noticed several boards came loose from the barn roof and the door had blown open. Mindy could already see hail mangled plants in the garden and shuddered at the thought of their corn fields that were surly shredded to pieces. Smoke curled up on the horizon, they would have to keep an eye on that. Lightening could start terrifying wild fires.

50 years out here on the prairie, 50 years of similar storms, but the shock of seeing the damage never lessened. But they had learned a thing or two about how to recover from even a wild tornado. The first task was to check the livestock and food storage. Without the animals and food they were hopeless. The cold cellar door was still latched tight, but they checked for water damage inside. All was well, Next they checked Mindy's chickens. They were all huddled in the corner and a tad wet, but they would be fine come morning. She was glad for the extra latch they had installed.

Warren paused to let Mindy rest on the bench he had built by her chicken coop and glanced back out at the smoke. He guessed it was two or three miles away, but it was dark black now and growing. Smoke like that came from more than just lightening striking a tree. The thought that it could be a neighbors house or barn was enough to make his stomach sick.

Inside the barn puddles had created mud showing the location of each leak in the roof. Most were still dripping and a small river seemed to be running through the south west corner under the milk cow. She eyed up Warren and swatted her tail in dissatisfaction. The reddish brown cow seemed to think she owned the barn and reminded Warren daily. The three pigs along the east wall slept like nothing had happened. The tan barn cat was sitting on the belly of the largest pig licking her paws. The horses were the only creatures to really show how upset they were over the storm. The appaloosa mare was shaking her head and rocking back and forth, clearly irritated. Mindy started talking to her and reached out to clam her. The pair of draft horses still had their ears pinned back. Frost, the older of the two, was trembling. Warren panicked when he noticed the hole in the wall at the back of their stall. It appeared that Bentley had kicked the wall and was now bleeding.

"Mindy please bring my toolkit over, I need to get this bleeding stopped," Warren asked, voice shaking. These horses were his most valuable tool. He relied on them for all his field work and for getting supplies from town. Mindy wobbled toward the small room they had separated off as the tool room. It was darker in there, but Warren always put his tools away neatly and she knew just where it would be. She took one step further as she reached out for the box of vet supplies but stumbled and cried out in pain.

Warren hurried over with the lantern scolding himself for asking her to get the toolbox. But what he found in the tool room shocked him.

To be continued...