Meadowlarks by Thomas Holladay (chapter books to read to 5 year olds TXT) 📕

up in a very strange, very different place.

People here are . . . different.

Carolyn and Jason could now live anywhere they wanted. This house and barn were beautiful, sure, but they knew nothing about running a ranch or taking care of stock.

Willis and John seemed happy to take care of things but that just didn't feel right.

Maybe Mom was right. Maybe they’d be better off living down on the coast, somewhere with good schools and safe streets.

Think about it later.

Right now, she needed to get Jason ready for school, already getting late. He'd finished feeding the horses around 7:15. He'd washed up and eaten his breakfast.

"Did you brush your teeth?"

He darted from the kitchen with Barnabas right behind.

She poured a cup of coffee and sat at the dining table in the kitchen bay window. From here, she saw all the way up River Road to the village. This kitchen did feel like home already. Her bedroom still felt too grand and spacious.

More than two miles away, their little yellow school bus rounded a curve near the village and sped down River Road.

Jason returned to the kitchen, Barnabas right behind.

“You ready for your first day at school? The bus is nearly here.”

“Yes, ma’am. I need to talk to those Embry twins.”

“I’m glad you’re eager to make new friends.”

Jason thought a moment and looked away. Making new friends didn't seem to be on his mind.

No time to ask.

Carolyn stood, crossed the kitchen and lifted his jacket from a hook on the back of the kitchen door. "Here. Put this on.”

They walked onto the front porch and stopped halfway down the steps.

Barnabas bolted down the steps, around the corner of the garage and disappeared.

Jason stepped down one step. “Gosh, where’s Barnabas going?”

"Maybe up to meet John Crow. Didn't you let him out earlier this morning?"

"Sure. He helped me feed the horses and stuff. Cold air was coming up from the river but he went down there anyway, probably to go to the bathroom."

“I’m sure he’ll be waiting for you when you get home from school.”

The small bus rushed over the top of the rise, slowed and heading downhill toward the barn. A woman was driving. She made a wide turn near the barn and drove back up toward the house.

Jason trotted down the steps to meet it. The bus stopped, the door opened and Jason turned back. “Don’t forget to let Barnabas into the house. Okay?”

“I’ll watch for him.” She climbed back up a step backward and clutched both arms against the cold.

Jason jumped up the steps into the bus, the door closed and he sat down in the front seat behind the driver.

Carolyn couldn’t remember her name, the heavy-set woman from yesterday. She cut hair at Jacobsen’s store on odd-numbered Saturdays, only seven dollars. She could take Jason this coming Saturday.

The woman waved, Carolyn waved back and the bus accelerated up the driveway and over the crest, disappearing down the other side.

Carolyn turned to go inside and Barnabas strutted around the corner of the garage carrying something large in his mouth. He dropped it in front of the steps and sniffed it.

“Lord!”

He sniffed the front leg of some animal.

Carolyn rushed into her bathroom and found an old towel, put on a jacket and went back outside.

Barnabas licked at the bloody end of the leg now.

“Barnabas, no!”

The dog stopped licking and looked at her.

She hurried down the steps, wrapped the leg in the towel, walked around the corner of the garage and followed Barnabas up a trail through evergreen trees. He knew the way. She walked out of the trees onto a rocky flat with tall grass and scattered sagebrush.

Up a little higher, a man knelt, working on something.

Barnabas rushed toward the man and Carolyn followed.

Willis Donner. 

He stood and carried what looked like some animal’s severed head farther uphill toward greener shrubbery, maybe a stream near the waterfall. Willis disappeared, probably going downhill to the stream.

Barnabas stopped where Willis had been working and sniffed at something bigger.

"Lord!"

Barnabas licked at the headless, mangled body of a small cow.

Large green flies filled the open chest cavity.

Yuk. 

Yellow breasted birds circled overhead, more than a little disturbing.

Barnabas licked blood from the large, flat rock under her feet. “Barnabas, leave that alone.” She clapped her hands and the birds spun higher into the morning sky. The dog didn’t listen to her this time, still licking blood. She shoved him with her knee, keeping him away from the blood, the flies and the dead cow.

Heat from the rock penetrated her sneakers.

Bizarre.

Morning sun had not yet reached her upper meadow.

My upper meadow.

That thought warmed her too.

The birds fluttered around the rock, settling into nearby clumps of tall grass, some poking into dirt to bring up fat, red worms, gulping them down.

Barnabas didn’t bother with the birds and they weren’t bothered by him.

Willis suddenly stood a few feet away. He tipped his hat. “Morning, miss. Sorry you had to see this.” Barnabas lunged at Willis, happily licking and nibbling Willis’s hand.

Carolyn unfurled the towel and dropped the leg next to the carcass. “Willis, just what is going on here?”

Willis removed his hat and looked into it, turning it slowly between his fingers, thinking what to say. “Did you put that bar into place last night like I showed you?”

That’s none of your business. 

Willis needed to be told who’s in charge. His bossy attitude could not be tolerated.

His eyes pierced. “Like I told you before, we got something wild up here.”

“Was that one of my cows?”

“No, ma’am. This here calf belonged to Jeff Ralston. Nason carried it up here yesterday.” Willis looked bewildered, not used to being questioned. “I always clean things up, Potter land and all.”

She relaxed a little and turned, looking at the valley, so beautiful. She could see the whole village from up here, the surrounding mountains and trees, the river gorge and the stream running into the lower meadow, the tall trees below that. The waterfall above cascaded between two giant boulders, stunningly beautiful.

It all