Chapter 10
The Rescue
Sheriff Walker is the first to see Billy emerge from the treeline, water streaming down his face, the calf trotting behind him. The sheriff’s face is hard but his voice cracks as he says, 'Good work, son.' Billy feels those words sink into his skin like warm sunlight. Men cluster around, clapping his back. Mrs. Patterson hugs the calf and then Billy, her tears mixing with rain. Mama Annie pushes through the crowd, her face pale and wet. She kneels and takes Billy’s face in her hands, searching his eyes. She doesn't scold; she just holds him, her body shaking with relief. Billy wraps his arms around her neck, and for a moment the rain stops inside him.
The rain had not stopped, but it had softened to a thin, gray drizzle that clung to everything like a second skin. Sheriff Walker stood at the edge of the treeline, his boots sunk ankle-deep in mud, his hand resting on the butt of his holstered revolver out of habit more than need. He had been about to call for a search party, his voice already gathering the gruff command that came with authority, when he saw the boy.
Billy emerged from the thicket of pines like something out of a dream. His shirt was torn at the shoulder, his trousers soaked through and streaked with mud, and water streamed down his face in rivulets that might have been rain and might have been tears. But his eyes were clear. And behind him, trotting with the placid patience of a creature who had simply decided the storm was over, came the calf.
The little brown-and-white heifer was no worse for wear, save for a rope of baling twine still dangling from her neck. She had been missing for two days, swept downstream when the creek rose and the fence gave way. The Pattersons' barn had flooded, and the calf had been caught in the current, carried off into the woods where the water had finally receded enough to leave her stranded in a tangle of brush. Billy had found her.
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