Read Online The Challenger by Terri Farley - Free Book Online Page A

learn?”
    â€œWho knows? But this was the last time she did it. In minutes, your mother, in her pretty blue dress and sandals, was helping Wyatt tend Trixy.” Gram stared at the kitchen wall as if it showed a film of that day. “Wyatt held that big brown dog between his knees, keeping her still. Louise used pliers to jerk those quills out, while tears ran down her cheeks. She was so softhearted, but she was tough, too. She pulled every one of those quills.
    â€œAnd when they were all finished and Trixy came over and licked your mother’s face? She fell on herknees and hugged that dog until Wyatt didn’t know what to do.
    â€œFrom that day on, Trixy was as much Louise’s dog as she was Wyatt’s. More than once, I heard him joke that he only married Louise to please Trixy. Yes, I imagine you’re a lot like your mom was at your age. She was a city girl, but she wasn’t squeamish. She did what had to be done.”
    Sam and Gram finished eating with only the refrigerator’s hum to fill the quiet. Upstairs, Sam’s clock radio started playing and Dad’s feet hit his bedroom floor with a thump.
    â€œI better go brush my hair,” Sam said.
    â€œCould you collect eggs for me first, since you’re already down here?” Gram had gotten up to peek at her bread, so she didn’t see Sam wince. “Your father’s not much for pie-and-coffee breakfasts, and he might as well have his eggs fresh.”
    â€œOkay,” Sam said. She took a basket from the kitchen counter and turned on the porch light before she went outside.
    The night had faded to gray and the Calico Mountains were outlined purple against the horizon, but Sam felt nervous approaching the chicken coop.
    Why didn’t one of the cowboys open the bunkhouse door and let Blaze out? The hands were always up by now. Maybe they were eating breakfast, but if she could hear the dog scratching the door, so should they.
    Then, when she was just a few yards from the chicken coop, Sam heard something else. A movement like a big snake, or a thick rope being whipped across the ground. She’d never heard the sound before. She froze, staring through the chicken wire at something dark hiding on the other side.
    The porch light reflected in two large amber eyes.
    It’s not a big animal, Sam told herself as she studied the white-rimmed mouth that was open, but very low to the ground.
    Across the yard, the bunkhouse door opened.
    â€œGo on then, you crazy cur.” Pepper’s voice was muffled by a yawn, but Blaze leaped from the doorway, flying over the wooden stairs. The dog hit the ground running.
    Sam heard a low yowl and knew what she’d been watching, and what had been watching her. A cougar.
    Should she shout and try to scare it away? Should she tackle Blaze and try to keep him from being hurt?
    Too late. Dirt spat from beneath huge padded paws and the yellow eyes vanished. But Blaze followed right behind.
    â€œBlaze!” Sam shouted. “Come back here!”
    Dad was on the porch, making a whistle more shrill than anything Sam had ever heard that early in the morning.
    It worked.
    Sneezing the dust from his nose, trotting as if he’d filled his paws with stickers from the cold morningground, Blaze came back and picked his way toward the porch.
    â€œWhat’s got into that dog?” Pepper called from the bunkhouse.
    â€œI don’t know,” Sam yelled back.
    She hated lying, but she would not give anyone a reason to hunt down that cougar and orphan its kitten.
    She took a deep, steadying breath and opened the chicken yard gate. Her hands shook as she gathered the eggs. There weren’t many. Had the cougar been skulking about all night, making the hens too nervous to lay?
    When she’d searched all the nests and come up with only three eggs, Sam quit looking.
    She opened the gate and headed back toward the house, then noticed Dad was still standing on the front porch.