Chapter 6
In Nicole’s world it wasn’t common to be woken up by the sunlight, usually she was up and working long before the sun was up. But last night was not normal for Nicole’s world, and neither was this morning. Nicole woke up to the warm rays of sun coming in through her window.
She slowly opened her eyes, she remembered falling asleep with Waverly in her arms, but she was surprised to wake up laying on her back with Waverly’s head resting on her chest. She listened to the soft snore still coming from the brunette.
She rested her hand on Waverly’s back. It wasn’t too often that she had a pretty woman in her bed these days; she tried her best to soak it in. She tried to focus on the moment rather than the memories of yesterday and what had happened in the barn, or the fact that Waverly was going to have to go back there. Not many things scared Nicole. She had seen her fair share of scary and gross and real life horror. But whatever had happened at the Earp Homestead had shaken her to her core.
Waverly was aware of how comfortable she was. She resisted the sunlight on her eyelids, wanting to sleep for forever. She stretched out a bit and cuddled in more to the women under her.
To the women under her. Waverly’s eyes fluttered open, sure enough she found herself lying on Nicole’s chest. She blushed deeply, unsure why she was so embarrassed. She hopped that Nicole wasn’t awake yet.
“Well, good morning,” Nicole gently moved her arm so she was no longer holding Waverly.
“How long have you been awake?” Waverly sat up a bit, propping herself on her elbow.
“Not long, but I didn’t want to wake you up,”
“Thank you for indulging me last night, sorry I’m a bit of a koala,” Waverly adverted her eyes.
“No problem, I was happy to help anyway I could,” Nicole smiled, “Want some breakfast?”
“Yeah, I would like that,”
The two got out of bed. An antsy Janey greeted them downstairs; she was pacing back and forth near her food dish and meowing. Nicole poured a scoop of cat food into the bowl before getting the coffee maker started.
“Eggs and bacon good with you?” Nicole asked.
“That sounds delicious,” Waverly smiled cheerfully at the kitchen island.
Nicole couldn’t help the smile on her face as she bustled around the kitchen fixing their coffee, and cooking. It had been quite sometime since she got to cook for someone else. It made her feel needed.
They sat side-by-side eating breakfast and sipping coffee. Comfortable silence. Waverly liked that Nicole wasn’t the type of person who had to fill every moment with the sound of her voice. She was the type of person who was happy to sit in silence with someone, and it wasn’t awkward. Champ had never shut up; it was almost as though he was afraid of the quiet.
“I was thinking that I could help you around here today, since you surly have chores that you missed yesterday because of me,” Waverly said.
“I’m all for that idea, I don’t know how effective I’ll be with my back feeling the way it does,” Nicole mentioned it briefly, but Waverly could see in Nicole’s face that her back was hurting more than she let on.
They dress, Waverly borrowed basketball shorts and a t-shirt, both too long for her. Every time Nicole looked at her she had to stifle a laugh. They bustled around the property trying to get everything done. They turned Whiskey out to pasture and cleaned her stall. Waverly sat on the fence of the make shift arena that Nicole had made and watched her work with the horse, Always building from the basics and then running barrels.
Waverly admired the relationship between the girl and the horse. When Nicole was on the horse’s back, Waverly almost couldn’t tell where the horse ended and Nicole started; in awe of the way the horse responded to the slight squeeze of Nicole’s knees and the click of her tongue.
Afterwards Waverly helped Nicole hose down the mare, brush, and pick her hooves. Waverly lightly touched the almost healed cut on the horse’s leg.
“She got that right before I met you, piece of broken metal in the horse trailer,” Nicole said.
They finished up the tasks at hand, the sun now high in the sky. They headed inside and hate a small lunch.
Waverly’s phone began to ring, and she answered it quickly when she saw that it was Wynonna.
“Hey, so I got someone coming to the house in like an hour to check out our ghost situation. Nicole is welcome to come too, I really want the Blacksmith to see her back,”
“I’m sorry, the who?” Waverly looked at Nicole with a bit of an exasperated look on her face.
“The Blacksmith. She is some kind of Native American spiritualist…. And also a blacksmith,” Wynonna said as though it was obvious.
“Oh, right… obviously,”
“And she agreed to come check it out, so bring Nicole, and come over,”
“Wait, how long have you been at the house alone?” Waverly asked.
“An hour or so. I had to make sure this ghost hadn’t made off with the good whiskey,”
The conversation ended and Waverly passed along the information to Nicole “Yeah, I’m happy to help anyway I can,” Nicole agreed to return to the homestead.
They made their way out to the ranch and saw Wynonna talking to a slender woman, of dark hair and a light brown complexion in the front yard. Waverly hopped out of the chevy and waited for Nicole to exit the vehicle before walking towards the two talking women.
“Waverly, Nicole, this is the Blacksmith,” Wynonna introduced them, “Nicole is the one who was attacked in the barn,”
The women shook their hands and looked at Nicole up and down, “May I see the wounds?”
Nicole lifted her shirt and Waverly gently removed the bandages she had fashioned over them. They had stopped bleeding, but weeping slightly. The Blacksmith gently touched them, and mimicked over them in the air a scratching motion with three fingers.
“This is actually really common. Malevolent spirits or presences often us threes to mock the Holy Trinity of Christian religions,” She stepped away, allowing Nicole to re-cover the wounds, “Whatever is happening here, it doesn’t want you guys here. You said this land has been in your families hands for a couple generations?”
Waverly stepped in, “Yes, all the way back to Wyatt Earp days. But we haven’t lived here in the last 20 years. It has been all but empty. Our uncle Curtis used to come out and check the property and make sure no one was squatting out here and to kick the kids off the land who wanted to use it to party,”
The Blacksmith thought about it and then asked for a tour of the house, barn and land. They watched her move around the house, which was now quiet and the electricity was working. Nicole was curious when she saw the Blacksmith linger in the room at the end of the hall, and the way it made the two sisters shift from one foot to the other uncomfortably.
Once the Blacksmith had finished with the old house and barn she asked to be taken around the property.
Wynonna chuckled, “This is a cattle ranch, we can’t just go and do a quick lap. We have almost 2,000 acres, some of it hasn’t see people in decades,”
The Blacksmith nodded, “Ok, I’ll just go visit with the land surrounding the home,” She abruptly began walking into the field behind the house, soon disappearing over a slight ridge.
“Are you sure she knows what she’s doing?” Nicole asked. She wasn’t actually sure what the qualifications were for being a ghost hunter or whatever, but she was skeptical at best.
Wynonna shrugged, “I mean she came highly recommended,”
“I’m not even going to ask where you got such a recommendation,” Waverly said, “But spirituals have been around for as long has humans have existed, so who knows,”
After about 30 minutes the women came walking back over the ridge and towards them, “I think I have feel for this place,” She said, “Lets go inside and sit down,”
They all sat round the old oak dinning table. Waverly got everyone a drink; lemonade for Nicole, water for herself and the Blacksmith, and two fingers of whiskey for Wynonna.
“A great tragedy happened here before you guys left, did it not?”
The two sisters nodded.
“That tragedy has to do with what had been happening here in the house. The footsteps and the noises and the other happenings can all be related to it. There are souls trapped here that don’t know they are dead. That I can help you with,”
Waverly and Wynonna looked at each other, “And the part you can’t help us with?” Wynonna asked.
“I felt the oppressive presence that Nicole ran into the barn. It had nothing to do with your family or what happened here. It is an opportunistic spirit, and it doesn’t just want to be here, but to be human again. It doesn’t seem strong enough yet to actually possess or seriously harm anyone, but as Nicole found out, it can inflict damage,”
“And how did it get here?” Waverly asked.
“Somewhere on the land, someone opened a portal. You have to find the portal, and you have to close it. But I cannot do that for you. I can direct you on how when you find it, but it is your land, you have to close it yourself,”
“How do you think something like this opened?” Nicole asked.
“Waverly, you said kids used to sneak onto the land and party?” the Blacksmith asked.
“Yeah, it was a constant battle to get them to stay off the land,”
“Did your uncle ever come across any dead animals? Or satanic symbols? Anything that may suggest witchcraft or devil worshiping?”
Waverly and Wynonna both looked at each other with questioning looks.
“I don’t think so, if he did he never mentioned it,” Wynonna said, sipping the whiskey in her glass, “If he did, he would have never told us. He was the kind to try and protect, to try and shelter,”
“Is there anyway you can ask him?” The Blacksmith asked.
“No, he passed away a couple months ago,” Wynonna said.
“Well, you guys will have to comb the property for any signs. And find the portal. As far as the house, I can come back tomorrow and get that taken care of,” She stood, “I will go prepare. Try and stay positive, and if I were you guys I would avoid the barn for now,”
Waverly and Nicole had spent a good portion on the rest of the day driving Waverly’s jeep around the eastern corner of the ranch. They had discovered old storage sheds and buildings that even Waverly had never seen before. It was going to take awhile to cover the whole property. The sun was beginning to set, and they had parked the jeep up on the ridge of one of the many rolling hills. Sitting on the open tailgate they watched the sun begin to set.
Nicole spoke in soft tones, “Can I ask a question?”
“Yeah, shoot,” Waverly said leaning back on her hands behind her.
“The tragedy that the Blacksmith was talking about, does that have to do with the story for another time you mentioned last night?”
Waverly didn’t answer right away, and Nicole feared that she might have gone too far, “You don’t have to answer that, I’m sorry,”
“No, I want to tell you. It’s just not easy,” Waverly gave her a small smile, “But if we are going to be friends, you will find out sooner or later,”
Nicole nodded and waited quietly for Waverly to speak.
“It wasn’t easy growing up with who our daddy was. He was well known back then, he controlled a lot of the livestock used in the rodeos. I was only 6 when he died and our oldest sister, Willa, died. Our mom left when I was 4, I don’t even remember her. Daddy started drinking and it became difficult for him to keep the ranch hands around because he was pretty verbally abusive to them. The farm was failing. Daddy turned to planting wheat. Without any help Wynonna and Willa had to help. They were all out in the fields and I was home, playing with my imaginary friend. There wasn’t much a baby could really do to help out there. I remember Wynonna come running in the house, screaming that something had happened. Something about the tractor. The police came, an ambulance. But both Daddy and Willa were gone. It’s unclear why, but the tractor overturned. Wynonna had barely missed getting trapped under it too. After that Wynonna and I went to live with our aunt and uncle, Gus and Curtis,”
Nicole took Waverly’s hand in hers, giving it a squeeze, “Waverly, I am so sorry,”
Waverly wiped a tear away from her eye with her free hand, reciprocating the hand squeeze, thankful for the contact.
“Rumors spread around town that Wynonna had actually killed them. She was troubled, but not a murderer. She was in and out of institutions most of our youth. When she turned 18 she was gone, we only saw her and only heard from her occasionally. But the rumors kept on and our land and property was subject to break-ins, vandals and theft, hence the guns. But we also, really do have a coyote problem,” Waverly gave a small chuckle at the end.
“I’m sorry Waverly, that must have been hard,”
“When Curtis died, it was like losing a dad all over again,” Waverly said, “But we survived. Earp’s have always been survivors,”
Nicole gave her hand another squeeze. They sat in silence as the glowing orb of the sun dipped below the horizon, leaving soft reds and oranges in the quickly darkening sky.
Eventually Waverly drove them back to the house, the high beams of the jeep cutting through the dark as they navigated the pastureland. Once back in the driveway they sat almost awkwardly trying to figure out where to go from there.
“Are you going to be ok here tonight?” Nicole asked.
“I’ve got Wynonna. I think we will be ok,”
“If you need anything, just call,” Nicole offered.
Waverly smiled shyly, “I will,”
Nicole waited out by the barn for the familiar crunch of tires on her gravel drive. She popped out, greeting the green pickup truck.
“Good morning,” Dr. Nedley said as he hopped out of the truck. He reached back inside, grabbing his clipboard and his stethoscope.
“Morning,” Nicole said as she slid the barn door open to grant them both better access.
“So, we are doing a heath certificate today, correct?” Dr. Nedley grunted.
“Correct, do you want her in the cross ties?”
“That would be perfect,” he said writing on his clipboard.
Nicole brought the horse out and tied her in the crossties. The vet started the exam by listening to the bay’s heart and lungs.
“Have you found any work around here yet?” He asked.
“I have been helping out at the Earp ranch, but that’s temporary,” Nicole said.
“Well, if you need something steady, and something that will actually pay, I had a vet tech quit on me unexpectedly. The spot is yours. It’s a really flexible position, which I know is important for your rodeoing,” He said.
Nicole didn’t really have to think about it, “Yeah, I would love to. But I’m not a trained vet tech,”
“Yeah, well, we will work around that,” He said, “Mostly you would maybe help hold the occasional horse and help with paperwork and making sure things get sent to the lab and stuff, legally that’s all you would be doing anyways,”
“I think I would really like that,” She smiled.
“Well, if you aren’t too busy with the Earp’s this week, swing by the clinic and get you started on the paperwork and stuff,”
“You don’t want to see a resume or anything?”
He shrugged, “You seem like a good kid, and I need someone I know knows horses. Also you are pretty much my last shot at finding someone to help around the clinic,”
Nicole laughed, “Well I guess I would rather be picked last than not at all,”
He finished the exam, promising to have the required paperwork completed by the start of the next week for her. Before leaving he shook her hand, “Im glad to have you aboard, swing by and I can give you a tour of the clinic,”
“Thanks sir, I can be by on Monday,” Nicole smiled.