A Lotta Bull

(This story is a sequel to a story that I did for the shark week challenge titled “Go kayaking they said…”)

Joe pulled the rusty old pick-up to his apartment on Main Street in the little blink and you miss it town in Wisconsin. A few miles away there was a good-sized ranch complete with cows and horses. But that’s not what he did in Wisconsin. No, he ran a local shop which had just a little bit of everything, mainly it was an old trading post, and everything in the store could be brought sold or traded, heck even the old-fashioned cash register that must have been from the 1880’s could be sold.

He looked at Loni, the beautiful Hawaiian ex-hula dancer he married while on vacation in Hawaii. Originally he was supposed to come back with his roommate Larry, but while kayaking Larry had become the victim of a shark attack and become the shark’s last meal, which in turn became the first of many meals for the resort’s luaus. But that’s a different story.

Now, it was Joe’s job to clear out the apartment, because he had decided to take a job in Hawaii and move in with his new wife Loni. The shop was already sold to one of his employees who had a better control of the business at the shop than he did anyway. So, all he had left to do was to clear out the apartment which consisted of two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. Even if he took his time, it would only take him less than a day go through the entire place.

And less than a day was all it took, for six hours later, the apartment was cleaned out, all of Larry’s things were taken to the shop, since he had no family or close friends. Sadly, the guy just seemed to be there to do whatever he did at the ranch, which gave him more than enough to pay his half of the rent and utilities. Even when he was home the guy didn’t seem to do too much, and it’s almost as if his “untimely death” wasn’t so untimely after all.

“Well,” Loni said, “that was quick.”

“Never said it would take a long time,” Joe had to stop about what he just said, there were many downsides to being too quick.

“Uh huh,”

“So,” With the boxes of his stuff in the back of the truck taped up and ready to go on the plane to Hawaii, Joe climbed into the driver’s seat of the pick-up and turned to Loni, “anything you want to see while in Wisconsin, what most people consider as the flyover state?”

“What exactly is in Wisconsin?” Loni had to ask, she looked around all she could see was wide open land and more wide-open land.

“First there are the ranches, then there are the great lakes, then the famous city of Milwaukee.”

“What makes Milwaukee so famous?”

“Oh, that famous brewery,” Joe said, “but that’s not we’re going to see, we’re about to visit one of the local ranches.”

“You don’t need to take me to see anything.”

“Oh, it’s not for that. Larry worked at the ranch, and I guess it’s only fair that I tell the foreman face to face while I am here what happened to Larry.”

“Will it take very long?”

“It should take me around 5 minutes to talk with him, then we can head back to Hawaii.”

“I didn’t really need to come with you at all, did I?”

“Well,” Joe said, “you did help me with clearing out the apartment.”

“Uh, huh,” Loni groaned, “most of which you did yourself, it seems.”

“Well, you are good company,” as Joe drove down the road, he came across one of the many ranches in Wisconsin. He turned down the road leading to the ranch.

Loni looked out the window at the pasture that passed by them, in it was an exceptionally large bull, with exceptionally large horns, it seemed to be larger than the other cows in the same pasture, it seemed to stand even taller than Joe. “Wow, that’s a lotta bull!”

“They call him Tornado, and they use him mainly for breeding, which is probably what they have him out there for now.”

“I see,” Loni looked up to see a man meeting them at the end of the driveway, “is this the foreman?”

“Yes,” Joe stopped the pick-up and approached the foreman, he got all of the niceties out of the way, then cut to the chase. “Dalton, I have some bad news for you about Larry.”

“Where is Larry?” Dalton, the foreman asked.

“That’s what I’m here to tell you,” Joe said with a slowness, “while in Hawaii there was this unfortunate incident involving a shark.”

“Shark?” Dalton parroted. “Will he be OK?”

“Dalton,” Joe didn’t know how else to say it, except to just say it. “Larry was killed the second time it bit down on him.”

“Second time?”

“The first time his legs were bitten clean off, and the second only a few seconds later put him out of his misery.”

Dalton tipped his hat back. “Woah, not sure how to take that. Where were you when this happened?”

“Oh, around 20 paces ahead of Larry in my kayak.”

“Kayak?” Dalton asked. “You knew that Larry isn’t coordinated enough to kayak.”

“No, you’re thinking the rivers and lakes around here, but the waters in that Hawaiian resort were as clear as a sheet of glass, and just as calm.”

“I see,” Dalton decided it was time to change the subject, his eyes settled on the Hawaiian beauty that was leaning against the fence watching old Tornado. “Who is the lady?”

“Her? I met up with her at the resort, she is…was one of the main Hula dancers for the resort. Her name is Loni Smythe.”

“Smythe…” At first Dalton thought it was a strange last name for a Hawaiian to have, but he realized that it was probably the name she married into. “Oh, I get it because she is your wife.”

“Smart,”

Dalton noticed that Loni began to climb the fence so she could sit on it, apparently to watch the bull for a few moments. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“I’ll be OK,” Loni said, “it’s not the first time I’ve sat on a fence!”

“But that fence beam isn’t completely secure!” Dalton said.

“Oh,” Loni could feel the beam she was sitting on shift, as it did, it threw her forward into a deep puddle of mud, “Oh!”

“It’s alright Loni,” Dalton said, he could see that the angry old bull had taken notice of Loni, it was beginning to rial itself up, “just don’t make any sudden moves.”

“Come on, let’s get her out of there,” Joe rushed to where Loni was, he knew he dare not cross over the fence.

Tornado began to stomp and scrape its feet, as steam came out its nose, it was about ready to charge at Loni, and with her stuck in the mud, she was going to be an easy target.

Dalton always carried a length of rope around with him when he was working, it came in handy for situations like this one, which was more frequent than not. He tossed the rope at Loni, and she grabbed it.

“No time for being dainty about this,” Dalton cried out as Loni began to complain about her clothes being ruined, as he pulled her out of the mud which was simply a pair of daisy dukes and a tied-up flannel-shirt anyway.

“Grab my hand,” Joe yelled, he pulled her across the fence, but not before the bull head butted Loni, but the butt was actually some help in getting her out, as it flipped her over the fence without any more harm than a few bruises.

Dalton quickly put the fence post back into place, and the angry bull stood on the other side scraping his one foot on the ground for a moment, then decided it wasn’t worth it, he let out a huff and went back to breeding with Bessie the cow with a vengeance.

“Are you OK?” Joe asked as he wrapped his arm around Loni.

“Just a bit of a bruise,” Loni was able to stand on her own, “but nothing to be too concerned about, “the clothes are ruined though.”

“Oh, a $10.00 pair of jeans and a $5.00 shirt,” Joe said half mockingly, “big deal. Toss them in the washer and they’ll be as good as new.”

“True,”

“Joe,” Dalton said, “Larry had some money coming to him for a few days’ work, it’s not much, just a couple of hundred. Normally, the money would go to his family, but you’re the closest thing to family he had. If you could wait a few minutes, I’ll write a check for the amount out to you.”

“Cool,”

This time Loni was in the safety of the pick-up and decided to get another look at the giant bull, “I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Well, there are animals that are much bigger, like that shark that chased me last week!” Joe balked.

“True,”

“But as far as ranch animals go, that is as big as they come,” Joe looked up to see Dalton standing there with the check.

“Here you go,” Dalton said, “so it looks like you won’t be staying in town.”

“Nah,” Joe said, “my life is now in Hawaii, where her family is.”

“You find work there too?”

“Of course, but I won’t bore you with the details about it.”

“I get it,” Dalton said, “well it’s been nice knowing you. Maybe you can come back for a visit some time.”

“Maybe I will,” knowing that he had no plans of returning to this state, ever…for any reason, Joe pressed his foot on the gas and left the little town, the ranch and Wisconsin behind him forever. “But I doubt it.”