Day 17

“I think that we should go take a look,” said Hugo.
“First we need to go see Olaf.”
The suburbs turned to small one and two horse ranches, then to farms and larger ranches. They passed Erickson’s place. Hugo looked down the drive. He could see where the house must be, but it lay just over a rise, in the middle down behind some cottonwoods. Hugo wondered about the horse, and why and how he had gotten mixed up in such a thing.
“Do you ever feel like you are out of sync with the rest of the world?” Hugo asked.
Bonanza turned and looked at him. “That’s why you are here, boy,” he said.
Hugo stared at him as they turned down Bonanza and Olaf’s drive. What does that mean, Hugo thought. He finished his beer as they pulled up at Olaf’s place. Bonanza didn’t park at the house, but pulled around to the barn. Olaf’s barn was built in a much more traditional style, with [traditional style] barn roof, painted red with whit trim. The first floor, Hugo could see, had recently been cleaned. Beside the barn sat a large pile of manure and the back-hoe that had mucked it out. Hugo felt glad that he hadn’t had to do the work, even with the machine. The hay door stood open on the second floor. Hugo could see Olaf had filled it full for the coming winter.
Bonanza stepped out the truck, taking a new beer with him. Olaf was no where to be seen. “Where are we supposed to meet him?” Hugo asked.
Bonanza vaguely grunted and pointed with his beer to the southwest. “He doesn’t know we are coming,” he said.
Hugo shrugged, took another beer from himself and followed Bonanza. The Big Mountain shown off to the southeast, newly covered with snow. Hugo always looked for the first covering. From his house, he couldn’t see the mountain, and yesterday the clouds still lingered over its peaks. Hugo remembered spending time up there with Mandy, skiing and hiking. He wondered where she might be this morning. Best not to think about her, he thought. Bonanza headed off in what seemed like a random direction. The track led almost directly south, and the house sat to the north. Hugo didn’t see anything interesting out this way, but silently follow taking in the rocks and stones that had never been taken from the fields. The grass had been cut low by the cows on Olaf’s place, at least this part of it. He looked around and wondered where they might be now. Down south, I guess, he thought. Though that didn’t really make sense because of the attacks.
He shrugged to himself and continued on. A flock of gulls stood in their way. The gulls lived year round in McLoughlin, subsisting on farm chaff and waste. He knew that they loved the planting season, when the farmers turned up the soil exposing grubs and worms. They loved haying and harvesting time, too, as the swather cut down the rodents as indiscriminately as the plants. Today, they appeared to be waiting for the next meal to show up. The sat silently in the sun, not really preening, no where to go, and all day to get there. Bonanza walked directly toward them. They parted as he came to them, but didn’t fly away. Those that had taken to the air, quickly landed not far from where they had been sitting. Dr. Bonanza didn’t seem to notice them.
The gulls seemed to be particularly watching Hugo. None of them lifted off as he neared, but walked out of the way, if he came too close. Hugo thought this a little strange, but tried to ignore it. He looked back at them after he had passed. He looked up toward the barn and saw that someone followed them. He assumed that it must be Olaf. “Olaf’s coming,” he said.
Bonanza stopped an turned. He waved a quick wave, then continued on. “He knows where we are headed,” he said.
Hugo thought about asking again where they were going, but gave it up as hopeless. He tried to enjoy the morning, but soon felt dread overtaking him. He thought about all that Mrs. McGregor had been saying, and all that Bonanza had said --and not said. He tried to shrug it off, but instead looked back at Olaf. He walked quicker than Bonanza and Hugo. Hugo thought that Dr. Bonanza’s limp seemed to be particularly obvious today. He finished his beer, then smashed the can and put it in his pocket. He didn’t think it proper to simply toss away the can on someone else’s property.
After almost a quarter mile, Hugo could see that they were approaching what looked like a hut, partially sunk into the ground. Bonanza led them to the north end --it ran north to south. The building looked very old. Rocks and rubble had been piled up along each side. He has seen such buildings before, but not very many of them still existed in the McLoughlin area. This one ran for about ninety feet and looked to be about thirty wide. Bonanza stopped and turned to Hugo as he reached the door. He stood with his hand on the worn wooden handle. “We’ll just wait for Olaf, since he seems to want to join us today,” he said.
Hugo turned to see that Olaf had almost reached them. He waved to Hugo as he walked up. “I didn’t expect to see you out here so soon,” he said to Dr. Bonanza.
“Yes, well. Things seem to be progressing rather quickly, now, don’t they?”
Hugo looked from one to the other. He didn’t have time to ask any questions, as Bonanza pulled the door open and stepped into the gloom. It smelled of slow decay and fecund earth. Light came from the cracks that had formed in the roof and walls from years of little use. It took a moment for Hugo’s eyes to adjust to the darkness. “Is this an old potato barn?” he asked while he waited. He could hear Bonanza shuffling around in the gloom, but couldn’t see what he might be doing.
Bonanza grunted assent. Hugo knew that at the turn of the century, the farmers in McLoughlin had gotten the idea that they could farm potatoes out on the flats. But, with the government keeping the price of potatoes artificially low, it made more sense, at least for the small farmer, to change over to cherries or livestock. Olaf, had chosen the latter.
Bonanza lit an oil lantern and Hugo could see around the interior of the barn.