Introduction: What is discovery? Perhaps it’s finding something that you didn’t know existed. Maybe it’s finding a hidden treasure. Maybe it’s finding out something about yourself that many were aware of but you just didn’t know it.

Someone sabotaged a bunch of Andy Bennett’s trucks and frack water trailers. They also stole one of his trucks. Andy got a shot or two off at the saboteurs. Steve and his friends show up at the ranch. Steve’s been shot.

This work is copyrighted by the author and any publication or distribution without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is coincidental.

Chapter 11

Sheriff John had departed shortly after receiving a phone call. Mannie wasn’t sure what it was about; however, whatever it was had energized the sulking sheriff. There were only few stragglers left and she had told them they were shutting due to the deteriorating weather.

The snow that had been threatening with little fits and starts most of the afternoon and into the early evening was now coming down in earnest. Mannie carefully drove her uncle’s, well now her mother’s and her pickup truck down the highway towards the ranch. She was thinking over the last few weeks and especially the last few hours. Stevie’s profession of his love for her had been a very special moment. It had been very easy for her to reply with an affirmation. They knew each other very well, and apparently Stevie had known her better than she had realized. That didn’t surprise her anymore. She had been quite obvious to those who knew her even though she couldn’t recognize herself. It took a couple of figurative kicks in the ass to free her. Once she started, there never had been one instance of hesitation.

Had her Uncle died a natural death, the disposition of the estate would probably have been pretty much matter of fact. She and her mother had discussed what they wanted to do with the properties. That hadn’t changed; however, of prime concern was the murder of her uncle. She wasn’t going to leave until it was resolved. Rather than sit on her ass, she had thrown herself into the operations of her uncle’s businesses; at least what she could see of them. She felt she could bring some good knowledge back to the winery.

What were she and Stevie going to do? Three years had passed where neither had communicated with the other. Stevie walked back into her life, and it was like they had never been apart; only that she was now physically a woman, and he was perfectly okay with it. It was better than okay. It was strange, but maybe they had been in love with each other on the subconscious level. After all, true love went beyond physical love. She’d have to work on that thought.

Turning into the two mile long drive to the house, she slowed as a gust of snow filled wind hit her almost head on. It had been quite cold for several days; however, the truck’s thermometer now read 5 degrees Fahrenheit. She pulled into the garage and could hear the generator running as she got out of the truck.

“We had a power failure,” Bob Williams said as he greeted Mannie at the door. “The generators came on just fine. We wanted to check and make sure everything was doing what it should. I don’t think any of the children woke up except Bobby, Jr. We’ll go back to the house.”

That thought was interrupted by the headlight beams from an approaching vehicle. Within seconds there was the sound of many footsteps and a pounding at the door.

“It’s four young men,” Bob said looking at his phone. “One of them appears to be hurt.”

Mannie rushed to the door. The entry area filled with blown snow when she opened the door. She hadn’t learned the names of Steve’s companions, but two of them were supporting him. He was bleeding from a wound in his side.

“Thank God we came to the right place,” one said as he obviously recognized Mannie. “All we needed was to get shot at again.”

“Hi, Mannie,” Steve said weakly. “This getting shot sucks.”

“Take him back to the guest room,” Mannie said pointing the way.

“Bob, we need a doctor. Who do we call?”

“Already texted him. He lives just a couple miles to the west. He’s on his way

Steve’s compadres placed him on a layer of pads that Maria had placed there. She quickly removed his outer garments and cut off his T-shirt. The bullet had penetrated his coat, sweater, shirt and T-shirt. It entered his lower left side just above his hip. There was no exit wound. He grimaced as Maria worked on him.

What happened,” Mannie asked.

“We were looking at the place where your uncle was killed,” One of the other members said. It would turn out his name was Gary Smith. “Stevie was so happy he’d found you after all these years we thought we’d have to tie him down. We’d decided to forget harassing the frack water haulers because the weather was turning to shit. Instead we decided to see if we could find anything out there. I got some water samples before the whole thing froze over.

“What you told Stevie about the tire tracks is correct. There’s no way we could identify who made them. However, what happened may change all that.

“We were getting ready to leave because it was really getting nasty. Then we heard a truck approaching. He had his lights off as he came up to the curve where the dirt road leads down to where we were standing. Then the son of a bitch opens up on us. We hit the dirt, but it was too late. They got Stevie, and I have bullet holes in my truck.”

They heard the front door open and close, and a man wearing a heavy wool plaid coat entered the room. Immediately behind him were Sheriff John Craig and two of his deputies.

“Okay, you boys are in a heap o’ trouble. You’re all under arrest for malicious mischief, trespassing, and grand theft auto. It seems you broke into Andy Bennett’s truck yard, painted some nasty shit on his trucks, and stole one of them. Let’s go out to the main room and wait for the doctor to do his stuff. We might have to wait for a while for the weather to let up a bit before I take you back to the jail.

“Andy thought he might have hit one of you, and I guess he did. He said he emptied his shotgun at the lot of you. The doc called me because he’s required to in the case of gunshot wounds.”

There wasn’t much said over the next hour or so. Mannie fixed some coffee, and they just basically sat around.

Maria and Doctor Featherstone finally entered the room. “He’s going to be fine. He should be up and about tomorrow, albeit moving slowly. He’s a brave kid and he didn’t make a sound when I dug the bullet out. I gave him something that will let him rest for the night. He doesn’t need to be going anywhere tonight.”

“So Andy Bennett emptied his shotgun on them.”

“That’s right. He had it loaded with double-aught buckshot. It wasn’t the first time he’d been broken into by these tree huggers.”

The doctor handed a wad of gauze to the sheriff. “I just pulled this out of that boy back there. It certainly doesn’t look like buckshot to me. Unless I miss my guess this slug will match the ones I took out of Ben. At least two of them will. I saw several holes in the side of that truck. I’ll bet you’ll find a couple of more matches inside the door.

“Miss, he wants to see you. He might have called you except his cell phone seems to have a hole through the middle of it. That and his heavy clothing slowed the bullet down quite a bit.

“Sheriff, these boys were nowhere near Andy Bennett’s place. If Andy did shoot someone, you might want to check with the hospital in Minot.

“In spite of being shot, he was able to tell me quite a bit, including that he loves that young woman who’s tending to him right now. It seems they went to college together for four years. They’ve been rather fond of each other for quite a while. I know you fancy her. Hell, who wouldn’t. But I think you need to find someone closer to your own age. Mabel Storch has had a thing for you for quite a while. You might want to talk to her.

“One more thing; which one of you is Gary?”

“I am, Sir.”

“Show the Sheriff the pictures you took.”

“Yes sir.

“Sheriff, I took these at the spot where that truck stopped. They turned out quite nice. Some snow drifted a bit there and the truck left some awesome tire tracks.”

“I’ll bet that Efram down at the garage will be able to tell what brand of tire that is. Send those photos to me. I’ll need to take a sworn statement. See me on Monday. Take your truck to the garage so that they can get those other bullets.”

“Sheriff, you need to know something else. Somebody’s been dumping frack water in the creek. We took samples. You might want to send someone official to do the same.”

“You’re going to be fine, Stevie.”

“Yeah, but I’m going to have to get a new phone.”

Mannie sat on the edge of the bed and leaned over to give Stevie a kiss. “I think we’re doing this in the wrong order. Aren’t we supposed to date, make out, discover we’re in love, maybe have sex, and then get married. Here you are in bed in my house. We haven’t seen each other in more than three years and discover we are in love. We kinda skipped over quite a bit didn’t we?”

“Are you okay with this? There I was holding this beautiful woman in my arms, and all I can think about is that I want to make love to her as soon as possible.”

“Yeah, I noticed. You have no idea what sort of rush that gave me. You have to realize I’m pretty new at this sort of thing.”

“Can you …?”

“I think so. I’m as complete a woman as it is possible to be. I think, no, I know I want you very much. Holding you in my arms tonight made me realize that right away. I think tonight completed my transition in many ways. When you get well, we will take care of the rest. That is, if you are still interested. My doctor said everything should be fine.”

Maria returned to find Mannie sound asleep lying against Steve. He was lying on his right side and had his left arm around her. Maria found another blanket to put over them. She had the three boys go to the loft. There was plenty of room for them up there. Bob was waiting for her in the living room. They wrapped a heavy wool blanket around themselves before heading to their nice warm house. It was 6:00 AM. The sun would be rising in a little over an hour; except they wouldn’t see it. The blizzard had increased it’s furor over the last few hours. Bob, Jr. would probably need to be fed.

“Bob, I noticed something tonight.

“What’s that?

“She is no longer two spirited.”

Thankfully, Steve was not badly hurt. The sheriff and doctor managed to get out before the blizzard intensified even more. They’re going to spend a few days snowed in.