“Ma’am,” he said in desperation. “Do you think we could slow…”

“Uh oh…” Jessie said, slamming on the brakes and sliding past the turn she needed to take to get to the main road. Henry lurched forward, sliding partially out of the seat. “I’ve been driving this road for over thirty years,” she said, jamming the truck into reverse and backing up without looking into the mirrors to see where she was going, “and I miss that dang turn every time.” Jessie looked at Henry, put the truck into first gear and smiled. “Weird, don’t you think?” She floored it.

Henry started digging for his seatbelt, which he was now wishing he’d put on before they left. “Are we in some kind a hurry?” He asked with as much politeness as he could muster.

Henry had always found that it normally took about forty-five minutes to drive from the ranch to town. On this day, however, and as Jessie slid the truck into the parking lot of Lander’s Feed Store (which was just inside the town limits) less than twenty-five minutes had passed from start to finish. She jerked the truck to a stop near the loading dock.

“Well, here we are,” Jessie smiled. “That wasn’t as bad as Mrs. R made it out to be, now was it?”

Henry had never been carsick before, but as he unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed out of the truck, he suddenly felt queasy—as if the inside of his head was still moving, but the outside wasn’t. He walked precariously to the loading dock and as nonchalantly as he could, leaned up against it. Jessie, on the other hand, hopped out from behind the wheel and bounded around the front of the truck and over to where he was standing.

“Your hat’s crooked,” she said, walking past him and into the feed store.

Without moving his head, Henry glanced at the brim of his hat. She was right, it was crooked. He straightened it as best he could.

“Your first time ridin’ with her?” Henry heard a voice say from behind him. He slowly turned around to see Hank Lander, the owner of the store, standing on the loading dock.

“Yeah,” Henry said, trying to get enough air in him to quell the nausea he was experiencing. “How’d you know?”

“Hell,” Hank chuckled, “‘cause most folks learn their lesson after the first time.”

“I can see that now,” Henry said flatly.

Jessie came out of the store and back to the loading dock. “There you are,” she said walking up to Hank. “Margaret said you were out here. I must have walked right past you.”

“I was inside, there.” Hank motioned over his shoulder to the back room of the store. “What can I do for you today, Jess?”

Jessie handed him the list she made from earlier that morning. “Would you mind getting all this together for us? We’ve got a couple more errands to run.”

“No problem,” he said, glancing at the list. “We have everything you need, except maybe the Chicago screws. I think we ran out over the weekend. Got a shipment coming in on Thursday, though.”