“That’s fine,” Jessie nodded. “We’ve still got a few so there’s no hurry.” She turned to Henry. “Would you like to come along, or stay here with the boys?”

“If its all the same,” Henry forced a smile, “I reckon I’ll stay here.”

“Suit yourself.” Jessie waved at the two men, as she turned walked toward town.

“Hell,” Hank shrugged. “We got this. It’s slow today and the boys need something to do. Besides, a walk might do you some good.”

Henry hadn’t taken his eyes off Jessie since she started down the street. With the exception of her two-and-a-half day absence from the ranch when she went to deliver the yearlings to Humboldt, the two of them had been inseparable since the ranch closed for the season two months earlier. In fact, the two had been working so closely together that Henry was a little surprised at how much he missed her when she was gone for those two-and-a-half days, and how happy he was when she returned. Watching her walk down the street, away from him, made him feel a little uneasy, almost sad, and he didn’t even know why.

“You know,” he boosted himself from the loading dock. “You might be right. Takin’ a little walk might just be the thing right now.” He glanced up at Hank. “We’ll be back in a little bit.”

“See you then,” Hank nodded.

Jessie had stopped briefly to do a little window-shopping at the Valero Mercantile, an old hardwood-floor shop not far from the feed store that carried everything from groceries to nuts and bolts and everything in between. The Valeros, a couple in their early eighties, had owned the store for as long as anyone could remember, and it was Mrs. Valero who always took great pride in dressing the front window. In this particular display, along with the ever-present, pink-skinned mannequins—one male, one female—both dressed in conservative bathing suits and staring blankly across the street at the gas station, the window also had a Fourth of July display spread out at their feet.

The display consisted of fifty-two, one-hundred-year-old small figurines all attending the Fourth of July town picnic on a replica of the lawn of the local park. These figurines (of which there had been well over a hundred) spent most of the year in the mercantile window in one display or another. At Christmas time they stood in sugar, which was meant to represent snow, and gave each other gifts. At Easter they hunted for Easter eggs. Memorial Day, they saluted the veterans. Fourth of July, they had a picnic. Labor Day they worked, Halloween they trick-or-treated, and on Thanksgiving they ate turkey.

Mrs. Valero had lived in New York as a child, and was always fascinated by the window displays in the large stores like Macy’s. When the Valero’s bought the mercantile, she brought a little of her childhood with her in the form of those window displays. Although most of the holiday displays were all beginning to look the same these days, everyone in town would still stop to see what Mrs. Valero had done with the window, and she would beam with joy whenever anyone paid her a compliment on them.