“Oh,” Henry brought the cup to his lips, having not tasted it yet. “Yes, it is. Thank you.” He then took a sip. Jessie smiled.

“You know, Henry,” she started. “My father always used to say that every jackass in the country thinks he’s got horse sense.” She was holding her cup with both hands, and raising it to her lips, took a long sip. “Its like that mustang Tom brought in. The most important thing in the world to him was his freedom. When he suddenly realized he wasn’t free anymore, he panicked. Some people would see a horse like that and think the best way to calm him down would be to get rough with him. Bully him into submission. Make him feel better.” She paused. Henry sat quietly, paying close attention as she spoke, almost as if his very life depended on what she was saying. “The problem with that idea is that horses are peaceful animals by nature. They don’t much care to be bullied.”

“Well that’s fair enough,” Henry nodded. “But when you were in with them horses out there, they come up to you like you was their long lost mother. When I went in, they acted like I ain’t took a bath in a while. Now I dang sure didn’t bully ‘em. So why did they quit me and not you?”

Jessie smiled kindly. “That’s what I was saying.” She shrugged ever so slightly. “It’s your attitude. It’s not what you say, it’s what you do, and it’s not what you do, it’s what you feel. You have to be connected to yourself, Henry, before you can connect with someone else.” She gently touched herself on the chest, above her heart. “It comes from here. If your heart isn’t right they’ll know it.”

Henry heard what she said. He understood the words, but not the meaning behind them. He sat for a long time waiting for her to say more, perhaps something that would clear up the confusion for him, but nothing more came. Jessie smiled again, then turned her gaze back to the now darkened desert and breathed deeply, closing her eyes as she did. “It is truly a beautiful evening, isn’t it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Henry agreed, allowing the confusion in his mind drift away. The ranch was quiet now, only an occasional distant nicker from one of the horses in the pasture breaking the silence. Until that very moment, Henry hadn’t realized how tumultuous his life had been since he lost Annie and Josh. As he sat there on the porch swing next to Jessie, on that most perfect night, the peace of the evening slowly descended down upon him like a down-filled blanket on a cold winter night. He turned his gaze to the desert. “Yes, ma’am. It truly is.”

CHAPTER 29

Shortly after sunrise the next morning, Jessie climbed the stairs to the bunkhouse and knocked on the door. “Henry,” she called. “Are you up?”

The door opened and Henry stepped out onto the porch looking worried. “Yes, ma’am. Is everything okay?”