Jessie kept her thoughts to herself, and although she never spoke of the changes she was contemplating, nor had she thought she had made a decision about what she wanted to do, Mrs. Rodriguez already knew she had. Mrs. R. had known Jessie since she was a child and could often tell just by the expression on her face what she was thinking. She had been watching Jessie for months. She noticed Jessie wasn’t taking reservation deposits for the following season, even though several established returning guests wanted to write her a check for their reservation before they left. She wasn’t talking to the employees about coming back to work for her the next year, as she usually did, either.

Jessie had also done something else that she didn’t seem to want anybody to know about. She had been calling Tom Essex at least once a week trying to buy the gray colt from him. Mrs. R. overheard Jessie talking to Tom on the phone and was surprised at the large amount of money she had offered for the horse. Still, it hadn’t been enough. As often as Jessie called him, he kept turning her down.

While these signs pointed to Jessie trying to decide on making a change for the ranch, and in her life, it wasn’t until the middle of April that Mrs. R. knew she had made her choice. It was then that Jessie gave Mrs. Rodriguez a ride into town to do some much-needed grocery shopping for her daughter’s family. Mrs. R., always terrified when Jessie drove, tried to opt out, but in the end gave in as the family was running low on everything since her daughter had taken a second job at the local diner and been unable to get to the market.

Mrs. R. strapped herself into the passenger seat of the truck as if she were a NASCAR driver, then braced her arm against the door, hand against the seat, and both feet against the floor. She closed her eyes tightly as Jessie pulled away from the house, but was surprised when the truck didn’t lurch forward. She turned to see Jessie’s face calm and tranquil, as opposed to tight and tense, as it usually was when she drove. Jessie drove to town and back at the designated speed limit, or just below, and it was then Mrs. Rodriguez knew something had really changed.

At home, the emotional darkness Jessie had been experiencing during the winter since Henry had left, began to lighten. By the time she had given Mrs. R. her ride into town, there were fewer than five days till the end of the season, and seventeen until Henry was back home. Jessie had started keeping track of the days on the calendar she kept on the wall next to the refrigerator in the kitchen. Starting on April first, there was a black X through each day that had already passed. There was a red circle around the day when the season would end, and another red circle around May first, the day Henry was to return. The red circle around May first looked suspiciously like a red heart, although Jessie would deny it if anybody pressed her on it, which they didn’t.