The Ten Heifers I Thanked by Name

I Thanked Them by Name

“Evening,” I said. “For those that do not know me, I am Dale’s dad. We run cattle down in the Flint Hills, below the Falls.”

A few of the neighbors in the back said something back, the way country people do, and the Kansas City tables smiled the way you smile at an accent.

“I want to thank some folks tonight who made this supper possible,” I said. “I think it is only right to thank the ones who paid for it.”

I saw Marcie settle back and lift her chin. She thought she knew where this was going. She thought I was fixing to thank her.

“I could not have put on a spread like this on my own,” I said. “So I had some help. Ten of them, to be exact. And I would not feel right if I did not say their names.”

I looked down at the card.

“I want to thank Daisy,” I said. “Daisy was the first. She was out of a old cow my granddaughter named before she could talk plain, and she had the kindest eye of any animal I ever raised.”

The room got very still. A few people laughed, uncertain, thinking it was a joke that had not finished.

“I want to thank Belle,” I said. “Belle was Daisy’s half sister and she would steal your glove right out of your back pocket.”

“I want to thank Pearl. Pearl came down from a cow my daddy bought at a sale in 1979 with money he flat did not have, and that cow’s line has been on our place ever since, which is to say Pearl is about the closest thing I own to my father.”

Nobody was laughing now. Over at the branding table, old Harlan took his cap off and held it in his lap, and he does not do that for much.

“Ruby,” I said. “Clover. Dot, who had a white mark on her hip like somebody threw a dishrag at her.”

My voice was steady. I was not angry. I had been angry three weeks ago, out in the grass, and I had sold the anger along with the heifers and come out the other side into something quieter.

“Hazel,” I said. “Penny. June, who was born in the worst ice storm I ever saw, out in it with a flashlight in my teeth.”

I was down to the last name on the card and my throat did a thing I did not plan.