My Brother Says I'm Dangerous

(28)

Throughout the day, the food keeps coming, the music keeps singing, and Gregory Dennings mouth doesn't stop running.

"I will pay you to shut him up." Chloe grumbles, looking up from her book, sitting on the comfortable old sofa we carried out from one of their sheds. "He is ruining branding day."

"You aren't even participating." I laugh, replacing the ice in the iced tea. 

"I can't concentrate on Edward's smile." She protests, holding up her twighlight book. "I am drifting further and further towards team Jacob and we can't have that." 

"I'll leave you to it." I say, walking towards the next clump of tables, which happens to be where Gregory and his family are sitting.

"Eva, I was looking for you." Noah smirks. "My drink is warm." I hold my tongue, not wanting to start a fight and ruin the day. Emily and Keith put a lot of work into this and I'm not going to be the dick that ruins it.

"Here." I say, holding up the ice bucket. "Help yourself."

"Is it from the ranch?" Gregory asks me loudly. 'I heard you were having trouble with your sewage."

"We picked it up from the gas station early this morning." Hunter says, meeting his volume. He walks up behind me, wiping his hands after just wrestling another calf. "We've had little trouble with the water, it was a one time thing."

"That's good to hear." Gregory says thinly. 

"Would you like some?" I smirk. Take that McDick Face.

"Yes please." He smiles. "Dennings Gas never seems to fail." He emphasises Dennings, and I put the bucket roughly down on the floor at their feet, walking away with Hunter. 

"I hate him." He mumbles.

"We all do." I sigh.

"Hunter, I need your help." Dot calls out, who has abandoned her potatoes, sitting next to a wrestled calf, sat on by a couple of people. A bucket of water sits next to her, and she holds a gleaming knife in her hand.

"It's time?" He asks. I follow him up to the rope, and watch with a couple of others, who look excited. 

It all happens fast. Isaac injects a needle into the calfs thigh, then quickly pierces the ear. While he is doing this, Hunter presses the branding iron into the skin. Dot quickly grabs the calfs sack, and pulls. She presses the knife into the end of it, and basically cuts off the covering. She drops the knife, and pulls out two nuts.

"Doesn't this hurt?" I ask someone next to me.

"No." She says, shrugging. "They do it all together to make it easier, he's numb. It doesn't bleed much at all, it's all fat and muscle." I nod. The animal doesn't look distressed.

Hunter helps Dot remove some of the fat, and he teases Luke and Beth with it, who run away screaming. Dot drops the two nuts into the bucket of water, and leaves Hunter to pour some red solution onto the cuts, and then he is lead off into the field with the rest of the cows.

"Why is she keeping them?" I ask, wrinkling my nose, but everybody around me has already moved on. 

<><><><>

"I mean, this place has potential." Gregory shrugs, talking to a couple of tourists, who are in town visiting family. "But don't you think it needs a bit more upkeep? I know personally the owner doesn't even keep up on his bills, he's running it into the ground."

I walk past, just wanting to smack him one. I spent awhile back at the house, helping the ladies fry up lunch, but now all of the food is out here, and we only have three calfs left to brand. As more and more males went through, Dot has collected even more... testicles. I have absolutely no idea why she's keeping them. She's been soaking them in the bucket, and cleaning them, but since I've been gone the bucket is empty and dry. I'm assuming she has just thrown them out.