Darwin's Cipher by MA Rothman

Author:MA Rothman [Rothman, MA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: M.A. Rothman
Published: 2019-02-18T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Frank O’Reilly ached from head to toe as he walked toward pasture number five. And yet it was good to be out and about. In a way, the pain felt therapeutic.

Jasper raced beside him, leaping through the tall grass with the energy of an overgrown puppy.

“Jasper, you also glad to finally be out of the house?”

The dog woofed in affirmation and went bounding about, chasing after whatever imaginary things caught his attention.

Frank stretched his back. “Been too darn long in that chair is what it is.”

Despite his aches, the shooting pains were finally beginning to subside—which was why he’d finally left the house. Megan was still worried. She kept touching his head and warning him that he had a fever. But he didn’t feel sick. Well, sure he was sick, but not that kind of sick.

She did manage to convince him to call the docs at the VA to let them know. After all, they were running a test, right? They’d want to know how it was turning out. Earlier in the morning, he’d spent a good ten minutes trying to reach them. But nobody answered the direct number he’d been given for the trial administrator, so eventually he just called the main number at the VA and left a voice mail for that Dr. Müller.

At the gate of pasture five, the heifer that Buck had isolated from the herd a week earlier came over to greet Frank. Buck had been worried that she’d caught red nose. Normally Frank would have put the animal down, but she was carrying a calf, so he’d held off until they were sure. Still, she couldn’t be with the rest of the herd and risk contagion.

Jasper barked at some unseen thing deeper in the pasture and raced off to chase it.

Glancing at a bale of hay, Frank scratched the side of her head. “How you doing, girl? You eating okay?” The animal’s nasal passages did look inflamed. That worried him.

The heifer nudged him with the side of her head.

He smiled. “Listen, girl, if you get better, we’ll put you back in with the rest, but not before. You just keep eating and drinking…”

Frank’s voice trailed off as he glanced at the thermos he had clipped to his belt. He smiled.

Worth a shot.

He grabbed a large metal bowl from under the watering trough. Usually they used it to clear the trough of debris, but it would serve. He set it on the ground and winced with pain as he knelt next to it.

The heifer followed him, out of curiosity or loneliness. Frank pushed her head away as she bent down to lick at the bowl.

He opened the thermos, took a big swig, poured the rest into the bowl, and held the bowl up to the heifer.

She immediately began slurping it down.

“Hell, girl, I guess you’re thirsty.”

Jasper came racing across the empty pasture, barking up a storm. Frank squinted and realized a rabbit was leading the crazy dog on a zigzagging race. He laughed as the rabbit darted down a hole and Jasper came to a skidding halt.

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