Dale was out in the shop alone early on Tuesday morning, bent over the collie as it slept in its cushioned bed. Dale was barking at the dog. Loudly. “Ruff! Ruff!”
Jeff came in to pick up a wrench to tighten a dripping hose fitting on the air seeder before he took it to the field. He saw what his father was up to and froze in his tracks.
“I knew this day would come. You’ve lost it.”
Dale straightened up, trying to pretend he wasn’t embarrassed. “I’m fine,” he said. “Just giving that mutt a taste of his own medicine. He kept me awake, now I’m keeping him awake.”
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Jeff shook his head and walked past Dale to the workbench.
“Damn dog’s been barking all night for the past two nights. It’s hard to get any sleep around here! Don’t you hear him?”
“Didn’t hear a thing,” Jeff said. “Buddy must be barking at something on your side of the yard.”
“It’s not bad in the winter,” Dale said, “but now that it’s warmed up we like to sleep with the window open. Damn dog. If I lived next door to me, I’d call the cops.”
Jeff laughed and left with his wrench, talking as he walked out. “Don’t know how they’d stop it.”
That night, all was quiet when Dale was pulling back the covers to get into bed.
“Guess my barking back at the dog worked,” Dale told Donna. “Listen to that!” And just as he cocked his ear toward the window to draw Donna’s attention to the silence, Buddy started barking again. Dale cursed.
“Why don’t you put in some earplugs?” Donna asked, reasonably.
“Don’t be crazy. Earplugs are for tractors with no cabs. If I sleep with earplugs I’ll be dreaming about plows all night.”
Dale tossed and turned. Once in a while Buddy would take a break from the barking. Dale would almost fall asleep, but just as he was drifting off, sudden sharp barking would wake him up again.
The next morning he drank as much coffee as he could.
“I can’t keep working like this,” he said to Donna as he refilled his cup. “Seeding is hard enough without me being awake all night. What’s Jeff going to say when I have to knock off in the middle of hauling fertilizer to take a nap?”
“Look,” Donna said. “I know it goes against your beliefs, but you can’t go on like this. Why don’t you just turn on the air conditioner?”
“We’re not going to do that when there’s perfectly good air right outside. We’re not made of money. What if people found out?” When Donna started to smile, before she said anything out loud, Dale realized he sounded just like his father and stopped talking.
On Thursday night, Donna put in earplugs and went straight to sleep. Dale tried sleeping with the window shut. The house was warm. He turned his pillow over and over, looking for a cool spot. He woke feeling like he’d barely slept.
On Friday morning Dale saw a chemical company truck pull into the yard. When they saw a young woman park by the shop, both Dale and Jeff went over to say hello. Just as she stepped out of her truck, Buddy tore around the corner of the shed, sped toward the slough and pounced on a muskrat. The three of them gaped at the ruckus, trying to figure out which animal was doing more squealing. Eventually, Buddy emerged from the mess, brandishing a dead muskrat in his teeth.
The woman introduced herself and asked a few questions about their fungicide use, but Dale and Jeff could tell she was in a hurry to get away. “Good thing I’m already married,” Jeff said.
“Me too,” Dale said. “Lots of women wouldn’t stick around after that.”
“Guess we found out what Buddy’s been barking at,” Jeff said. “Maybe now you can get some sleep. It would be good if you could put in a full day’s work without having to lie down in the middle of the day.”
Dale glared at Jeff and headed for his truck. But he wasn’t hopeful. Dale thought the worst of Buddy’s barking had been aimed more to the north side of the yard.
There was some barking that night, but Buddy was quiet enough that Dale opened the window. When he went to the bathroom around 3 a.m., it was still silent. “You OK?” Donna murmured when he came back to bed. “Shhhh!” Dale hissed at her. Then he stage-whispered, “Don’t wake up Buddy. I think he’s listening at the patio doors. If he hears us, he’ll start barking again.”
Of course, the dog started barking.
Donna had hit the end of her rope. “Dale, we both like the fresh air. I know running the air conditioner in May is a crazy luxury. And God knows I know what your father would say if he found out. But we’re not going to live like this anymore! Close that damn window and turn on the AC.”
Dale grunted, scowled at Donna and got out of bed. But instead of closing the window and resetting the thermostat, he opened his dresser drawer and pulled out a pair of socks.
“What are you doing?” Donna asked.
“What do you think? I’m going out there to find out what the heck he’s barking at and get rid of it so we can get a decent night’s sleep.”
“Be careful,” Donna said, snuggling back into the covers and closing her eyes.
As soon as Dale stepped out onto the deck, bare knees on show between his boots and the bottom of his warm spring jacket, Buddy stopped barking and ran straight over.
“All right, boy,” Dale said, squatting down to put his hands on either side of the dog’s head and look it in the face. “Where is it?”
As if he was auditioning for the part of Lassie in the next remake, Buddy nodded at Dale and headed straight for the trees at the north side of the yard. Dale followed, cursing when the evergreen branches scraped his calves.
Dale followed the dog through the rows of evergreens and into another row of poplars that his father had planted decades ago. They were more overgrown than Dale had realized. “Have to get out here and clean this up,” he muttered.
The dog sat down and gave one more loud bark. Dale followed the dog’s gaze and realized that less than 10 feet away, a mule deer had braced herself in the tall grass, using her body to guard two tiny spotted fawns cowering behind her.
“Twins,” Dale whispered. “Gorgeous.” The doe looked straight into Dale’s eyes. Dale looked back for a good 20 seconds before he sighed and turned back to the house.
Before he took his boots off, Dale gave Buddy a dog treat from the jar by the door. On his way back to bed he stopped at the hallway thermostat to turn on the air conditioner. Buddy was barking again. Dale closed the bedroom window, muting the sound, and crawled back into bed.
