EP
One careless idiot with a cigarette. That’s all it takes.
Not that they know for sure that that’s what caused the grass fire on the hill downwind from the stables. But it could have been. Easily. And Jerry, not so successfully shushed by Karen, has made some dire threats toward anyone-employee or guest--he catches messing with fire.
“Bad enough half the state’s burning without stupid shit like this!”
Jerry’s been wound a little tight, lately. They’ve all been, keeping one eye and ear on the news.
They’d lucked out, and at the end of the day, no real harm had been done. The ranch employees had kept the fire contained until the fire department arrived with the big guns.
Parker has ditched her shovel by the time she comes into Milliways, but she’s still wearing an old pair of work gloves and smells to high heaven of smoke. And periodically she makes a noise like a congested walrus.
“Bar?” she says, hoisting herself up onto a stool and stripping off her gloves. “Tissues?”
Bar produces an economy-sized box. Parker plucks a handful, blows her nose, and makes an epically grossed-out face at the result before balling the whole mess up and stuffing it into her pocket.
Not that they know for sure that that’s what caused the grass fire on the hill downwind from the stables. But it could have been. Easily. And Jerry, not so successfully shushed by Karen, has made some dire threats toward anyone-employee or guest--he catches messing with fire.
“Bad enough half the state’s burning without stupid shit like this!”
Jerry’s been wound a little tight, lately. They’ve all been, keeping one eye and ear on the news.
They’d lucked out, and at the end of the day, no real harm had been done. The ranch employees had kept the fire contained until the fire department arrived with the big guns.
Parker has ditched her shovel by the time she comes into Milliways, but she’s still wearing an old pair of work gloves and smells to high heaven of smoke. And periodically she makes a noise like a congested walrus.
“Bar?” she says, hoisting herself up onto a stool and stripping off her gloves. “Tissues?”
Bar produces an economy-sized box. Parker plucks a handful, blows her nose, and makes an epically grossed-out face at the result before balling the whole mess up and stuffing it into her pocket.