Page 40 - SuperCowboyFlipBook

I was lying down now with my arms and legs wrapped around her as if I was hugging an oversized bear. Daniel grabbed her tail and began skiing down the barn alley, throwing a manure wave higher than his waist. Jason gallantly tried to jump in her path with a stick. The cow was determined to be free. She made a quick twist, sidestepping Jason. The twisting of her body threw Daniel, who was still holding onto her tail, leaving him in a tangle of arms and legs in the manure with Jason. Now that the cow was past them, she began to run in a jumping, seesawing motion. I began going up and down like a Raggedy Andy doll, with my chin smashing into the cow’s backbone. I was too frightened to stay on and way too terrified to jump off. She was headed straight for the manure pit. I thought she would run directly into it, throwing manure clear over her back, like a race car going through a mud puddle. But this was not a dumb cow. Just inches before she reached the manure pit, she turned, launching me into the air like a rock from a cow-tapult. It’s amazing how many things go through one’s mind while sailing through the air, headed for a three-foot-deep, wet manure pit. It isn’t near as much as the stuff that goes through a person’s nose, ears, and mouth when they hit, but a few choice thoughts about my brothers did enter in. I went in head first, hit bottom, and skidded along the cement pad for a short distance, three feet under a pool of green slime. I immediately thought I was going to drown. Then I felt a hand on my boots, and I came out, head down, as if I were a newborn baby calf. I could see the cow, bounding off across the corral, her udder pounding side to side, as she bellered to tell the other cows of the insult and injustice