Faulkner
Member
CHAPTER 1
As is so often the case, it started with a phone call.
Mrs. Faulkner answered the kitchen phone, “hello?”
I cleaning up the dishes from a late, for us, breakfast. I was wearing an apron as I was washing the dishes that had printed on the front “Granpa’s rule as long as granddaughter is not around”. Our 4 year old granddaughter was in the other room watching Frozen but had insisted I wear the apron while fixing breakfast. Granddaughters do, after all, rule. She and her 7 year old brother had spent the night with us while her parents had a movie night out with friends.
I could tell the phone conversation was wrapping up, “Okay Fran, I’ll let him know. Call us back if you don’t find out anything. Bye.”
“What’s up?” I asked.
“That was Fran, she called looking for Chad. She said he had left early while it was cool on the tractor to do some brush hogging but he was not back from breakfast. Said she called to see if he ended up over here and for us to send him home, but I told her we’d not seen him.”
“Hmm,” I said as I was drying the dishes. “It’s going to be another hundred degree day today so I doubt he’ll be out long.”
Chad and Fran are neighbors from down the road. He’s got about a 40 acre spread that he runs some cows on. In their middle 50’s or so, Chad was born and raised in the Ozarks a ways across the county but left after high school and got a degree in electrical engineering. He semi retired a few years ago and moved back to the Ozarks and seems to be a really smart guy and is a good neighbor. He comes by from time to time to have me help him work on projects, but I think it’s mainly because I’ve accumulated more tools over the years that he has. We met up with them from church and Fran and Mrs. Faulkner seemed to have hit it off. Fran is real good about coming by and checking in on Mrs. Faulkner whenever I’m going to be out and about longer than normal.
After cleaning up in the kitchen and getting my apron hung up to dry I went into the other room to check on things. I could tell the Frozen video was nearing the end because I have it mostly memorized from the two dozen times we’ve watched it together. Frankly, if she wants to sit with me in my recliner and watch it another two dozen times I’m game.
“Hey kiddo, before it gets too hot outside why don’t we go and check on Daisy and see what’s she’s doing.”
She jumped up immediately and asked as she headed to the door, “can we play Frisbee with her?”
“If she wants to,” I said.
She rolled her eyes in exaggerated exasperation and said, “Granpa, Daisy always wants to play Frisbee me.”
Sure enough, as we stepped out on the front porch Daisy was laying in the shade under the porch swing with a doggie Frisbee close at hand. Grabbing the Frisbee and squealing “let’s go Daisy” at a pitch that only 4 year old girls can do, off they went. We played Frisbee for a while, then keep away from Daisy, then chase, then Daisy went to her toy box and came back with a tennis ball and we threw that for a while. We worked our way towards the barn and with her holding my hand with one hand she would point with the other hand asking about various things around the yard “what’s that Granpa.” After I told her what it was she’d ask, “what’s it do?” When we got to the barn I loaded on the ATV and we took a slow ride around the place with her continuing pointing and asking. We came upon a roadrunner near the fence row and stopped and watched it for a few minutes, then we went up to the back deck and watched a dozen or so of Mrs. Faulkner’s hummingbirds buzz about.
She pointed out one particular male Ruby throated hummingbird and said, “that one is mean. It’s chasing off all the other ones.” It’s amazing how attentive 4 year olds can be.
We rode the ATV back to the barn and walked back to the house and went in to see what Mrs. Faulkner was up too. When I walked in she asked, “did you have fun?”
“Yep,” I said, “but I think its nap time . . . she may be tired too.”
CHAPTER 2
About 10:45 am the home phone rang again. I answered it and it was Fran.
“Hey Faulkner, I’ve still not seen or heard from Chad. It’s not like him and I’m a bit concerned.” I could hear it her voice too.
“Hang tight Fran. Do you have my cell number?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“I’ll be over in about 10 minutes. If anything changes you call me on my cell,” I told her.
I hung up the phone and turned around and saw Mrs. Faulkner filling up a small soft ice cooler with ice and water bottles. “Don’t get out there and get overheated,” she said over her shoulder while zipping up the cooler.
“Are you taking Daisy with you?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“Okay, be careful and call me when Chad turns up.”
I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, “I will.”
I walked out the front door and headed towards the truck with Daisy on my heals. Aside from the cooler, pretty much all the gear I need is already in the truck except for Daisy’s gear. I went inside the barn to where her TAC harness and leash is stowed and grabbed them as well as a small daypack loaded with stuff for her. I’ve never had to use anything from Daisy’s daypack, but you never know.
I dropped the tailgate and opened the door to Daisy’s carrier and she loaded right up. In less than 10 minutes we were pulling into Chad and Fran’s gravel driveway. Fran was waiting on the front porch sitting in a rocker when I got out, walked around back and dropped the tailgate and let Daisy out. Chad and Fran have a couple of barn cats but no dogs. Daisy ran up to Fran on the front porch and sat and Fran gave Daisy a big hug. She hadn’t been crying, but I could tell it wouldn’t take much. She was worried.
“Thanks for coming Faulkner,” and I gave her a hug.
“Look,” I said, “I called dispatch on the way over and gave them a heads up so they’ll have folks on standby. He’s still not answering his phone?
“No.”
“Do you guys have that tracking application in case you misplace your phone the other one can find it?” I asked.
“No, but we will after this.”
“Okay, you said he left on his tractor?” I asked. “What time?”
“Yes, it was early. I was still in bed but I heard the tractor start and him drive off on it. Maybe just before 6:00 am.”
“Do you think anyone went with him?”
“I’m pretty sure he was alone. If anyone would have gone with him it would have been you. You know he bought another 10 acres on the other side of the ridge,” she said.
“I didn’t know that.”
A strip of Pete’s land is between here and there and Chad usually goes all the way around to the other side on the road, but Pete said he didn’t have a problem with Chad crossing his land to get to it. I called Pete this morning and he said he didn’t see Chad go by this morning.”
I chuckled and said, “well with all those yapping yard dogs that Pete has a mouse couldn’t get by his place without Pete knowing about it. Hmm, I wonder if Chad tried to go over the ridge with the tractor this time.” After pondering a few moments I said, “I need the keys to Chad’s side by side, I’m going to load up and Daisy and I are going to see if we can pick up his trail. He’s not gone far on the tractor.”
It’s going to be a hot one today, over a hundred. It’s already in the mid 90’s and its not even noon yet. I reached in the truck and pulled out a mesh tactical vest that I used as a spare. I’d already preloaded it with first aide supplies, a pouch for a water bottle, and a holster for my Ruger SR22 semi auto .22 LR pistol and two spare magazines. I’m not necessarily scared of snakes but in this country there is liable to be a timber rattler in the shade of most any rock overhang on a hot day here in the Ozarks. I threw both mine and Daisy’s packs in the back of the SxS. I put on Daisy’s TAC harness and put her leash in my pocket. I got in and Daisy loaded up and sat beside me and off we went.
We took off down a two track that headed out down a hill to the pasture behind Chad’s place. Surprisingly, in less than 5 minutes I picked up the trail of Chad’s tractor in pushed over grass cutting across the pasture. The grass was around knee high and Chad must have had the brush hog chained up because there was not any indication in the grass that he was dragging anything behind it. I hit the accelerator and followed the path of pushed over grass for about three quarters of a mile to a fence row on the other side of the pasture. It was an old fence row with years of dense undergrowth on it. The path then turned and paralleled the fence row a couple of hundred yards that led up to a 12 foot gate. I stopped short of the gate and shut off the SxS. I could see in the pushed over grass that Chad had gotten off the tractor and had smashed down grass as he walked about getting the gate open. I sat for a while and listened to see if I could hear anything, a tractor running or anything out of the ordinary.
I looked over at Daisy and said, “you hear anything girl?” Apparently not.
I took out my iPhone and sent a joint text to Fran and Mrs. Faulkner saying I’d picked up Chad’s trail and where I was. I looked at my watch and noticed I’d only left Chad’s place about 25 minutes ago, so I was making good time.
I got out with Daisy following and walked up to the gate to study the trail. It was quite obvious that the gate had been swung open, the tractor pulled through, then the gate was closed back . . . and locked. It was a big ole lock too.
I looked down at Daisy standing next to me and said, “Daisy Mae, looks like we’re going on a hike.”
As is so often the case, it started with a phone call.
Mrs. Faulkner answered the kitchen phone, “hello?”
I cleaning up the dishes from a late, for us, breakfast. I was wearing an apron as I was washing the dishes that had printed on the front “Granpa’s rule as long as granddaughter is not around”. Our 4 year old granddaughter was in the other room watching Frozen but had insisted I wear the apron while fixing breakfast. Granddaughters do, after all, rule. She and her 7 year old brother had spent the night with us while her parents had a movie night out with friends.
I could tell the phone conversation was wrapping up, “Okay Fran, I’ll let him know. Call us back if you don’t find out anything. Bye.”
“What’s up?” I asked.
“That was Fran, she called looking for Chad. She said he had left early while it was cool on the tractor to do some brush hogging but he was not back from breakfast. Said she called to see if he ended up over here and for us to send him home, but I told her we’d not seen him.”
“Hmm,” I said as I was drying the dishes. “It’s going to be another hundred degree day today so I doubt he’ll be out long.”
Chad and Fran are neighbors from down the road. He’s got about a 40 acre spread that he runs some cows on. In their middle 50’s or so, Chad was born and raised in the Ozarks a ways across the county but left after high school and got a degree in electrical engineering. He semi retired a few years ago and moved back to the Ozarks and seems to be a really smart guy and is a good neighbor. He comes by from time to time to have me help him work on projects, but I think it’s mainly because I’ve accumulated more tools over the years that he has. We met up with them from church and Fran and Mrs. Faulkner seemed to have hit it off. Fran is real good about coming by and checking in on Mrs. Faulkner whenever I’m going to be out and about longer than normal.
After cleaning up in the kitchen and getting my apron hung up to dry I went into the other room to check on things. I could tell the Frozen video was nearing the end because I have it mostly memorized from the two dozen times we’ve watched it together. Frankly, if she wants to sit with me in my recliner and watch it another two dozen times I’m game.
“Hey kiddo, before it gets too hot outside why don’t we go and check on Daisy and see what’s she’s doing.”
She jumped up immediately and asked as she headed to the door, “can we play Frisbee with her?”
“If she wants to,” I said.
She rolled her eyes in exaggerated exasperation and said, “Granpa, Daisy always wants to play Frisbee me.”
Sure enough, as we stepped out on the front porch Daisy was laying in the shade under the porch swing with a doggie Frisbee close at hand. Grabbing the Frisbee and squealing “let’s go Daisy” at a pitch that only 4 year old girls can do, off they went. We played Frisbee for a while, then keep away from Daisy, then chase, then Daisy went to her toy box and came back with a tennis ball and we threw that for a while. We worked our way towards the barn and with her holding my hand with one hand she would point with the other hand asking about various things around the yard “what’s that Granpa.” After I told her what it was she’d ask, “what’s it do?” When we got to the barn I loaded on the ATV and we took a slow ride around the place with her continuing pointing and asking. We came upon a roadrunner near the fence row and stopped and watched it for a few minutes, then we went up to the back deck and watched a dozen or so of Mrs. Faulkner’s hummingbirds buzz about.
She pointed out one particular male Ruby throated hummingbird and said, “that one is mean. It’s chasing off all the other ones.” It’s amazing how attentive 4 year olds can be.
We rode the ATV back to the barn and walked back to the house and went in to see what Mrs. Faulkner was up too. When I walked in she asked, “did you have fun?”
“Yep,” I said, “but I think its nap time . . . she may be tired too.”
CHAPTER 2
About 10:45 am the home phone rang again. I answered it and it was Fran.
“Hey Faulkner, I’ve still not seen or heard from Chad. It’s not like him and I’m a bit concerned.” I could hear it her voice too.
“Hang tight Fran. Do you have my cell number?”
“Yes,” she replied.
“I’ll be over in about 10 minutes. If anything changes you call me on my cell,” I told her.
I hung up the phone and turned around and saw Mrs. Faulkner filling up a small soft ice cooler with ice and water bottles. “Don’t get out there and get overheated,” she said over her shoulder while zipping up the cooler.
“Are you taking Daisy with you?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“Okay, be careful and call me when Chad turns up.”
I leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, “I will.”
I walked out the front door and headed towards the truck with Daisy on my heals. Aside from the cooler, pretty much all the gear I need is already in the truck except for Daisy’s gear. I went inside the barn to where her TAC harness and leash is stowed and grabbed them as well as a small daypack loaded with stuff for her. I’ve never had to use anything from Daisy’s daypack, but you never know.
I dropped the tailgate and opened the door to Daisy’s carrier and she loaded right up. In less than 10 minutes we were pulling into Chad and Fran’s gravel driveway. Fran was waiting on the front porch sitting in a rocker when I got out, walked around back and dropped the tailgate and let Daisy out. Chad and Fran have a couple of barn cats but no dogs. Daisy ran up to Fran on the front porch and sat and Fran gave Daisy a big hug. She hadn’t been crying, but I could tell it wouldn’t take much. She was worried.
“Thanks for coming Faulkner,” and I gave her a hug.
“Look,” I said, “I called dispatch on the way over and gave them a heads up so they’ll have folks on standby. He’s still not answering his phone?
“No.”
“Do you guys have that tracking application in case you misplace your phone the other one can find it?” I asked.
“No, but we will after this.”
“Okay, you said he left on his tractor?” I asked. “What time?”
“Yes, it was early. I was still in bed but I heard the tractor start and him drive off on it. Maybe just before 6:00 am.”
“Do you think anyone went with him?”
“I’m pretty sure he was alone. If anyone would have gone with him it would have been you. You know he bought another 10 acres on the other side of the ridge,” she said.
“I didn’t know that.”
A strip of Pete’s land is between here and there and Chad usually goes all the way around to the other side on the road, but Pete said he didn’t have a problem with Chad crossing his land to get to it. I called Pete this morning and he said he didn’t see Chad go by this morning.”
I chuckled and said, “well with all those yapping yard dogs that Pete has a mouse couldn’t get by his place without Pete knowing about it. Hmm, I wonder if Chad tried to go over the ridge with the tractor this time.” After pondering a few moments I said, “I need the keys to Chad’s side by side, I’m going to load up and Daisy and I are going to see if we can pick up his trail. He’s not gone far on the tractor.”
It’s going to be a hot one today, over a hundred. It’s already in the mid 90’s and its not even noon yet. I reached in the truck and pulled out a mesh tactical vest that I used as a spare. I’d already preloaded it with first aide supplies, a pouch for a water bottle, and a holster for my Ruger SR22 semi auto .22 LR pistol and two spare magazines. I’m not necessarily scared of snakes but in this country there is liable to be a timber rattler in the shade of most any rock overhang on a hot day here in the Ozarks. I threw both mine and Daisy’s packs in the back of the SxS. I put on Daisy’s TAC harness and put her leash in my pocket. I got in and Daisy loaded up and sat beside me and off we went.
We took off down a two track that headed out down a hill to the pasture behind Chad’s place. Surprisingly, in less than 5 minutes I picked up the trail of Chad’s tractor in pushed over grass cutting across the pasture. The grass was around knee high and Chad must have had the brush hog chained up because there was not any indication in the grass that he was dragging anything behind it. I hit the accelerator and followed the path of pushed over grass for about three quarters of a mile to a fence row on the other side of the pasture. It was an old fence row with years of dense undergrowth on it. The path then turned and paralleled the fence row a couple of hundred yards that led up to a 12 foot gate. I stopped short of the gate and shut off the SxS. I could see in the pushed over grass that Chad had gotten off the tractor and had smashed down grass as he walked about getting the gate open. I sat for a while and listened to see if I could hear anything, a tractor running or anything out of the ordinary.
I looked over at Daisy and said, “you hear anything girl?” Apparently not.
I took out my iPhone and sent a joint text to Fran and Mrs. Faulkner saying I’d picked up Chad’s trail and where I was. I looked at my watch and noticed I’d only left Chad’s place about 25 minutes ago, so I was making good time.
I got out with Daisy following and walked up to the gate to study the trail. It was quite obvious that the gate had been swung open, the tractor pulled through, then the gate was closed back . . . and locked. It was a big ole lock too.
I looked down at Daisy standing next to me and said, “Daisy Mae, looks like we’re going on a hike.”
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God bless both of you! 
