Until The Cows Come Home

I don't usually do a lot of creative writing. I get about creative about once a year when I do NaNoWriMo.  That isn't to say that I don't want to do creative writing, it is more of a laziness that prevents me from doing so.  Discussing this issue with my friend Faye, we came up with the idea of writing prompts and short stories. Our idea was we would  both start a story and the other would finish it. The writing prompt that was suggested was cows.  Below is the start.

Until The Cows Come Home
Zoey wasn't amused.  Of all the plans they could have come up with, this by far was probably the stupidest and these would have to be the stupidest thieves in the history of thievery if they were going to fall for this stupid set up.  Zoey wasn't sure if she was frustrated with herself for even agreeing to try this plan or if she was mortified that it seemed to be working.   There she was on her hands and knees in her lucky black jeans and a black turtleneck sweater in the middle of a herd of cows with an itchy cow hide on her back and a goofy plastic cow Halloween mask being ushered into a truck with the rest of calves.   The mask was humid from her breathing and she could tell that her long brown hair was slowly falling out of the braided bun that  it was in at the base of her neck. Sweat was trickling its way down her cleavage and she could feel the weeds brushing against her as she tried to keep up with the cows as some of them were being lured up a ramp.  The bite of rocks and stones made her knees ache and she mentally cursed her rotten luck in her head as the cows lowed beside her. 

Zoey had always thought of herself as an intelligent young lady that would go far if she could get herself out of the sleepy little town she was raised in.  There was nothing exciting to do, and nothing ever changed.  The most exciting thing prior to this current bout of thievery of livestock was when the slushy machine ran out of cherry coke slushy’s and it was replaced with some blood orange and lemonade swirl mix. Change was not taken well.  There were still scorch marks on the side of the 7/11 where a flaming bag of dog shit had caught the newspapers next to the entrance on fire.
    
Cow thievery was not uncommon.  It was actually pretty normally for one or two head to go missing and it could easy be written off as an occupational hazard. It was not common for almost a dozen cattle to go missing every five nights from a different ranch each time.  It wasn't normal for that many heads to go missing in that short of an amount of time without someone outright stealing them.  Zoey wasn't even interested in the missing cattle.  Bovine was the hottest topic of conversation from the grocery store to the hair salon.  There was no where a person could go without someone having an opinion, which is how she got in this predicament. 

Zoey had been chilling at her friend, Lucy's house when Lucy's brother, Garret had rushed into the house cussing about missing cows.  Zoey was not going to admit to having a crush on Garret, but she would admit that he did fill out a pair of jeans in all the right ways. Maybe it was the fact that he looked good with his cheeks flushed that she was drawn into the fight against the missing hoofs as Lucy had tried to console her brother. When clucking and fussing didn’t seem to calm him down, Lucy had pulled out the booze and they all took a shot in sympathy.

 After a couple more shots of corn whiskey, it was deduced that old man Johnson's farm was the only farm that had not yet had the misfortune of absent bovine and that someone would need to go undercover to see what was going on.  Zoey definitely remembered the corn whiskey and the hang over the next day and the way Garrets eyes had sparkled that corn flower blue she loved, but parts of the plan were a little hazy.  She was sure that at no time in the planning was it ever out right said that Zoey would be the one disguising herself as a cow.  Zoey's had always figured it would be Lucy in the field and she would be tuning in by Walkie Talkies as Garrett took watch from one of the residing hillside with binoculars.  In fact that was the plan, until Lucy sprained her ankle and couldn't support herself without crutches.

IF you want to read the rest of the story, click here and it will take you to Faye's blog.  Cows.  I have no love for cows having lived on a beef farm in weening season, but over all this was a fun exercise .