Sassy and Smart Micki

"Yes and I have gloves and as you can see a long-sleeved shirt buttoned up high."

"Good girl."

Maria went back to her car and leaned on to it, making no effort to drive away. Micki noticed how Andrew, Charlie and Digger were hovering, appearing to look busy.

"Oh god I'm being set up."

"Probably but not with a bucking horse. Joe wouldn't want to see you hurt," Kitty said. "It will be something else, well that's my guess. Be sure to check the cinch."

Joe rode out leading a horse even taller than his.

Micki whispered, "Omigod, it's about 13.5 hands (6ft high measured to the withers, or the ridge above the shoulder blades)."

"Use your brain. I can't say any more and spoil their fun."

"This is my second-string horse Trojan. I promise you he'd quiet."

"I guess this is a joke?" smiled the 5ft 6in blue-eyed blonde.

"What makes you think that?"

"I could ask you to be a gentleman and dismount and help me up but first let me try."

Micki was well short on her first effort to swing over the saddle but much closer on the second attempt.

"Jesus is Trojan a fucking horse or a mountain?"

Joe almost fell off his horse he was laughing so much and others who'd come in close were also laughing.

Micki lost her Acubra in her third attempt to mount and hung awkwardly with a leg just over the saddle.

"Would some kind person..."

Maria darted in and gave Micki's butt the small push-up she needed and she was on, red-faced and sweating and people clapped.

Maria dusted the hat and handed it to Micki who blew Maria a kiss and then dug her heels into Trojan who leaped forward in surprise and was taken through a tight figure of eight and then stopped and called, "Are you ready to go Joe?"

Trojan wasn't the only one who knew this American babe knew how to ride well.

Micki yelled "Yeller" and she leaped off the pickup and took up position on the side of Trojan away from Joe on his horse.

"Thanks for showing you are willing to be the butt of some fun."

"That's fine providing you'll be there when I need you Joe."

"Jesus yes Micki. We kinda like having you here. You must know that?"

"How was I to know that?"

"Um we discussed it when you'd left the breakfast table to go off and get ready."

"Well that's really nice to know Joe and don't repeat this but I think you guys are a swell family and I include Maria in that too."

"She thinks you are amazing. I heard her tell mum that."

"Now then, don't let too many family secrets out of the bag. Tell me about the cattle and how far have you gone with weighing programs, supplementary feeding and progeny performance and testing."

After dinner than evening, Andrew brought out his guitar and his old one for Micki and Kitty called Maria and Snake and invited them over.

They had a great evening and the only person to not have suspected Maria would have a great voice was Micki. Of course Snake would have known.

As everyone said goodnight, Micki kissed Andrew and congratulated him on his guitar-playing loudly and then whispered he should bring a condom when they went to tour his sheep management operation.

They left after breakfast on farm bikes (motor-cross type motorcycles).

Andrew had brought lunch and they had that seated on a bench outside the big shearing shed almost four miles from the house on the far side of cropping land. It had four raised shearing stands and there was space in the shed and the outdoor pens covered by just a roof, to hold up to 1300 sheep, equivalent to a 6th of the flock. That meant sufficient sheep could be kept dry for two days of shearing should it rain.

They rode out to inspect the rams and then Andrew said, "We are about as far away from the house, the neighbors and my nosey brothers as we can get."

"You mean for sex?"

"Um yeah unless you have changed your mind."

"No my body is interested and so is my mind."

"Right let's go over by the lake. The dogs might watch us but they'll also spot any snake and Bruno will be in for the kill."

"Oh god."

"Don't even think about it.

Andrew was too eager to be in for his chop to dwell too much on sweet kissing and petting, but he managed to work up Micki by patting her pussy over her jeans while he'd freed a breast and went after it like a hungry dog, saying, "God you have great tits."

Micki sighed, "Oh Mr Romantic, where are you?" but obviously Andrew wasn't listening.

She sighed again and unbuckled her belt and suddenly his patting hand diverted to help her wriggle out of her jeans.

"No you get out of your jeans," she said. "I'm hot and want it."

"But Micki, what about foreplay, don't you want a working over?"

She doubted she'd get any more than thirty seconds and said not to bother.

The 26-year old had nothing to brag about but used it well and had staying power and even more importantly they'd remembered to roll the condom on him.

Micki was perspiring hugely, as was he, and was about to enquire was he about done when he yelled, "Can I blast over your tits?"

"Yes."

He pulled out and splattered her chest lightly.

"God you are good," he said, obviously believing it. "You had me pressed so tightly I thought for a while I'd blow off the end of the condom."

"You are one of the best I've ever had."

"Oh really?"

His look told her he was willing to believe her.

Later when they were stopped for Andrew to open a gate she called, "Andrew that was a one-off. Don't expect a repeat."

"Aw."

"And I suggest you don't even give a hint to your brothers we did it. That will only risk discord when they find they are not getting it."

"Gee I'm honored Micki and I promise not to give even a hint. But what if you feel like getting off?"

"We are going out tomorrow night for Friday drinks and a meal aren't we?"

"Yeah we thought we should go to Horsham to a bar and grill rather than a pub because they can get rather rough at times and you're pretty good looking."

"Oh thanks for being so considerate. Your mother thinks I'm beautiful."

"Oh but you are. Um pretty good looking was just a laidback way of saying the same thing."

The three brothers took Micki to Capone's. It was crowded, modernly fitted out, noisy with life music and they waited twenty minutes for a table but that was fine. They'd had a couple of drinks and at the table switched to white and red wine. Midway through a meal a guy about thirty came to the table and slapped Joe on the back and greeted him warmly.

The guy then saw Micki and his mouth fell open. He recovered and said hi to Charlie and Andrew, using their names.

"This is our post-graduate scholarship winner for this year," Andrew said proudly. Micki Collins was recently graduated at Lincoln University in New Zealand but she's from California. She has dual passports because she was born in New Zealand. Her mum went home to have her in Auckland, her hometown."

"Hi Micki or must I call you Michelle?"

"No Micki is fine."

"I'm Cooper Hatfield. Joe and I were best mates all through high school. He went to university in New Zealand while I went to Scotland to study animal breeding and the care and welfare of farm livestock, principally cattle, because my family farms Angus cattle and also runs an Angus stud."

"Oooh that sounds impressive. What degree did you obtain?"

"None but I gained three diplomas including one on animal genetics in my chosen areas of study while living on my uncle's Angus stud and attending field days with him whenever I could. During study breaks I worked with him doing everything from mucking-out the winter housing facilities to assisting with embryo transfer."

"And you transferred that knowledge back here?"

"Yes by in large. You have good understanding."

Charlie and Andrew produced a teasing oooh and Cooper moved back, looking slightly embarrassed and excused himself and returned to his table, thumping Joe on the shoulder as he passed him.

Joe said, "Do you want him Micki? I can arrange it because he's not going steady at the moment."

She nodded.

He made her embarrassed by calling from the other end of the table, "Was that a yes or no."

"Yes," she bleated and from that moment the brothers lost their simmering interest in her but didn't ignore her as a team member.

When their food arrived Joe said, "You come out with Charlie and me tomorrow and then you go will work as directed by mum each morning when she announces duties over breakfast."

"That's fine and I look forward to learning what you guys can teach me and just plain helping out such as counting grain or cattle pats or chasing lambs to put daisy chains around their necks."

The guys grinned.

CHAPTER 2

After dinner almost a week later, Kitty came from the kitchen and said over the noise of the commentary of a rugby league football match, "A call for you darling."

The guys knew it wasn't for them.

Micki almost panicked thinking something bad had happened on the farm back home but then thought the call would have come to her phone.

She picked up the house phone and said, "Micki Collins speaking."

"Hi you might not remember me, Cooper Hatfield. We met briefly..."

"Oh I remember... tall, handsome and sexy with intense gray/blue eyes."

The caller hesitated and then, "Is that you Joe?"

"No it is Micki," she said, now speaking without a nervous quaver. "Are you calling for a date?"

"Um yes, in a manner of speaking. My mom invites you to come to Sunday lunch. I told her about meeting you at dinner tonight, um I tend to think about you each day, and um she told me to call you and invite you to lunch Sunday."

"Why?" Micki asked not really intending to make the guy sweat on this.

"What? Do you mean why I think about you or mum or do you mean the invitation."

"Well I know why you think about me you sexy man. I mean the invitation."

"Mom is American, from near Charlottesville, Virginia. Dad met her over there when he and granddad were part of a cattlemen's tour of eastern USA from Florida up to Massachusetts."

"Oh how interesting and it would be lovely meeting her but I'll really come for the opportunity of seeing you again."

"You mean you are interested me?"

"Yes from the moment I first saw you, without knowing who you were. But please think of that as being a rare knockdown for me."

"Knockdown?"

"God this is embarrassing. It's a ten-pin bowling term dad uses."

"There's 10-pin at Lanes and Games in Horsham, a dozen lanes. Do you play?"

"A bit."

"If you're interested I'll arrange a male and female group for a compo."

"Does that mean a competition?"

"Yeah but just a friendly one with some side bets but you don't have to bet."

"That sounds lovely and it would be good to meet some younger women around here."

"My sister will be home Sunday. She's twenty-four; I'm twenty-eight."

They talked on and Cooper said he would call for her at 10:00 on Sunday to allow them to tour the farm before lunch "but only if you're interested." He sounded pleased when she said she was more than interested because she'd come to Australia to learn.

Micki returned to the TV room and Digger switched off the sound and they all looked at her.

She colored.

Kitty said, As if she didn't know, "Was that Cooper Hatfield?"

"Yes, his mother is American and has invited me to lunch."

The boys looked at their mom.

"Then why didn't Caroline call you herself?"

"I have no idea."

"You didn't ask?

"No, to me that would appear rude."

Digger turned the sound back on and the guys focused on the TV screen.

"Is there something wrong with my sons?"

The sound was switched off again.

The guys stared at Micki who said was that a fair question.

"Then don't answer it."

Micki said, "Help me out here Joe."

He scratched his belly, holding his mother in emotional suspense.

"I think this is what Micki means. I saw her look up and saw an expression on her face I'd not seen before but I know what it is. It's called instant recognition. I turned to see the guy who'd caught her eye and saw Cooper advancing on us. Mom she had no idea who he was."

"Yeah and I saw Cooper and the way he kept on looking at her. It was uncanny," Andrew said.

And then equally unexpectedly Charlie added the telling blow to his mum.

"Mum we boys were all in with an even better chance than Cooper to impress Micki to begin dating, but guess who generated the best chemistry with her? You know it's part of nature's selection process."

Kitty sighed and sank bank on to the sofa and patted the empty place beside her.

"Come over here sweetheart and forgive me. I'm just a grouchy old mom defensive about her sons and it was so unfair of me to take you on like that."

"I understand Kitty and please understand the person I love here is you."

Kitty began bawling and reached out to hug Micki.

Digger barked, "Jesus Christ, could we have less noise around here.

Everyone returned to watching football.

Almost thirty seconds later Digger sheepishly turned the sound back.

Late afternoon next day, Digger was in the bath and Kitty came in to scrub his back.

"And how was Miss Superior out there today?"

"Jesus Kit, she gave Charlie boy and me the best day we've had out there for zonks. She was bright and chattered on keeping us interested and only asked questions about things she didn't know or was unsure about. She said nothing boastful. But Kit listen to this, she identified every piece of machinery and every hand-held item of equipment we asked her to identify. I then asked here to take our new John Deere harvester for a bit of a spin and she climbed up and started it without any fuss and drove it into a figure of eight like she rode Trojan and rumbled straight on at us, turning on the lights and blasting the hooter, almost scaring the crap out of Charlie boy and me."

"Well I'm glad she impressed you."

"Kit, admit it. She's the most impressive female who's ever visited this farm in our time and that includes your mother."

"All right, yes. I have to agree with that."

"And the most loving."

"Oh Christ, finish your own back," Kitty snapped and rushed out weeping.

"Jealous bitch. It's one of her sons or else Micki is crap in her eyes."

On Thursday Kitty's friend Mabel Hamilton called in a great state. Her 4-year old granddaughter Jessica was missing. Mabel sounded terribly upset and said could Kitty bring her men to help search the riverbanks.

Kitty called everyone in off the farm and as they arrived they drove off to the Hamilton's farm fifteen miles away.

Kitty and Maria had loaded food and a barbecue to be used to heat an iron pot of water out in the field for tea and coffee. Maria had raced back in as Micki and Joe arrived and Micki helped Maria to load cartons of beer cans on to the back of the old ute.

Kitty sat on the tray of the ute with Yeller.

"Don't take that dog, he'll only get in the way.

"Yeller might find her."

"Please yourself," Kitty said, climbing in to her seat and said, "We must find that child alive. She's such an adorable sweetie."

They stopped at the deserted house and grabbed cups and more milk.

Micki said, "Kitty we should search intensely around the house. How far away is the river?"

"Almost half a mile. See the vehicles out there."

"Kitty only an emotional mother and grandmother would think of the river. Do you think a 4-year old would walk that far alone without a purpose?"

"They have a swimming hole there."

"Oh god you go but I'll still search carefully around here. Some of the men would have thought of doing that but they may have rushed it."

"Please yourself. I'm not saying it's a bad idea but I need to get over and support Mabel and her daughter. They'll be frantic with worry."

Micki began searching the house and in the bedroom found a cloth doll on the floor and gave that to Yeller to sniff.

She was disappointed Yeller took little notice of the offering after sniffing at it twice.

The house was built on a concrete slab so nothing there to crawl under.

The poultry house was securely fastened up high so Micki didn't bother searching inside.

She went into the orchard calling the girl's name, and looking carefully in overgrown areas. At the far end of the orchard she found Yeller sniffing at some wood and knew instantly what it was, rotting timber from over an abandoned hand-dug well. It had the appearance of being recently removed. She looked down the well but it was too dark and deep to see anything.

She called out Jessica several times and noticed Yeller was looking with some interest down the hole.

She called Kitty.

"Kitty I'm on to something but it could be a false alarm. Please get four or five men over here fast to the site of the old well at the end of the orchard. Tell them to grab ropes and torches."

Micki heard the sound of vehicles rushing towards the house and thought oh god, everyone was coming. If it were a false alarm she would be ridiculed.

A guy, presumably the child's father vaulted the fence while other men went up to the gate.

"Look," Micki pointed. "That wood looks very recently disturbed."

'

The guy said nothing but ripped the other lengths of wood away and called desperately, "Jess, Jess oh god answer me Jess."

"I need a rope," he yelled.

A guy arrived with a rope and another guy strung out a rope between two trees as part of crowd control. Perhaps thirty people had gathered and two women with Kitty had been allowed through to the wellhead.

They watched as four men lowered Jeff, Jessica's father, down the well shaft, head first. He called something and a guy at the wellhead called, "Jeff can see her. Jess is wedged headfirst. He can't see if she'd in water."

Micki noticed the mother between Kitty and the other woman was shaking and weeping but was managing to hold back the screams.

Micki hurried over and said to the mother, "Jess has been found and that's the first stage. Believe me, in all probability there is no water in that well because it would have been the reason why it was abandoned and remember this district is still in drought. Also it is unlikely the hole she's in is exactly her shape and so air will be circulating. She probably was knocked unconscious and her wee body is keeping her that way to protect, well that's my thinking."

"Thank you for finding my baby," the woman sniffed, hugging Micki.

"Pat Yeller. She got to the well first."

The grandmother and Kitty both hugged Micki, Kitty calling her "My heroine."

Micki took Yeller back by the crowd control rope.

A TV news team arrived on the heels of a newspaper photographer and two reporters and Micki heard someone say, "That's the young woman who found her, a Yank."

"Not so," Micki said. "Her father actually was the person to identify she was down the well. My dog Yeller here was already sniffing around the well when I got there."

"But she was the only person to search carefully around the house. We all had raced to search the riverbanks," called someone.

Then the child's father was hauled to the surface and cried, "Pull her up gently. I tied the rope around her waist and looped it around her ankles. "Peggy I'm absolutely sure she's breathing. I reached down and cleared dirt away beside her face and I reckon hairs on the back of my hand by her mouth moved in synch with very slow breathing."

"Oh God, thank you," Peggy screamed.

The crowd cheered and clapped.

A later arriving rescue team with a doctor had reached the site and a guy with a stretcher hurried in after them.

The news media wanted to interview Micki but she was nowhere to be found and there was no sign of Yeller.

They all jumped Kitty who said, "She will have gone to avoid being in the limelight. You will find her and Yeller walking home, fifteen miles away. Go thataway," she smiled, pointing out the direction.