Quality and Quest

I was having my first bowl of cereal for the year (we finally had enough milk to bring some to the house!) when Greyden burst through the door. “Zaphire’s kidding!” he yelled before bolting back out. I ate the last bite and dropped my spoon, racing for my locker to grab my coveralls and boots.

Dad joined me and the two of us grabbed our gear as quickly as possible, racing to pull on the coveralls, shove our feet in the boots, and pull on our sweatshirts. “We really are like firemen, aren’t we?” I said laughingly as we ran towards the front door, remembering what Dad had said a few days ago. He’d been talking to Jade and he’d made some joke about us just needing a fireman’s pole to be like firemen.

I didn’t catch his answer, because I was racing down the driveway towards the barn. I ran through the milk processing room, then the milk room, grabbing a few towels as I passed the pile of them.

Colter and Greyden were in the stall with Zaphire, and they each had a kid. I hopped the fence and went for the one that looked wetter and started drying it off – it was cold, and the baby was shivering.

“I’ve got a girl!” Greyden said, and I checked to see what I had. “I’ve got a boy,” I said, continuing to rub him down. My mind was running through possible names for these babies – Zaphire’s full name is Queen Zaphire, so their names had to start with a Q. While I was still thinking, Greyden and I took the babies into the milk room, which is the only heated room in the barn.