Chapter 4: The Redo Party

By Saturday noon there were forty people in my father's yard.

The widow from down the road had brought three pies and six folding chairs.

The auction men had come, and the feed store clerk.

So had every rancher's wife who had watched me walk out of that kitchen.

I told myself they had come for the cake.

At ten that morning Jesse had arrived with a horse trailer.

He backed it up to the paddock without a word.

Out came a small gray pony with a braided mane and a ribbon on its halter.

"Her name's Biscuit," he said. "I bought her Friday. Daisy can name her something else if she wants."

I looked at the pony and then at him.

"You can't buy your way out of a missed birthday, Jesse."

"I know that." He took off his hat and turned it in his hands.

"I'm not trying to. I just want to be where she is."

He had set up every table in that yard before noon.

He had not asked me for anything.

At two o'clock, Daisy rode the pony around the paddock.

Her father walked beside her with one hand on her back, and the whole yard watched them.

I watched, too.

For ten minutes I forgot to be angry.

Then a blue truck turned in at the gate.

Lottie got out in a white sundress, carrying a covered dish.

She had brushed Birdie's hair into two perfect braids with a ribbon in each.

The little girl had the palomino horse under her arm.

Birdie saw Jesse at the far end of the paddock.

She dropped her mother's hand and ran.

"Daddy! Daddy, I'm here!"

She hit his legs so hard he stumbled.

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