There are two spring seasons in the Sink. Early spring is a season of sunshine and rain. After about a month of that, the rains stop, the temperatures climb, spring begins to resemble summer, and “sunny and fair” becomes an oxymoron. To step out of the shade is to risk a skull-cracking collision with a wall of heat, even to combust like a vampire in the Hollywood sun.
It was at about that time of year that Suzanne called from the coast to ask Cindy if she’d be able and willing to continue to work for Coswell Farms through the summer. Sue said she’d received a summer internship, and wouldn’t be able to do the job, so if Cindy wouldn’t be available then Sue’s family would need to find someone else to fill in over summer break. Cindy hadn’t made any big plans for the summer, so she assented. The job was hardly a burden. It gave her mobility and spending money. She probably derived a sense of self-worth from the job as well, though self-esteem never seemed to be a serious issue for Cindy.
As spring gave way to the heat of summer, Armen was more than ready to try another outing to the mountains. He felt quite an itch, really. He’d just graduated from high school, but it hadn’t felt like a triumph; it felt more like Judgment Day. What was he going to do now? Get a job? Was he even able to hold down a job? He’d never really tried. He had to do something with himself, but nothing called him; nothing, that is, with one supreme exception: the mountains. It had been all he could do to wait for the snows to melt. He’d be willing to contend with the remaining snowmelt that kept the streams hazardous weeks into summer. He hadn’t seen the cowboy for nearly two years, and he was wondering if Walker was still working up on the Range. Armen wasn’t in a hurry to invite Cindy along. She never expressed any interest anyway. She almost seemed to shun the topic.
Cindy was content to continue as she’d been doing through fall, winter, and spring, though now she spent more time on the job, mending fences and roads, mucking paddocks and stables, feeding horses and cattle, delivering supplies, and even helping to track down stray cattle. There were times when the job even kept her out overnight. She’d been at it long enough, and she would be out on her own within a year anyway, so her parents tried not to worry themselves about it.
Like Armen, Sam Dorah had graduated, and like Armen, he wasn’t ready for college. He hadn’t received any football scholarships. For all his talent as a defensive back, he wasn’t considered big enough for college ball, and he wasn’t about to make up for his lack of size with any self-promotion campaigns. He just didn’t want it that badly. He liked working at the dairy, and he’d have been happy to keep working there until his dying day.