Old Sebastian

Old Sebastian (Fiction)

He knew this would be his last year with the sheep. Everything was hard now – to get dressed, to cook his simple meals, to feed his dogs, to get around the sheep, to get up or down or in or out. There wasn’t much more pain than usual. His old joints and old injuries ached, but no more than usual. He just knew he wouldn’t be here to see the mountain pastures again.

He brought the sheep down in the fall, the lambs fat and heavy. After the sheep were corralled he went back to his wagon, packed his gear then cleaned out his sheep wagon, his dogs waiting outside.

He finished sweeping and was taking a long look around the corrals and yard when he saw her, the baby girl. She was walking now and trying to climb the yard gate; she’d just been crawling when he left in the spring. He stood in the doorway of his wagon and watched her, unaware of the tears flowing over and around the wrinkles and down his cheeks.

She looked so like his own baby girl the last time he’d seen her. She and her mamma waving to him from the window as he’d walked out the gate headed for work that day. They had come to get him to identify their bodies, broken by the car that had hit them. He became Old Sebastian that day. He left his job, his family, and his country but his baby girl and her mamma went with him wherever he went.

And now, in his final days, here was another baby girl. He motioned for his dogs to stay and made his slow way to the gate. He and the child looked at one another a long moment then he reached over the gate. She took his hands and climbed her feet up the gate. He gently lifted her down and she took hold of his pant leg.

Her mother at the window had started to go out as she saw Sebastian approach. Her husband put out a restraining hand saying, “He’ll not hurt her. Let him be.”

They watched as their precious baby girl led the weary old man on this journey. She led him toward the corrals full of blatting sheep and after she had her fill of them she turned back toward the house. They didn’t see the signal but his dogs left the sheep wagon and made their way to the mismatched pair. Old Sebastian took her hand from his pants leg, caught her other hand and put one of her hands on the back of each dog. She looked up and back at him for a moment then walked away as the dogs led her back toward the house. The mother went out and opened the gate for them.

Old Sebastian died in his sleep that night, but his dogs spent the rest of their lives guarding this baby girl, as he had meant them to.