Chapter 3 Hector Sheep Farm
Last Chapter, Nina is flying out to Marlyand to help her Uncle Hector with his sheep farm after learning he has been hospitalized. In this chapter, Nina will meet up with some family member. Some are good, and some are bad.
The flight to Maryland did not take long. After she got off the airplane, Nina rented a cherry red jeep. She drove along the interstate, using google maps to guide her to Frederick County Hospital. She decided she would stop in and check up on Hector before heading to the farm.
It took her an hour before she got to the hospital. Nina drove around in the parking lot, biding her time before she faced her uncle. What would she tell him? That her career as an actress is currently in the toilet? That she now waited tables in order to pay rent. By the time she chose a parking space, she decided not to tell her uncle anything.
The hospital lobby area barely had any people. Nothing but an old guy playing on his phone in the waiting area. Nina approached the front desk. A woman with a name tag, Beth, looked at a copy of People magazine and payed no attention to Nina at all.
“Excuse me, I am here to see Hector Papez,” Nina said.
Beth sighed, put down her magazine, and typed something on her computer.
“Room 202 on the third floor,” Beth said, before turning her attention back to her magazine.
Nina took the elevator up to the second floor. Room 202, a couple doors down. Inside lay Hector. He lay still in his hospital bed. His eyes shut. His long, shaggy gray beard went down to his chest. Tubes attached to him pumped morphine into his body.
Hector slowly opened his eyes, revealing his dim blue pupils.
“Nina, is that you?”
“Hey Uncle Hector,” Nina bent down and gave her uncle a hug.
“How have you been, kiddo?”
“Doing great?”
“How has the acting business been treating you?”
There it was, the question Nina hoped he wouldn’t ask. What was she supposed to say? She only needed a few seconds to devise an answer; however, those seconds appeared interminable.
Nina’s mouth was dry, as if thirsting for a drink of water.
“What is the name of that soap opera again? Roses of the dead?” Hector asked. His forehead wrinkles creased as he tried to remember the name.
“Roses of Love,” Nina corrected him.
Hector weakly waved his hand. “Whatever, listen. Thanks for coming down here. I know you're busy.”
“It’s really no problem,” Nina insisted.
“I would take care of them myself, rather than sitting around here. These doctors won’t let me leave. They say it is to make sure my recovery goes well. I think they want more of my insurance money,” Hector said.
“Is there anything I should know about taking care of sheep?” Nina asked.
Hector pointed a wrinkly finger at Nina. “There is just one thing you must remember, always leave the sheep out overnight.”
“What for?” Nina wasn’t certain if her uncle thinking is straight. Bears and coyotes lived in the surrounding forest.
“I always leave the sheep out overnight. They like it. I can tell. By the next morning, they seem well rested and happy. So whatever you do, leave the sheep out overnight,” Hector said with a foreboding tone of voice.
“How can you tell that the sheep are happy?” Nina asked.
“I look in their eyes each morning, and they always look happy,” Hector explained. She was not quite certain if she bought Hector's explanation. It sounded like whatever medication the doctor had him under was messing with his brain. Then again, what did she really know about caring for sheep? Maybe they did like spending the night outdoors.
A nurse came into the room with a tray full of mashed potatoes, jello, and corn. Nina said goodbye to her uncle and left him to eat his lunch.
Papez Sheep Farm was located several miles south of the town of Little River. Barbed wire fencing surrounded the property. Nina drove the jeep down the long driveway and parked right in front of a single story brown house. Right across from the house was a large, green barn. Nina grabbed her bags from the trunk of the car. She remembered that her uncle always kept a spare key underneath the welcome mat. Lucky for her, that was where the key.
The inside of Hector's house still looked the same as it had from when she was a little girl. A small kitchen area off to the right, and a living room filled with eighties style furniture off to the right. The house hadn’t been decorated since aunt Rosa had passed away. Nina remembers how Rosa would talk about redecorating the house, but Hector was too stubborn. Rosa had passed away because of breast cancer years ago. Nina knew Hector still missed her.
Hector still had one of those small, box shaped tv with an antenna. Nina turned the tv on and felt surprised that the old thing still worked. It was broadcasting some old game show she did not recognize, but judging by how the people dressed, it was a rerun of something from the 1980s. The screen was grainy looking. Nina shut the tv off. If she remembered correctly, the guest bedrooms should be downstairs. She walked down a narrow staircase to the basement of the house. The basement was nothing fancy. It was roomy, not exactly small. The area also had shag carpeting.
There were two guest bedrooms in the basement. One had a small window with a closet and a queenside bed. The other one was a smaller room, with a single person bed and a window. Hector and Rosa, at one point, had tried to have a kid. Rosa had gotten pregnant, so Hector had turned a small storage area into a room for the kid. He had a crib and everything. It was not to be, though. The baby had died before being born. After that experience, he and Rosa had never tried for a baby ever again. Hector replaced the crib with a bed and use the room as a second guest bedroom instead of storing junk in it. Nina obviously called dibs on the largest of the two rooms. She unpacked her clothes and then stepped out to look around the farm. Right across from the house stood a massive barn that housed the sheep when they were not in the corral. Off to the left of the barn was a corral, made of a rusted red gate. A piece of gate ran through the center of the corral, dividing the sheep.
The sound of an engine purred, disrupting the quietness. Nina turned her head and saw an orange Mazda come roaring down the driveway. Sheep baa and huddled in the right corner of the coral. The Mazda parked on the front lawn. A scrawny guy with a mop of curly black hair stepped out of the vehicle. He was shorter than Nina and had olive cover skin. He wore a bright orange tang top and camo colored pants. A gold chain dangled around his neck.
“What is up, sister from another mother?” The man hollered in a thick Italian accent. Nina walked up to the man and embraced him in a hug.
“How are things going at the dance studio, Gio?” Nina asked, releasing her brother from her hug, and looking him in his dark green eyes. Giovanni was not her actual brother, but her stepbrother that had adopted when she was young. He now owned his own dance studio in Jersey.
“Things are going amazing! I got more clients, and I am adding an expansion to the studio real soon. Just got to get all the annoying permits shorted out.”
“That sounds great?”
“What about you? How is the whole acting gig going for you?” Giovanni asked. Nina bit her lower lip, trying to think about what she should tell her brother. Suddenly, Giovanni's eyebrows furrowed as he looked over Nina's shoulder.
“What the heck is he doing here?” Giovanni said. Nina turned to see a familiar man wearing a white tank top and jeans with holes in the knees walking toward them.
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