The truck moved.
The trailer did not.
She tried forward.
Nothing.
The rear trailer axle had sunk into soft ground beneath the water.
Adah climbed out.
Water reached her knees immediately.
The current nearly knocked her sideways.
She grabbed the truck bed.
Cattle bawled inside the trailer.
“Easy!”
She waded back.
The trailer leaned slightly.
Not enough to tip.
Yet.
Adah looked upstream.
The water level was visibly rising.
She cursed.
A pickup appeared on the higher road behind her.
Then another.
Neighbors.
The first driver jumped out.
Earl Donnelly.
“Adah!”
“I’m fine!”
“That trailer isn’t!”
“I noticed!”
Three men entered the water.
They attached a chain to Earl’s truck.
The truck spun its tires.
Nothing.
Another truck joined.
Two trucks pulled.
The trailer moved four inches.
Then the chain snapped.
Everyone jumped backward.
Adah stared at the trailer.
Water climbed higher around the axles.
Someone shouted, “Get the cattle out!”
“Into what?” Adah yelled.
The surrounding fields were flooded.
Opening the rear gate risked cattle being swept into the ditch.
Another truck arrived.
Vernon.
He stepped into the water.
“What the hell happened?”
“Road washed out.”
He looked toward the trailer.
“We need a winch.”
Earl pointed toward Vernon’s district truck.
“You got one?”
“Electric portable.”
They unloaded it.
A modern twelve-volt winch.
Fast.
Compact.
Strong.
They anchored it to a cottonwood.
Cable to trailer.
Battery connection.
Motor whined.
The trailer shifted.
Everyone shouted.
Then the winch stopped.
Vernon checked the control.
Nothing.
“Battery?”
“Truck’s running!”
He tried again.
Motor clicked.
No movement.
“Overload.”
Adah stared at the taut cable.
The electric winch housing began smoking faintly.
“Stop!”
Vernon released the button.
The drum jerked backward several inches before the brake caught.
Cattle panicked.
The trailer rocked.
Adah saw the danger instantly.
Fast recovery meant nothing if losing power allowed the load to move.
She looked toward her farm.
Half mile away.
Machine shed visible through rain.
The old winch.
Earl saw her face.
“What?”
Adah started walking toward her truck.
“What?”
“I’ve got another winch.”
Vernon laughed once.
Then stopped when he realized.
“No.”
Adah climbed into the truck.