“Hey.”

He said while chewing his mouthful of cud. I looked behind me; back to the white bovine again. I reached and pulled my new hat a little further down on my forehead.

“Hey, you.”

He said it again. I spat out a chaw. Amazed. “Well, I’ll be a…”

“What do you want?” He mumbled, as he switched sides of his mouth, still chewing. He dropped his head for a moment, but those big brown eyes stayed trained on me.

I sauntered over to the fence row and propped on the top strand of barbed wire. “Say, there. Are you talkin’ ta me?” I said this with as much macho as I could muster, I threw my dusty booted foot up on the bottom strand. I spat, again.

The bull swallowed and pawed once at the ground. Shook his head and body, dust flew every direction.

“Yeah, cow-boy.” He drawled in a dangerously mocking way. I hated the way he emphasized “boy.”

That did it. I stood straight up, “Now you listen here!” I shook my finger at him.

He sorta snorted, “Come on over cowboy, Let’s rumble.”