Jamie watched the sheep swarm the outer gates into the farm. “Dad, can I go hang out with my friends? Please? We are pretty much done here.”
“Unfortunately, no. We have to prepare the animals for sale. That means today is a cleaning day, sorry. Your friends are going to have to wait.” Tim replied to his daughter, “but don’t worry. We are going to have a blast today.”
“What do you mean?”
“Each of the animals is going to have to be cleaned, and not to mention the… – remember last night? We talked about this. It’s either you or your sister helping out, and you said you wanted to learn.”
“Yeah… but it’s so weird. My friends at school made fun of me this morning when I told them what I had to do with the animals. Are you sure this is what I have to do?”
Tim sighed. “Like I said, it’s either you or your sister. Someone has to take care of these animals.”
“Fine.” Jamie said, defeated. She started to walk away when her father called out to her.
“Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself. This is a lot of responsibility, and I’m proud of you for taking it on.”
Jamie turned back and smiled, “Thanks, Dad.”
“No problem, sweetheart. Now let’s get to work! You get started with the bullpen.”
“Come on,” Jamie whined, “I want to do something else. Toro scares me. He’s always making those weird noises.”
“I’ll be there in a minute. Just do what I say and we’ll get through this.”