After supper Rosie and I went to the Tack Shed and got our ropes. First we practiced on the fiberglass steer head. She caught it every time. So we saddled Diablo. I wasn’t sure how he would react to the rope twirling around his head and flanks.
We had some bucket calves in the barn. So I turned them out in the corral. Rosie took Diablo in the far gate. The calves spooked and ran. Diablo was right on them, Rosie’s loop fell true. I said, “That’s the easy part, now catch their heels.”
The only thing was, Diablo wanted to cut them, not heel them. Rosie had to talk to him. Then he got behind them and Rosie caught both heels. She shook her loop loose and said, “Is that all there is to it?”
“Yep, but the trick is, can you keep it up all day?”
“Sure, why not? I’m not an invalid.” She said, then she roped a few more, catching both heels every time. She kept it up, till I told her that was enough, the calves were tired. Besides, I was starting to fade. I knew I wasn’t up to my old self, yet….
Leaning on the corral rail was Dr. Tu. She came over. “Let me look into your eyes.” Which she did. “Okay, you all right.”
I said, “Hold on a minute, what was that? ‘you all right’, you know better than to talk that way, why did you do it?”
“Okay, yes I know better, I can talk English, probably better than most of your hands on the ranch. But when they see an Asian, they expect us to talk that way. So sometimes, I just do it on purpose, I’m sorry.”
“Alright Doctor, don’t ever talk down to your heritage.” I said.
I helped Rosie hang her saddle in the tack room, then we both walked back to the house. The sun was setting and its rays highlighted Rosie’s red hair. Only thing it wasn’t as red as it used to be, it had gotten darker, it was now a deep auburn. Faith and Alita met us on the porch with some hot chocolate. In the spring, in Wyoming the nights were still chilly.
I was sipping mine, looking at my wife. Her hair was still black, but she had cut it in a pageboy cut, it reminded me of what the flapper’s from the 1920’s looked like. She was so cute, it hurt to look at her….
Alita was setting on my lap as I rocked back and forth, pretty soon she dozed off. It was one of those evenings when everything is perfect in one’s own small world. Rosie’s head was nodding, Faith said, as she took Alita from my lap. “Come on Rosie, it’s bed time,” then she looked at me, “are you coming?” she asked.
“Sure, for some reason, I’m wiped out tonight.” I said.
“Boy you have a short memory, did you forget what we did this afternoon?”
“No, but that didn’t use to tire me out.” I said.
“Well, you’re not quite up to snuff yet, but you couldn’t tell that by this afternoon.” Faith said as she put her off arm around me and the three of went into the house.
The next day dawned bright and clear; the weather was anyway. I don’t think I was. You know how on your computer ‘spam’ keeps popping up? Well anyway that was how those dreams were that I had while I was on my six months vacation.
They would pop up, randomly. Sometimes in the middle of the night or even briefly when I was awake. Very annoying.
It was after breakfast, I took my cup of coffee and went to sit on the front porch. I sat there sipping it, listening to the birds.
“Clay, Clay, are you alright?” Faith was calling me from somewhere far away, so was Rosie, “Daddy, Daddy, please wake up,” she said, with tears in her voice. Why was she crying? Also, Alita was crying from some where.
“What’s wrong with Alita?” I heard myself say.
Faith said, “Thank heavens you’re back. Are you alright?
“Of course, why are you all crying and having such a fit?” I asked.
Dr. Tu came into my line of vision. “Can you see how many fingers I am holding up?” She said. When I said the proper number, she said, “Follow my finger with your eyes, don’t turn your head.” I did so, she gave a sigh of relief and said, “He’s back; how long was he this way before you called me?”
Faith said, “I don’t know for sure; Rosie and I were doing the dishes. Clay had come out here to drink his coffee, maybe an hour or less. But we’ve been trying to wake him for over a half hour, since we found him.”
“He hasn’t been asleep, he’s been somewhere else, where were you Clay?” Dr. Tu asked.
“Well, my body has been sitting right here, but, I guess you could say that my mind or something like it has been into the future. Yeah, I know, that’s a bunch of crap. But if I wasn’t actually there; I was having hallucinations or maybe even a vision. Cause it was more than a dream. How do I know? Because I can remember every little detail. Even to how many pubic hairs my wife has.”
“What? You don’t even know that; how could you?” Faith said.
“Well this particular vision, or whatever, was way in the future; like thousands of years. I’ve had others that were closer to our time, but this one was way out there. Nobody wore clothes. And there was no shame attached. We were all there.”
“Oh, I don’t believe that.” Dr. Tu said. “Me without clothes, I would die of shame.”
“Tell me Suong, do you have a tattoo?” I said.
“Yes, I do.” She said.
“What would you say, if I told you what it was and where it was?”
“I would say that was impossible, no one has ever seen it, including my mother.”
“You have a tattoo of a small dragon, on your left buttocks.” I said.
“How did you know that? Have you been spying on me?” She gasped.
“You know better than that. I would never do that. You were very proud of that tattoo. It had something to do with your family’s heritage. It was part of your family’s heraldry. When you had it put on, you couldn’t tell your family, because they would of considered it to be some sort of sacrilege. Anyway that’s what you were telling everyone.”
“No one knows that, except me. I’ll be damned,” Dr. Suong Tu said, as she sat down on the top step. Her face was turning red from embarrassment.
“Don’t be embarrassed. In that future, no one is. I wasn’t.” I said. “But more important, are the ramifications of me knowing that you, or anyone else has a mole or some other hidden blemish. It means that the vision I had was true!”
“Are you sure Honey that it wasn’t just a fluke?” Faith said.
“No, it wasn’t, it was so clear, just as I’m talking to all of you right now; it was that clear. But more upsetting to me is the other’s. They weren’t all so happy. I don’t even want to think about them.”
“Don’t then.” Faith said, then to Dr. Tu, “Are you sure this isn’t just some malfunction in his brain wiring?”
“How could that be? He knows things that no one else knows. No there’s more to this than some physiology quirk. It’s more metaphysical, wouldn’t you agree?” Suong said.
Rosie cleared her throat, “I would agree with that assumption. I know for sure that things happen and there is no rational explanation for their coming to light. For example, me being a spirit rider, who can explain that?”
“A ‘spirit rider’, what in the world is that?” Suong asked. Rosie told her the full story. Rosie then turned her inquisitive mind, my way.
“Dad, are you going to tell us the rest of your visions?”
“No, not at this time. I think I’ll use that old saw, that the military uses, ‘the need to know basis’.” I said.
“That’s not fair, Dad.”
“I know it Rosie, but believe me you’re better off not knowing. Wouldn’t you agree, that the animals are happier not knowing their fate, just living in the moment?”
“I guess so, but Dad, we’re not animals.”
“Yes, but we all have the same eventuality, don’t we?” I said.
“Yes, at the present time, we all do die in the end.” Rosie said, rather glumly.
“Yes, but even that is not set in stone, I will tell you that much.”
“Clay, will you stop playing word games?” Faith said.
“Yeah, sure sweetheart, but I’ve got some arranging to do. I have to get them categorized in order of importance and chronologically. It may take some time. It’s like I said though, you are probably happier not knowing.”
Red was coming across the yard, “Hey,” he said, “I thought you and Rosie was going to help with the roundup and branding?”
“Sure,” I said, glad of the respite of getting back to the present. Too bad I wasn’t an animal….they live in the present….
Rosie and I missed lunch, we had a big breakfast anyway. We spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon brush popping strays out of the timbered draws. When we got back, Faith and Alita met us at the corral. “How come you didn’t ask me to go, I can ride you know?”
“Uh, didn’t know you wanted to go, and yes I know you can ride, beautifully too.” I said.
“Well, I really didn’t say that I wanted to, I guess I just wanted to be asked. I’m sorry if I came across as a bitchy wife. Besides I didn’t have anyone to watch Alita. Daisy was busy, cooking for the roundup crew. And Suong had to go the drilling rig; someone hurt his arm. I guess I was just feeling left out.” Faith said, as I picked her and Alita up and gave them both a kiss.
“Say,” I said, “what about the drilling, how’s it going?”
“Pretty good, we’re already having one well producing. They hope to have another one on line within a week. Since Red has been busy with the ranch; I’ve sort of been overseeing the drilling. Do you want to take over that?”
“No, no way. Since you have it well in hand, you keep on, keeping on.”
“Well, I do like the way they whistle at me.” Faith said. I seen the twinkle in her eye and knew she was just funning me.
“You know, I would be very disappointed if they didn’t whistle at you, you’re the prettiest thing in Wyoming.” I said.
“Oh? Only in Wyoming?” Faith said.
“Nope, in the whole universe, and I should know.” I said.
“There you go teasing again.” Rosie said, “When are you going to tell us more?”
“I don’t know, some of the things I seen I don’t like to think about. But soon, Okay? Do we have time to take a shower before supper?”
“Yes, Alita and I will get it on the table,” Faith said, “you and Rosie can get cleaned up.”
The hot water felt good, as it washed away the dust and grim, and soothed the bruise’s and small cuts, that the brush gave me. Even though I wore chaps. I was glad we had installed a commercial grade hot water heater, I took my time.
The shower door opened, Faith stood there, “Hey, I didn’t say take all night, get your butt out of that shower; the food is getting cold.”
I wanted to pull her in with me, but that could wait. I turned the water off and got out. She handed me a towel. She licked her lips, she was thinking the same thing I was, but she had to wait also. Rosie tapped on the door and said, “Come on, you two, no shenanigans now.”
After supper, Rosie took Alita into the den to read to her. I cleaned off the table and then dried the dishes as Faith washed. We had a dishwasher, but at times we liked to do them by hand. When married couples shared domestic chores; it brought them closer together. And closer was always better, right?
After we finished the dishes, Faith and I went into the den. We snuggled up on the couch and each of us picked up a book to read. My hand fell on George Orwell’s- ‘1984’.
I read the first chapter. It was disturbingly close to one of those visions that I had. But not that close, his was fiction. I was pretty sure what I had seen wasn’t fiction.
Faith was calling, “Clay, Clay, come on now, you’re not going to drift off again are you?”
“Uh, no. I’m alright. You both wanted to know about those visions that I had?
Well, this book made me think about one. This one that I am going to tell you about, has to do with religion. Or the fall of it, anyway. Have either of you ever heard of ‘Babylon the Great?”
Faith nodded, but Rosie spoke up, “Oh, I have. Isn’t it the world empire of false religion?”
“Yes, you might say that. I don’t know whether you know it or not, but religion has been responsible for most of the blood shed in the world. But before I tell you anymore each of you get a Bible and read Revelations the 18th chapter.” They did.
“As you know the Apostle John wrote Revelations. Anyway, did you notice how true Christians were told to get out of her, so as not to share in her sins? Because, did you pick up on the reason? And that was because she was going to be destroyed? Well that is what one of my vision was about. The fall of Babylon the Great and her final destruction.” I paused, then Rosie said,
“Well finish it, what did you see?”
“I seen how the world’s governments got tired of her adulteress fornications with and interference in their affairs. You know how the so called fundamentalist’s interfere in the politics of our government. Plus also the jihads of those other religions. Well they got together and outlawed religion. I seen the sacking of all of the church’s and temples all across the whole world. Those priests and monks and such were executed outright, if they resisted. Of course religion only got what they had been dishing out for thousands of years, ever since the time of Nimrod.
Now that’s not to say that the governments were in the right, as you can see by the Bible, there in Revelations. They were only the tools God used to destroy false religion. So I guess that’s the end of one of my visions.”
“Okay,” Faith said, “that was the end of false religion, does that mean that was the end of religion in the world?”
“Well, in a way, yes. But not the end of the true worship of Jehovah God. That’s another vision, you’ll have to wait to hear that one. Did you know that God had a name?” I said.
“Yes, I did,” Rosie said. “I found it in the Bible, at Psalms 83:18. Of course false religion has removed his name from most of their translations, but I found it in the King James version.”
“Good for you Rosie. I’m afraid I didn’t know all of this till I had my coma for six months. You are way ahead of me.”
“You didn’t tell us many of the details, just generally what happened.” Faith said.
“You really don’t want the details, do you?” I said.
“No, I guess not. But when does this happen?” Faith asked.
“I can’t tell you that. Because, it happens in the time line leading up to the battle of Armageddon. And the Bible says that no man will know the day or the hour, only Jehovah God knows that. Jesus his son, doesn’t even know the day or hour.”
“Well, it must be getting close.” Rosie said, “Because look at what a mess the world is in.”
“Yes Rosie, Jesus said at Matt. 24:32,33. That for us to take an illustration from the fig tree. ‘as soon as it puts forth its new branches we know that the summer is getting near, likewise when all the prophecies start to occur, you know that he is near at the door’.” I said, not knowing myself where all of these things I was saying were coming from, I had never read the Bible that much before.
Faith said, “What are you, some kind of prophet or something now?”
“No, I don’t think so, I think I’m what’s called an eavesdropper. In all of these visions, I was sort of standing in the shadows, no one knew I was there. At times I was sort of like an Eagle, flying high and just observing. In fact most of the time I was high in the sky, just looking on, sometimes I would swoop down for a closer look.”
“I’ve had dreams like that,” Rosie said, “I dream I’m flying, it’s very exhilarating.”
“Yes,” Faith said, “Me too, you’re flying and you can see everything. But I didn’t see anything important. Of course I wasn’t an Eagle, I was just me.” Then she stuck her tongue out at me. I carefully laid my book on the coffee table, then I grabbed her and kissed her, long and hard. I heard Rosie say, “You know you two have a room.” Then she picked Alita up and said, “We’re going to bed.” Then she stomped out. We never did make it to bed, till much later….
The next morning all three of us saddled up to work the cattle. One of Daisy’s niece’s was visiting Daisy, we corralled her to baby sit. I showed Faith how to heel, she would catch every other throw, which really isn’t bad. I’ve known some old cattle men who didn’t do much better. I left Faith and Daisy to drag the calves to the fire. I went looking for some strays, that the guys on the oil rig said they saw. (said they saw, was that proper English?) You know when you go to read a story, don’t get caught up in the mechanics of it, just enjoy the story being told.
You see that is what I’m trying to do, is recount the happenings leading up to the end. And being that I’m not an English professor, but a warrior, you will find some grammatical errors. Enjoy them. After all doesn’t it make you feel superior?
Brutus and I, cantered for a ways, then cut back to a walk, just enjoying the ride. I had a 30-30 stuck in a sheath, under my left stirrup, plus my pistol in a shoulder holster. Even though we were lollygagging along, we both were alert to our surroundings. I didn’t want to be drygulched again.
I had just kicked Brutus up to a trot, when I seen Old Man Coyote sitting in the middle of the trail and by his side sat the biggest Bald Eagle that I had ever seen.
Brutus came right up to them and stopped on his own. “Well, what do you want Old Man?” I said, expecting no answer. I got no audible one, but I heard his voice in my mind.
“Want? I want the Buffalo back, I want the Elk, the Grizzly Bear. I want things as they used to be before the white man came, that’s what I want, but both you and I know that it is up the Great Spirit to do that. But right at this minute, Eagle and I have come to warn you of danger. It’s too bad you didn’t listen the last time I seen you.
But now, I know that you can hear me. They are back. Eagle says there are three of them. They are on top of the ridge in back of the oil drilling rig. They want to kill you, but if you don’t show up by sundown, they will kill some of your drilling rig crew.”
“Why do they want to kill me, I’m just a small cog in the wheel around here?”
“It’s not what you are now. Oh, they think it is, but it’s what you will accomplish in the future. The Dark one wants you dead. He is one of the reason’s that we can warn you. He being a supernatural being, you deserve some supernatural help, us….”
“Why can I hear you now and not before, when you gave that long mournful howl?” I said.
“That bullet you took to the head, scrambled some of your circuits, the Great Spirit just took advantage of that and rewired a few connections, so to speak. Our job is to keep you alive till you can develop some of your new God given skills.”
“What do you want me to do about those guys?” I asked.
“What do we want you to do? It’s not up to us, you do what you have to do. We’ll help you in anyway we can. Eagle will go ahead of you and pinpoint their exact location. If I was you I would circle back around and come up on them from behind.”
“Okay, say did you guys see my strays?” I asked.
“Yes, they are waiting for you. They are two draws to the west.” Eagle said.
With that Eagle flew off, Coyote got up and said, “Follow me, I’ll show you the best way to surprise them.”
Brutus followed in Old Man Coyote’s footsteps, or as close as a hoof print can follow a paw print. We stayed in the timber. They were on the ridge line above the drilling rig. They were having some kind of a heated discussion. There were three of them alright. And guess who one of them was? That’s right, Dipper Tick.
Coyote said, “I’ll go closer so you can hear what they are saying.”
“Huh? How am I going to hear if you go closer?” I said.
“How are you hearing me now? That was a rhetorical question, don’t answer. I’ll simply pipe what I am hearing directly into your brain, like I’m doing now.” With that being said, he started to work his way close to them without being seen.
I got off of my horse and my hand fell on my old saddlebags. They had been on my saddle before I left for the Navy. I don’t know why I hadn’t looked into them since we came back to the ranch. I opened the flap on the off side bag. The first thing I saw was my old sheath knife.
I used to practice with it all of the time, I was pretty good, if I remember right. It was still in its sheath, the one that I hung around my neck, with knife and sheath down my back. The strap had a beaded medallion in the front, so it looked like I was wearing a rawhide necklace. That was no one knew that I was carrying a knife back there.
I had just put it on and adjusted it, so I could grab it without delay, when I heard what Coyote was feeding me.
“Look!” Dipper Tick was saying, “You guys said that you would back my play, you both said that you were killers for hire.” I could see them pretty clearly, the two guys looked young, both dressed western, like they were local Cowboys.
“Yeah, that’s right, that’s what we said, but you ain’t too bright, we would of told you anything just to keep you buying our drinks.” The oldest looking one of the two said.
The other one piped up, “Yep, haven’t you ever fed a broad a line to get in her pants?
That’s what we were doing, in essence, to just get in your wallet.”
The other one came back, “Yeah, and just what did you put in our drinks, I don’t even remember anything about getting out here. This looks like the Bronson spread. Now you say you want us to help kill Clay Bronson, and if that fails, to kill some of those roughnecks down there! Well you can go straight to hell, we ain’t going to kill anybody.”
All of the while this was going on I was creeping closer. Dipper reached on his hip, where he was wearing a holster, the same kind some of the cops I’ve seen wear. He said, “You are, or I’m going to kill the two of you.” He caught them flat footed. They weren’t wearing any guns; there were two rifles laying up against an old stump close by. But they couldn’t reach them.
I was carrying my 30-30, plus also my pistol in my shoulder holster. I could kill him right now, but for some reason I waited. I said, “Dipper, Dipper, Old Man, now you don’t want to kill those two Cowboys.” He turned sharply to face me, his face going ashen, “Whoa, now,” I said, “don’t do anything foolish, I have this here rifle pointed right where your heart is supposed to be and I can’t miss, even if you get a shot off, I’ll still kill you.”
“I tell you what, Dipper Old Man, I’ll give you a fair shake though, you just put that gun of yours back in your holster and I’ll lay my rifle down on the ground. You see I’m wearing a shoulder holster gun. Then we’ll let one of these puncher’s count to three and we’ll draw, how’s that?”
“Yeah, but you’re faster than me?” He said, his voice cracking.
“Now why would you say that?”
“I seen the video of you killing those men on the highway down in New Mexico; I’ve never seen anybody shoot like that?”
“Alright, I’ll tell you what, I’ll put my hands behind my head, you know like the cops make you do when they arrest you? You can keep your hands at your side, that way you will have the advantage, Okay?”
He smiled, I could see his mind working, “Alright, what about these two, are they going to interfere?” Dipper said.
“Nope, we ain’t going to lift a hand, Clay don’t need no help, his rep precedes him.” The oldest looking one said. Seems they knew me, I hadn’t placed them, guess I had other things on my mind.
We were only standing about fifteen feet apart, he was really smiling now; he figured he could beat me with time to spare. My right hand was only inches from my knife, it was a special made one, by a traveling tinker, when I was just a kid.
You know how sometimes in times of crisis how every-thing seems to play out in slow motion? That’s how this was. He signaled by his eyes before he made his play. I waited till his hand was on his gun butt; he had it almost level when my knife reached him. The razor sharp tungsten steel blade entered his forearm right back of his wrist, it cut the tendons to his hand, the gun fell to the ground. The blade lodged in the bone of his arm. He fell to the ground screaming.
“Damn, I ain’t never seen nothing like that, man that was fast.” The youngest puncher said. I said, “Well, you had better take that rag you have around your neck and make a tourniquet or he’ll bleed to death. Then the two of you pick him up and take him down to the drilling rig; there’s a Doctor down there. I’m going to call the FBI, then I’ll get my horse and come on down. Oh yeah, leave that blade in there, don’t pull it out, let the Doctor do that.” I said.
Old Man Coyote said, “Why didn’t you kill him?”
“Don’t rightly know, must have been some reason, right at the last second I changed my mind. I was going to put it right through his throat. I’m going to turn him over to Harry Silver, he can play around with him.” I went over to Brutus and tightened the cinch that I had loosened when I got off. He reached around and playfully nipped me in the butt, I absent mindedly switched him on the nose with ends of the reins. Then I mounted up and was going to round up the strays two draws over, when Old Man Coyote said, “Are you just going to leave those two rifles and that pistol laying on the ground?”
“I don’t know, why don’t you do something with them?” I said, as I rode off. I heard him say, “You know I don’t have opposable thumbs, don’t you?”
I put my cell phone back in my pocket, Harry said he would be right out. I had told him he should probably send an ambulance. He wanted to know if Dipper was going to live. I told him ‘yeah, if I didn’t change my mind and cut his throat’.
There were thirty head grazing in belly deep grass. I couldn’t blame them for wanting to stay here. I told them it wouldn’t be long and there probably wouldn’t be any men around to bug them. That cheered them up considerably.
I drove them by the drilling rig, then told them to keep moseying on down toward the ranch, they did, grazing as they went.
Randy Fillmore came out of the location shack as I rode up. “The Doc is with him now, those two punchers are in the cook shack eating, the way they’re putting it away I would say they hadn’t ate in a week.” Randy said.
“Yeah? They’re just probably taking advantage of the free chuck and loading up. I would do the same thing in their place. Did Suong get my knife out of his arm?”
“Yes,” Randy said, “here it is. I have never seen one like it. Where did you get it?”
“Oh, an itinerant tinker came by when I was in my early teens, he made it for me.”
“What’s it made of?”
“I believe he said it was made from a new metal called tungsten. It keeps a good edge.” I said as I took it from him and put it in the saddlebag. I didn’t want anyone to see where I kept it, even though those two punchers had seen the whole thing. I suppose I had better go and talk to them.
“How’s the new well coming?” I asked Randy.
“Good, we hope to bring it in within the next few days, didn’t Faith tell you?” Randy said.
“Yeah, sure, must of slipped my mind.” I said, as I my eyes locked with his, he broke first. I can be pretty mean at times, poor Randy’s face had turned pale. He knew he had goofed when he used her first name. I shuffled off toward the cook shake.
As I came through the door, both of them were still shoveling it down. It was lunch time and some of the roughnecks were still eating also. I sat down between the two brothers, cause brothers is what they were, I could tell.
“Well boys,” I said, “you just about got your tail in the wringer this time didn’t you?” They kept eating with downcast eyes. “It seems that I should know you two, you look right down familiar. Where do you hail from?”
The cook brought me a plate of food and a cup of coffee, I looked up at her. I recognized her, she used to cook for a greasy spoon in town. “Thanks Kate.” I said.
I turned my attention back to the almost miscreants sitting beside me. “So, spill the beans,” I said.
“We’re the Hoeffer brothers, Chip and Dale, I’m Chip,” The older one said.
“Chip and Dale? You’re shitting me, I mean, Chip and Dale? Is your Dad, Doug Hoeffer? From over Powell way?’ I said.
“No, we’re not shitting you, we get that all of the time, although I have never figured out why people think it’s so funny. And yes our Dad’s name is Doug.”
“Why aren’t the two of you punching cattle for him?” I asked.
“He done committed the sin that we can’t forgive.” Dale said.
“And just what might that be?” I asked.
“He turned the place into a Dude Ranch, he wanted us to wrangle them dudes. We said, no Sir, we weren’t going to do that; he told us to light a shuck then, we did.” Dale said.
“Well there’s a sight more money in wrangling dudes, then cattle now days.” I said, “I can’t really blame your father. But I also know how it offends a Buckaroo’s sensibilities. Where’s your Saddles and Tack?”
“In our hotel room in town.” Chip said.
“Well, if you want a job, I’ll have one of Randy’s crew run you to town to get your plunder, then he can drop you off at the ranch. You tell Red I said to put you on the payroll. Oh, by the way, how old are the two of you?”
“I’m twenty-one,” Chip said, “Dale here is twenty.”
“Did the two of you graduate High School?” I asked.
“Didn’t seem to be any point in it, we weren’t learning anything.” Dale said.
I had another wild thought, “Just what bar were you guys drinking in last night?”
“The Double O, it’s a new bar run by some guy from the east.” Chip said.
“Alright, finish eating, when you get done stuffing your jeans, Randy will have someone to take you to town.” I said, as I finished my plate and downed my coffee.
As I came out of the cook shack, Harry Silver’s helicopter was just landing. We must be some important, him coming in a copter and all. As I was walking to meet him, I was thinking about those two boys.
They needed an education, high school anyway. I wonder how many of my ranch hands had a high school diploma? We’d have to do something about that.
I took Harry into where Suong was still operating on Dipper’s arm. She had given him some kind of drug to knock him out. She said to me, “Why didn’t you just kill him, it would of saved me a lot of work.” It wasn’t a question, it was just her needling me.
I said, “You’re the second person today to ask me that question, are you going to be the third,” I said to Harry.
“No, I’m glad you didn’t. I have a lot of question’s I want to ask this guy. Do you want to fill me in on the details?” I did so.
“Were those two guys mixed up in any of his shenanigans?”
“Nope, they were just duped, or doped I guess you could say, I’ve put them on my payroll.” Randy was standing there, I told him to take the boys to town to get their stuff. He didn’t like it much; me telling him what to do. He started to say something, then he clamped his jaw shut and stomped out.
“What’s eating him?” Harry asked.
“Oh, he’s got the hots for my wife. She’s been overseeing the oil stuff while I have been under the weather. I hope I don’t have to break his jaw.” I said. Suong looked up, “You don’t have to worry about Faith messing around on you, she loves you all of the way.” She said.
“I know that, I haven’t the slightest bit of doubt about her. I guess I can’t blame guys for going bug eyed over her. I know I still am.” I heard the ambulance coming. I said my goodbyes and went out where Brutus was grazing, as I tightened my cinch, he tried to nip me again. I mounted up and we headed for home.
As I rode up to the branding fire, Faith came over, “I thought I heard an ambulance in the distance, I was worried.” She said while holding onto my stirrup.
“Yep, you did.” I said, as I dismounted and both of us led Brutus to the barn. Rosie came riding up. “What happened?” she asked.
I told them the whole story, all except Randy’s infatuation. I would tell Faith about that when we were alone. I didn’t want Rosie kicking his ass.
Before I hung my saddle on the tack room wall, I took my knife back out of the saddlebag. Rosie and Faith both looked at me as I put it back in the sheath down the back of my neck. Rosie said,
“Will you teach me how to throw a knife?”
“Sure thing Rosie, no problem. That comes in right down handy at times.” I said, as I put one arm around each of them and walked back to the house. Rosie said, “I’ll be in pretty soon, I forgot to unsaddle Diablo. Then I’m going over to Daisy’s after Alita.”
“Those boys you hired, you think they’re on the up and up?” Faith asked.
“Yeah, I do, I know their Dad, we worked a few roundups together. He’s pretty stiff necked, but he’s on the level. Those boys just have some growing up to do.”