“We might need him,” Tom said. “If you just block that gap between the trailer and the barn, she won’t run at you.”
“What if she does?” my dad said.
“Don’t fall down.”
Getting that mare off the trailer was a lot more work than putting her on. She just refused to pass over the tail end. I pulled from the front, Gabe held the door, Tommy spun a lead rope at her butt from the back, and she lifted up, pulled back, spun around, and even kicked at Tom. When she finally came down, I just let go of the lead and let her run down the breeze-way. Since the one stall was the only open doorway at the end, she charged right in and the little one followed right behind.
“Oh my God!” my dad said. I knew it would take at least a year to get him on a horse after seeing that.
Tommy went in the stall and took off the halters and leads and Gabriel closed the trailer back.
“We’ll make it back to the ranch in time, I guess,” Gabe said.
“Do me a favor,” I said. “Please get them some food and water so I can get about five minutes to go in and shower off and get some clean clothes on. I’ve had these on for three days.”
“I know,” Tommy said. “Believe me, I know, Stotts. Okay, five minutes.”
We made it through the main gates of the Benavidez ranch well before noon, so I knew Carl wouldn’t be mad at us for taking too long. We drove right past the Foreman’s house and up the drive toward the big stable, Tommy chewing tobacco and spitting out the window as we passed Reno and Arrow in their stalls out back. As we came to the top of the hill, all three of us gasped simultaneously, and I could feel Gabe and Tom turn icy alongside me.
“Shoulda never given you the chance to take that shower,” Tom said. “I bet you changed out of those lucky boxers of yours.”
Deputy Rutledge’s black-and-white Bronco was parked at the stables, and he was standing there, watching us.
TWENTY
I’ve seen ghosts, too, Tommy. Only the ones I seen follow me everywhere.
“Stop the truck!’’ Gabe said.
“It’s too late,” Tommy said. “He’s looking right at us.”
Gabe slumped, putting his face in his hands, elbows on his knees.
“Just don’t say anything, Gabey,” I said. “Don’t tell him anything.”
“It’ll be okay,” Tom said. “We’re the tribe, remember?”
He held out his right hand and we all grasped and shook, not one of us taking our eyes from that black-and-white and the deputy standing beside it. Tom pulled the trailer up in front of the stable and parked the truck, facing Rutledge’s car. The deputy was hatless in the shade of the stable’s façade, his receding hairline thinly topping a broad, sweating forehead. With that belly spilling over his belt buckle, he always looked hot and uncomfortable. Standing beside him was a thin, small man with collar-length stringy black hair, parted in the middle, wearing black wire-framed glasses, dressed in a white shirt, un-buttoned on top with rolled up sleeves, tucked into black jeans. He looked almost Asian, pale, with nearly gray lips.
“I guess this is it,” Tom said. “I hope they feed us in jail, ‘cause I’m hungry.”
He opened the door and spit on the ground.
“You gonna open your door?” I asked Gabe.
Gabe, holding his hat by the brim with both hands like he could hide behind it, sighed and got out. I slid out after him. Rutledge looked at me, then at Gabe.
“You Tommy Buller?” the deputy asked Gabe.
“I am,” Tom said, his voice real steady like we were about to be in a shootout.
“You’re not Art Benavidez’ boy, Gabriel, are you?”
“Yes.”
“Damn. You don’t look Mexican.”
“My mother’s from Italy,” Gabe said.
“I thought she was a Mexican, too!” Rutledge said, shaking his head. “Damn! I bet she can cook good.”
“Questioning like this’ll make you confess to just about anything, I guess,” I whispered to Tommy.
“What’d you say, boy?”
I didn’t think he heard me, but I wasn’t close enough for him to take a swing, either, this time. “Nothing.”
Tom spit.
Carl came out of the stable doorway and leaned against the truck, lighting a cigarette.
He sucked in a long drag. “I put a list on the whiteboard in there,” he said. “You better get on it as soon as you’re through here ‘cause it’s a good two days of work there.”
He exhaled a cloud of smoke up above his head and looked at the deputy.
Rutledge scratched his neck and said, “This fella stopped by my office a bit ago. I told him I’d take him out here. He’s a lawyer for that woman with them goats.”
“I’m Cliff Wickham,” he said, holding out his hand to me.
“I’m Troy Stotts,” I said, and looked at the showered-off smudge of black on my hand where I had written his phone number, “and this is Tom Buller.”
Tom shook his hand.
“Well, like I told you this morning, Troy, not two weeks ago Rose came in to see me and had me draw up a will in which she left all of her property and savings to you boys. She’s got a bit of money in savings, probably enough to pay for her burial, but the property and livestock is substantial, almost thirty acres with a house and several outbuildings. You probably know that, I guess,” Wickham said. He seemed real calm and sincere.
Carl puffed another drag. “That’s quite a bit.”
“We been to her place,” Tommy said.
“She gave us those horses,” I said.
“She really liked you boys. She talked about you every time I’d see her,” he said. I noticed he was looking at my shoes.
“Yeah. My shoes.”
“Her only husband died over fifty years ago. She didn’t have any family,” he said. “It’s a simple matter of filing the paperwork and changing the title. It should be all cleared in a couple months tops. Here, let me give you boys my card.” And he handed me and Tommy his business card.
“Can I have one of those?” Rutledge asked, holding out his hand.
Wickham looked embarrassed. “I only had two.”
Tom and I put the cards in our pockets.
“And I didn’t think that woman even had any friends,” the deputy said. “You’d never see her around.”
“We helped her do stuff. We brought her things,” I said to Wickham. “She was real nice to us. We went and got her out of there the day of the fire, but I guess it was too much for her. Anyway, the place burned real bad.”
“We’ll fix it up, though,” Tom said.
“Well, if you need to draw up some kind of partnership agreement…”
“We already did that,” I said.
“Oh.” He cleared his throat.
Gabe was just standing there, looking pale.
“Mr. Wickham,” I said.
“Cliff.”
“Well, uh, about the funeral and all. If you’ll make the arrangements I’ll see to it that it gets paid for if there wasn’t enough money in her accounts. And I’ll pay you, too, for what -ever you need to get done on this,” I said. “I could give you five hundred dollars right now.”
My dad was still holding on to my winnings from the biathlon.
“Really?” he said. “Well, I’ll let you know, Troy. And thank you.”
“Thanks, Cliff,” Tommy said, then turned and spit.
Wickham turned to open the passenger door on the Bronco.
“Hey!” Rutledge said. “That reminds me. About that race …”
I looked at the deputy. And I thought, This is it, as I felt the blood draining from every part of my body.
“Any of you boys seen Chase around? I haven’t seen him since Saturday night.”
I glanced at Tommy, both of us with our mouths part open, both of us wondering which would tell the lie, and relieved, too, that Chase hadn’t shown up around Three Points yet.
“We haven’t seen him,” Gabe said. His voi
ce was as steady and calm as if he were in church. “And we’ve all been together for the last three days, ever since the race.”
“Well, I figured,” Clayton said. “Now that he’s eighteen I hardly ever see him. And put money in his pocket like that and he’s as good as gone till it runs out. Well, let’s head on back, Mr. Wickham. My belly’s tellin’ me it’s getting on to lunchtime.”
They got in the sheriff ‘s car and slammed the doors.
“His belt should be telling his belly to shut the hell up,” Tommy said.
“Thanks again, Cliff,” I said, and waved as they pulled away.
When the car had hit the top of the hill and began to sink down out of sight, I collapsed onto my back in the dirt. Carl just stood there, looking at us curiously, smoking. Gabriel smiled as Tommy slapped him on the back and said, “Damn, Gabey!”
“What’s that all about?” Carl said.
Tommy looked at me and Gabe and shook his head.
“I think we better get to work,” said Tom. “Come on, get up, Stottsy.”
And he kicked me once, then held out his hand and yanked me up to my feet.
“You boys can start by cleaning out that trailer, so I can take it up and unhook it. Hurry up now, ‘cause I’m wanting to go get my lunch, too,” Carl said.
“You could take that keg back to George. And bring us something back,” Tommy said. “We haven’t eaten anything yet today.”
“Maybe.”
Carl lit another cigarette while Tom and I set to sweeping out that trailer. Gabe stayed to help us, too.
“You’re gonna have to go back home eventually,” I said.
“I know.” Gabe pulled a hose into the trailer through the front side door. “Maybe if I beg ‘em enough, I can talk ‘em into letting me stay at your house for a couple nights. I know they wouldn’t let me stay at Tommy’s.”
“My dad would be okay with that.”
We finished the trailer and Carl drove it off. Then we went inside the big barn to see what jobs he had listed for us on the whiteboard; that was where all the ranch hands got their assignments.
We started with the stalls inside. Gabe took a rake, too; all of us with our shirts off, sweating like it was a sauna, swatting and waving at flies like we were horses with hands. We talked across to the other stalls while each of us worked.
“It says ‘hooves’ up there, too,” Tommy said, pointing at the work board. “That means me.”
“I saw that,” I said.
“This one here’s hooves are all squashed out,” Gabe called across the breezeway.
“Thanks, Gabey,” Tom said. “And I hope you both know that just because we got lucky right now doesn’t mean it’s not all gonna fall apart.”
“Well, at least I didn’t kill him,” Gabe said.
“I wish you did. Are you done on that side yet?”
“My dad doesn’t pay me. He pays you guys,” Gabe said. “So I’m quitting.”
“Time for those hooves, I guess,” Tom said. “ ‘Cause I’m done here.”
“You boys want some food?”
It was Luz, standing at the open slider doors, calling to us.
I opened the stall gate and walked out into the breezeway, looking down to those big open doors where I could see her silhouette standing there with a basket in her hands, the sunlight glinting off her hair.
We all ate together, and we talked about the land and horses Rose had left for us. Luz wanted to know what we would do with it, and both Tom and I were kind of surprised because there was never any question or debate in our minds what we would do with it all. When we finished, Luz and I walked out to the back of the barn and stood in the shade and the cool breeze, drying the sweat on my skin. And me, leaning against the wood slats of one of the small corrals so that the top rail pushed against the brim of my hat, trying to look like I was watching the yearling stud colt inside, when I was really looking at her.
“Thanks for lunch,” I said.
“Well, I saw Carl and he said he was going to pick you up something, so I told him not to bother.”
“Your mom and dad mad at Gabey?”
“He’ll get it at dinner.”
“Maybe I could tell them about the truck breaking down, and with Tom’s horse being lame and all,” I offered.
“That might work.”
“At least it’s not a lie, exactly.” I looked right at her. “How are you today?”
“I’m okay. Really,” she said. “I thought about what happened a lot last night ‘cause I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to talk to you so bad, Troy.”
“I couldn’t sleep last night, either,” I said. “But I’m worried about Chase. He’s going to try and do something real bad now, I think. He’s like that.”
“I think he’s scared of you.”
“He’s scared of Tom. I gotta watch out for Gabey.” I pushed my hat back with the top rail and looked at her. “I wanna see if your folks’ll let him come stay at my house with me for a couple days. It’s farther away from town, and Gabe’d be less likely to run into Chase all of a sudden.”
The colt came to the railing and sniffed my hand.
“Troy, last night you said that if we were alone you’d—and then Tommy came out. You’d what?”
I looked down. It felt like there was a hard-boiled egg, shell and all, in my throat.
“Nothing,” I said. I looked away. “I’m an idiot.”
She reached through the rails and grabbed my hand. The colt backed away.
“I don’t think that,” she said. “I wish sometimes we could be up at that cabin again, Troy. That we could have that night back.”
Then she kissed me real soft next to my ear and turned back toward the barn.
“I better let you two get back to work,” she said. “But stop by the house before you go home, Troy, and talk to my dad about Gabey. It’ll make things better.”
Then she whirled into the darkness of the barn and left me there, staring at that frustrated colt.
I was surprised when Mrs. Benavidez forgave Gabriel so quickly for missing church and breaking the arrangement he had made with his parents, and especially when she told me, “I don’t know what you boys have been doing, Troy, but as long as your father is there, it would be fine if Gabriel spent a few days with you.”
“He’ll come to work with me and Tom every day, anyway. And I’ll make him brush his teeth.” I tried to smile.
And Gabe nudged me and said, “Shut up.”
“His father’s always been trying to get him to work here, so if you boys can do it, he would be very happy,” she said with that frowning, scowling mouth. “I trust you, Troy. But you both better leave before his father comes home.”
It was late afternoon. Gabe and I rode north around the lake to my house. Going home, finally, after what seemed like such a long time.
“Thanks for helping me out, Troy.”
“Well, I hope they don’t blame me if you come back skinnier, ‘cause we’ll have to cook for ourselves at my house. My dad doesn’t do it anymore ‘cause I’m gone so much.”
“Do you know how to cook?” Gabe asked.
“Nope. But I know how to not starve to death.”
“I don’t know. Some people say you’re doing that right now.”
“Do you know how to cook?” I said.
“I can pour milk on cereal without spilling it.”
“We’ll survive these next few days, then,” I said. “You can sleep on the couch in my room that makes out into a bed. You wouldn’t want to sleep in the living room ‘cause some nights my dad stays up until dawn. Ever since my mom died, at least.”
Gabe didn’t say anything. The horses walked lazily. They liked each other, but I knew Reno would be jealous and act up when we came home and he found those other horses in his barn. I was thinking I’d just keep him and Dusty in the outside corral tonight till he got used to the smell and the company.
I had my shirt with that number seven pinned to it draped over R
eno’s flank. It was so grimy and dirty now, I’d probably never wash it, just hang it up on the wall in the barn just like that. And that red bandana of Tommy’s was still twisted around the horn of my saddle.
We were almost at that little bridge now—the place we had met the day we went out after that lion; the place where Clayton Rutledge stopped me that night. Gabe had his hat way back on his head.
“You really gonna name that little colt Gunner?”
“Yep.”
“After me?”
“Gunner’s for you, Gabey.”
“That’s embarrassing.”
“Only you and me and Tommy know. It’s our joke. It’s a good name.”
“I guess I like it. It suits that little colt.” He paused. “When you wanna get ropes on him, let me know. I’d work on ‘em. I know how to do that, I grew up with it.”
“I’d like that. You could help with all of ‘em. We got a few of ‘em, now, that’s for sure.”
It took a while for it to sink into my dad that Rose had left all that land and those horses to us, and he got pretty excited. I gave him Wickham’s card and told him to call if he wanted to ask him anything.
Mr. Benavidez had called to say it was okay for Gabe to stay with us for a couple days. And he wanted to see me in the morning. I felt a little scared and nervous about that; it sounded kind of ominous.
“And you boys are going to have to make your own dinner tonight, because I’ve already eaten,” my father said.
“I was just telling Gabe that right before we got here,” I said. “Okay, Dad. Come on, Gabe, let’s go put the horses out and feed ‘em all.”
We put Reno and Dusty out in the outer corral, fed them, and brushed them down. I could tell Reno could smell the other horses nearby, the way he was curling his lips and pacing around the corral with the unconcerned buckskin. I yawned; I was worn out and sleepy. We went to the barn to check on the new horses and feed them.
“That little guy sure is pretty,” Gabe said.
“He looks like a zebra with that brush mane of his.”
“He’s gonna be mean. You can tell.”
“You think so?” I said. “Well, mean’s okay as long as he’s not stupid.”