He crossed the river just west of Langtry Texas in a softly falling rain. The wind in the north, the day cold. The cattle along the breaks of the river standing gray and still. He followed a cattletrail down into the willows and across the carrizal to where the gray water lay braided over the gravels.
He studied the cold gray rips in the current and dismounted and loosed the girthstraps and undressed and stogged his boots in the legs of his trousers as he'd done before in that long ago and he put his shirt and jacket and the pistol after and doubled the belt in the loops to draw shut the waist. Then he slung the trousers over his shoulder and mounted up naked with the rifle aloft and driving the loose horses before him he pushed Redbo into the river.
He rode up onto Texas soil pale and shivering and he sat the horse briefly and looked out over the plain to the north where cattle were already beginning to appear slouching slowly out of that pale landscape and bawling softly at the horses and he thought about his father who was dead in that country and he sat the horse naked in the falling rain and wept.
When he rode into Langtry it was early in the afternoon and it was still raining. The first thing he saw was a pickup truck with the hood up and two men trying to start it. One of them raised up and looked at him. He must have appeared to them some apparition out of the vanished past because he jostled the other with his elbow and they both looked.
Howdy, said John Grady. I wonder if you all could tell me what day this is?
They looked at each other.
It's Thursday, the first one said.
I mean the date.
The man looked at him. He looked at the horses standing behind him. The date? he said.
Yessir.
It's Thanksgiving day, the other man said.
He looked at them. He looked out down the street.
Is that cafe yonder open?
Yeah, its open.
He lifted his hand off the pommel and was about to touch up the horse and then he stopped.
Dont neither of you all want to buy a rifle do you? he said.
They looked at each other.
Earl might buy it off of you, the first man said. He'll generally try and help a feller out.
He the man that runs the cafe?
Yep.
He touched the brim of his hat. Much obliged, he said. Then he put the horse forward and rode on down the street trailing the loose horses behind him. They watched him go. Neither spoke for there was nothing to say. The one holding the socket-wrench put the wrench on the fender and they both stood watching until he turned the corner at the cafe and there was nothing more to see.
He rode the border country for weeks seeking the owner of the horse. In Ozona just before Christmas three men swore out papers and the county constable impounded the animal. The hearing was held in the judges chambers in the old stone courthouse and the clerk read the charges and the names and the judge turned and looked down at John Grady.
Son, he said, are you represented by counsel?
No sir I aint, said John Grady. I dont need a lawyer. I just need to tell you about this horse.
The judge nodded. All right, he said. Go ahead.
Yessir. If you dont care I'd like to tell it from the beginning. From the first time ever I seen the horse.
Well if you'd like to tell it we'd like to hear it so just go ahead.
It took him almost half an hour. When he was done he asked if he could have a glass of water. No one spoke. The judge turned to the clerk.
Emil, get the boy a glass of water.
He looked at his notepad and he turned to John Grady.
Son, I'm fixin to ask you three questions and if you can answer em the horse is yours.
Yessir. I'll try.
Well you'll either know em or you wont. The trouble with a liar is he cant remember what he said.
I aint a liar.
I know you aint. This is just for the record. I dont believe anybody could make up the story you just now got done tellin us.
He put his glasses back on and he asked John Grady the number of hectares in the Nuestra Senora de la Purisima Concepcion spread. Then he asked the name of the husband of the hacendado's cook. Lastly he laid down his notes and he asked John Grady if he had on clean shorts.
A subdued laughter went around the courtroom but the judge wasnt laughing nor the bailiff.
Yessir. I do.
Well there aint no women present so if you wouldnt find it to be too much of a embarrassment I'd like for you to show the court them bulletholes in your leg. If you dont want to I'll ask you somethin else.
Yessir, said John Grady. He unbuckled his belt and dropped his trousers to his knees and turned his right leg sideways to the judge.
That's fine son. Thank you. Get your water there.
He pulled up his trousers and buttoned them and buckled his belt and reached and got the glass of water from the table where the clerk had set it and drank.
Them are some nasty lookin holes, said the judge. You didnt have no medical attention?
No sir. There wasnt none to be had.
I guess not. You were lucky not to of got gangrene.
Yessir. I burnt em out pretty good.
Burnt em out?
Yessir.
What did you burn em out with?
A pistolbarrel. I burnt em out with a hot pistolbarrel.
There was absolute silence in the courtroom. The judge leaned back.
The constable is instructed to return the property in question to Mr Cole. Mr Smith, you see that the boy gets his horse. Son, you're free to go and the court thanks you for your testimony. I've sat on the bench in this county since it was a county and in that time I've heard a lot of things that give me grave doubts about the human race but this aint one of em. The three plaintiffs in this case I'd like to see here in my chambers after dinner. That means one oclock.
The lawyer for the plaintiffs stood up. Your honor, this is pretty clearly a case of mistook identity.
The judge closed his notebook and rose. Yes it is, he said. Bad mistook. This hearing is dismissed.
That night he knocked at the judge's door while there were still lights on downstairs in the house. A Mexican girl came to the door and asked him what he wanted and he said he wanted to see the judge. He said it in Spanish and she repeated it back to him in english with a certain coldness and told him to wait.
The judge when he appeared at the door was still dressed but he had on an old flannel bathrobe. If he was surprised to find the boy on his porch he didnt show it. He pushed open the screen door.
Come in son, he said. Come in.
I didnt want to bother you.
It's all right.
John Grady gripped his hat.
I aint comin out there, said the judge. So if you want to see me you better come on in.
Yessir.
He entered a long hallway. A balustered staircase rose on his right to the upper floor. The house smelled of cooking and furniture polish. The judge was wearing leather slippers and he went silently down the carpeted hallway and entered an open door on the left. The room was filled with books and there was a fire burning in the fireplace.
We're in here, said the judge. Dixie, this is John Cole.
A grayhaired woman rose as he entered and smiled at him. Then she turned to the judge.
I'm goin up, Charles, she said.
All right, Mama.
He turned to John Grady. Set down, son.
John Grady sat and put his hat in his lap.
They sat.
Well go ahead, said the judge. There aint no time like the present.
Yessir. I guess what I wanted to say first of all was that it kindly bothered me in the court what you said. It was like I was in the right about everthing and I dont feel that way.
What way do you feel?
He sat looking at his hat. He sat for a long time. Finally he looked up. I dont feel justified, he said.
The judge nodded. You didnt misrepresent nothin
to me about the horse did you?
No sir. It wasnt that.
What was it?
Well sir. The girl I reckon.
All right.
I worked for that man and I respected him and he never had no complaints about the work I done for him and he was awful good to me. And that man come up on the high range where I was workin and I believe he intended to kill me. And I was the one that brought it about. Nobody but me.
You didnt get the girl in a family way did you?
No sir. I was in love with her.
The judge nodded gravely. Well, he said. You could be in love with her and still knock her up.
Yessir.
The judge watched him. Son, he said, you strike me as somebody that maybe tends to be a little hard on theirselves. I think from what you told me you done real well to get out of there with a whole hide. Maybe the best thing to do might be just to go on and put it behind you. My daddy used to tell me not to chew on somethin that was eatin you.
Yessir.
There's somethin else, aint there?
Yessir.
What is it?
When I was in the penitentiary down there I killed a boy.
The judge sat back in his chair. Well, he said. I'm sorry to hear that.
It keeps botherin me.
You must have had some provocation.
I did. But it dont help. He tried to kill me with a knife. I just happened to get the best of him.
Why does it bother you?
I dont know. I dont know nothin about him. I never even knew his name. He could of been a pretty good old boy. I dont know. I dont know that he's supposed to be dead.
He looked up. His eyes were wet in the firelight. The judge sat watching him.
You know he wasnt a pretty good old boy. Dont you?
Yessir. I guess.
You wouldnt want to be a judge, would you?
No sir. I sure wouldnt.
I didnt either.
Sir?
I didnt want to be a judge. I was a young lawyer practicing in San Antonio and I come back out here when my daddy was sick and I went to work for the county prosecutor. I sure didnt want to be a judge. I think I felt a lot like you do. I still do.
What made you change your mind?
I dont know as I did change it. I just saw a lot of injustice in the court system and I saw people my own age in positions of authority that I had grown up with and knew for a calcified fact didnt have one damn lick of sense. I think I just didnt have any choice. Just didnt have any choice. I sent a boy from this county to the electric chair in Huntsville in nineteen thirty-two. I think about that. I dont think he was a pretty good old boy. But I think about it. Would I do it again? Yes I would.
I almost done it again.
Done what, killed somebody?
Yessir.
The Mexican captain?
Yessir. Captain. Whatever he was. He was what they call a madrina. Not even a real peace officer.
But you didnt.
No sir. I didnt.
They sat. The fire had burned to coals. Outside the wind was blowing and he was going to have to go out in it pretty soon.
I hadnt made up my mind about it though. I told myself that I had. But I hadnt. I dont know what would of happened if they hadnt of come and got him. I expect he's dead anyways.
He looked up from the fire at the judge.
I wasnt even mad at him. Or I didnt feel like I was. That boy he shot, I didnt hardly even know him. I felt bad about it. But he wasnt nothin to me.
Why do you think you wanted to kill him?
I dont know.
Well, said the judge. I guess that's somethin between you and the good Lord. Wouldnt you say?
Yessir. I didnt mean that I expected a answer. Maybe there aint no answer. It just bothered me that you might think I was somethin special. I aint.
Well that aint a bad way to be bothered.
He picked up his hat and held it in both hands. He looked like he was about to get up but he didnt get up.
The reason I wanted to kill him was because I stood there and let him walk that boy out in the trees and shoot him and I never said nothin.
Would it have done any good?
No sir. But that dont make it right.
The judge leaned from his chair and took the poker standing on the hearth and jostled the coals and stood the poker back and folded his hands and looked at the boy.
What would you have done if I'd found against you today?
I dont know.
Well, that's a fair answer I guess.
It wasnt their horse. It would of bothered me.
Yes, said the judge. I expect it would.
I need to find out who the horse belongs to. It's gotten to be like a millstone around my neck.
There's nothin wrong with you son. I think you'll get it sorted out.
Yessir. I guess I will. If I live.
He stood.
I thank you for your time. And for invitin me into your home and all.
The judge stood up. You come back and visit any time, he said.
Yessir. I appreciate it.
It was cold out but the judge stood on the porch in his robe and slippers while he untied the horse and got the other two horses sorted out and then mounted up. He turned the horse and looked at him standing in the doorlight and he raised his hand and the judge raised a hand back and he rode out down the street from pool to pool of lamplight until he had vanished in the dark.
ON THE SUNDAY MORNING following he was sitting in a cafe in Bracketville Texas drinking coffee. There was no one else in the cafe except the counterman and he was sitting on the last stool at the end of the counter smoking a cigarette and reading the paper. There was a radio playing behind the counter and after a while a voice said that it was the Jimmy Blevins Gospel Hour.
John Grady looked up. Where's that radio station comin from? he said.
That's Del Rio, said the counterman.
He got to Del Rio about four-thirty in the afternoon and by the time he found the Blevins house it was getting on toward dark. The reverend lived in a white frame house with a gravel drive and John Grady dismounted at the mailbox and led the horses up the drive to the back of the house and knocked at the kitchen door. A small blonde woman looked out. She opened the door.
Yes? she said. Can I help you?
Yes mam. Is the reverend Blevins at home?
What did you want to see him about?
Well. I guess I wanted to see him about a horse.
A horse?
Yes mam.
She looked past him at the standing animals. Which one is it? she said.
The bay. That biggest one.
He'll bless it, but he wont lay hands on.
Mam?
He wont lay hands on. Not on animals.
Who's out there, darlin? called a man from the kitchen.
A boy here with a horse, she called.
The reverend walked out on the porch. My my, he said. Look at them horses.
I'm sorry to bother you sir, but that aint your horse is it?
My horse? I never owned a horse in my life.
Did you want him to bless the horse or not? said the woman.
Did you know a boy about fourteen years old named Jimmy Blevins?
We had a mule one time when I was growin up. Big mule. Mean rascal too. Boy named Jimmy Blevins? You mean just plain Jimmy Blevins?
Yessir.
No. No. Not that I recollect. There's any number of Jimmy Blevinses out there in the world but its Jimmy Blevins Smith and Jimmy Blevins Jones. There aint a week passes we dont get one or two letters tellin us about a new Jimmy Blevins this or Jimmy Blevins that. Aint that right darlin?
That's right reverend.
We get em from overseas you know. Jimmy Blevins Chang. That was one we had here recent. Little old yeller baby. They send photos you know. Snapshots. What was your name?
Cole. John Grady Cole.
The reverend extende
d his hand and they shook, the reverend thoughtful. Cole, he said. We may of had a Cole. I'd hate to say we hadnt. Have you had your supper?
No sir.
Darlin maybe Mr Cole would like to take supper with us. You like chicken and dumplins Mr Cole?
Yessir I do. I been partial to em all my life.
Well you're fixin to get more partial cause my wife makes the best you ever ate.
They ate in the kitchen. She said: We just eat in the kitchen now that there's just the two of us.
He didnt ask who was missing. The reverend waited for her to be seated and then he bowed his head and blessed the food and the table and the people sitting at it. He went on at some length and blessed everything all the way up to the country and then he blessed some other countries as well and he spoke about war and famine and the missions and other problems in the world with particular reference to Russia and the jews and cannibalism and he asked it all in Christ's name amen and raised up and reached for the cornbread.
People always want to know how I got started, he said. Well, it was no mystery to me. Whenever I first heard a radio I knew what it was for and it wasnt no questions about it neither. My mother's brother built a crystal set. Bought it through the mail. It come in a box and you put it together. We lived in south Georgia and we'd heard about the radio of course. But we never had actually seen one play with our own eyes. It's a world of difference. Well. I knew what it was for. Because there couldnt be no more excuses, you see. A man might harden his heart to where he could no longer hear the word of God, but you turn the radio up real loud? Well, hardness of heart wont do it no more. He's got to be deaf as a post besides. There's a purpose for everthing in this world, you see. Sometimes it might be hard to see what it is. But the radio? Well my my. You cant make it no plainer than that. The radio was in my plans from the start. It's what brought me to the ministry.
He loaded his plate as he talked and then he stopped talking and ate. He was not a large man but he ate two huge platefuls and then a large helping of peach cobbler and he drank several large glasses of buttermilk.
When he was done he wiped his mouth and pushed back his chair. Well, he said. You all excuse me. I got to go to work. The Lord dont take no holidays.
He rose and disappeared into the house. The woman dished out for John Grady a second helping of the cobbler and he thanked her and she sat back down and watched him eat it.
All the Pretty Horses Page 28