“You, Lauren and your girls come and live on our ranch. We can’t pay you any money but we can provide security, food and shelter in exchange for your hard work.”
“I’m sure I can speak for Lauren when I say we would be honored to accept your offer, pending Janice’s approval, of course.”
“Let’s start on lunch,” suggested James. “I have freeze-dried chicken nuggets with mac and cheese.”
The girls were over the moon with the old-school lunch. That’s three meals in a row, thought James, for the kiddos. Just as it should be.
James took Janice aside before lunch and went over his plan. “You OK with that, honey?” he asked.
“Right as rain,” she responded with a smile.
After lunch, with the girls playing hide-and-seek out back, the adults had time to talk.
“We’ve only known your family for a couple days,” stated James, “but I’m a pretty good judge of character…” “He always has been,” added Janice.
James continued: “And we would like to offer your family a position on our ranch. In return for security, room and board, we would ask that you, Jason, and Lauren help in the daily chores of caring for the animals, gardening, cooking, cleaning, and anything else needing done to ensure our collective prosperity. Rest assured that Janice and I will be working side by side with you every day. And for the girls, we may be able to find some chores suitable for them, like collecting chicken eggs or brushing horses.”
“Yay! That sounds fun,” shrieked Candice, clearly hiding indoors behind the couch. “We love, love, love horseys and chickens!”
“We can step out if you’d like some time to talk it over,” offered Janice.
“I think we’re good,” replied Lauren. “Better than good, actually.”
“We would love to accept your more-than-generous offer. It’s everything we ever wanted and more than we could ever expect,” said Jason, beaming.
“Yesterday morning I felt as though the devil himself was creeping into our family, and just one day later the good Lord leads us on a new and bright path forward. I’m ready to work hard,” declared Jason. “When can I start?”
“Hold on just a minute,” cautioned Janice. “You will be starting out slow with that hip. We will get you moved over in the next few days and get you settled in. How long do you need to get packed up here?” she asked.
“Not more than a day, maybe two,” speculated Lauren. “It’s getting a little scary here. I hear gunshots every night now and I don’t feel safe.”
“How about we give you a hand for a while today and we move you mid-afternoon tomorrow?” asked James. “I’ve got a good-sized trailer I can hook to my old tractor that runs like a top, and we can have you back at the ranch tomorrow by supper,” he added. “Jason, I’ve got something for you outside. You OK on those crutches?” he asked.
“Sure,” replied Jason. “Beats riding on the front of a four-wheeler down a mountain!”
“Yes. And it’s a heck of a lot better than walking home,” said James. They both laughed for the first time.
“We’ll be back tomorrow, but I want to give you something and it’s yours to keep.” James pulled out a Remington model 870 American classic 12-gauge shotgun with a box of shells and handed it to Jason. “Do you know what this is?”
“Yes,” replied Jason, “and it’s over a thousand dollars. Why would you give this to me?”
“Well, it’s like this. When we are on the ranch we protect each other, and every adult needs to carry a weapon. I thought this would be a good start for you. I’m guessing you know how to use it properly.”
“Sure thing, and thank you so much.”
“I’m also giving you this walkie-talkie. It’s got a 20- to 40-mile range and should reach the ranch fairly easy if you all need anything before we get you moved over. You got a flashlight, Jason?” “Well, I did but it got zapped, I guess,” he replied.
“Here you go,” said James tossing one to Jason. “These things need to be in what’s called a Faraday cage when the power goes down, so they don’t get ‘zapped,’ as you call it. Remind me to tell you what really happened a few days ago.”
They spent the next few hours sorting through the family’s belongings. “What’s the limit?” Janice asked James quietly.
“None, I suppose,” he responded. “I think they will be selective. This is their whole life they’re packing up here. Let’s give them a chance to get what’s really important to them.”
“You’re a good man, James,” boasted Janice.
“Well, you knew that when I found you!” he replied. “You got lucky, babe, when I found you” was a line from a Tom Petty song James liked to tease Janice with. James had courted Janice for nearly three years and had proposed the same amount of times before she said yes.
It was getting to be around 4 p.m. when they said their good-byes.
“We’ve got evening chores and will be back around noon tomorrow to load up. There should be enough food for a few more meals in the bags from yesterday,” said James.
“Yes, there’s plenty left,” agreed Lauren. “Thank you both so much. This means the world to our family.”
James and Janice were back home in 20 minutes and had the chores done in another 90.
“Sure will be nice to have some extra hands around here,” stated Janice. “Plus, it won’t hurt having another woman around.”
James and Janice settled in early, around 9 p.m. “No need to stay up late anymore,” James pointed out. “Recently there’s nothin’ good on TV!”
James left the walkie-talkie in the other room just out of habit. There were a couple of his neighbors with large properties who all kept in communication, even before the change. Just as James and Janice had turned in for the night, Lauren’s voice came through the other end, screaming. “Janice, James, please help us. They’re hurting Jason and I don’t know where Jenna is!”
Lauren was in the back of the trailer with Candice and Carla when she heard loud banging on the front door. Jason was in the front living room, closest to the door, reading a book to Jenna.
Three men kicked in the front door and headed straight for Jason. The shotgun James had given him earlier was in the back room, out of reach of the girls. “Run!” was all he said to Jenna, as the three men were on him, punching and kicking.
Little Jenna was in a panic and couldn’t remember which room her mom and sisters were in. She ran into her parents’ bedroom and hid under the bed. All she heard was yelling and things being knocked over.
James and Janice were dressed in under a minute and out the door. “We’re on our way,” called James, as they jumped on the four-wheeler. James had grabbed an AR, shotgun and his usual-carry Ruger 40-caliber pistol.
The men tied up Jason and put a dish towel from the kitchen in his mouth. He tried to scream to his wife to run out with the kids, but there was no sound. Just a muffled groan. One of the men, tall and skinny with jet black unwashed hair, was checking the rooms in the trailer and opened the door with Lauren, Candice and Carla.
“Hmm,” he said. “What do we have here? How about you girls give me some alone time with your mommy?”
“No! She doesn’t want anything to do with you!” shouted Carla.
“Well, little girl, I’m not exactly asking.”
“Just go away!” screamed Candice.
“No, I don’t think I’ll be doing that,” he said. He grabbed Candice by the arm and she turned and sunk her teeth into his forearm. It was the bite of a desperate child in fear of their life.
Blood shot out in all directions, as if his arm had been amputated. He screamed out and threw her down to the floor. Lauren had just enough time to kick him in the groin, sending him to the floor with a thud.
“You will pay for that,” he spat, as he reached for her.
Lauren grabbed the lamp from the side table, pulling the cord out of the wall, and hit the man on the left side of his head, shattering the lamp.
He stumbled
towards her awkwardly and fell at her feet.
Are there more? she thought. Where are Jason and Jenna?
James and Janice had the four-wheeler’s throttle opened wide and pulled into the trailer driveway in just over six minutes.
Lauren could hear talking but the sound was muffled. What now? she thought, as she looked for something, anything that might help her defend her girls. If the guy on the floor wakes up, what then?
James told Janice to get behind the truck in the front yard. It’s a newer Ford F-150, probably Jason’s, he thought. It’s a paperweight now.
“Give me about two minutes. Then fire three shots in the air. If anyone comes you don’t know, fire at will,” instructed James to Janice. “Just pick your shots carefully. A bullet will go right through a trailer like this, and we don’t know where everyone is yet. I’m going around back.”
James quietly walked up to the back door and could see two men yelling at Jason. Not seeing Lauren or the girls, he hoped they were safely in the back of the trailer. James slowly tried the back door handle and found it unlocked. He opted for his pistol, since it was short quarters.
He made a mental note as to where Janice, and Lauren with the girls, might be. Even with hollow-point bullets, he couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t punch through a wall in the trailer.
He readied and waited for Janice’s shots.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” came the shots from out front. “That’s right, boys,” James whispered, as the men headed straight for the front window, looking out.
James quietly snuck in the back and caught Jason’s eye. Jason silently pointed towards the men and held up his hand with two fingers. He then pointed down the hall and held up one finger.
James had a clear shot now, standing behind the two men. “Freeze, boys,” he said in a loud voice. “Put any weapons on the floor and lie down without turning around. I don’t want to shoot a man in the back, but I will from the front if you give us any trouble.”
The two men squatted down without a word and one had his right hand by his pant leg.
“I said get down!” said James, noticing the movement.
In a flash the man grabbed a pistol from a calf holster and started to spin around. James fired and caught him right between the eyes. He dropped to the ground and his friend sprawled facedown, begging for his life.
“Who else is here?” yelled James to him.
“Just one more of us. He’s back with the lady, I think.”
James was sickened and furious over this. “Get your skinny butt up now, and let’s go.” There was no time to check him for a weapon, but James had a close eye on him.
“Sorry, Jason. I can’t untie you yet—no time.”
James led the man back to the room. When he saw the man on the floor, he told Lauren and the girls to go up front. “Where’s Jenna?!” she cried.
“I don’t know yet, but we’ll find her,” James replied.
Janice came through the front door, having seen what happened through the front window.
She made it to Jason, just as Lauren did with Candice and Carla in tow.
“Please find my baby girl,” pleaded Lauren.
“You untie Jason, and I’ll get her,” said Janice. She walked low and cautiously towards the back of the trailer. She heard James talking in the room just up on the left.
“James, it’s Janice. Everything OK?”
“I’ve got this covered. Just find Jenna,” he answered.
“Jenna, honey. It’s me…Janice. Come on out. It’s OK. You’re safe now.” Janice heard a quiet voice crying from the room all the way in the back of the trailer.
“Jenna, I’m going to open the door now. It’s OK, sweetie.” Janice opened the door slowly and saw the sounds were coming from under the bed. “Come on out, Jenna. You’re safe now.”
Jenna slowly came out and jumped into Janice’s arms, crying. “I was so scared” she cried. “The bad men were hurting my daddy.”
“It’s going to be all right,” Janice consoled her. “Let’s get you to your mommy.”
James checked the man Lauren had hit with a lamp and found he was breathing and starting to move and moan. James searched the man he had brought back and found only a small pocket knife. The man on the ground had a 38 pistol on his hip that was easily confiscated, due to his current predicament. He gave it another few minutes and got him to his feet, bringing them both up to the front of the trailer with hands bound with zip ties behind their backs. He added them to their ankles, with just enough room to take small steps.
The girls glared at the men with distaste and fear. Lauren spit in the face of the man who had tried to attack her and demanded, “How dare you, and in front of my children!”
“What do we do with these two?” asked Janice.
“I’m not sure about that, but I bet Sheriff Johnson in town may have some insight on it. We’ll pay him a visit in the morning, I guess. In the meantime, would you please get with Lauren and see if we can get some coffee on? I reckon it’s going to be a long night.”
The ladies got a pot of coffee brewing and James told Jason, Lauren and the girls to head to bed. “All in the back room,” he added. “Janice and I will be up watching our new friends here until morning.”
A short while later, the man who had surrendered earlier spoke up. “If you will just untie us we will be on our way and you can get some sleep.”
“And then what?” asked James. “Then we sleep peacefully, and tomorrow and the next night, knowing there are guys just like you who would assault a family man and try to take advantage of his wife? Your friend over there,” pointing to the now deceased man in the floor, “makes it easy for us. We don’t have to make a trip to town with him. Should you guys decide to try something before morning, it will just save me the gas.”
The next morning they took all three men outside. Janice would keep an eye on them while James grabbed one of his old trusted tractors with a trailer for the short 8-mile drive to Weston.
He told Jason they would be back in a few hours and asked them to keep packing so they could get moved this afternoon.
All three men were loaded on the trailer. James didn’t want someone to find the body later and assume something different happened. Sheriff Sam Johnson was a good man and James wanted to give him the full story.
With James driving and Janice holding the AR on the men, mostly as a sign of force, the looks they got from others walking the roads was I’m glad I’m not on that trailer. They navigated the eight miles easily, occasionally weaving around stalled cars.
James pulled up right in front of the police station, with the good Sheriff Johnson out front, sitting with his feet propped up, smoking a cigar. Sheriff Johnson looked straight out of an Old West cowboy movie. He wore black cowboy boots, a gunslinger vest, and a large black cowboy hat. He was intimidating, even to James.
“Howdy, James, ma’am,” he said, nodding as they pulled up.
“Good morning, Sheriff,” replied both James and Janice.
“Looks like you’ve got a story for me.”
“Yes, sir, we do.”
“Cup of coffee for you two?”
“Sure, Sheriff. That would be great. Thank you.”
“All right, you two on the trailer…your friend I assume is not sleeping. You’ll have your chance to tell your side, but not a word until I ask you. Is that clear?” said the Sheriff. Both men nodded yes without speaking.
James and Lauren explained in as much detail as possible what happened that night.
James also explained that he met Jason up on the mountain a couple days ago, but left out the parts of the barricade and shooting. “He was wandering around looking for food for his family” was all James reported.
Sheriff Johnson interviewed each man out of earshot of the other, as well as James and Janice.
Thirty or so minutes later the Sheriff reasoned, “James, Janice, thank you for bringing these men here. I know things are different now, but we still have law
and order, at least in my town. These men will talk to Judge Lowry first thing in the morning. He’s off fishing up near Trinidad today. Can’t say for sure what his ruling will be but I would imagine you won’t have any more trouble from these two. And James, I appreciate you bringing these guys in today. I know it would have been easier to just put them in the ground and be done with it.”
“The one didn’t give me a choice but I figured the other two weren’t my call, Sheriff.”
The Sheriff responded: “I’ll send word out to your ranch when I know something.” “I appreciate that,” replied James.
Next World Series (Vol. 1): Families First Page 23