Branded in Oasis

by Clay, Verna

  For a second Kade was taken aback, then he said, "That's a crock and I want you to stop photographing me." For an instant he thought he saw hurt reflected in her eyes, and then she said low, "It's not a crock. But if you don't like that, how about this, you could make a butt load of money if you allowed me to photograph you."

  Now Kade was even more pissed. "I wondered when it would come back to that. Does your whole world revolve around money, Ms. Rutherford?"

  "Not at all. I have all I need. But you don't. Think of what you could do with it. How you could improve the lives of others."

  "You're disgusting."

  "I may be disgusting, Mr. Blackwell, but you're blind."

  Chapter 3: Shiloh Has Her Say

  Skye was so angry with Kade Blackwell that she started trembling as he walked away. She'd meant every word she'd spoken, and he'd treated her like she was a liar.

  Throughout the remainder of the reception, she continued taking pictures of the bride and groom and guests, but made sure her camera wasn't pointed at Kade—ever. His obvious distaste for her and his raunchy attitude put her in a funk. She'd always been well liked by others. So what if her sense of humor was slightly irreverent. And as far as the motorcycle she'd crashed into, it had been reported to both their insurance companies and repaired, just as Kade had insisted. She'd done everything requested and still he treated her like shit. Well, she was going to erase him from her mind and focus all of her attention on her brother and sister-in-law.

  To that end, she snapped more pictures of them. They looked so happy that a twinge of jealousy twisted Skye's heart. Having just turned thirty-one, four years younger than her brother, she'd almost given up her dream of finding a soul mate and having a couple of kids. She loved children and had even garnered several prestigious awards for her photos of newborns with their fathers. She'd portrayed tender moments between sometimes huge, hulking fathers, usually football players, and their tiny bundles of love. She'd loved holding and cuddling their babies.

  Glancing back at her brother, she wondered if he and Pilar would have children. That thought made her grin and think about all the photos she could capture over the years.

  A nudge on her elbow caused her to turn around. She didn't see anyone until she glanced down at the tiny woman slightly bent over with age, and a face that obviously held Native American lineage. Skye said, "Hello, Shiloh. Are you enjoying the reception?"

  "Most certainly, I am."

  The woman looked so frail that Skye suggested they sit down.

  "No, honey, I just wanted to have my say while Kade's outside. If he sees me talking to you, he'll want to know what I said."

  Skye looked at Shiloh with curiosity.

  Shiloh smiled widely and Skye knew that regardless of what the woman had said earlier in the receiving line, she had been an exquisite beauty in her day. Shiloh said, "I've been watching Kade whenever he's around you, or when he talks about you, and although he puts up a big front of disliking you, I think he's smitten with you."

  Skye's eyes widened. "Oh, goodness, no. He can't stand me."

  Shiloh winked. "I know my grandson. You challenge him, and he likes that, even though he's says everything to the contrary. I think I know the reason he gives you such a bad time. It's because…" She stopped talking and pointed. "Oops, I see him through the window headed back inside. If we don't get to talk later, I just want you to know you're the woman for my boy, no doubt about it. You keep giving him a bad time and soon he'll be eating out of your hand. Bye, sweetie."

  The old woman turned and walked a few steps away to start up a conversation with Mrs. Vera Hightower, a resident of the trailer park that Skye had met during her initial visit to find her brother. Shiloh cast a surreptitious glance at Skye and winked again.

  Although confused by the woman's words, Skye couldn't help but smile. Kade's grandmother was wrong about her grandson's regard for Skye, but the woman was cute as a bug's ear.

  Goody lifted a microphone and called everyone's attention to the cutting of the cake. The new Mr. and Mrs. Rutherford, sporting identical grins, thanked everyone, especially those who had expended so much effort planning and decorating for the reception. They gave a special thanks to Dottie Arnez for baking their fantastic cake, and then proceeded to feed each other bites decorated with yellow and blue flowers.

  As plates of cake slices were being passed out to guests, a band walked to the makeshift stage and introduced themselves as The Baby Boomers. All the members appeared to be over the age of sixty, with the female singer probably over seventy. They congratulated the newlyweds and started playing a love ballad. Skye shot lots of photos of them and was surprised at how good they were. After the ballad, they called the bride and groom to the center of the dance floor and actually sang the Sarah Brightman song, Deliver Me. Skye sighed because the lyrics were so romantic. During the wedding rehearsal she'd asked Pilar why they had chosen that song and her soon-to-be-sister-in-law had revealed that during a drive to Phoenix with Max, shortly after they'd met, he'd played the tune and she'd been shocked. It was the first time she'd considered him to be anything more than an A-type personality. Her eyes had gotten misty when she'd admitted to Skye, "We delivered each other from loneliness."

  Now, snapping close-ups of Max and Pilar dancing for the first time as a married couple, her own eyes misted.

  When the next song started, the singer called for the parents and grandparents to join the newlyweds on the dance floor. Pilar's father and stepmother, holding hands, stepped beside Max and Pilar, and Skye shot more photos. A couple of minutes later, Max, Sr. guided Princess to the dance floor. Skye had to sniff back tears. As far as she could recall, she had never seen her grandfather so happy, and by the way he looked at Princess, he was obviously in love. She took lots of photos of them.

  At the beginning of the next song, the singer invited everyone to join in. Soon, there were so many people dancing that chairs and tables had to be moved to make more room. Skye captured lovely moments with her camera and then decided to rest. Finding a seat in a back corner of the room, she plopped down and placed her camera on the chair beside her. She hadn't realized how tired she was.

  She puffed a breath and gazed across the crowd. During her first visit to Oasis, after plowing into Kade's bike, she'd been invited to an International Potluck hosted by the park and met many of its residents. At the time, she'd wondered about her brother's sanity in living in a trailer park in the Arizona desert, but then he'd explained that he was there because their grandfather had insisted on it, or he'd lose his inheritance. That had been shocking enough, but then he'd astounded her by saying he was the park manager for six months, another requirement issued by Gramps, as Max, Sr. had called himself in a letter. Neither Skye, nor Max, had ever called their grandfather anything other than Max or occasionally Grandfather.

  Gazing now at all the friendly faces and her brother's happiness, she knew Max had found what most people searched for all their lives. He'd found his home. He'd found a place to belong. And it came with the love of his life, Pilar.

  Skye knew she was getting sentimental and moved her gaze to search for Kade. She found him on the dance floor with a pretty young woman who gazed up at him with awe. Yeah, he's kind of awesome to look at. Too bad his personality doesn't match that awesomeness.

  As if he knew she was watching him, he glanced in her direction and met her gaze. That electrical feeling whenever their eyes met coursed through Skye's body. Damn, that's not good. Lifting her chin, she refused to shy away from his glare. A couple danced in front of him and still Skye watched. When she could see him again, he had his head bent, listening to his dance partner talking in his ear. She felt disappointment when he didn't glance back at her.

  The remainder of the celebration passed in a blur as Skye returned to photographing the gala and enjoying conversation with the locals.

  Chapter 4: On The Road Again

  Skye had offered to stay with Willie while Max and Pilar went on a tw
o-week honeymoon. Max had told Pilar that he'd take her anywhere she wanted, and she'd chosen a spot less than three hours away. She wanted to spend the time in Sedona. Of course, Skye had photographed the area extensively for travel magazines, both the town and the outlying terrain, and could understand Pilar's desire to honeymoon there. Max had confided to Skye that he'd rented a house with magnificent views and intended to treat Pilar to jeep tours, horseback rides, helicopter rides, and the best dining available. Skye knew he hadn't left any stone unturned and Pilar was in for the time of her life.

  During the two weeks of the honeymoon, Skye got to know her new nephew better. He was a great kid and she took some terrific photos of him to frame and give to Pilar and Max as part of their wedding gift. The rest of their gift was a beautiful wedding album with hundreds of pictures and several elegantly framed photos of the wedding.

  Max's wedding gift to his wife had been a new doublewide manufactured home that was beautiful. He'd even surrounded it with a white picket fence. Skye grinned to herself. Seems Pilar had this love for white picket fences. Yep, Max was head-over-heels for his wife. He'd even resigned from the family business, a billion dollar corporation that acquired failing businesses, revamped them, and then sold them for nice profits.

  Glancing out the kitchen window, Skye saw Willie playing catch with Desi, a resident of the park. Pilar had explained that Desi had been Willie's sitter when she was a single mom and had to work at the local diner.

  Skye's thoughts turned to the secret Max had shared and put an even bigger grin on her face. She glanced out the other window toward their grandfather's RV parked next to Princess's trailer. Gramps, as Max had started calling him—and Skye was tempted to call him—was in love with the owner of the trailer park. Of course, she'd already figured that out. She shook her head. She'd always known her widowed grandfather as a business tycoon, not a guy who enjoyed living on the back side of the desert and smitten with a female desert rat.

  For the umpteenth time, she wondered when the world had turned upside down. She wondered how Gramps had come to meet Princess. Of course, she'd asked her brother, but he'd hedged around the question, making Skye wonder if their grandfather had been having an affair with Princess for a long time. The way she figured it, if someone didn't fess up soon, she was going to set her brother down and insist on the scoop. For now, she waited.

  Returning her attention to Willie, she thought about his mother's cousin, Kade. The man both fascinated and pissed her off, and regardless that she thought he was a jerk, she had never wanted to photograph anyone as much as she did him. Pilar and everyone claimed he was a nice guy. Hah! Apparently, she was the only one he treated badly, and for the life of her, she didn't know why. Well, maybe it was because she'd crashed into his motorcycle. But Pilar had sworn he wasn't one to carry a grudge. Yeah, right. There's always a first time, and it looks like I'm that first time.

  As if her thoughts had conjured him up, she saw Kade walking through the park entrance. The park was only about a quarter of a mile from town, and Kade's Garage was one of the first businesses encountered when entering Oasis.

  Her heart jumped and raced. He turned in her direction and she bit her nails. Was he coming to see her or Willie? Had to be Willie; he hated her.

  He kept coming and called out to Willie. Willie and Desi stopped tossing their baseball and waved at him. He smiled and Skye's heart stopped beating. He had the most beautiful smile she'd ever seen, especially when he wasn't looking at her. Desi tossed him the ball and removed his mitt, throwing that over, too. Kade said something to Willie and then stepped several paces back. He threw the ball and Willie easily caught it. The boy was obviously a gifted athlete.

  For several minutes, Skye watched the two of them playing catch. Not once did Kade glance in the direction of the doublewide. After his rude confrontation at the wedding reception, she was reticent to step outside. Normally, not one to back down and hide from disagreeable people, she was at a loss to explain her sudden cowardice. Bolstering her courage, she opened the door and called, "Would anyone like a glass of iced tea?"

  Desi, who was now sitting in one of the deck chairs outside the doublewide, said, "Now that sounds mighty tasty."

  Willie caught the ball and shouted, "Sure, Aunt Skye."

  Skye turned her eyes on Kade. He finally gave her a cool stare. "No, thanks."

  "Your loss," she said cheerily, while fuming on the inside.

  Returning a few minutes later, she set a tray with glasses of iced tea on the patio table and handed Desi his drink. She called to Willie that his was on the table and he called a thank you. Sitting in the chair next to Desi, she reached for her own tea and sipped. "Ahhh, this hits the spot."

  "Sure does, little lady."

  Skye had only talked to Desi a handful of times. He seemed like a nice elderly man and he was wonderful to Willie. He said, "That young lad is just about the best baseball player I've ever seen at his age. I've loved the sport all my life and played a little here and there, but that lad has a gift."

  Skye interjected, "And a love for the game."

  "Yep, missy, between talent and love, he'll go far. I just hope I'm still around when he makes the majors."

  Skye didn't know how to respond to that, so she changed the subject. "How long have you lived here, Desi?"

  "I retired here thirty-one years ago this October. But the first time I showed up was on the hottest day of the year back in 1972. My old Ford Fairlane was towing a small trailer and I just about had a stroke gettin' everything unhitched. I was a traveling salesman in those days so I lived wherever I could make a living."

  "So that's why you came here?"

  He guffawed, "Goodness, no. The town was half the size it is now, so that's pretty small." He leaned toward Skye and grinned. "I came here lookin' for treasure."

  Skye's eyes widened. "Treasure? In Oasis?"

  Desi resumed his position in his chair. "Yep. I heard about it through a customer in Tucson. This was back in the late sixties. Whenever I was at his home, he loved to regale me with stories about the Manfred Schneider Gold Heist. Said he'd arrived in Oasis with his widowed father in 1910. He was nine at the time and he and his pa lived in a shack provided by Schneider's Mining Company. He said his pa never made much more than wages, but the expectation of one day having his own claim, and the stories told by the old-timers, was enough to keep his pa workin' like a devil 'til the day he died. Jimmy—that was my customer's name—said his pa's enthusiasm for gold mining was the highlight of his young life. After his pa died, he was sent back east to live with relatives, and he later went on to become a successful engineer, but he told me he never forgot living in Oasis, and particularly the time there was a holdup and a cache of gold bars stolen while on transport to Phoenix. He said that the bandits fled into the nearby Weaver Mountains and hid their loot, but on the way out, there was a shootout and they all ended up dead."

  Desi's eyes twinkled and he leaned forward, lowering his voice. "But Jimmy said the last bandit didn't die at the scene. He was brought back to Oasis so the mining company doc could remove a bullet from his chest. He said the doc did everything he could to keep him alive so he could reveal the whereabouts of the hidden gold. The bandit was unconscious most of the time, but he came around long enough for the sheriff to interrogate him. The sheriff and witnesses swore the thief only spoke two words that sounded like 'Fast Engine' and no one knew what the heck he was referring to. Some speculated he was saying Injun, like in Indian, and not Engine, like in motor, but they never figured it out. Since that was the era when cars were becoming popular, maybe he was saying Engine, like in motor. Maybe they were planning a getaway in a horseless carriage with a top speed of twenty-five miles per hour," Desi joked.

  Skye was so engrossed in the story that she had leaned forward, too. "I had no idea that Oasis had such a checkered past."

  "There's more to the story."

  "Oooh, I can't wait to hear it."

  Desi grinned and the
wrinkles in his cheeks squeezed together like an accordion while his faded blue eyes danced as he continued the saga. "It was said that the doctor wasn't on the up-and-up with the mining officials and authorities. Seems a young boy peeking through the window saw the doc holding the patient up so he could draw a map, and when the doc stepped out, the boy snuck into the room with the bandit and opened the drawer hiding the map so as to get a closer look."

  Skye's eyes widened.

  Desi scratched his nose. "And guess who that boy was?"

  Skye whispered, "Jimmy?"

  Desi nodded. "Yep, the one and only."

  "What happened when Jimmy told the authorities?"

  "He didn't at first. He told his pa, and his pa asked him to draw what he'd seen. Jimmy drew it, but it didn't make sense. His father, realizing he'd never find the treasure with Jimmy's map, finally made his son tell the law about what the doc had done."

  "Was the original map recovered?"

  "No. The doc denied everything and said the boy was making it up. Then, the next day, the patient conveniently died before anyone could question him further."

  "So what happened to the doctor? He must not have found the treasure if people are still looking for it to this day."

  "Jimmy told me that ever so often, the doc would disappear from town and it was speculated that he was hunting for the gold bars. And since he up and died a couple of years after the theft while still living in Oasis, folks figured he hadn't hit pay dirt or he'd have disappeared with his riches."

  "Did Jimmy's father ever show the authorities the map Jimmy had drawn?"

  "No, he never did. Jimmy said he figured his pa was hunting for the treasure himself."

  Skye sat back. "Wow, that's quite a story." She had a sudden thought. "What happened to the map Jimmy drew?"