by Mel Hindberg
“Yeah, could you get me a few sodas I so I’m stocked up for the week?”
“Ok as long as you fill up the gas, and never mind the cost I can pay it.”
Filling up the gas I figured daddy was watching me through the window. I forgot about telling everyone that I was going to be heading out, but my parents probably figured that one out. I wonder if any of the children have been told about it, Scotty walked out the door right as I was putting the hose on the pump.
“Well what are you doing? Let’s get a move on here.” He shouted at me, jumping into the cab, which I did the same. He had his sack of groceries in the middle of the seat. I looked into the bag; I saw the 5lbs. of sugar a pound of coffee and 5sodas. The soda were ice cold, you could see the condensation forming on the glass of the bottle from me touching it, the perfect time for drinking.
“Your dad was looking at the truck,” Scotty began, “and he saw you. He asked me why you didn’t come in to say bye to him.”
“Well you can’t tell anyone but, I didn’t want go in because, I didn’t want to see his face and see what I saw last night.”
“What did you see?”
“I saw my father cry, because I told him about the job opening and about my choice of leaving to get a job at your ranch. I didn’t want to go in mainly because the pain in his face last night made my heart sink. I have only seen my dad cry once before this and that was when grandpa died.”
“Oh, I’m sorry Luke, I truly am.”
“Thanks Scotty, thank you that means a lot to me.”
“You’re welcome I’ve never went through that sorta situation but I bet it’s a living hell.”
“Yeah, it sorta does.” I told him, “It does make it a sorta hell for me but, I guess that’s just another part of life.” The gravel road was uneven, and rocky, Clay was sliding back and forth in the box of the truck. His paws were slipping and sliding, and he was barking trying to make it stop. We were only about 6 miles away from the ranch, when Scotty pulled off to the side of the road, and gave Clay a bone that was in the truck to shut him up. Scotty hopped back into the cab and took off, onto the dusty gravel road.
Chapter 6
We pulled off the road into a shortcut leading into the ranch, the truck bounced up and down in the air going over some Kelly humps on a shortcut. Clay almost fell out of the box a few times, and I almost lost my bags going through a ton of pot holes, which were scattered all over the trail. The grass was the darkest green color, with the light blue bouncing off of the greens, and the white of the popcorn clouds, took my breath away. With the sun on everything it was beyond breath taking.”
“How beautiful is that?” asked Scotty.
“That is just beyond stunning, I don’t really know how to describe it, just wow. Is this like this all the time?”
Every once and a while not usually, but still ain’t that just beautiful.”
You never would see this back at the store, or you wouldn’t be even close to seeing this at home. You might see this once a year when you’re looking really hard for it. To see this brought me new aspects to my life. I figured it was trying to send a message, I didn’t understand it, and all I knew is that this was just stunning.
“Well, here we are, lets tell my parents you’re here and ready to work, then we’ll take unload your stuff and put it in some room.” said Scotty enthusiastically. We hopped out of the truck and got Clay from the back.
“You guys let dogs in your house, right?” I asked.
“Yeah, you’re fine, go ahead and do what you want with Clay we don’t care.” Scotty said walking into the house, with me and Clay trailing behind. “Ma, pa, can you come out here Luke’s here and he wants to see you guys?” I heard Mr. and Mrs. Moore walking to the door from the kitchen, which was in the back of the house. Clay started sniffing the door and growled at it, he must have smelled another animal, probably there dog Heath. Heath was another blue heeler but a young one, probably a year or two old.
“Luke, long times no see!” said Mr. Moore, his voice was like velvet to my ears, and it had a certain pitch to it that I have loved since I was a little kid. He had salt and pepper hair with a handlebar moustache, each and every wrinkle on his face gave him character. The plaid shirt that he was wearing was the one that he wore when I first met him and Scotty at the store many years ago. It was a maroon and silver colored shirt. He always had a pair of blue jeans on with a rip right above the knee, which it was his trademark.
“Mr. Moore I haven’t seen you in forever, last time I saw you was probably a few months ago down at the store. How have you been lately?” My voice was a disgrace compared to his, with the higher pitch to it; it was like nails on a chalkboard to me. I hate it, I want a deeper voice, that way I sound more like a man, other than a little boy.
“Oh bout the same, and Luke you can call me Alan.” Alan, hmm I never knew his name was Alan ‘til now, I’ve always called him Mr. Moore I have never thought his name was Alan, I thought it would be Charles, or maybe a Dave, but not Alan. Mrs. Moore stood at the side of Mr. Moore; she had a grin on her face looking at me while I looked confused at the fact that his name was Alan.
“We better get you settled in, before you get to work later.” Mrs. Moore said, Scotty and I grabbed my bags and our sack of groceries from the truck. Scotty Showed me to the room that I’d be sleeping in. I’d be staying in Scotty’s room; there were two beds in the room one for me and one for Scotty. The bed I would be sleeping in was Scotty’s older brother Victor’s bed. Victor went into the service a month or two ago. He went into the Air Force, and is stationed at the base in Great Falls.
All my stuff was loaded into the dresser that was right beside the bed and my bags were placed underneath the bed. I looked down at my watch; it was 7:13a.m. “It’s time to get to work” I thought to myself, Scotty showed me around the house showing me where the bathroom was, and where the kitchen and dining room were, he showed me the where everyone sits at the table and such. His idea was better than mine, I was most likely to walk around the house and open all the closed doors and peek into them. It wouldn’t feel right but I’m a curious person and they always say “curiosity killed the cat” but that’s how you learn.
“So what’s your specialty working outside?” Mr. Moore asked.
“Well, honestly Mr. Moore, I’ve only done work at the store stocking shelves and taking inventory, I never have really done much work outside.” I answered back.
“Ok then, um we can get you to work on something, how bout you go ahead and feed the cattle and pigs to fatten them up so we have something good to eat this winter.” I went to get some hey from the hayloft in the barn; I walked over to the cattle and gave them two bales of hay to feed off of for now. Then went to get some scraps from their breakfast this morning to feed to the pigs. It looked like the Moore’s had some eggs and toast for breakfast instead of my mom’s oatmeal which tastes disgusting. Either way it’s something to fill me up instead of starving to death.
I wonder how Mrs. Moore’s food tastes; I know nothing can be better tasting than mama’s dinners, mama’s food during dinner time is about 100 times better tasting than her oatmeal, and that is a proven fact, no one can say otherwise. I wonder how Mr. Moore’s system of things is too, I know daddy’s routine like the back of my hand, but I hardly know a single thing about him, even though I know him very well.
For some reason I had to look into my bag one more time I felt like there was something in there that I needed to see, something very important. I finished up feeding the animals and ran to the house, I felt like knocking on the door instead of walking inside. I bolted in and went into my room; I grabbed both my bags from underneath the bed and flopped them onto the mattress. I started searching through everything that I could trying to find something, I have no clue what is in there but it is very important. I was trying to find a slip of paper, a little pouch, or anything out of the usual. I started searching through pants pockets, shirt pockets, and even my socks i
n hope of finding something. I grabbed my second bag and did the same process. I grabbed my black Sunday pants, desperately trying to find a note, I reached my hand into my front pocket and there was a thick little envelope. In my head I was thinking no there better not be any money in there, I wouldn’t be able to handle it, and they need that money.
Chapter 7
I opened the seal of it very slowly being careful that I didn’t rip anything, even a little piece of the envelope. My heart started pumping, pushing more blood through my veins. I didn’t want to look but I had to I had to make sure that there was no money in there. Fully opened I dumped the contents of the envelope onto the bed, I looked down and there it was a note. The note read:
Dear Luke,
I hope you’re having a good time at Scotty’s place, we haven’t told the children that you were going to leave, and we’re going to at breakfast after you leave. Don’t worry about your father he’s just too proud of you to do anything, he just teared up and he just wanted to let you know just how proud he was. I stuck this in your Sunday pants because I thought that you would wait ‘til Sunday to look into them so then that way when you go to church with the Moore’s, you could meet up with us after services and talk to us, but I bet you have already read this before you got everything put away. I hope you can get some work done anyways I love you.
Sincerely, Mama
5/21/1931
After reading the note I felt like there must be something more to that note, some hidden message, I read it over, and over, but I still couldn’t find it, I figure if I read it a few times over later today I might get the meaning. I knew I had to get back to work by then, a good 15 or so minutes has probably passed while I was trying to find the note. I walked outside, and Mr. Moore just got done doing whatever he was doing. “Well why the hell ain’t you working son, you’re living in my house so you better get to earning your keep.” He said sarcastically, the grin he had gone from one ear to the other came up to my side and patted me on the back. “Well we need to get some firewood for having it around the house so you and I can stay warm. Let’s get to splitting some wood, and you’re gunna be doing the hard work too, ok.”
“Yes sir, I’m ready to earn my keep around here, I didn’t come here to sit around and do nothing.” I said with a smirk on my face.
“And I’m not giving you room and board and paying you for sitting around either.” He whipped back to me. He started walking to the shed right beside the house, it was a small shed about a 5X5 space, he grabbed two axes and handed me one and he kept the other. He also grabbed his pistol, it was a revolver, “Just in case we see any of those damned beavers down at the creek, I got six rounds in here, there should be seven of them down there.” He said while putting one in the chamber.
“Well lead the way and I’ll follow.” I said to him and we took off to the east of their property. We followed the creek that runs along their crops field that has turned into a bare landscape. There were a few trees growing alongside the creek. To my right was the creek, to my left was the barren landscape, and to the rear of me was the house. On the other side of the creek was a forest of Cottonwood.
“Over in them trees over there,” he pointed to the other side of the creek,” there is a bunch of Whitetail deer, I saw quite a few little bucks the other day, and pretty good sized too.” He told me, his deep voice muffled over the sound of the bird chattering from above us. My voice was a tenor and his was a bass, I couldn’t wait for my voice to quit changing, I couldn’t wait ‘til my voice changed to a deeper tone. I hated hanging around with older guys because their voices were deeper than mine, then once I spoke I sounded like a mouse compared to them.
We finally go to the spot where we were gunna cut down some trees, we only walked about half a mile but it felt like forever with me thinking about my voice. He pointed at one tree and we started chopping. The tree was about two feet in diameter and I don’t know how tall, it was a good sized Willow tree. First his axe went in then mine; we repeated this over and over and over. My muscles were aching by the time we got half way through it; I had what felt like gallons of sweat coming out of me, and I was sweating in places where I never thought I could sweat before.
His face was beet red and I guess mine was too, “Timber!” he yelled, I had no idea that we have cut all the way through. I couldn’t get out of the way in time, my lace was caught on a root sticking up out of the ground, and I tripped. The last thing I can remember was the tree falling on me, and hoping it wouldn’t hit me.
Chapter 8
“Holy crap!! Luke, keep calm and don’t move a muscle. I’ll go get help stay here and don’t move a single muscle!” His voice was frantic and faded, like he was shouting from afar, but he was right by my side trying to calm me down. I was in shock, how could I not hear the tree falling? I felt a sudden jolt of pain go through both of my legs, and running though my body. It felt like a lightning bolt ran through my body, then the blaze of 100 fires, and finally numbness.
“Oh my god, Luke.” Shouted Mrs. Moore, her voice was a whisper through my mind. I was slipping in and out of consciousness. I couldn’t make out much noise other then the sound of my heart throbbing in my ribcage, and a few voices. “Luke, can you hear me? If you can blink your eyes twice.” I heard Mrs. Moore say, I took a second, and opened my eyes ever so slowly. I knew it would be a bright world looking into the sun. I closed my eyes and did it one more time. “Thank lord you’re alive. Now Luke, stay here until we get some guys to help you get out from under that...” her voice quickly died off. Everything suddenly went black.
I woke up to the sound of a bunch on grown men trying to move the tree as fast as they could. Then I heard the sound of daddy’s deep voice, it made me feel warm inside my heart. “Luke, if you have passed away I just want to let you know that I love you. I wasn’t mad at you yesterday son, I just was frustrated with our money situation, I never wanted any of this to happen. I wish it was me other than you under this tree, if I could change it I would. I just don’t want you to die.” He sniffled and got back to rolling the tree off me. They almost had the tree off of me, the only thing it was on was my feet and they were trying their best to get it off me as fast as possible.
The weight was lifted off my feet and I felt like I was floating. I couldn’t move anything, even with all my effort. All I could do is open my eyes and my mouth. I suddenly opened my eyes, there were 6 men hovering over me to see if I was alive and breathing. “Thank you lord, he is alive, thank you, just thank you.” Daddy cried out looking up at the sky.
“Luke, I need you to stay awake as long as possible. We will get you to some help as fast as possible. We just need you to stay awake and stay calm, and don’t move anything. You understand?” Scotty said slowly and surely, he had to make sure I was going to stay awake so I wouldn’t die. His voice was soothing, as if he were to be talking to a new born, or an old person about ready to die.
With that in mind I began to wonder where I was when the tree hit me, and why I didn’t get out of the way in time. How could I not of noticed that Mr. Moore was quite a ways from the tree before it fell? And the real question is, is that how big was that tree? It felt like I had a hundred elephants hit me when I collapsed.
I heard daddy, “We need to get Luke out of her and to the nearest doctor or else he is going to die. And I’m not letting my first born son die, or any of my children. Do you understand? Now we need to get him on a board and tie him down so we can pick him up. Put him in the truck and take him into town so he can go see a doctor.” His voice was stern he took charge of the situation, I felt comfortable with him being in charge of this operation other than someone I hardly even know.
“Now Alan you go get a board that is long and sturdy enough to hold him. Scotty you go get some rope so we can tie him down to the board so he won’t be jostled around in the bed of the truck while we’re moving. George you stay by his side to make sure he is alive and breathing, check to see if he has any broken b
ones, while I get the truck.” Daddy meant business, his voice was stern, there was no joking around, his some was in danger and he would do whatever it took to have me alive and moving again.
George crouched down beside me. He started unbuttoning my shirt to see if I had any broken ribs he felt the bottom two ribs on my left side. “Ow!!” I felt like I was shouting my head off, but it sounded like I was talking in a normal tone, it hurt to breath.
“Ok, ok, I know it hurts Luke, but I have to check if you have any more broken bones. Your dad told me to do so I have to do it, I’m sorry.” He went to if anymore bones were broken on the left side then went over to the right. He touched the bottom two ribs on my right.
“Ow!!” it felt like he was stabbing me with a knife in the gut. He went further up my ribcage to see if there were any more bones broken in my chest cavity. He had just finished when daddy came by with the truck.
“Well does Luke have any broken bones?” Daddy asked George.
“Yeah, the bottom two ribs are broken, and his legs are as flat as a pancake.” All these thoughts and questions bounced around throughout my head, my legs are that flat? I won’t be able to walk ever again, will I? What if I broke everything from the bottom two ribs all the way down to my toes? Will I be paralyzed for the rest of my life? What would I do with my life if I can’t walk again? How can I do anything from my life now that I did before? I hate my life.
Chapter 9
One of the last things I remember was being loaded into the truck and taken to the closest doctor so we could see the damage. I faded in and out of blackness on the way into town. I tried my best to push myself to stay conscience during the ride then it all went black.