by Alex Cord
“Holler at me. Let me know you got there all right. Thanks for coming.”
“Thanks for the riding lessons.”
He stepped back. “Bye.”
She backed away toward the entrance, smiling a sad smile and raised her hand. Then she turned and was gone.
Cedar-stake fence posts sutured the road-scar through the wind-tortured skin of the earth. He felt his guts were about to spill out onto the floor of the truck. He’d been transported to places he didn’t know existed. But where in hell could it possibly go from here? He still didn’t know how old she was. There were times she looked fourteen. She lived more than a thousand miles away. He had no idea what she wanted for her life. He knew damn near nothing about her except she’d lost a brother she adored, had been a successful model, had neat parents, and was possessed of a unique intelligence. Why in hell would she be wanting to have anything to do with him?
52
First Grade
He avoided the house when he returned home and headed instead for the arena. The arena was big enough for the colt to make things unpleasant if he didn’t want to be caught. Jesse had a carrot in his back pocket. He walked easily toward the colt, projecting an expectation of good behavior. Anything less would cause suspicion. He murmured his seductive patois and held out his hand in greeting as he got closer, slowing as he read the colt’s attitude. Ears flicking. Nostrils wide, slightly tense, a ripple of sound, not quite a snort. Jesse stopped, then moved to his right. The colt shifted to face him. Jesse was three feet away. He stayed there talking easily, calling him Soot. He kept his hand extended and moved a foot closer. It seemed the colt might leave, so Jesse remained where he was. Then he backed a step and beckoned the colt to come to him. After some consideration and after listening to Jesse, he took a step to him. Jesse backed another step and waited. Soot took another step and another until his nose met Jesse’s hand and the soft stroking that followed. He slipped the halter over his head, gave him the carrot and led him out of the arena to the round pen.
The saddle was on the ground in the center. The soft ranch rope beside. He shut the door and took off the halter. The colt stood there. Jesse gently pushed him away and whooshed him into a trot around the pen. He picked up the rope and swung the loop easily around his head in rhythm with the cadence of the trot. What tension there was evaporated quickly, and soon Soot began to lick his lips and look at Jesse for instruction. Jesse stepped in front of him and he easily turned around and went the other way settling back into the cadenced trot, Jesse chatting to him all the time.
He loped him in both directions without him panicking and running off, and when he finally stepped forward and said whoa, the colt stopped instantly and turned to face him. He walked up and stroked his face and neck, telling him what a good boy he was.
“Pretty neat.” Abbie’s head just barely cleared the top of the wall.
Jesse looked up at her and smiled.
“I’ve been watching.”
“For about five minutes,” he said, letting her know he missed nothing.
“Right. He’s a handsome devil.”
Jesse smiled. “Get on Roanie. I’m gonna ride this guy in here for a few minutes and then take him into the arena and move him around a little.”
Side by side with the colt along the arena fence and Abbie on the roan, they moved at a long easy trot. Jesse picking up a light feel on the reins, guided the colt into the corners bending him and lining him out on the straightaway, teaching him with gentle tugs to follow his nose.
Forty-five minutes later, Jesse had stripped him off and was running his hands over legs and ankles, tendons, and pasterns, and massaging the pressure points above the hooves. He stood up and stepped back, taking a hard, cold look. Abbie was saddling Kevin Bradley’s horse but watching every move Jesse made. He ran his hand along the sculpted hip. “It’s hard to believe this guy is out of a mustang mare. Anybody’d swear he was pure quarter horse. Look at that hip. Hocks set low. Short cannons, even the jaw.” He took a deep breath and blew it out. “Man, I’m afraid to think about what I might have here.”
53
A Lingering Scent
The sun was gone, leaving a soggy night. He left the porch chair and entered the house. It felt empty and cold, though the night was warm. He stood in the doorway to the guestroom, the bed where she slept the first night, made, the flowers beginning to wilt, the scent of her lingering in the air. He sat on the bed and bent to smell the pillow where her head had lain. The scent was stronger there. He stood up slowly, looked around, and breathed it in. An envelope, pink, was tucked under the edge of the vase. He unfolded the note walking into the living room and sat on the sofa. The same scent wafted from the paper. He brought it close to his face till it touched. Then he held it far enough away to read.
Dear Jesse,
I did not know if you wanted me to change the sheets. I slept there but one hour as I tossed and turned the night thinking of you. I thrived with your care and love. I feel as if a fine powder has brushed against my skin like fairy dust on the petals of a rose. Your touch has reminded me of the essence of my nature…the softness that comes with being a woman.
Thank you,
Holly Marie
Beneath her name, she’d drawn in simple black strokes, a falcon launching toward the heavens.
Sunk deep in the sofa with his feet on the table, he read the note again, this time aloud and then again. Then he refolded it, slipped it back in the envelope, took it to the guestroom, and put it back where he found it. He filled his lungs with the perfumed air and left the room closing the door behind him.
Stretched on the sofa, scotch in hand, trying to separate thought from feeling, mind from heart and soul. Yes, she cared, he could believe that. Now what? Why not just take it as it comes? What if there isn’t anymore? A new agony rose. As he tried to strangle it, the phone rang. The hollowness was gone when he heard her say, “I’m home.”
“I wish you weren’t. My house feels like a dungeon.”
“I had a wonderful time. The first thing my parents said when they saw me was, ‘You look great.’ I looked in a mirror. They were right. They’re yelling down to say hi and thank you for taking such good care of me.”
She asked about Soot. She said she was tired, hadn’t slept at all last night, thinking about leaving.
He asked if it would be all right if he called her.
She said, “You better,” and wished him sweet dreams, “Goodnight, Jesse Burrell.”
“Goodnight, Holly Marie…” His conscience and reason almost betrayed him. He damn near said, “I love you…” but did not, and felt he’d been dishonest. His bed, cold and empty, offered little comfort that night and short fits of troubled sleep.
54
Porch Talk
An alfalfa-scented breeze blew across the high plains around the Double Rainbow Ranch and along the second story porch where Holly and Ruby, in wide-brimmed straw hats adorned with fake sunflowers, sat watching a reddish gold ball sliding toward the horizon west of Pikes Peak.
“I thought I was dead inside. He woke up something in me, Mom, and he did it without trying. I wish you could have seen him with that wild colt. It was magic, sometimes I still don’t think I really saw it.”
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m so happy you had a good time.”
“I want to see him again.”
“Well, Holly, invite him to come here. Your little Holly House will be finished in a week or so and you can stay there…or whatever…Bear would love to have him come. It’d be so good for him to have a male friend to hang out with. And he could help you with the horses…” The small hoof-clatter on the slatted wood floor and tingling bell preceded Bingo, looking for attention. He pushed his horns against Holly’s leg. She scratched between the horns and he pushed harder. “Manners,” she said and shoved him away. “So you think Bear would like to have him come visit?”
“He’d love it. While you were in Texas, he talked about Jesse, how much he li
ked him.”
“I’m gonna do it.” She raised the Coke can to strawberry lips and said, “Look,” as the sun threw a last bloody glance at a world of purple and gold under billows of white. Bear’s car came crunching up the gravel drive between a pair of pastures. The mother and daughter, who looked like sisters, stood up.
55
Soot on a Cow
Two days were as long as he could wait before he called. “You should do a video about training horses. I could help you put it together and shoot it and Bear could market it.” She was full of ideas. She extended the invitation to the Double Rainbow.
“Wow. Would I like to do that.” His heart pounded at the thought. “This place would disintegrate in two days if I left right now. But I’ll sure put my mind to it. I know you’ve got things to do there, but if you find you’ve got time to come back to Texas before I can come to Colorado, even if it’s just for two or three days, I’ll send you the tickets. I miss you.” It was out of his mouth before he could help it.
When he’d first put Soot in the smaller pen, the colt trotted its fence with anxious mutterings and much tossing of his head. Then Jesse put Chauncy in with him and all was well.
The colt nickered as Jesse walked in to halter him. He had progressed so much faster than any horse he’d ever trained. Jesse had but to ask and the colt would oblige. When Lamar McCarthy called to ask how Jesse was getting along with “Satan,” Jesse said, “Well, I haven’t canned him yet.” He wanted to brag on him but knew he wouldn’t.
Abbie had brought in the cattle and bunched them at the end. Jesse rode slowly into the herd, feeling the energy within the colt focus with aggression on the herd. He rode him two-handed in a side-pull, a simple rope noseband hung from a headstall with a rein attached to each side. A good tool for tipping a horse’s nose in the direction you want to go while saving his mouth. Jesse wasn’t looking for anything fancy from Soot, he just wanted him to nose around in the herd and get the feel of cutting a cow easily, without pressure and driving it away from the herd and maybe keeping it out there a little. He pushed a fat heifer out from the herd about twenty feet. Soot was on it like a shark, his connection absolute. The heifer made a move toward the herd. Soot dropped to his belly like a panther, pinned his ears, and threatened to eat the cow.
Biting isn’t allowed in a cutting contest. Soot was aggressive enough to try it and Jesse knew he’d have to be quick to discourage attempts to chew on a cow and still not inhibit the colt’s natural keenness. As he thought about it, the cow changed direction and before Jesse could even think to guide the colt, he’d swept an arc and dove into the cow’s face like a hell-born fiend. The cow shrunk back as if it might cry. The colt’s move was so quick, Jesse had to adjust his seat to catch up.
They worked four head. The colt was scary spectacular. Jesse took him off to the side and stepped down to loosen the cinches and stroke him. He wanted to leap in the air and click his heels together. Instead he whispered something private in his ear, like lovers in a crowd.
Abbie was beside herself. “Am I dreaming or did he really just do that?”
Jesse blew out a breath and just shook his head. He led him to the fence. Abbie got off her horse and followed. Her face beamed excitement. “He is unreal.”
Jesse, with a serious face deep in thought, pulled the saddle from the colt’s back. “I know I’m asking the impossible, but I want you to not say anything about this colt…to anybody. Let’s just keep him our secret weapon for a while…for as long as we can, anyway. Okay?”
“My lips are sealed.”
“Wire staples and duct tape couldn’t get that done.”
“Hey. Hey.”
“Excuse me. I lost my head. C’mon, I’ll buy you lunch.”
56
Candy and a Clydesdale
He pulled up to the mailbox. His spirit lightened when he spotted the red, white, and blue priority mail package. Along with a stack of envelopes, he put it on the back seat.
“A package from Holly?” She said it with a sly grin.
He reached out and grabbed her neck in his huge hand and shook her head gently. She let it roll from side to side, frizzed curls flopping around her face and laughed.
It had cooled some as the sun went down. He fell into the sofa with the package on the table in front of him. He sliced through the tape and pulled out handfuls of Styrofoam nuggets. A disk of glycerin soap with a miniature Clydesdale imbedded fell out. Then a bag of popping corn, a package of licorice twists, foil-wrapped homemade chocolate chip cookies, and something in pink paper tied with blue ribbon. It was an eagle feather wound with a leather thong at its base and a note in her unmistakable script.
“My family and I want to honor you with this eagle feather for you truly soar and carry our hearts on wings of strength. Guaranteed to be tornado proof and good medicine for new beginnings…life.”
And next to her name, the signature black shadow sketch of the raptor lifting off. Probing more Styrofoam, he retrieved a jeweler’s box, containing three unique stones and a note, “Collected while Gumping on the high plains. They will bring good luck.” The last thing he pulled from the package was a neckerchief, blue and white checks with a blaze of sunflowers. It smelled of her perfume. He tied it around his neck and got up and walked around the room with no direction. He reached for the phone, picked it up, then put it back.
57
A Short Night
He slipped into the rumpled sheets. Okay, I’ve got this colt. This son of a wild mustang bitch could do it. He could go to The Futurity. He’s got it. There isn’t a hole in him. And if Tom Cruise were a horse, he’d want to look like Soot.
And then there is Holly Marie Bassett…
The sun was still on the other side of the world when he stepped out on the porch knowing they’d all be asleep in Colorado. He went to the barn, straight to Soot, and stood there looking at him. The colt came to him and looked back.
He decided right then, seeing deep into the soft brown eyes no longer filled with fear and anger, that Soot would go to The Futurity. The black shadow, the ignoble urchin with the looks of a movie star and an uncanny athleticism could walk away with the gold. With The Futurity only eight months away, he would have to pay a penalty nearly doubling the twenty-five hundred dollar fee. Five thousand dollars, money he didn’t have.
What’s Gumping?” he asked, grinning at the sound of her voice.
“Well, you remember in Forest Gump how he was always running everywhere?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I’ve taken to walking everywhere. I call it Gumping. Bear wants a stone fireplace. I told him about yours. So we’re collecting rocks. The other day I was about two miles from our house dressed like a goofball. I’d found this neat rock. I was carrying it in front of my belly. It was huge, and I guess I had a bemused look on my face. I was in another world, just walking along carrying this thing. Suddenly, a huge fire truck pulls up along side of me. Scared me to death. I thought I was being busted for stealing a rock. One of the guys asks if I’m all right. I said, ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ He said, ‘Oh, well we just got a call that there was a strange looking woman walking along the road and someone thought you might have a problem.’ I said, ‘No, I don’t have a problem.’ They kept looking at the rock I was carrying, the whole time. I said, ‘Thanks very much for your concern.’ He said, ‘Okay, ma’am.’ I know he thought I was nuts. Then they drove away. Can you believe that?” She was giggling. “So when are you coming to visit the Double Rainbow?”
“You really want me to do that?”
“Of course.”
“Your father’s not gonna be waiting for me with a shotgun?”
“Yeah. I’m setting you up for an ambush.”
“I’m gonna do it. I can only come for a few days, though.”
“That’s about all we could take of you.”
He chuckled with her. “You’re probably closer to the truth there than you think. I’m gonna take the black colt to The Fut
urity.”
“Really? That is great. He’s doing good?”
“He’s pretty cool. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and only a little bit of time.”
“You’ll do it. So when are you coming?”
“I’m gonna work it out. Anytime is okay?”
“Anytime.”
She told him to look for something else in the mail. At first, the thought excited him. Then he became convinced he was out of his mind. It had happened when she came through the screen door at Larry Littlefield’s ranch the first time he saw her. He loved her, first sight, last sight, every sight.
58
Soot Shines
Acup of corn oil in his grain each day had brought the sundulled black hide to a luster a seal would envy. Jesse smiled in the sensuous pleasure of his hands running over the slick colt and thought of Holly with a maddening tenderness and a rage of passionate desire that made everything else pale.
There was joy in the intricacy of the relationship between him and the black. He felt that somehow his son’s spirit was a part of it, part of the colt. When he was on the colt, it felt as if he had his arms around his son. He wouldn’t be telling that to anybody. Well, maybe Holly.
He’d brought twenty head into the arena. Cattle, the horse, Blizzard, and the man. As he nosed the colt into the herd, he crawled under the horse’s skin and felt the intense desire begin to quiver in his flesh. He hunted cattle like a lion. He was born wild and Jesse loved the wildness of him. Soot was bored with slow cattle. If one showed no real desire to return to the herd, he sank on his hocks and danced in front of it, drawing it to him. If he forced it to make a move, he’d recklessly blow by it just enough to let the cow think it had a chance to escape, then he’d crack over his hocks and be right in its face, sinking into his stop, utterly victorious, the cow defeated. Jesse couldn’t help but think the colt had done this all before, maybe in another life.