by Steven Bird
“Keep your eyes open, boys,” Jessie transmitted before returning the mic to the radio.
Looking at Tina and Michelle, he said, “Okay, now. I’ll go out and talk to them.”
“Not alone you won’t!” Tina insisted.
Before he could protest, she interrupted, saying, “Besides, they don’t know you. They know who I am. They know my family, whether we’re close to them or not. I need to represent this farm in Billy’s absence.”
Nodding, Jessie conceded, “Let’s get out there, then. Grab your gun.”
Walking out to meet the men who were now only fifty yards from the front of the house, Tina spoke first, saying, “Have you seen my brother, Billy?”
“Yes, ma’am,” the eldest of the group said.
“Well, where is he?” she demanded.
“Hell, if I know!” the nearly toothless, rough-looking man riding a sorrel quarter horse responded. “He and Isaac Clanton rode out ahead of us this mornin’. They said they needed to be gettin’ back out this way to help keep an eye on the place. Are you sayin’ they never made it back?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Tina replied sharply.
“You’re Tina, right?” the man asked.
“Yes, and you are?”
“I’m Isaiah. Isaiah Hofstadter,” he answered, tipping his hat to her.
“How did you know my name?” she asked.
“Well, ma’am, that’s not too hard to figure out with you marchin’ out here like you’re in charge ’n all. I figure you’ve gotta be one of Archie’s kids, being his place and all.”
Speaking up, Jessie asked, “Did they mention what route they would be taking to get back here? Did they plan any other stops?”
Shaking his head, Isaiah said, “No, sir, they didn’t. I ’spect they’ll be along shortly. Ol’ Isaac is a rough ol’ feller. I know I wouldn’t mess with him. I’d leave him be if I was up to no good and come across him.”
Replying with only a nod, Jessie looked to Tina to read her eyes. Seeing her nod to him, he turned to Isaiah and said, “Did Isaac explain exactly what we were up against?”
“Yessir, he did,” Isaiah replied. “He said the McCulloughs was teamin’ up with some outsiders and they was gettin’ kinda rough on ya. That’s why we figured we’d lend a hand. It wouldn’t be long before they turned to us for supplies, just like Isaac said. Daddy and the others are gonna keep an eye on our place, but he wanted us to head on out here ’n see if we could put an end to this before it comes to that.”
“Well, for that, we are thankful,” Jessie assured him with a nod. “I see you’ve all got bedrolls and packs. I assume that means you’ll be staying with us until they come back?”
“Yessir. That’s the general idea.”
“We’ll work on the sleeping arrangements once we talk to the others, but I’m sure we’ll have plenty room. And again, thank you. Thanks for coming. If we don’t stand together, we’ll all fall prey to the McCulloughs or whatever bastards come along next.”
“That’s how we see it,” Isaiah replied with a nod.
“Well, climb on down from those horses and let’s get you settled,” Tina offered as she turned toward the house. “Jessie here will help you stable your horses, then bring you on up to the house. I’ll go let the others know what’s going on.”
Chapter Thirteen
As the sun began to set over the Williams farm, the newcomers from the Hofstadter place were busy becoming acquainted with the others while Jessie observed them and their mannerisms carefully. The Hofstadter group consisted of brothers, Isaiah and Levi, as well as their cousins, Sam, Dave, and Jonah. The men ranged in ages from twenty-two to twenty-nine and seemed to Jessie to be cut from the same ragged cloth.
Walking over to Tina, who stood by the front window, Jessie quietly inquired, “Still no sign, huh?”
“No. And I’m really starting to have horrible feelings about all this. If these guys could have made it here, leaving after Isaac and Billy, then they should be back, too!”
“Let’s just hope something slowed them down and they’re on their way. They could have dealt with a horse injury. They could have come across someone in need. Who knows? Let’s just keep our heads on straight and keep our eyes on the ball here at home. We know something is going to go down, we just don’t know how or when.”
“Do you trust them?” she asked quietly, gesturing toward the Hofstadters with her eyes.
“They’re a hard type to read,” he whispered. “I’ve known plenty rough-cut men who were good-hearted on the inside, so I don’t want to judge a book by its cover just yet, but I have a hard time trusting anyone these days until they’re proven.”
“I just don’t know,” she worried, shaking her head as she looked down to the floor.
“Well, we know Billy and Isaac aren’t gonna ride up on us in the dark. If they are close, they’ll be camping until morning. Let’s just get back to the tasks at hand and figure out our sleeping and watch rotation arrangements,” Jessie said, placing his hand on Tina’s shoulder and urging her from the window.
“Mr. Townsend,” Isaiah said, walking up to him with a smile. “What can me and the Hofstadter clan do for you tonight? There’s as much a chance they’ll hit us in the dark as in the daylight, so we need be ready. We’ll follow your lead, sir.”
Interrupted by Shauna’s voice from upstairs, Jessie turned to see her hurrying down to the living room, exclaiming, “Has anyone seen Lisa?!”
“I thought she was with you,” Shauna’s husband Mike replied.
“She was, but she came downstairs to get you to take her out back to the outhouse. You didn’t see her?”
“No. She didn’t come and get me. I’ve been talking to these fellows,” he insisted as tension grew in his voice.
“Lisa!” he shouted.
As everyone in the room began to look around, Mike ran down into the basement, returning quickly to the top of the basement steps, saying, “She’s not down there.”
“Where’s Mike, Jr?” he asked.
Pointing up the stairs, Shauna said, “He’s with Michelle. Lisa came down on her own.”
“Who’s Lisa?” Luke Hofstadter asked.
“She’s a nine-year-old girl. My daughter,” Mike replied sharply, tension escalating. “I’m gonna look around outside.”
“Let’s all go,” Isaiah replied as he grabbed his rifle leaning against the wall. “Come on, boys,” he said to his group.
Once outside, everyone looked frantically in the failing light of day and they began shouting, “Lisa! Lisa, where are you?!”
Running straight to the outhouse, Mike was confronted by Paul who had been standing watch at the chicken coop, “What? What’s going on?” he asked, looking to the Hofstadters with suspicion.
“Shauna told us Lisa came downstairs to find me to take her to the outhouse, but I never saw her. That was like twenty minutes ago.”
“I’ve not seen her,” Paul said.
“Has anyone been back to the outhouse in the last twenty minutes?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, the skinny guy. Levi, I think,” he said, pointing to Levi Hofstadter who was looking around the blackberry bushes off to the side of the house.
Storming over to Levi, Mike looked him dead in the eye and shouted, “Where is she?! Where’s my little girl?!”
Confused, Levi stammered, “Uh, what the… I… I don’t know, man. I haven’t seen her.”
Squaring off on him, Mike said, “She came out to the outhouse, Paul said you were the only one out here during that time. Where the hell is she?”
“Look, man, I’m tellin’ you….”
Raising his AR15 to Levi’s head, Mike shouted, “Where the hell is she!?”
Almost instantly, guns were drawn in all directions as the Hofstadters raised their rifles in response to Mike’s threat and were met in kind by the residents of the Williams farm.
“Whoa! Whoa!” Jessie protested, gesturing with his hands for everyone
to lower their weapons. “Everyone stand down!” he shouted.
“Don’t you tell me to stand down when these sons of bitches know where my little girl is. I want her back, now!” Mike snarled as his finger hovered over the trigger.
“Just hang on, damn it!” Jessie barked. “Let’s all just lower our weapons and work through this. Lower your weapons!” he again demanded.
“You’d better call them off,” Isaiah insisted in a calm, collected voice. “We came to help. We ain’t goin’ out like this.”
“Mike!” Jessie shouted. “Lower your weapon.”
“Not until this toothless piece of filth tells me where my little girl is,” grumbled Mike through gritted teeth.
“Call them off, Mr. Townsend,” Isaiah said in an increasingly serious tone. “I’m ain’t gonna say it again. We’ve got the stomach for this. Do these folk?”
“Mike!” Jessie yelled once again, in an attempt to get his attention.
“There she is!” shouted Shauna, as she began running off behind the group toward the apple orchard.
When the group’s attention was drawn toward Shauna, they could each see Frank walking alongside Lisa, holding her hand.
“Damn you, Frank!” Shauna shouted as she ripped Lisa from his hand and gave her a tight embrace.
At once, everyone relaxed their weapons and Mike ran to his wife and daughter. Walking over to the group, Frank said, “What’s wrong? Why is everyone so upset? Who are these guys?” he asked, pointing to the Hofstadters.
“This was supposed to be our cavalry,” Jessie said in a deflated tone. “I think Mike may have just soured our mutually-beneficial relationship, though,” he grumbled as he turned to Isaiah, seeing a scowl on his face.
“What the hell?” Shauna said as she shoved Frank onto the ground from behind. “What the hell were you doing out there?”
Picking himself up off the ground and dusting off his clothes, Frank argued, “I didn’t do anything. I was walking up to the house, and she was on the back porch. She said she needed to use the potty, so I walked with her. When she was finished, she wanted to go for a walk. She said she was tired of being in the house all the time.”
“How did you get by me without being seen?” Paul asked.
“Hell, Paul. I don’t know. Were you not paying attention? I just walked from the woods over by that big oak to the back porch,” he said, while pointing to the west side of the home.
Looking at Paul, Jessie asked, “Are you sure?”
Pausing to gather his thoughts, Paul admitted, “Yeah, well, I guess coming from there, he could have slipped by. I was focused more on the back pasture and the cattle, I guess.”
“I know you folks feel the need to figure out who’s to blame for all this, but we’ve got some problems here, folks,” Isaiah interjected, turning the conversation back to their potentially-deadly situation. “Not only did y’all just about get yourselves killed, but I’m not quite sure me and my boys feel welcome here at all. Maybe we should just wish each other luck dealin’ with the McCullough gang, and part ways right here and now. I ain’t gettin’ myself killed for somebody who’ll draw down on me.”
“Mike!” Jessie shouted.
Turning to Jessie, Mike nodded and began walking over toward him and Isaiah. “Let’s get this sorted out.”
Looking down at the ground, Mike cleared his throat, looked up to Isaiah, and said, “I’m sorry. I lost my head for a minute. My little girl… I… I panicked.”
Reaching out his hand, Isaiah warned, “I hope we got any such feelin’ of mistrust outta our system. We can’t be havin’ this happen again. When people point guns at each other, things get a bit edgy. When things get edgy, bad things happen. We ain’t wantin’ bad things to happen, now, are we?”
“No. No, we don’t. I’m sorry,” Mike said as he reached out to Isaiah’s hand and shook it.
Looking at his watch, Jessie suggested, “Mike, why don’t you go relieve Michelle up front and we’ll get everyone settled in.”
“Roger that,” Mike replied as he turned and walked away.
Turning back to Isaiah, Jessie said, “I think it would be best if we get on with the task at hand. To be honest, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a response from the McCullough gang yet.”
“It’ll come,” Isaiah confidently replied. “I’ve known them boys all my life. They ain’t gonna let that dog lie. No. The way they see it, they’ve got to put this place down, and down hard.”
“You’re no doubt right about that,” Jessie grumbled. “I think we need to beef up our watches and set up a defensive plan.”
“What do y’all have in mind?”
“Well, our watches located out front and out back are just that; watches. They aren’t really defensive positions. They are merely an early warning system. I think now, since we’ve got more hands on deck, we should adjust things, so those are firing positions and not just watch positions. We can’t confine it all to the main house. If we do, our options will be far too limited once things get ugly.”
Turning toward the stable, Jessie asked, “Are your horses broke for mounted shooting?”
“Of course,” Isaiah replied, like the answer should have been self-evident.
“I found out the hard way Hank, the horse Isaac gave me to ride, is not. I’m still sore from that spill. Anyway, I’d like at least two of your guys to hole up in the stable with your tack, ready to go. Depending on the direction they approach from, you can mount up and take advantage of the terrain in a hurry to get to the high ground and possibly even flank them. They’ll have a hard time pushing a frontal assault, if they’re concerned with their flanks or rear.”
Thinking about it for a moment, Isaiah responded with simply, “Alright.” Scratching the scraggly goatee on his chin, he asked, “What ’bout the rest of my boys?”
“I’d like to keep one of them up front, and one out back with the watches we already have in place. With backup at each position, it’ll be easier to use them as firing positions and not just lookouts. The fifth can stay on the lower floor of the house with me to defend the home from unauthorized entry. One of us can man the front door, while the other mans the back. The ladies can offer some pretty serious overwatch from upstairs. They’re each a hell of a shot. But that only works if the house is secure. If it’s breached, the overwatch is lost and so is the initiative. We’d be scattered and scrambling for the hills if we lost control of the house. And with Archie upstairs in bed, unable to be moved, well—that’s just not acceptable.”
Thinking it over for a brief moment, Isaiah nodded. “Okay. I can’t think of a reason to argue that. I’ll set up in the stable with David. Me and him are the best riders in the bunch. Jonah will cover the rear watch, and Sam can help cover the front. Levi can help you in the house.”
Reaching out to shake his hand, Jessie smiled, “I really appreciate the help.”
“No problem,” Isaiah drawled, looking down at Jessie’s hand without taking it. “But if you don’t mind me askin’, who the hell are you to these people? You clearly ain’t from around here. Why do they look up to you the way they do?”
“I’m not so sure they look up to me, but I’m a friend of Isaac’s, and subsequently a friend to them. Isaac and I met under less than desirable circumstances, but we’ve proven ourselves to each other. We’ve built a bond of trust, even though our history together has been brief.”
“Trust,” Isaiah scoffed with a laugh. “There sure ain’t much of that goin’ around these days. I’m glad you’ve found yourself some. Hell, it’s got to where I barely trust my dog anymore. People have been takin’ from and killin’ each other all through the days of man. Just look in the Good Book; it goes all the way back. Some of them doin’ the killin’ were limited by the law, and some of them were backed by the law. The only difference now is, there ain’t no law. No, there ain’t much reason to trust many folks these days.”
“If you don’t trust us, then why help us?” Jessie queried, hoping to
gain some understanding of Isaiah’s motivations.
“We’re helping you to help ourselves,” Isaiah replied, pausing to spit. Giving Jessie a crooked smile, he said, “I don’t mean to sound harsh, but we’ve got a mutual goal. We can be friends if you wanna call it that, to see the goal through to its end, but beyond that, well—we’ll just go back to keep’n to ourselves. I don’t mean that to be rude’n all. I’m just tryin’ to be upfront about things. There ain’t no need to be puttin’ on a charade.”
“I appreciate your candidness,” Jessie said with a nod. “And you’re right. There’s no reason not to be straight with people. To me, there’s nothing worse than a liar or a backstabber. We’ll deal with this, and then go our separate ways.”
Extending his hand once again, looking Isaiah square in the eyes, Jessie waited patiently for his response.
“Damn straight,” Isaiah declared, taking Jessie’s hand. “Ain’t nothin’ worse. So, you make sure your folks don’t go pointin’ a gun at me or my boys again, and we’ll get along just fine.”
“That’s water under the bridge,” Jessie assured him, reaffirming his grip.
“Let’s hope,” Isaiah said with a nod, releasing the tense handshake and turning to walk away. “I’m gonna head on out to the barn. I’ll tell the boys what’s expected of them on my way. They’ll pull their weight.”
“I’m sure they will,” Jessie said, as he watched Isaiah turn and walk away.
Chapter Fourteen
As the sun slipped behind the hills to the west and darkness began to fall on the Williams farm, Mike stood watch in front of the home with Sam, while Paul and Jonah stood watch out back.
Ascending the stairs to check on Archie, Jessie was met by Allison, who stood at the top of the stairs with a rifle in hand. “Ma’am,” Jessie said with a nod.
“Hi, Jessie,” she replied as she loosened her nervous grip on the rifle.
“How’s Archie?” Jessie asked.
“The same, which is what worries me,” she fretted. “I’d feel better about the whole thing if he seemed to be making some sort of progress.”