by Jake Mactire
“This is all in the future, guys. If I get a stallion and two fillies who aren’t related, then it’s a couple of years before we have to worry about that.” Mike started to say something else about horse semen, but luckily the waitress brought our food just at that moment.
“Jeff, Mike, have you heard anything more about the guy who tried to grab Mike? Was it the Cutter?” Smitty asked between mouthfuls of pancakes.
Mike answered. “The DNA from the ski pole that Jeffy got him with matches the DNA from three of the previous crime scenes. It looks like it was him. Unless there is another serial killer out there copyin’ the Cutter.”
“Now that’s a really cheery thought, Mike.” Mike’s close call had obviously upset Sandy.
“I’m sorry, Sandy. I didn’t mean to get you upset.”
“It’s okay, Mike. I just worry about you guys.”
Smitty nodded. “I do too. First the rustlers, now a serial killer.”
“There’s two things Mike and me are doin’. First, we’re tryin’ to be real vigilant. Second, we’re hopin’ that we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Let’s hope so.” Sandy didn’t look convinced though. “Just promise me again that you aren’t gonna try to hunt this maniac down, Jeff.”
“Darlin’, how could I do that? The FBI can’t find him, for God’s sakes. He’s probably in California by now. When he tried to kidnap Mike, he came awful close to gettin’ caught. Maybe that means he’ll stay outta the area here and go someplace else. Even better, maybe he’ll go somewhere to get his leg treated, and the doctor or hospital will call the police.”
“I’m just worried about you guys, Jeff. You seem to attract crazies.”
“We attract crazies! I don’t understand how you can say that. Wayne was already around. This was just a case of bein’ in the wrong place at the wrong time. Don’t worry, Sandy. That Cutter is no match for me and Jeffy.”
Sandy stared at Mike. “Maybe not in a fair fight, but this guy drugs his victims. He gets off on overpowering stronger and bigger men. Dad told me that several of his victims knew karate or kung fu or whatever. I just want you to be careful, that’s all.”
I decided to change the subject. “So, buddy, your dad told me he’s headin’ back to California in a few days.”
“Yeah, he is.”
“How do you feel about that?” Both Smitty and Sandy stared at Mike, waiting for the answer to my question.
“I don’t rightly know, Jeffy. I did tell him we’re gonna keep in touch. He hasn’t pushed me, and I’m glad of that.”
Sandy spoke up. “Do you reckon you’ll go visit him, Mike?”
“Jeff and me were talkin’ about competin’ in the Bay Area Gay Rodeo this summer, and he lives down there. I reckon we could kill two birds with one stone.”
“Jason told me that you said he was welcome to come back up sometime?” Smitty said it more as a question than a statement.
“I did. I did tell him to gimme a bit of time before he does that though.”
Sandy looked happy. “That’s really big of you, Mike.”
I leaned into Mike and whispered in his ear, “I’m proud of you, buddy, and proud to be with you. You’re a big man.” Mike blushed, but it was obvious from his expression he liked the compliment.
We finished up our breakfasts and headed back on the road. Highway 2 through the Cascades is really spectacular. The mountains are high, and there are many waterfalls, and this time of year they were frozen into crystal sculptures. For a good length from Leavenworth to the ocean, the road runs right along a river. As we got to the top of the pass and headed down into western Washington, the change in landscape was immediately apparent. Instead of the widely spaced trees, open hills and ridgetops, and snow of the valley, everything was lush and green. Sandy was the first to comment on it.
“It’s like a completely different world here, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s beautiful, and so green. It seems kinda foreign though,” I answered. It was beautiful, but different. At home I could ride a horse through the forest. Here everything was grown up, and there was a fair amount of underbrush.
“So what’s the plan for the horses, Jeffy? If you like ’em, are you gonna buy ’em today?” Mike squeezed my hand as he spoke.
“I reckon so. That’s why we’re haulin’ the horse trailer behind us. There’s a stallion named Orion, and two fillies that are three. One’s named Bibi, and the other is Scheherazade.”
Sandy snorted at the names. “I hope the horses are more normal than their names.”
“I read about ’em on the website, darlin’. Scheherazade was the lady who told the stories in One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Supposedly the place she was tellin’ her stories is the same country the Akhal Teke horses come from. And Bibi in their language means ‘lady’.”
“Okay, Jeff, it makes sense, but it did take me by surprise a bit.” We headed down into the lowlands and went through towns that got progressively larger. Finally we got to Snohomish. I’d called and gotten directions, so it was quite easy to find the ranch. We pulled up into a wide area near the pastures and barns. As we got out of the truck, a pleasant-looking lady hurried over to us. She looked to be in her early fifties and was dressed in a thick wool sweater, jeans, and cowboy boots. She had a cowboy hat on. She looked at us and smiled a welcome.
“Jeff? Jeff Connelly?”
“Guilty as charged, ma’am.” I held my hand out, and she took it in a firm shake.
“You look just like your picture in Cowboys and Indians Magazine. It looks like you even have on the same Stetson as you had in the picture.”
She turned and held out her hand to Mike. “You must be Mike Guidry.” Mike shook her hand and smiled back.
She turned to Sandy and Smitty. “I’m Lisa McGuire. I’m the owner of the ranch.”
“Sandy Johnston. I’m pleased to meet you.” Smitty then stepped forward and introduced himself. After all the introductions, Mike turned to Lisa.
“How’d you get interested in raisin’ Akhal Teke horses, Ms. McGuire?”
“Lisa, please. It’s kind of an interesting story. I’m originally from the Midwest. We had a small dairy farm there, with some horses. On my way out here to Washington, I took a little vacation and went through Colorado and Wyoming. In Colorado, I went to a local rodeo, and one of the cowboys there had an Akhal Teke. The horse was so beautiful, and gentle too. I was hooked. When I got out here, I began raising them as a hobby, and it’s now turned into a business also. But I guess you want to see the horses. I know you didn’t drive for about four hours just to listen to me jabber.”
“It just feels nice to stand up, Lisa.” Sandy was stretching.
Lisa led the way to a holding pen near one of the barns. As we got close, she whistled, and three horses walked over to the fence from the ramada under which they’d been standing. The stallion was about sixteen hands tall and a buckskin. Both fillies were about a hand shorter. One was black and one a coffee brown. They all shone and glimmered. Their coats really did have a metallic-type sheen.
“Okay, Jeff. I admit it. You were right about the horses shining.” Sandy spoke to me, but didn’t take her eyes off the horses.
“Darlin’, you’d do well to remember, I’m pretty much always right.” I couldn’t help grinning at her when I said that.
“Jeff’s pretty humble, ain’t he?” Everyone laughed at Mike’s comment. We looked at the horses for a while. I looked ’em in the mouth, inspected their hooves, and talked to Lisa quite a bit about them. We went into her office in one of the barns and went over vaccination records, bloodlines, and the entries from the Akhal Teke database, showing that none of the three came from lines that had known genetic diseases. All three horses were saddle broke and trained. Mike, Smitty, and I had a go on them to see how well they handled. Scheherazade was a bit skittish, while Bibi, true to her name, was gentle and a real lady. Orion needed a bit of tough handling. He tried to bloat when I s
addled him, so I waited a few seconds after the saddle was on him, for him to exhale. He did and I pulled the cinch tight. He gave me kind of an appraising look. When I got in the saddle, it was apparent he was high spirited. I had to be a bit forceful with the reins for the first few minutes, but then he settled down. I’d made up my mind. I was going to buy the horses. I headed back to where Lisa and Sandy were standing.
“Lisa, these are damn fine horses. I reckon you’ve got a sale, three sales actually.”
“I’m glad to hear that, Jeff. It’s obvious how much you love horses, and from what I saw in the articles about you, they’ll have a good home.”
“Do you ever get tired of watchin’ ’em or bein’ around ’em? I just can’t stop lookin’ at them since they’re so beautiful.”
Lisa laughed at my question. “Now you understand why I breed them.”
She and I headed into the office to conduct business while Mike and Smitty got the horses in the trailer. Lisa mentioned that we might want to try the pub in town. It was well known for its food and beer, and people even came up from Seattle to go there. She let us leave the trailer at her place while we went to eat.
As we walked in the door of the pub, someone called out a cheery, “Hi Jeff, Mike!” I looked around. In the corner, Bryan and David were drinking beers.
“Hey, guys, nice to see you.” Mike greeted them with a big smile.
“Why don’t you guys join us?” Bryan pointed to several vacant chairs at the table. We shuffled around, getting settled.
Just then Sandy turned to David. “David, your leg is in a cast! What happened?”
David turned red but actually spoke up. “Bryan talked me into trying downhill skiing. He didn’t bother to tell me that the ski boots are much more rigid than cross-country ski shoes. I went one way, my leg went another.”
Bryan laughed and patted him on the back. “Don’t blame me, David. I wasn’t even there.”
“I’m not blaming anyone. My leg ended up having a compound fracture.”
Smitty winced. “I hear that’s painful as hell. How long do you have to have the cast on?”
“I just had the accident a few days ago, so another six weeks.”
“We’re going to stick to cross-country skiing from now on, aren’t we?” David nodded his response to Bryan’s question.
“I’ve never downhill skied. Is it difficult?” Mike asked.
“Not really. It is very different from cross-country skiing though. Like David said, the boots keep your legs locked in place against the ski. It’s a different set of muscles. I used to downhill quite a bit before David and I got together. We ended up going cross-country skiing together and really enjoyed it. I haven’t downhill skied since then. David thought he’d surprise me.”
David nodded. I remembered again how socially awkward he was. He wasn’t making eye contact with anyone.
“What are you all doing west of the mountains? You couldn’t have visited us for our nice, rainy, gray weather.” David let out a laugh at Bryan’s question.
“Jeffy’s been interested in a type of horse called Akhal Teke for a while. There’s a breeder here in Snohomish. When we came, Smitty wanted to come since he’s heard of the breed before, and Sandy just came to keep him in line.”
Sandy punched Mike’s shoulder. “You’d better be careful, Mike, or you’ll be the one I keep in line.” He laughed and turned to Smitty.
“Looks like she might spank me. She spank hard?” Smitty turned about ten shades of red. Sandy blushed too. Mike continued. “I’m just joshin’. I don’t mean nothin’ by it.”
“You know why we’re here, what are you guys doin’ up this way? If I remember right, you live in Seattle.” David nodded at me. Bryan answered.
“We had read about the pub, and we thought we’d try it. We thought we’d have a nice dinner. David’s off to a conference in San José tomorrow, so we wanted to get out together.”
“We’re not interferin’ or anythin’ are we? If you two want to eat alone, that’s fine.”
David didn’t look at me, but actually answered. “No, it’s okay.” He began rocking back and forth. Bryan noticed and put his hand on David’s knee. David stopped immediately. They smiled at one another.
Bryan turned to Mike. “How are you doing, Mike? Your dad told me about the difficulties he put you through as a boy. It’s hard to believe he’s the same person.”
“From what I’m seein’ now, it’s difficult to believe it’s the same person too.”
“He’s been a great help to quite a few kids in our school. He’d even helped David here quite a bit.”
Not even looking up, David explained. “I had a rough childhood. My father left when I was three. My mother thought I was too much of a sissy and was always walking around with nothing on to ‘teach me about women’.” Bryan looked pained. For a long moment, no one said anything.
Then Mike reached over and put his hand on David’s shoulder. “It’s amazin’ how quote ‘well meaning’ parents can really hurt their kids, ain’t it?”
“Yeah, I don’t want to talk about it.” David seemed to retreat a bit. Just then a waiter came by with menus. Smitty, Mike, and Sandy all ordered pints. I decided to have a half pint. Since I was driving, I’d better not drink too much.
I turned to Bryan. “Did you guys order yet?”
“Nope, we were just looking over the menus and deciding what to have. I’m gonna go for the fish and chips. David was looking at the BBQ chicken.”
“Those both sound real good. What about you, Sandy?”
“I think the pasta with chicken, sun dried tomatoes, and sweet, roasted red peppers sounds wonderful. How about you guys?”
“I’m going to try the BBQ ribs. Can I try some of your chicken though?”
“Of course you can, Bert.”
Mike and I settled for the burgers. The beer was good, and I was sorry to have to stick with just a half a pint.
“Hey Jeff, Mike, David and I had a great time at your place. We’d really like to come again when David’s leg heals up. Do you know if you have any vacancies in February?”
“I’m glad you guys enjoyed your stay with us. We enjoyed havin’ you. Off the top of my head, I really don’t know when we have vacancies and when we don’t, but I’d be happy to give you a call and let you know when we’re open.”
“That’s great! Thanks. By the way, what do you have for activities in the summer when there’s no skiing?”
“Bryan, if you and David do want to come in the summer, please feel free to suggest any activities ya wanna do. We’re plannin’ on offerin’ trail rides, ridin’ lessons, amateur rodeos, barbeques, campfire singin’ and story tellin’ evenings, multi-day trips into the North Cascades, and anythin’ else we can do that folks might suggest.”
“Amateur rodeos? Who is going to do that?” David looked from me to Mike.
“Jeff, Mike, Smitty, and José with my and Maria’s help.”
“You guys do rodeos?”
Mike smiled. “We sure do. By the way, rodeo out by us is a verb. So we’d say we rodeo.”
“We went to a gay rodeo once, didn’t we Bryan?”
“We did. It was the Bay Area Rodeo near San Francisco, last year.”
“I reckon, dependin’ on when you were there, you mighta saw me. I bucked in that rodeo.”
“Really, I wish I remembered seeing you. Do you remember Jeff from there, David?”
“Did you ride bulls?”
“Yep, got a buckle too.”
“Then we saw you.”
“Too bad we didn’t meet then. Mike and I are gonna team rope and buck in the Arizona Gay Rodeo next month.”
“Let’s go, Bryan. We had fun last time we went.”
“That sounds like a plan. We can be there to cheer you on.”
“Now that I know you guys, I wouldn’t feel weird coming up to say hi.”
Mike had a quizzical look on his face. “Why would you feel weird, David?”
&nbs
p; He looked down at the table. “I’m not too good with people. I never know what to say or do.” Bryan patted his shoulder.
I had to say something. “Well, David, I think you do just fine. I’m proud to be your friend and so’s Mike.” He gave me a look like a puppy looking at its new owner.
“We think so too, David, don’t we, Smitty?”
“Sandy’s right, we sure do.”
“Guys, it’d be fun to have you there with us. Mike here’s a gay rodeo virgin. He’s never been to one before.” Mike turned beet red and started to say something, but Sandy broke in.
“I reckon after bein’ with you, Jeff, that’s about the only thing he’s virgin in.” She laughed.
Mike looked at Smitty, but spoke to Sandy. “I don’t ask you about the details of your personal life, and you don’t ask me about mine.” Smitty turned bright red now.
“I’m just funnin’ with you and Jeff, Mike. I’ve told you time and time again how happy I am you two are together.”
Before either of us could answer, Bryan looked at Mike. “Mike, how come you haven’t been to a gay rodeo yet?”
“I ain’t been outta the closet too long. Jeffy and I just started datin’ last September, and he was the one that got me outta the closet and showed me there’s nothin’ to be ashamed in by bein’ myself.”
“Your father seems to have come to terms with your being gay before you did.”
“Bryan, no offense, but I really don’t want to go into all that. You’re right, but he’s a big part of the reason it took me so long to come out. We’re workin’ on buildin’ some type of a relationship, but just what that’ll be neither of us hardly knows yet.”
“I’m sorry, Mike. I didn’t mean to bring up a sore subject for you.”
“No worries. I reckon it won’t be the last time someone who’s gay has met my dad before me and has only seen the good side.”
“It is kind of difficult though, to believe that you’ve only been out for five months or so. You seem so at ease with yourself and your relationship with Jeff.”
“Thanks Bryan. Jeff showed me there’s no reason to be ashamed.” I smiled at Mike and squeezed his thigh under the table. We were all quiet for a moment. It was obvious that Bryan and David really admired and liked Mr. Guidry and weren’t comfortable talking about his homophobic past, so Bryan changed the subject.