Since it was almost impossible for kids our age to find work, Ant and I were ecstatic for the opportunity to earn money to buy some of the things that other kids received from their parents. There was nothing glamorous about our first jobs on the farm because we did every nasty chore there was while the older workers performed tasks that required more skill and experience. At first, because of school and football, we only worked weekends and school holidays with Papa's promise that we could work more hours during the summers.
We were polite and courteous to the other workers who were all senior to us, and we volunteered to help anyone who needed it, in addition to completing the chores Manny gave us. We soon earned the respect of the other workers and our self-esteem soared. As state kids, we were not used to feeling such pride in ourselves, and I honestly believe that we would have continued working without pay.
Papa bred and trained American Saddlebred horses. He sold some of the horses, kept lesson horses for teaching novice riders, and used gentle horses for customers who liked to trail ride through his land. Another big part of his farm business was boarding and training horses that belonged to other people. Some of those horses were owned by experienced riders, who competed in shows. Papa had a trainer for the show horses and for the riders.
With so many horses, the work of caring for them never ended. Ant and I gave the horses feed, hay, and water, and we performed the less desirable chore of mucking out the feces and urine soaked sawdust from their stalls. Cleaning stalls was the nastiest, smelliest work that Ant and I could imagine doing, and at first, it was difficult for us to cope with the odor. Manny gave us menthol salve to place under our noses and that little tip made a huge difference. We worked hard to leave the stalls fresh and supplied with what the horses needed, and the horses worked hard to make sure that we still had a job cleaning their stalls the next day.
Before we began our shifts, we changed into overalls and rubber boots that Papa provided us and the other workers. The first barn had a full bathroom with a communal shower for men and another full bathroom for women. After work, Ant and I scrubbed our bodies with a brush and soap to remove the filth and odor before we changed back into our own clothes. Two of our fellow workers lived near Tolley House, and one of them or Papa gave us rides to and from the farm. After work, it was a sure bet that no one would have allowed us in his vehicle before we had showered and dressed in clean clothes.
One Saturday, during that first autumn that Ant and I worked at the farm, I noticed what I thought was odd behavior from Manny. At first, I thought I had done something wrong, but after that day, he took more interest in me, and we grew much closer.
After our shift ended that Saturday, Ant and I took our showers as we always did after work. We were standing under two of the three showerheads, allowing the hot spray to wash the soap from us and at the same time, enjoying the soothing heat on our sore muscles.
I heard someone come in the door, but I was too lazy to look. It wasn't unusual for one of the other guys to come in when we showered because the bathroom was one big room with showers, sinks, toilets, lockers, and supply shelves. When I heard Ant speak to Manny, I turned my head to greet him and saw that he brought fresh towels to fill the shelves on the opposite wall from where we stood. I was glad because I hadn't noticed that the shelves were empty.
Manny was always thoughtful of his workers, and we all appreciated him. As usual, his voice sounded like he was smiling. "Boys, I brought you some towels. The dryer was on the fritz, so we were behind with the laundry."
"Thanks, Manny," I said. "We didn't even look."
Ant tried to sound serious. "Since I work harder than RB, I had too much sweat in my eyes to see that we needed towels."
I looked at Ant. "I think you're full of what we were cleaning from the stalls."
"Now, is that a nice thing to say to the guy who makes you look good every time he catches one of your lousy passes?"
Ant and I cut off our showerheads and grabbed two of the clean towels Manny brought us. As usual, we continued to joke around with each other. Manny, who was checking the bathroom supply shelf, laughed along with us. After I dried, I tossed my towel in the laundry basket and turned to walk past Manny to my locker. As he stepped out of my way, he glanced at me, and his smile faded. For a few seconds, he appeared to be in a trance with his eyes focused on me.
I was suddenly afraid that I had said something wrong when we were joking. I had to ask because I knew that it would bother me all night. "Manny, are you okay? Did I say something wrong?"
He blinked his eyes as if waking up. "Oh yeah, I'm good, and you didn't do anything. I guess I spaced out." He made a weak attempt to be jovial Manny again. "Don't tell Papa that my mind is going before his. We have a bet."
Papa and Manny were always ribbing each other just as Ant and I did, and it was always good chuckles to hang out with them. Manny wished us a good evening and as soon as he left, I had to know if Ant noticed what I did.
"Ant, did you see the way Manny stared at me?"
"Yo, I think he saw your birthmark. It is unusual, you know. He probably didn't want to say anything in case you were touchy about it."
"Oh, yeah. That's probably it. I don't remember him seeing me with my shirt off before today. So yeah, I guess you're right. That was the first time he saw it."
Ant had to tease me. "If it really bothers you, I'll tell Manny that you think he's rude as hell to stare."
I pulled on my jeans and cut my eyes at Ant. "Make sure you lose your virginity first because if you get me fired, you're gonna wake up the next morning with parts missing."
"Dang, don't be joking like that, RB."
"Who's joking?"
***
Manny had been married briefly to a Mexican woman who was unhappy living on the farm, and she gave him an ultimatum that with or without him, she was moving back to Mexico to be near her mother. She moved without him and from that point on, Manny remained single but had a long string of girlfriends.
There was usually a woman sleeping with him in his apartment on the weekends, and he even called a few of them his girlfriend, but how long he kept a woman would usually depend on how long it took her to discover Manny's lack of interest in anything long term. He often kept relationships going with two women, and I think he only felt bad about his behavior when they caught him. I was there one time when one of his girlfriends discovered that she was not the only woman sleeping in his bed, and there were some loud, ugly noises coming from his apartment that day.
The longer I knew Manny, the more I grew to like him, but his disrespect for women bothered me. I had a difficult time understanding how a man I liked so much could show such disregard for the feelings of the women he dated. After I had known him for a while, I told him what I thought about it. I'm not sure what I expected. Maybe I thought he would defend his actions or at least apologize for what I saw was as a weakness in his character, but he only listened to me, shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Nobody's perfect." That was the end of the discussion.
Manny would have rather cleaned horse stalls than his apartment, and he would have one of his current female friends clean for him until she understood that he was using her. Since cleaning his apartment was not farm work assigned to employees, if Manny was between girlfriends, he had no one to clean but him. During one of Manny's dry spells with women, he asked if Ant and I were interested in earning a few bucks for cleaning his apartment after our regular shift was over. We were glad to earn extra money doing light work and readily agreed. From then on, whenever Manny needed us, he paid us to clean his apartment and do his laundry.
Manny's apartment was full of framed photos of his family, and most of them had tags with the names of the people, the location, and the date. Some of them were taken in Mexico, but most of them were shot on Deer Lake Farm. There were pictures of Manny and Gabe, his younger brother, when they were kids living on the farm, and other pictures of their parents. A few shots of Manny and Papa together sh
owed the boys as teenagers, and in one of them, they stood with their arms around Gabe, all three of them displaying wide grins for the camera.
Other photos of nature scenes were good enough to be the work of a professional photographer. There were beautiful shots of the areas around Deer Lake, the Blue Bergeron River, and the farm's riding trails. There was another photo of Manny's brother at the lake with his arm around Missy, a beautiful girl with blue eyes and dark hair. I thought that they both looked to be about nineteen or twenty years old.
The first time Ant and I cleaned Manny's apartment, I was staring at the photos when Manny walked up behind me. He was proud to share his memories with Ant and me, and told us stories to go along with some of the pictures. As I listened to him talk, I could tell how much he loved and missed his parents. He saw them only once a year when he took a two-week vacation in Mexico.
Manny told us how Papa and he used to run together as teens and get into a little mischief. I asked him to be specific, but he just winked and said that Papa would have to give permission to discuss classified information.
"Yeah, Manny, I bet you have good blackmail material on Papa, don't you?" I thought it would be nice to have something on Papa from when he was a kid.
Manny shook his finger at me and grinned. "Only the kind that would incriminate me. So forget it, little one."
"Why do you call me 'little one,' when I'm as tall as you?" I joked. Manny was at least two inches taller than I was, but I stood on my toes when I challenged him.
Ant teased me with a common jab for boys our age. "Manny calls you 'little one' cause you only got six hairs that ain't on yo head."
I turned on Ant, and he immediately regretted his remark. "That's six more than you got."
"Okay, RB, I give."
Manny laughed and touched a picture of his brother and him." You boys remind me of how I used to joke with Gabe, and how he would come back with something that only he knew about me."
"What was he like?" I asked.
"His real name was Gabriel. He had always been a good boy, and he was growing into a fine man when he passed. He was adventurous, full of energy, and always smiling. He loved the outdoors and liked to explore the property. One time when he was a little younger than you boys, we missed him and thought he was lost in the woods. Everyone went looking for him, and we found out that he was not lost, he was just exploring and didn't want to come home."
Ant pointed to Gabe in the picture that showed him with Papa and Manny. "He looks tall and built. Did he play sports?"
Manny nodded. "Yes, he played high school football for Harper Springs. He started playing wide receiver and ended up as quarterback. He played for the last state championship team the school had when he was a senior in 1984."
"Did he play in college?" I asked.
"No, he had surgery on his knee after the title game, and his doctor said it might not hold up to play college ball. Gabe was ready to quit anyway. He liked playing for the Hawks, but he hated the idea of college football being a full-time job."
"Didn't Papa's team win the state championship his senior season too?"
"Yeah, that was the 1977 season, I think. Papa taught Gabe a lot about football."
"It looks like Gabe's eyes were a babe-magnet chocolate color like River's," said Ant.
Manny nodded. "The same kind of girl is after River too."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"When she was young, Carlee's mother took riding lessons here because she had a crush on Gabe, but he fell for an Ackers State student, named Missy. Missy hired Gabe to guide her through the remote parts of the county because she was into nature photography. Sometimes they rode the horse trails, and other times, they took canoe rides down the Blue Bergeron. Right away, they fell in love. Anyway, Bill Summers tried his best to get Beth to go out with him, but she kept waiting for Gabe, who only wanted Missy. It was a real mess."
I remembered my conversation with Carlee. "Carlee told me that her mother took lessons out here to see a guy, but I didn't know it was your little brother. That's wild." I looked again at a picture of Missy and Gabe. "Missy was hot."
"She was a very pretty girl," agreed Manny. "After Gabe died, Missy never came out here again. I tried to locate her through the school, but all they said was that she withdrew. I had no way to check on her. I often wonder what she did with her life."
I hesitated asking, but I really wanted to know. "Do you mind saying what happened to Gabe?"
"No, I don't mind. Not long after his twentieth birthday, he went camping alone for a few days. I believe he needed time to sort out his feelings for Missy. That's just a guess because Gabe could be very private."
"Girls can make you crazy," I said. "It was probably a tough time for him."
"I think so. Anyway, he went camping near the river. When he didn't return, we went after him and found that he had been shot in the chest. He was unconscious and never woke up. He died in the ER. The cops never did determine who fired the shot, but their best guess was that Gabe was hit with a stray bullet from a trespasser who probably never knew where that bullet went. At the time, we had a problem with people illegally hunting deer on Long property so that was the logical conclusion by the cops."
"I'm sorry, Manny," I said. "That's a crappy thing to happen to a good guy. You don't sound like you believe the cops."
"I can't afford a slander lawsuit, so keep this between us. You can't ever tell Carlee."
"Yes, sir. We won't say a word."
"I suspected that Big Bill shot him or had him shot to eliminate the competition for Beth even though Gabe only wanted Missy. Bill is not a man who takes rejection well, and if he wants something bad enough, he doesn't care what he has to do to get it. He came out here once and offered Gabe money to drive Beth away."
"Wow. What happened?" asked Ant.
"Gabe told Bill to kiss his ass, and Papa had to ask Bill to leave the property before there was a fight. Papa and Bill used to have a friendly relationship, but now they just tolerate each other. The only times they see each other anymore are situations like Carlee's party, something the booster club is doing, or a council meeting."
"Mr. Summers sounds like a nut,” said Ant.
Manny agreed. "Bill and Sam, his younger brother, both have loose screws in my opinion, and I'm not sure which one hated Gabe more. Sam played football with Gabe and blamed my brother for a freak collision during practice that tore up Sam's shoulder and caused him to miss the rest of the season. Sam was always trying to outdo his big brother. They both played football, but Sam was never as good as Bill. Even now, he's not half the businessman that Bill is. I don't think he stays sober long enough."
Ant interrupted. "Sounds like Sam washes down his sour grapes with booze. I can tell you from watching my family that booze and drugs don't put you nowhere but down."
"About Gabe's death, I know it was probably an accident," said Manny. "Maybe it's easier for me to have someone to blame."
Manny looked so sad to me. "Manny, I wish I could do more than tell you I'm sorry."
His voice grew emotional. "Thanks. I loved having a little brother, and Gabe was the best. Having you guys here reminds me of how much he livened up the place."
I studied one of the photos of Manny with his arm around a grinning Gabe with Deer Lake in the background. I wondered what Gabe would have done with his life if he had lived.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
August 2001
Harper Springs High School was a football power during much of the seventies and eighties when they were regular competitors in the state playoffs. The Hawks won their last state championship in 1984 when Gabe Flores played. They remained competitive for a few years afterwards, but they slowly slipped into mediocrity and playoff appearances became rare. After many coaches failed in their efforts to rebuild the program, Harper Springs finally had the coach everyone believed could bring the glory back to Hawks football.
In his first season, Head Coach Steve Haney guided
the team to the playoffs for the first time in six years, and there were high expectations for his second season at the helm of the Hawks. In addition to having some quality starters returning, Coach Haney added Ant, Max, Gary, and me from the undefeated junior high team. The coach wouldn't say how much varsity playing time, if any, that we freshman would see, but I knew that there was fan pressure on Coach Haney to play me in our first game.
After my eighth grade year, I was a celebrity in our football crazy town. As a fourteen-year-old high school freshman, I was nervous to know that some college recruiters were already discussing me as a once in a lifetime player before I had appeared a single high school varsity game.
Even though I had a great season playing for my junior high team and had broken most of the quarterback records for the conference, I was a kid without the kind of experience that I needed to start at varsity quarterback, and no one understood that better than I did. I wanted to play, but I thought that I should gain experience by playing in games when we led by a large margin. I knew that Coach Haney would use every opportunity he could to help me gain experience and confidence, and I certainly didn't want to play too soon and embarrass myself.
Our new high school, which had been open for two years, was large in terms of both physical size and attendance. The local government and residents were proud of the new school and the first class athletic facilities, but they were nervous about the amount of debt left after state and federal aid was stretched as far as it would go. Each fundraising event was critical to maintain the school's athletic programs.
The last Saturday in August was Fan and Media Day for the Harper Springs High School football team. It was organized by Coach Haney, Principal Wilson, and the Harper Springs High School Booster Club. The goal was not only to allow the fans and media unusual access to the players and coaches but also to create excitement that would help generate money for the Hawks' program.
My Name Is River Blue Page 22