by J. D. Oliver
A clap of thunder shook the room. Alita whimpered and buried her face in her mother’s bosom. Rosie scrunched up tight against them both.
“Wow! That’s sure a humdinger out there, isn’t it?” Rosie said, in a high falsetto.
“Nothing to worry about,” I said. “I was just talking to him, he’s just trying to make a point.”
Faith turned her head and said to me, “What in the world are you talking about?”
“I just had a dream is all, it must have been due to the thunder, my dream that is. Nothing important, you know how dreams are?”
“Well I know how mine are, but yours must be something else, talking to the thunder!” Faith said.
“Well I really wasn’t talking to the thunder, I was talking to a hill, his voice was like thunder.” I said.
“Talking to a hill, are you sure it wasn’t’ a mountain, that thunder sounds a lot louder than just a hill talking.” Rosie said.
“Oh, you believe me then?” I said.
“Of course I do, Dad.” She said, “I know you could never lie.”
I thought to myself, she called me Dad! That sounded sort of nice. “You’re right Rosie, I wasn’t lying; in my dream I was talking to a hill that stood up. He was about two hundred feet tall, he called me by name, it was quite life like,” I said.
“I talked to a hill once,” Rosie said, “only it wasn’t in a dream, it was an actual hill, it was whispering to me, only thing was I couldn’t make out what it was saying, I asked it to repeat what it said, but it wouldn’t.”
“That’s strange, the hill spoke to me in a whisper first, I thought it was the wind, so I ignored it, but then it shook itself and stood up and called me by name.” I said.
“You two are getting weird,” Faith said, “go to sleep both of you. Alita is already back to sleep.”
“Okay, I see you don’t believe us, next time I talk to him you can join me.” I said.
“Oh yeah, right, I can join you in your dream? I have never known two people to share a dream at the same time, have you?” Faith said.
Rosie said, “Oh,Oh,Oh, I want to join you both, don’t forget me please, next time take me too?”
“You got it, Rosie,” I said, “let’s go to sleep, before Mom spanks us both.”
Faith whispered in my ear, “You wish.”
Yeah, I did wish, but when you have two children in bed with you, wishing didn’t amount to a hill of beans. But I did cuddle up tight against my wife, that was nice.
The next morning as we were eating breakfast in the Café, Cort came in and sat down with us. “Boy that was quite a storm last night, the lighting hit a church steeple over on Oak Street. Burnt the whole church down. And Oh yeah, that Dipper Tick and his friend made bail early this morning. So that’s twice they have made bail. But I think they just jumped that bail; I seen them fogging it out of town just now. I didn’t follow them, I could care less. Did put out an APB on them though.”
“Did you see which way they went?” I asked.
“Yeah, north, I don’t think they were heading for L.A., but I could be wrong.” Cort said.
“I think you’re right. They weren’t going back to California; wouldn’t surprise me if they weren’t heading for Montana.” I said.
“Montana? Why in the world would they go there?” Cort asked.
“Because that’s where Charles and Edith Hester are from, I think old Dipper is still after those mineral rights to his Spanish Land Grant.”
“Have the Hesters left for home yet?” Cort asked.
“Nope, not since I see them setting over there in the corner.” I said.
“Perhaps one of us should warn them” Cort said.
“Well, I reckon one of us should. But since I’ve already told them to watch their backs, perhaps you should take on that task?” I said. “And if I were you I would emphasize that Dipper and Delbert aren’t above committing murder to get what they want.” Cort got up and went over to do his duty.
The Hesters packed and left that day. Now me, I’m a worrier, if there’s nothing to worry about, well I’ll just poke around till I find something. I got to worrying about the Hesters. Damn, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Now I knew old Dipper wouldn’t be able to get on a plane, not with that APB out on him, but he could just drive. Of course it would take him a couple of days to get there; probably have to detour around some towns and such. So I figured I had about two to three days to get there myself.
We also left for home that same afternoon. We called and let them know we was coming. Felicia was real glad when she heard about Rosie, said she’d have an extra room made up for her. But I told her that Rosie would bunk in with Alita. Faith was driving while I was on the cell phone, I added, “Would you have Miguel service and check over my plane, I have a flight to make.” Felicia said she would and she didn’t even ask where I was going. But my wife did, as she looked at me sharply and swerved the Durango a little.
“Where in the hell do you think you’re going? And wherever it is, you’re not going without us!”
I thought fast and changed one little thing about my plans, “Of course I wouldn’t go anywhere without you, or the children. But as to where, the Hesters. I think they might need a little help, they’re a nice old couple. I would hate to see them murdered.”
“You didn’t say where, I forgot where they were from?” Faith said.
“In the middle of Montana; the Judith Basin. I think the nearest airport is in Lewistown.” I said.
“You know of course, that it is none of your business?” Faith said.
“Yeah, I know, but what about you, what would you do?” I said.
She thought about it, I could almost see her gears turning over, “I would do,.. the same as you,… of course.” And she paused at each one of the commas.
“Good, I have Charles’ cell phone number, I’m going to call him and tell him to meet us. I’m not sure that Lewistown has rental cars or not. I think they do, but I was a little kid the last time I was there.” I called them, they must have been in a dead zone, I got his answer recording. Told him to call me when they got home.
It was just coming on to supper time when we pulled into the ranch yard. Dad and Felicia were rocking on the front veranda. Jake and Alona were still out doing the evening chores. But Miguel and Ester came out of the house, along with some of their children.
Rosie’s eyes were sparkling. It didn’t take long before Rosie was running around with the other children. Alita tried to get down to join them.
My cell phone rang, it was Charles Hester. I told him the whole story and then: “I was planning on flying up there and give you a hand on this.”
His answer: “We would be glad to see you, but I think we can handle this. But what you could do is send me a picture of those two yahoos. The Sheriff is a friend of mine. Also, the hands on my ranch are always packing, if you know what I mean. If they show up out here we take care of our own problems. Again, if you know what I mean.”
I did. After I got off the phone with him, I called Cort. Cort e-mailed the Fergus County Sheriff pictures of Dipper and Delbert.
I hoped Charles knew what he was doing. I also hoped we knew what we were doing; but really does anyone know the right thing to do all of the time? I didn’t think so.
Most of the time we make decisions and hope for the best.
After supper that night, the whole family was setting around drinking their coffee and discussing the happenings of the last week or so.
Jake came up with an idea, that none of us had thought of: “Why don’t we just drill for oil ourselves?” He said.
That took everyone by surprise a little bit. Alona added. “Yes, you know I learned in school that drilling for oil doesn’t have to harm the environment. If it is done in the proper way and care is taken. And what is disturbed is restored.”
“Yes,” Jake said. “Most of the damage that is done, is done because of greed and speed.”
I think I had been under
estimating my little brother, as well as Alona. Faith spoke up, “We could start our own oil company, drilling company anyway?” She sort put it out there like a question. Felicia picked it up.
“Where could we find people who know how to drill for oil, without damage?”
“What about at the College’s? Dad said, “You know everyone, well not everyone, but a lot of the university’s are thinking ‘green’ these days.”
“Yeah the Geologists, but what about the ‘roughnecks’, the guys who actually do the work? Where do we find those who have experience and also who think ‘green’.” I said.
“We talk to them.” Faith said. “I mean we go where they are drilling for oil and scout them out. I’m sure there are some who don’t like sloppy drilling practices.”
I said, “I think I know where there is a lot of drilling going on, and a lot more to be done. That’s on the Oil Shale deposits in eastern Montana and western North Dakota.
“Yes,” Dad said, “I heard on the news just the other day that they have developed new technologies to recover that oil. And in order to get to that oil, they have to do it economically, that means they can’t be sloppy and wasteful.”
“Okay then, we are all agreed; we’re going to beat the big oil company’s at their own game?” I said. The vote went around the room, everyone raised their hands, even Rosie and Alita.
Alona raised her hand again, “but one thing; just us alone won’t be able to get this going like it should. We need to get the other Spanish Land Grants on board, anyway those who haven’t sold their saddles.”
“Uh, one other thing,” Felicia said, “how do we know there is oil under our land?”
“That is a good question,” I said, “I don’t think these oil company’s would be so hot to get these mineral rights, if they didn’t already believe there is oil here.” I looked at Felicia, “Have you ever noticed anybody strange on your land?”
“I don’t think so, wait, there was some college people that wanted to check all of our ponds and streams for some endangered species. I told them they could go ahead and look and I did see them all over the place. That was about six months ago.”
“Well there you go, that was oil people, I bet. Did they ever do any seismic readings? Did you hear any explosions, or anything? I said.
“No, not really.” Felicia said.
Jake spoke up, “Maybe they have some other way of doing that now, dynamite is a little archaic isn’t it?”
“I don’t know, I’m not a seismologist or a geologist. They probably do.” I said.
Dad said, “So, you haven’t told us the details on all of your adventures since you two went to Santa Fe?” Why he changed the subject, I don’t know.
“Well, you’ve been watching the news I take it? Anyway, you seen what happened on the highway up there. We got there just at the right time, for Officer Holden anyway. And then of course, it seems they liked the way I handled that, they made me a Special Agent for the state. Here, see the badge and I.D.” I passed it around, and then went on, “And, we stopped a pickpocket team. As a result of that the pickpockets had it in for me and they tried to kill me, but ended up killing themselves.” I raised my shirt to show the bandage, “but they did manage to ventilate my hide, but my beautiful wife saved my life. That’s about it,” I said.
“He just hit the highlights,” Faith said, “I’ll fill you all in on the details in the morning, the children are tired and I have to change that dressing on Clay’s side, I don’t want it to get infected.” With that the meeting broke up, Faith picked up Alita and Rosie came over and put her arm around me, we excused ourselves.
The next morning when I woke up I was alone in bed. I looked at the bedside clock, it was past ten. I must have been tired. My feet had just hit the floor when Faith came in. “How are you feeling this morning, does your side hurt?” She said.
“Not as much as my bladder, stand back, if you don’t want to see Niagara Falls.” I said, as I padded to the bathroom, she was right behind me, I lifted the seat and cut loose. “It’s a good thing that I don’t have a shy kidney,” I said, glancing at my wife standing there smiling.
“Well, be that as it may, but you had better be careful with your aim, or you’ll be mopping the floor.” She said, as she put her hand on mine and corrected the aim. I was more than a little bit embarrassed. But grateful too, because I sure didn’t want to mop the floor. When I finished she said,
“Stand there, I want to change your bandage again,” then she jerked the old one off. “Owe!” I said, she poked around on it, “There’s a little red area here, stand in the tub, I’m going to pour Hydrogen Peroxide on it.” And she did….. when I stopped yelling she said, “Oh, quit being a big baby, come on, get dressed, I saved some breakfast for you.”
She went back in the bedroom and laid my clothes out. I came up beside her, she turned and bumped into me, I grabbed her, my breakfast really got cold.
We let the idea of starting our own oil company jell for a few days. A lot of time an idea might sound pretty good one day and not the next. For one thing it sounded like it would be a hell of a lot of work, did we want to get tied up like that?
Dad and I were working with a couple of colts, getting them used to having something on their backs, when Dad said, “Clay, I’m not too sure about this oil thing. Felicia and I were talking last night. We wouldn’t mind finding out if there is oil here. But we don’t want to get tied up with our own oil company. If we could get some wildcat operator to work with us on shares, we’d probably do that.”
“I think you’re right Dad, Faith and I were of the same mind. Even though we don’t have a stake in this ranch, we sort of feel like we’re part of it.”
“Well, you do have a stake in this place, Felicia redid her will, we’re all part of it. I wanted her to wait awhile before she done it, to make sure that’s the way she felt, but she said she was sure. She said as iffy as life was these days, she didn’t want to put it off.
I tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted.”
“Yeah, some people might think we were taking advantage of her, and that sure ain’t the case. But it sure looks that way don’t it?” I said.
“Yes, it does. And that bothers me. Shit, a little over a month ago, we didn’t even know this place existed. Felicia and I have been doing a lot of talking. Turns out, she said that she had been praying for a miracle, and then in we flew, three men for three lonely women. Don’t that beat all!” Dad said.
“Yeah, just like that engine acting up, and then we couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Could be some higher power had a hand in it. One never knows.” I said.
“So,” I added, “Does she want us to look for an independent driller?”
“I think so, I told her I would talk to you, to find out what you thought. I’ll tell her what you said, and let you know in the morning. I suppose I had better talk to Alona and Jake, they’re part of this deal too.”
Dad left me to deal with the Colts, one was sure a handful. I snubbed him uptight to the hitching post in the middle of the round corral. Then I talked real slow and easy to him, he started to quiet down. I rubbed him all over; to get him used to being touched. Now horses are a lot like people, you approach them the right way and you can do most anything with them. I told him I wouldn’t get physical with him if he wouldn’t get physical with me. We came to an amicable agreement: I’d go slow in getting that saddle on him and he wouldn’t kick my lights out. Besides, I didn’t want that wound in my side to start bleeding again, Faith would have my hide.
I turned around, Faith, Rosie and little Alita were setting on the corral rails watching me. Alita was sitting up there a big as you please, between Rosie and Faith, of course Faith had one arm around her. Rosie said,
“Can I help, I like horses, I think they like me too.”
“Sure, hop on down here, and I’ll introduce the two of you.” Rosie got down, I loosed the rope a little to give the colt a little breathing room, he se
emed quiet enough. As Rosie came up the colt turned his head and sniffed her, then he nickered softly. Rosie held the back of her hand to his nose. I seen the expression in his eyes soften. I gave him more slack.
Rosie was rubbing behind his ears, the next thing I knew she grabbed a hunk of mane and swung up on his back; he just danced a little. Rosie leaned forward over his neck and whispered something to him. I’ll be damned if it didn’t look like he smiled.
I took my rope off of him, Rosie gave him a little knee pressure and they were walking around the corral. I reckon Rosie had herself a horse.
Rosie said, “Can we go for a ride?”
“We, who’s we?” I said.
“Wind Walker and me?”
“Oh, you’ve already named him?” I said.
“Well, he is an Appaloosa and he said he can run as fast as the wind.” Rosie said.
I looked over at Faith, she nodded. “Okay, but don’t go too far, lunch is about ready,” she said.
I opened the corral gate, they trotted out. Rosie still had a hold of his mane, otherwise she was just guiding him with knee pressure. Where she learned to do that, I wouldn’t know. I didn’t think she had ever been around horses before.
Felicia had come up to the corral as all of this was going on, she said, “She is a Caballo Espiritu Jinete. My Father told me that my Great Grandmother was one, also.”
“A what?” I said.
“A horse spirit rider. Or just a spirit rider. They call them a spirit rider, because their spirit and the horse’s spirit are one. They are very rare, you a very fortunate to have her as a daughter.”
Rosie came trotting back, “Can Alita come with me?” She asked.
Faith looked at Felicia, Felicia nodded. “Yes, I guess so, just be careful.” Faith said.
“I will be, she can sit in front of me, I will hold onto her. Windy is the one that thought of taking her along, he likes kids.” Rosie said.
I looked at Faith, she looked back at me. She said, “One never knows what one gets when the bones are tossed, do they?” I just nodded. Bones? I’ve heard of tossing dice, but wait, Oh yeah, in the Bible they tossed ‘bones’. I didn’t know my wife was a Bible reader.