Once in a Blue Moon

by Sharon Sala

Moses shrugged. “Someone might show up looking for them tomorrow.”

  J.B. nodded. “Yeah, we’ll wait and see.”

  “Right. We’ll wait and see,” Moses said.

  * * *

  They kept them four days, then hauled them to a different auction house in a different county and came home with more money than they’d ever had at once.

  After that, their consciences no longer bothered them like they had before, and they began looking for easy marks.

  It was Moses who remembered that the Talbot property butted up to Old Man Bailey’s place, and it was Moses who also knew the old man was in a nursing home.

  They scouted the place out one day, just to see if they could see any cattle in the Talbot pasture, and saw nice ones that would bring a good price.

  Before, they’d just been availing themselves of wandering cattle, so this was their first venture into outright rustling. They were going onto other people’s property, cutting fences, and stealing livestock.

  “If we get ourselves a good load, then we won’t have to do this anymore,” Moses said.

  “What do you mean?” J.B. asked.

  “Well, with what we already have, and what we’ll get from a big haul, we’ll be sittin’ pretty come winter when the work dries up,” Moses explained.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” J.B. said. “When do you want to do it?”

  “I say let’s come back here just before sunup. The cattle will come up for feed, and we’ll get what we want and be gone before either one of the Talbots even gets out of bed.”

  J.B. grinned. “Good thinking, Moses.”

  * * *

  They made a quick run to a nearby town to get a couple of sacks of cattle cubes, and then went home for the day. Before sunrise the next morning they were ready.

  It wasn’t all that far to the old Bailey place from where they lived, and they were there within fifteen minutes. They followed their own tracks back through the overgrown pastures to the backside of the Talbot farm, then cut the fence and drove right out into the pasture, looking for the herd.

  They found them just over the hill from where they’d come in, still bedded down. But when the cows heard the pickup and the trailer rattling over the rough ground, they got up.

  Moses turned in a half circle so that they were now facing the cut fence for a quick exit, then got out and opened the back gate to the trailer.

  “Let’s get the feed,” Moses said, so they got a sack apiece, emptied them in a circle, and waited.

  The cattle came running, pushing and shoving a little to get to the cubes. The Gatlin brothers let them eat a little, and then J.B. got a cattle prod, and Moses had a pole. They got on either side of a couple of steers and just turned them around from where they were standing with the pole. Then with one poke of that prod, the first steer jumped forward right into the trailer and the other one followed. They got three head in the front half of the trailer, then shut that gate, and then took some of the feed and led two more inside. They didn’t know one of the cows they loaded up had a calf until it followed her inside and began to suck.

  “Score,” J.B. said, when he saw it.

  They shut the back gate and locked it, then took off for the truck and drove away, back through the fence they’d cut, and then through the Bailey property and back out on the road. They went straight to their place long enough to remove the ear tags from the cattle, then headed to the auction house J.B. had used when he sold that first cow.

  They left the auction house with over four thousand dollars and went straight to the bank in Savannah to deposit the money into the account they’d opened after their second sale. The people there didn’t know them as anything other than cattle jockeys—men who bought and sold cattle for a living—and thought nothing of it, and after the account had been opened, the brothers made a point of depositing all of their money from odd jobs there as well.

  It made them feel like regular people to have a bank account, and adding in the little dabs of legal earnings to go with the rustling business made them feel better. They’d almost convinced themselves that making a deposit with legal money canceled out the money they’d made from selling stolen property.

  “This was our last run,” Moses said.

  “Yeah, I remember,” J.B. said.

  “And we’re not doing this again,” Moses added.

  J.B. shrugged. “Whatever you say.”

  Once they got home, they washed the fresh cow poop out of the trailer, then took it to the barn. Just for good measure, they sprinkled some dry dirt into the trailer bed, then filled it up with junk and old wire from inside the barn to make it look like it hadn’t been used in ages, and dragged it out into the weeds behind the barn and left it there. The next morning they drove into Savannah to pick up some much-needed supplies.

  They didn’t know Jack Talbot had already found the broken fence, but they wouldn’t have cared. As far as they were concerned, they’d gotten away unseen, the cattle were sold, and that was the end of that.

  * * *

  Duke was on his way home when his phone rang, and when he saw Jack’s name pop up in caller ID, he knew his brother was checking on him. He answered, then put it on speaker and kept driving.

  “Hello.”

  “Are you okay?” Jack asked.

  “I’m fine. I’m almost home,” Duke said.

  “Well, okay then. I was getting worried. Didn’t think you’d be gone this long and—”

  “Yeah. Kinda got caught up in a little incident in Blessings and wound up taking a lady to the ER.”

  “Oh hell, did you have a wreck?”

  “No, nothing like that. I just happened to witness her take a bad fall, and then Lon showed up and escorted us to the ER. I went to get a haircut after that, and then Hope called Ruby looking for someone to take the lady home. I was getting ready to leave, and I’d already taken her to the ER, so I thought I might as well offer to take her home. And that’s where I’ve been.”

  “Oh wow! That sounds serious. Who was it who fell?”

  “Her name is Cathy Terry. She’s new to Blessings.”

  There was a long moment of silence—enough that Duke thought they’d been disconnected.

  “Jack? Are you still there?”

  “Uh, yeah…I was just…I was just surprised you went to all that trouble for a woman you didn’t know.”

  Duke was floored. He didn’t even know how to respond.

  Jack waited. “Duke?”

  “I’m here.”

  “What’s wrong?” Jack asked.

  Duke sighed. “Is that what you guys really think about me? That I’m too self-absorbed to help a woman in need? Any woman? Even a stranger?”

  “No, brother, no…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound that way. Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t meant to hurt your feelings.”

  Duke was still in shock, but he laughed it off.

  “You didn’t hurt my feelings. So did you get the cattle fed this morning?”

  “Yes, but there was fence down in the back pasture. I came home to get wire stretchers and some stuff to go fix it, but the wire looked cut, not broken.”

  Duke frowned. “Do we have any cattle missing?”

  “Well damn, I didn’t think to check,” Jack said. “I’ll go—”

  “Just wait for me to get home and change, and I’ll go with you,” Duke said.

  The brothers disconnected, and by the time Duke got home, the topic of conversation had become the fence. Duke changed into work clothes, put on his old denim jacket, and started out the door, then stopped and went back inside. When he came out carrying a rifle, Jack was shocked.

  “What’s that for?” he asked.

  “If the fence was cut, someone was up to no good. If we’re missing cattle, then we’re dealing with thieves. I’m just being cauti
ous.”

  Jack eyed his older brother with renewed respect.

  “That’s something I should have thought of, too. It’s a good thing we’re in this together. I don’t know how Mom and Dad did this on their own when we were kids. It takes the both of us…two grown men, to keep this place running.”

  “You forget that five years ago we added two hundred acres and thirty more head of cattle to go with the fifty-three we already had,” Duke said. “Get in. I’m driving.”

  Jack laughed as they both got in the old farm truck. He’d already loaded up the wire cutters, fence stretchers, and a roll of wire to repair the break.

  “You always do this so I have to get out to open gates.”

  “There has to be some kind of perk for being the oldest,” Duke said.

  He started up the truck and drove down to the barn to load up a few sacks of cattle cubes, then drove across a cattle guard, heading toward the fenced-off pastures beyond.

  “Where to first?” Jack asked.

  “I think the west field where the big herd is, just to make sure we don’t have any other fence down there. We can get a head count there before we go to the north side,” Duke said.

  “I don’t know for certain it was cut. It just looked like it,” Jack said.

  “If we’re missing any cattle there, then we’ll know for sure,” Duke said, as he pulled up and stopped. “First gate, little brother.”

  Jack jumped out and opened it, and as soon as Duke drove through, Jack fastened it shut and got back in the truck.

  A few minutes later they were driving the boundaries of the west pasture, and as they expected, the sound of the old truck brought the herd running.

  “I’ll spread the cubes. You drive,” Jack said. He got out again, but this time got up in the truck bed and opened the first sack. “Ready!” he yelled, and then braced himself as Duke started moving, pouring cattle cubes over the side of the truck, leaving a trail of them in the grass. Jack opened two more sacks and emptied them before he stopped, and by that time all the cattle were lined up and head down, eating.

  At that point, Duke got up in the back of the truck with Jack and they both began a head count.

  “I got fifty-three,” Duke said.

  “So did I,” Jack said. “That means they’re all here. Now on to the north pasture.”

  They got back in the truck, going through one more gate, then followed Jack’s tire tracks from before through the field.

  “What are you doing?” Jack asked. “It’s shorter if you cut across to—”

  “Just making sure I don’t mess up some kind of trail that thieves might have left,” Duke said.

  “Why would you think to do that?” Jack asked.

  “All those North Woods Law shows I watch, I guess,” Duke said.

  Jack grinned. “You do have a thing for them,” he said. “You know…when we were kids, nobody ever asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. It was just understood that we would take over the family farm.”

  “I know,” Duke said. “Did you ever want to do anything else?”

  “No. After Mom and Dad died in that accident, you stepped up big-time and got me through my last year of college. You knew I wanted to come home to work with Dad, and the family farm was still here when I graduated because of you. You used to talk about taking your degree and going to work for the National Park Service.”

  Duke was silent for a moment, and then he shook his head. “It was just talk. I didn’t want to lose the farm any more than you did, and we’re doing just fine.”

  Jack sighed. “You gave up a lot for me.”

  “I didn’t give up a thing. You and Hope are my family.”

  “And you put the farm and us ahead of every personal dream you might have had,” Jack said.

  Duke grinned. “Well, there were those few weeks when I thought Hope’s sister, Mercy, should just marry me and move into the house with us, and that would solve my single status.”

  Jack laughed. “Yeah, you had everything figured out except for the fact that you two could barely get along, never mind falling in love.”

  “It was a moment of madness,” Duke said. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, other than it was kind of like buying more cattle to add to the herd.”

  Jack burst out laughing. “Oh, my God, Duke. No wonder you’re still a bachelor. You’ve got to do something about that mindset. You’re still plenty young enough to get married and raise a family.”

  “I’ll leave the babies up to you and Hope,” Duke said. “And enough about orchestrating my future. Butting in is my forte, not yours.”

  Jack pointed to a section of fence up ahead. “That’s where the fence is down.”

  “Yes…I see it. Start watching for truck and trailer tracks. We should be coming up on the herd soon, and then we’ll get a head count here. I might have jumped the gun on thinking theft was involved, but better safe than sorry,” Duke said, and slowed down even more so they could watch for fresh tracks.

  A couple of minutes later, Duke noticed something up ahead and hit the brakes.

  “What do you see?” Jack asked.

  “Looks like someone put feed out here, but we don’t dump feed all in one spot like that. I want a closer look,” Duke said.

  He took the rifle with him as they got out, and even as he was walking up on the spot, he knew his fears were likely true. What remained to be seen was how many head of cattle the rustlers took.

  “Look! They even left two empty feed sacks behind,” Jack said.

  “Wait. I’m taking pictures,” Duke said, and snapped pictures of the trampled grass and the feed sacks before moving forward.

  “Duke! Look here. Footprints!”

  Duke ran over to where Jack was standing. “Boot prints, and there’s a weird line running through the heel on the left foot. I think it’s a big cut in the leather.” He squatted down and took a couple of pictures, and then suddenly stopped, took off one of his boots, and put it beside the footprint for size reference.

  “You are a size 13, so I’m saying that’s about a size 11 boot,” Jack said.

  “With a serious slash in the heel,” Duke added. “Wait here. I’m going back to get the truck, and then we’ll go find the herd. We need to know how many are gone before we call Sheriff Ryman.”

  “Dammit,” Jack said. “This makes me sick. Who would do such a thing?”

  “The Baileys own the land that butts up to our back fence, but nobody’s been living there since Mr. Bailey went into the nursing home, and that’s more than a year ago,” Duke said, and then ran back to get the truck.

  He drove way out around the site to pick Jack up.

  “I would have thought we’d already be seeing cattle,” Jack said as he got back in. “They usually hear us coming.”

  “Not if they’re all down at the south end,” Duke said, and headed that way.

  It wasn’t until they topped a small hill and started down to the grove of trees below that they saw the cattle grazing.

  “Stop and let me get in the back,” Jack said. “They’re going to come running when they see us.”

  Duke stopped again, and as soon as his brother Jack was back in the truck bed with another sack of cattle cubes, he started driving down the hill.

  When they got closer, Jack started pouring feed out over the side, leaving a trail behind them as they went, then emptied another feed sack before they stopped.

  Again, Duke got up in the back with him to count.

  “Well, hell. I only count twenty-four, and there should be thirty,” Duke said.

  Jack nodded. “I had the same count.”

  “So we’re short six head,” Duke said, and took out his phone. “I’m calling Sheriff Ryman. It’ll take us a bit to get back to the house, and if we’re lucky, we won’t have to wait all aftern
oon for someone to come out. I want to fix that break, but he needs to see it as is. Maybe we need to just move the herd into the east pasture and take away the convenience.”

  “The grass is short there,” Jack said.

  “So we’ll start feeding round bales a little sooner than planned. It’s better than losing more cattle,” Duke said.

  “Agreed. Get in,” Jack said. “I’ll drive back so you can talk.”

  “And get you out of gate duty?” Duke said.

  “Fair’s fair, brother,” Jack said, and jumped out of the truck bed and got in the driver’s seat.

  Duke was already reporting the theft as they drove away.

  * * *

  While Duke was dealing with cattle rustlers, Cathy had finally managed to get herself into the shower. She’d done exactly what they told her not to do and unwrapped her ankle, but she felt dirty and gritty, and a spit bath wasn’t going to suffice.

  She was exhausted and hurting by the time she was finished, but she was clean, and she had rewrapped her ankle.

  She rolled herself back into the kitchen, took a couple more painkillers, then went back to the living room and collapsed into the recliner. She got her foot up and was almost getting comfortable when someone knocked at her door.

  She groaned. Just when she was beginning to get easy. But before she could move, she heard a familiar voice.

  “Cathy, it’s me, Dan Amos. Are you there?”

  “I’m here. Give me a second,” she said.

  “I know you fell. I can let myself in if you’re okay with that,” he said.

  She was taken aback for a moment, and then realized that as the landlord, he had access to all of his rentals, and relaxed.

  “Yes, yes, come in.”

  She heard a key in the door, and then as the door swung inward, Dan and his wife came in.

  “We heard through the grapevine that you got hurt, and came to see if you needed any help,” Dan said. “And I don’t think you’ve met my wife, Alice.”

  “It’s a pleasure, Alice. Please, both of you have a seat,” Cathy said, pointing to the sofa nearest her chair, then eyeing the bandage on Dan’s hand. “Duke Talbot told me you came into the ER while he was waiting to bring me home. What happened to your hand?”