Chapter 4

I didn't get around to moving any of the water pipe that afternoon like I had planned on doing. It was just coming up on getting dark, and I was sitting quietly outside on my porch, trying to regain some of the strength that Dru had drained from me. I had been resting myself for an hour or more, and was fully absorbed in a quiet contemplation, and, if I'm to be honest, a grateful remembrance too, of that afternoon's unexpected delights. My reverie was broken when I chanced to look up, very suddenly, only to see four Apache boys, just standing there and staring at me from no more than six feet away.

I sincerely believe that this ability to sneak up on people might be another reason why Indians have been treated so poorly in this country. It is very difficult for normal folks to get accustomed to looking up and finding a group of totally unexpected people just standing there, right in front of you, or even worse, close behind you, when you didn't hear them and had no idea that they were approaching. This might be even more true if these people are well within range to take your scalp if they were of a mind to. While I've always been somewhat proud of my own calm demeanor, I must confess that the sight of all of them being there, so sudden like, and completely unexpected, well it did cause me a moment's pause.

When the hog leg that I had strapped to my leg, got somehow jammed against my finger, and had the hammer pulled and tripped accidentally, as I jumped sprightly to my feet, I'm not sure who got more excited, me or the other three of them that hadn't wet themselves. I believe that it was a safe assumption that the one who did void his bladder was obviously more excited than all of the rest of us. This was not as auspicious a first meeting with some of my new hands as I might have hoped for.

"Lord preserve me! What were you boys thinking with to try sneaking up on a fella like that? I'm glad that I was able to stop myself in time from blowing all of your fool heads right off."

"Skittish ain't ya?" This was from the taller of the four. He looked about my height, but skinnier than me, and he had hair down past his shoulders. He was about my age at that time, twenty one or so.

"Don't tell me that you boys are all finished up after only half a day of work time? Well, I guess it will take you awhile before you settle in and learn how to do a whole day's work. We'll just pretend that it's Sunday today, and that you're only supposed to work a half day. Which one of you is in charge? I like to only have to deal with the top hand. Otherwise I don't get my own stuff done. What's your name boy?" I was pointing at the one who had spoken to me earlier.

"Danny Gomez, what's yours?" He was a bold one all right. He put me a little bit in mind of Humberto. It seemed like both he and Humberto thought they were some little bit better than the rest of us. I'd never liked that in my Mexicans, and I sure wouldn't like it from any Indian.

"Gomez huh? That's a good touch coming up with a Mexican name like that. Look here Danny, I'm of a mind to appoint you as the temporary top hand here. Pay is the same, of course, but you get to set up all the work duties and the living assignments. If you do a good job, we could maybe make it a permanent thing. Might come in handy some day, telling someone that you were the top hand out on the Gardner Ranch. That's me, by the way, Jay Gardner. You can call me Mr. Gardner, at least until we get more comfortable with each other."

"Miguelito said you were going to feed us, give us all a gun and some bullets, and some blankets for when we sleep in your stable."

"Did you check there in the corral to see if there aren't some saddle blankets that you can use? I've got a gun for each of you, and I'll give you each a box of bullets, but don't be firing them all up for foolishness, because they're expensive to replace, and it will come out of your pay."

"We're hungry. What about some food?"

"You come with me. The rest of you go over to the main corral. Tell that boy who pissed himself to get washed up before he smells up one of my stalls in there. Horses aren't partial to any piss smell that isn't their own." I turned and went inside, not bothering to make sure that my new top hand was following. He could either follow or he could go hungry. It was all the same to me. He followed. I noticed him looking at that case of rifles that I'd drug in earlier. He was also sniffing at the air in the room. I think it probably still smelled of Dru and I, but he was damn impolite to go carrying on about it like he did. He was also looking at the big pot of stew that I had simmering on my stove. He didn't say anything, so I started liking him again. I appreciated quiet people more than most.

I took him into the back of the house and showed him where I kept all of the food supplies. Right off, first thing, he grabbed for some beans and some fat back that I had left out. He got himself some flour, and then he looked at me when he put his eyes on my little bag of coffee beans. "Okay to get some of this coffee?"

"You'll have to boil it in a pan, I've only got the one pot and that stays right here with me."

"You got a grinder?"

"You can use mine, but it stays here too. You like salt? It's in that bag behind you. Take some if you want. I got some of that rice if you like to eat Mexican. There's tomatoes and onions growing out back behind the ranch house. Don't mess with more than one of my eggs, and leave all of my chickens alone unless I say that you can have one."

He grabbed a few chiles and spices, and then looked around at some of my other things, but I guess he decided that he had enough to do him for right then. As he started back outside, he said that he'd send one of the other hands up for the four rifles and the four boxes of bullets. He paused at my door and took a slow and careful look at my stew simmering there so nicely. "I think them socks of yours are just about ready to be hung up to dry." I knew that he and I were going to have our problems, and I wondered if he was maybe kin to Miguelito. After he left, I set four rifles and the ammo outside on my porch. I had a canvas bag with gun cleaning materials and oil, and I set it down next to the rifles.

Now that it was looking like I wouldn't be making lots of money from selling water for the Lyons herd, and also seeming like I wouldn't be needing my well armed Indian army to protect my water rights from intruders, I was left wondering what the hell I needed with a whole passel of wild and hungry reservation Apache's. I had enough money put away that I could see whether this new situation would work out or not though, besides, I'd really been paying all of my Mexican hands thirty dollars a month each plus their found. All it was really costing me extra was whatever them extra three hands would be eating.

I went to sleep that night and had myself some very sweet dreams about Drucilla and I laying in that big tin bathtub, the water right up to our necks, and enjoying ourselves as we were getting each other nice and clean. I had a full blown morning erection when I woke up and started hurrying over for the piss pot that I kept off in the far corner, away from everything else. I had just started using it when I heard a soft and girlish giggle behind me. I sleep in the raw all nights, unless it's just too damn cold for me to do it. It hadn't been cold the night before. I turned to look at who might be giggling at me while I emptied my bladder and saw this girl that looked about fifteen or so. She had some cute little breasts on her, so I knew that she probably wasn't much younger than fifteen. She was an Indian girl, and she was awfully cute too.

"Grandpa, he's up, but I don't think he was expecting company for breakfast." She turned back to my stove, and that's when I smelled fresh bread baking in the oven. I finished up what I'd been doing, and then walked past her, walking proud, and as naked as can be, until I got outside on my porch and was able to empty the pot into the slop bucket that I kept out there near the porch. Miguelito was sitting in the chair that I keep out there on my porch, and he didn't say a word as I pushed by him and emptied out my jar. I walked right past him again on my way back inside my house and went over to the bed to get into my clothes. I took my time getting dressed, but, inside, I was fuming with embarrassment. It's really hard to look or feel very dignified when you're stark assed naked, especially with strangers.

"I thought I'd bring my granddaughter up here to teach you how to make bread, boy, but I didn't expect that you'd be giving her some lessons in human anatomy too." Miguelito was sitting out on the porch with Juana, his granddaughter, and I. We were eating a very satisfying meal together. He had eaten a whole loaf of bread, three big pans full of my horse stew, and had drowned himself in my coffee. For being as old and skinny as he was, he sure could pack the grub away. He had taken the rifle and the box of ammunition that I'd handed him, and had casually set it aside as soon as Juana had announced that the bread was ready to eat. Miguelito was also partial to Aunt Persis's strawberry preserves, ladling out big spoonfuls of them on each piece of bread that he tore off of the loaf. I had gotten out the rest of the rifles and ammo for the other four hands that he told me were already hard at work. Juana had said nothing else since speaking to Miguelito to tell him that the bread was ready.

"How old is she?" Juana looked up from her tin plate of stew when I asked Miguelito that question about her.