Chapter 29

I guess the old gal that owned the place was keeping an eye on me somehow, because as soon as we hit the cafe a waitress led us to a long table that was already setup with water and menus waiting on go, and the waitress seemed to be too.

We barely got our orders finished before the other waitress came out with the salads and bread to spread around. Our food started hitting the table before we were finished with our salads, and it kept coming until we surrendered.

After the meal we unhooked Boyd's truck from the horse trailer and he took off for home, with a five thousand dollar tip he was damned proud of. Randy and I hooked the trailer to the pickup I'd bought at the credit union and then unloaded the sixteen quarter-horses. Marilyn took over as soon as we'd get one out, leading it off the pavement and hobbling it out behind the lot.

The girls were thrilled to get a close up look at the horses and then asked right away if they were good to eat. Marilyn was pretty friendly with them by now and she spoke up.

"They aren't bad, but they're more useful to ride. We can eat one or two if you want to, but let's wait and see which ones give us trouble."

"They let you ride on back?" Louise asked, with her not quite right but improving fast English.

"Aháy," Marilyn replied, in her not quite as far along Caddoan, but it did make Louise, Helen, and Nancy smile.

Marilyn gave me a big surprise then, when she opened the front compartment door of the hourse trailer. I'd noticed that it was the type you usually saw at horse shows, with the small dressing room space in front, but I hadn't thought there would be anything in there. I was wrong, as I seemed to be a lot lately.

Marilyn had us come up and peek inside, one at a time. She introduced us to Geraldine, and Margie. They were German Sheppard mothers and at the moment they couldn't stand for a proper handshake greeting. Geraldine was nursing ten puppies and Margie was nursing eight. She did let Calvin and Dooder, two full-grown German Sheppard males, out of their traveling cages though, and she brought them outside to meet us.

"I figured if we were going to be living way back in the sticks we'd need some guard dogs," Marilyn said.

"I'm sure you're right," I said, just as the girls all started giggling.

I turned to see what was so funny and then laughed myself. Calvin and Dooder were getting a sniff of probably the first Indian pussy they'd ever run across.

I'm sure that Louise, Nancy, and Helen would have been upset if they hadn't already seen dogs, since they would have probably thought Calvin and Dooder were wolves, or at least close to it. They had seen other dogs before though, back during their travels with Carroll.

"I think we should pick out a male each to stay in our campers tonight," Marilyn said, "They're housebroken, and fairly well trained as watchdogs, but I don't think we should let them run loose in a new location on the first night."

"You're probably right about that. Well Louise, since you giggled first you get your choice," I said.

She considered carefully and picked Dooder, but I don't know how she'd be able to tell later, they seemed identical to me. We let them roam around and piss on things for a while, and Marilyn even let the females out for a potty break too. Of course the girls descended on the puppies when they saw their chance.

Actually, the pups were pretty far along, probably five weeks at least, and they were old enough to stand up and wobble around in the big cardboard boxes that were their current homes. Helen found out right away that their little teeth were very sharp too.

We spent the rest of the day, til nearly sunset, just walking around among the stuff, getting familiar with the dogs and even with the horses to some extent. I went over to the security trailer just before sunset, and let the guards take off.

Carl had already been told that this would be the last shift we needed, and Carroll knew to call him in the morning to get details to pay for the portable office and storage building that would not be where they were, or when they were at least. I'd decided I might as well keep them.

We went to the cafe for one last meal in this time and then everyone made their way to the campers for the night.

"Where Dooder sleep?" Louise asked, once we were inside.

"Anywhere you want him to, I guess," I said.

"We fix bed," she said, and then the three of them made Dooder a pallet beside our bed, as if he couldn't find his own place. It surprised me that he went right to it and lay down when they called him.

What the hell, it was a good idea, so I shucked my clothes, took a piss, and got in bed myself. The girls were right behind me.

I'm pretty sure I didn't even turn over once in my sleep all night. I woke a little before sunrise and it was because the bed moved when the girls got out. I just lay there and watched their round naked asses jiggling as they made their ways to the bathroom.

When they came back out to dress I took my turn and I knew right away that they were happy to be back, or at least I assumed we were back, and they probably knew from the view out of the bathroom window. Whatever caused it they were flying high and feeling mean this morning; every one of them pinched me on my naked ass as I headed in to shake the dew off my lily.

When I came out to dress they were gone already and after dragging on clothes and boots I went toward the kitchen. There was enough light by now to see out and the giant pines were a dead giveaway again. Dooder even gave me a little half bark as I left the bedroom.

"Carl, Dooder scratch door," Nancy said, when she saw me.

"He probably needs his own trip to the bathroom," I said, and headed for the door.

"Dooder use bathroom?" Helen asked.

"No, but he'll want to get to work watering those trees," I said, but since they weren't familiar with doggie behavior it went over there heads, surely I wasn't that unfunny.

Dooder did indeed go directly to the nearest tree and he must have been in serious need, because he barely gave it a sniff and then cut loose for the duration on just the one. Randy came out with Calvin before Dooder was finished with his business and Calvin went directly to work too.

"Damn, I see what you mean about the trees now," Randy said, mouth gaping and eyes wider than I'd ever seen them.

"No, you don't have any idea yet. They're like this everywhere, or even thicker in most places. I think whoever is doing this thinned them out around here for our convenience."

"Man, this is so hard to believe," he said.

"Who you tellin'? My first time I woke up almost right here, but with not one fuckin' bit of warnin'."

"What a trip," he said.

Louise stuck her head out the door then, calling me inside to eat, then she saw Randy.

"You breakfast Randy?" she asked.

"Naw, Marilyn is cooking already. She just sent me out to give Calvin a chance to take care of his potty break."

"Oh, ok. I know Bill breakfast, and it ready."

"See you in a bit, Randy. That's my cue."

Back inside I found out that buying wasn't all Carroll taught the girls to do. There was a big stack of cathead biscuits in the middle of the table, and after I sat down I went directly to work on one. Carroll had given them the master's course too; the biscuits were great.

It came to me then, as I took a forkful of scrambled eggs.

"Damn, we didn't get any chickens. We'll be out of eggs again in no time," I said.

"Marilyn chickens. Many chickens in freezer," Nancy said.

"Oh, I know, but I meant live chickens, so we could have eggs all the time," I said.

"Oh, not know about live chickens," Louise said.

What the hell, maybe we could trap some quail and start raising them. There eggs were tiny, but with enough of them they would do, and they actually tasted a little better to me. Still, even with no eggs, we weren't going to run out of food anytime soon.

Ducks! Maybe we could figure out a way to trap some ducks. Hell, Sky, or some of the Caddos might even know how to do it already. No doubt we had plenty of stuff to trade now. If they know how to trap ducks and get the proper encouragement we could do without chickens altogether. I finished stuffing my face full of breakfast wondering if I'd like duck eggs, they were something I'd never eaten.

Randy and Marilyn were already outside looking around when the girls and I left the camper. They both had big smiles on their faces when we reached them.

"I knew that you weren't lying to us, but somehow it didn't hit home until we looked out the window this morning. I can't believe it," Marilyn said.

"Me either, I'd say this is unreal but it's plain to see it is real. But god damned we have got a lot of work to do fast," Randy said.