Chapter 35

After I woke the next morning I realized last night had been the best and most restful night of sleep I'd had since ending up here. I didn't think it was because I loved Rose more than the other women I'd picked up along the way though. It was more like I was relieved since I now had her with me too and could keep a good watch over her and make sure she was safe. It might not even be logical, but it was the way I felt.

Rose and my other women were already up and cooking of course and I could smell coffee, so I got up and dressed at once. When they noticed I was up and moving they sent me to my seat at the table and coffee was put in front of me.

"Rose, I can still hardly believe you're here. I'm so happy to see you," I said.

"There was no way the spacefish could get out of letting me come along, especially since they are such fuckups. You hadn't been gone a week before Rosco came sniffing back around wanting advice. I never did find out what their idea for this scheme was, but they were getting subjects killed off by the numbers until you came along. In fact, during the first week after you popped up here they lost all the other five involved. Rosco wanted me to help them pick better prospects."

"So they sent you to get more information?" I asked.

"No, they didn't have to send me, all they had to do was let me watch. Hell, they have cameras everywhere watching everything. I've been able to see every damned thing you've been doing since Rosco came back begging me to help," she said.

"I still don't understand why others they sent had such a bad time. Things have worked out pretty good for me," I said.

"I know they have, but it was only blind luck on Rosco's part. You should have seen who they were picking out before you, and it was only an accident they found you."

"Well who were they sending back?"

"Yankees if you can believe it. For some reason they settled their selection area up around the northeastern cities. I still haven't figured out how they thought it would ever work."

"Were those Yankees just too dumb to get along?" I asked.

"Not exactly, but how are a bunch of city people going to know what to do after being dropped here. Not a fucking one of them knew how to even clean an animal after they killed it and it doesn't even consider whether they would be able to kill something in the first place. Learning to shoot a rifle is not a part of growing up in a city. It would have been just as bad or maybe even worse if they'd taken people from Los Angeles.

"You see, Rosco and his bunch don't know a thing about it in the first place. They're catfish for God's sake, what do they know about skinning a deer, or training a horse either for that matter. Rosco, and every one of them thought you actually brought those saddles along for pillows. They were completely surprised when you strapped one onto a horse the first time," Rose said, and then laughed like hell with the rest of us.

"So you told them what they were doing wrong and they let you come here?" I asked.

"Hell no I didn't tell them what they were doing wrong, but I did help them out some, a little bit anyway. I did it gradually though."

"What did you mean saying they got me by accident?"

"You just happened to be up in the north east. It was pure luck for them, and you too. You happened to know how to hunt and clean your own kills. You happened to know what type of firearms you were going to need, and then, luckiest of all, you happened to turn the head of a poor waitress," she said, and grinned like a mean little kid.

"You're right as hell there. Your help made things here a bunch easier. But how did you help Rosco if you didn't tell him what he was doing wrong?"

"Very carefully. I didn't want them to know how to get along without me right away, because I had plans. I tried to bargain for a ride here from the first. They would beg and plead for help, but they weren't about to give me what I wanted. They reminded me of a bunch of snakeoil selling lawyers, sorta. I think it's some sort of fish thing.

"They thought they knew exactly what I wanted so they wouldn't let me have it. Bargaining must be one mell of a hess where they come from. They have it in their heads they've made a bad deal if the other person gets something they want out of it."

"Shit, even I know it won't work that way," I said.

"They didn't. In fact I had a hard time keeping them focused on what they wanted. They'd get caught up in the deal and forget what they were trying to accomplish. Finally they decided the recruits they were sending were simply taking the wrong things along with them and they took a wrong turn when they decided you'd done better because they let us swindle them out of more initial freight for you," she said.

"Well, I did get to take along more than they first said."

"Sure you did, but think about it. Has anything extra you brought really meant the difference between you living and dying?" she asked.

"No, but some of it has made me feel more secure for later."

"Exactly. Anyway, after they talked to me and begged me to help and then wouldn't make a trade for what I wanted they decided they'd learned enough from just talking and from some of them watching what you did. They picked out five more guys - from nearly the same damned places and sent them along to try their luck.

"I nearly laughed at them when they showed me the kind of guys they'd picked this time. All five of them knew how to ride a horse all right, but it's all they knew. They were leisure riders from up in the northeast. They did their riding in show rings and on bridle paths up there. Not a one of them owned their own horse and they all rode English style. The best thing you could say about any of them was they at least knew which end of the horse the shit came out. Of course they didn't tell me about it until the guys were already in place. In fact three of them were already dead before we had another meeting.

"Rosco and the boys were really upset now, especially since they'd allowed the bunch to have twice as much freight. The trouble was not a fucking one of them took a saddle along and this really confused Rosco and his crowd."

"How could they be so dumb?" I asked.

"Oh, they aren't dumb they're very smart. Think about it though. If you're so smart you think you know what's going on how much attention are you going to pay to the details of what you think you're seeing?

"They saw you catching and riding horses, but never realized you were training them first. They couldn't figure out why you'd catch one and tie it directly to a tree. They didn't understand why you'd put a halter on it and lead it around for days. They were watching, but they weren't paying any attention to what you were actually doing. Fish have very little concept of what riding a horse is all about. You remember the bicycle joke don't you?"

"Of course."

"Well neither Rosco nor his buddies had ever heard it, and they couldn't understand why it was funny after I told them."

"Ok, I think I'm getting a hint now anyway. So, when did they give in?" I asked, since I already understood what I'd have done.

"Hell, they thought they were going to wait me out, and besides, they thought they'd figured out what had gone wrong. They rounded up five more suspects, tripled the allowance they gave you, and sent them on their merry way. One of them lasted nearly ten days," Rose said, and then laughed like hell.

It wasn't really so funny since the guys had all died over it, but it was funny in another way, and I could almost see Rosco wiggling around like a fish out of water.