Chapter 5

Even a 'city boy' like me knows what a rattlesnake sounds like. It was behind Ann, under a rocky overhang. When I saw it begin to strike, I automatically palmed my gun, and fired. I guess I had been paying attention during those lessons. I led it just a hair, and practically blew its head off. Before Ann could react to the sound, the danger had passed.

Ann just looked at the snake, and then at me, as I replaced the spent shell. She waited until I holstered the gun and put the brass in my pocket. She then launched herself into my arms and laid a three-alarm kiss on me. Since she had wrapped her legs around my waist, I supported her by holding her rear end.

It soon turned into a three-way hug, and then Ann explained.

"That was a pretty fair sized prairie rattler. If it had bit me, I don't know if we could've made it back to the ranch before I croaked. You probably just saved my friggin' life. Our folks are going to be very proud of their new son, and I'm gonna thank you until you're walkin' funny the first chance I get."

Denise cracked up when Ann stuffed the snake in a burlap sack, and said "Besides that, they make great chili!"

As we mounted, Denise asked why I hadn't known the snake was there. It was a valid question, as I normally knew when any animal was close.

"I don't know", I admitted. "I've never been around snakes. Maybe it doesn't work with them. I had no idea it was there until I heard it. There wasn't any time to do anything but kill it, once that happened."

The truth is, I didn't know how I did what I did. It didn't make any sense the way it worked, either. It seemed that the more intelligent the animal was, the more I could communicate with it. The strangest thing to me, was the fact that it didn't work at all with people. We're animals, right? I gave up trying a long time ago. All I got out of it was a headache. I had tried it on a turtle, once. That hadn't worked either. Maybe it didn't work on reptiles? Who knew.

I got treated like royalty after Ann told the story. Her mom even asked me what my favorite dinner was. I think I made her and her husband both happy when I replied

"Everything you fix is wonderful, but do we have any steak?"

I think Mr O'Halloran had tears in his eyes. He held the snake up and looked between it and Ann a couple of times. Then he shook my hand, and thanked me. The girls disappeared with mom, and he asked me to walk with him.

"Do you like it here, Paul?"

"Oh yes, sir! I love it. I can't believe how lucky we are for you to have brought us here."

"I think we're the lucky ones. If something were to happen to Ann, it would kill Rachel. Hell, Probably me, too. I can tell you that the only way you and Denise will ever go back to that orphanage, is if you want to. If you never hit a lick of work around here, you've already earned your keep for a lifetime."

He shook his head, as if to clear it, and said "It looks like the three of you are getting along great. Did you have fun on your trip?"

I managed not to blush too much when I answered. "It was a blast! There wasn't really much to do, though. I still feel like a freeloader. We worked a lot harder than this at the home. Didn't you say something about putting up hay? When does that start, and how do you do it?"

"We do that every year, in June", he explained. School is out for the summer after next week, and then we'll start. While the three of you are in class the last few days, we'll be cutting and baling. That's the easy part, because it's done by machines. The hard part is moving it to the barns. To do that, we have to stack it on wagons, move it, and then stack it in the barn. It's long, hot, and sweaty work. You have to wear long sleeve shirts, jeans, and gloves, too. If you don't, it can scratch you up pretty bad."

He smiled and added "Let me know if you still feel like you're taking advantage of us after it's done."

I got another hug from mom, and a "Damn fine job there, son", from grandpa Granger on the way to bed. I didn't feel like I had done anything unusual, but I sure was glad that I saw that snake in time.

Girls talk. I knew that, but I never realized how much. Before second period was over, the story had spread all over school. In Biology, the teacher even went into detail about rattlesnakes, and how dangerous they were. I thought she went into way too much detail, and it only made the story grow. I liked this school, but I was glad it was the last week. By the time we left school, I was sick of being called 'Quick draw'. On the bright side, Ann didn't hear any comments about her name. I thought she was exaggerating, anyway. I thought her name was fine.

We didn't get to go home right away. The girls had a doctor's appointment, and it was in another town that was fifty miles away. I figured our little town was too small to have a decent doctor. Mrs. O'Halloran gave me twenty dollars and let me wander the stores in the little strip of stores where the office was. I had never seen that much money before, and felt like I was rich.

That illusion lasted roughly five minutes. I found out that twenty bucks just didn't go very far. I ended up spending it in a second-hand shop. I could only afford one thing, and it was broken. I thought I could fix it, but I had the guy wrap it up really good. I didn't want anyone to see it until I knew it worked.

I didn't have to wait long before the women were ready to go. I even managed to keep them from prying the secret of what I had hidden out of me. The next stop was a pharmacy, to get some prescriptions filled. I hoped there was nothing wrong with them, but when I asked, they blushed and said they were fine. I would've still been worried, but when Ann's mom laughed at the girls, I figured they were probably telling the truth.

After chores and dinner, I retreated to my room. My excuse was that I had something I needed to work on. When I picked up the bag with my purchase in it, Denise knew right away that I had something I wanted to fix. Since she had always helped me, she pouted when I told her that I wanted to do it by myself. Ann was able to distract her enough for me to get away, though.

I think the guy at the shop had felt sorry for me. The broken music box he had sold me for fifteen dollars would have been worth a whole lot more, if it had worked. It was so big that it had to ride in the trunk on the way home. I ended up with a better bargain than I thought. Once I tapped the gear back in place that had come loose, it worked like new. It hadn't been that easy to find the loose one, though. I had to take nine more out to get to it.

once I was sure that the gear would stay where it belonged, I took the music box to Mrs. O'Halloran, to show her what she bought for her twenty dollars. She seemed to like it a lot, but fussed about me spending the money on her, instead of myself. It took a while but I think I got the point across. I already had what I had always wanted. A home.

I had to put up with the 'Mr. Earp', and other comments the rest of the week at school. They were dying down by Friday, though. I had just started shaking my head, and smiling at them.

I thought the O'Hallorans had been overstating how hard putting up hay was. Boy, was I wrong! If anything, it was the opposite. We worked from sunup to sundown the first day, and only filled the barn about a third of the way. The work felt good, though. The only problem was that I was using muscles I didn't even know that I had. I worked as hard as I could, but when the day was over, I could hardly move. Dad acted like he was really impressed, which made me feel good.

I should explain that sometime during the day, I gave up on the Mr. and Mrs. O'Halloran thing. Mom and Dad was so much easier. It sounded good, too.

I tried to hide the pain at dinner, but couldn't do it. Mom wouldn't let us help clean up afterwards, instead, she handed Ann a jar of something and told her

"Paul needs this. You know what to do, so you and Denise take care of it." She got a big grin, then, and added "I'm sure both of you are sore, as well. Maybe you can talk Paul into returning the favor."

The jar had some kind of stuff in it that was supposed to help sore muscles. The girls told me to take a hot shower, and lay on my bed to wait for them. I was dressed in just my underwear, and almost asleep, when they came back after taking their own showers. As soon as I saw them, I woke up pretty quickly.

Ann and Denise were both took off their robes, and I saw they were dressed in less than I was. They practically ripped my BVD's off my butt.

"We can't have those in the way", explained Ann. "You've got muscles there, too. Too bad we can't do all the muscles, though. We can't get this stuff on any delicate parts. It would kinda burn."

For the next few minutes, I thought I was in heaven. The liniment felt good, but having two cute, naked, girls put it on was better.

For an hour after they were done, I was in heaven. I got to return the favor. As I worked, I began to realize how much different Ann and Denise's bodies were. The biggest difference was how much firmer Ann was everywhere. Denise didn't have any fat on her, but Ann seemed to be all muscle. I guessed that came from working on the ranch, and wondered if Denise and I would be like that soon. I hoped that I would, but I kind of liked Denise just the way she was. It wasn't that I thought Ann was less attractive, I just liked the fact that they were different.

Not being able to touch the good parts was frustrating, especially since I could see they were so excited. Finally, it dawned on me that there was no liniment on my tongue. I had to me careful that I didn't lick anything my hands had touched, but I managed.

The girls had a lot of trouble keeping quiet, until they came up with a solution. When Denise started to scream, Ann kissed her. I almost lost control when I noticed that, and Denise exploded! Ann had the same reaction when Denise returned the favor.