Chapter 30

After I solved the mystery of how to join the milk made plastic pipe I was at loose ends. I could think of a few things I wanted to do, but none of them really appealed to me. Cowboy Jack came up with a winner though.

"Are you ready to go look at a Thoroughbred to take with you?" he asked, and from the way he said it I figured he had one in mind.

"Have you found one?"

"I think I have. A Quarterhorse breeder has an own son of Secretariat up in Longview. He'd been using him to try and put some late speed into his Triple A horses, but the old man has been letting him down lately. Only about half of the mares he breeds him to catch. The horse is getting on up there," he said.

"Do you know the guy?"

"Yeh, I know him. Haven't seen him in a few years, but he'll remember me. I don't think the horse is in very good shape at this late date though."

"Well we can probably cure his ills and at least let him feel good for his last few years. Let's go take a look at him," I said.

"What about it Glenda? Are you ready to take a little trip on Earth?" Cowboy Jack asked her.

"I'm ready to go wherever you go, but who's gonna watch this place while we're gone," she asked.

"I've already talked to Amos about it. He's coming out to take an adventure today and he said he'd bring Kerry with him and they'll stay a couple of days if it takes us that long.'

We started getting packed up for a couple of days of travel, but then I thought about what the trip would be like for Glenda. A couple of old jackasses like Cowboy Jack and me could get along just fine in my old truck, but we really needed a better ride to haul her around half way across Texas.

"Tell Amos I said hello if he comes out while I'm gone. I'm going to run into town for a minute.

"Ok. I think he'll be here within an hour or two," Cowboy Jack said.

"I should be back before he makes it."

Down in Kerrville there was a Ford dealership right across the street from a GM place. They both had those ramp-like things that held a pickup up off the ground for a sort of elaborate display and the one at the ford lot looked pretty sharp. I pulled in there, parked, and went to take a look at it. It was a dual wheel job with a long bed and a crew cab and it looked like just what I wanted.

Of course I couldn't see much of it with it up on the mini rack. I went over a walked around it then took a look at some of the other trucks around on the lot, but it was really the only one I liked. A salesman came over after a while and started on his whine.

"Well, I'm interested in the one up on the rack there, but I ain't gonna buy it with it up there," I told him.

"Well, it's a lot of trouble to get it down just for a look," he said.

"That's ok. I don't want to put you to any trouble. I think I see a nice Silverado across the street anyway," I said, and got back in my own truck and drove over there.

They didn't have a truck up on their rack at the time, but they did have a nice dual wheel Silverado parked by the rack and it was probably more to my liking anyway. It was pretty plush on the inside for a pickup, but I knew they'd been doing that lately to pickups. I went ahead and bought it and then I noticed an H1 Hummer on the lot and the more I looked at it the more I liked it. Hell, I bought 'em both. The salesman was sure surprised when I told him "Hell no" when he asked if I had something I wanted to trade in.

Of course they had to take me inside to get the information and I had to visit the sales manager to finalize the sale. He was very surprised when he found out I didn't want to finance either one of them and he whacked the price more than I thought he would for a check on the spot. I told him I had to go and get someone to drive me down here to pick them up and he started to fret and wanted to have someone follow me out to deliver them.

"Not a chance. I'll write you a check if you'll give me the total, but I'm not about to let you have anyone else try to drive them out to my place. The last fella who tried it left on the back of a wrecker after he tore out his back axle."

"I finally got them settled down and, let them know what size trailer ball I wanted on both of them and I took back off for Cowboy Jack's place.

Amos and Kerry were just getting settled in when I got there. Amos had been on a trip and Kerry had gone with him, sorta. She hadn't gone the companion route this time though. She'd just hung around with Rita while Amos went and did all the work. Hell, I didn't blame her. I was able to get Cowboy Jack to drive me and Amos back to town and we picked up the Hummer and the new pickup and came back.

"You're the damnedest fella I ever did see. Slip off to town to buy a truck and come back needing help to get them back since you bought more than you could even drive," Cowboy Jack said, just before he let me and Amos out.

"Well, you'd a had to be here to understand," I said, and I waved at the Ford lot salesman as we drove away.

When we got back Kerry and Glenda came out to take a look. Glenda didn't really know what to think about either vehicle. I don't guess the new car deal was so special in Cassandra. I did make her take a ride with me in the both of them though and I let her decide which one she wanted to ride five or six hundred miles in. She chose the Hummer and we drove back and hooked the trailer to it. We took off just after Cowboy Jack fixed us all a big lunch.

It was late in the night when we got to Longview and I got us a couple of rooms in a Holiday Inn. I kinda wished we'd have sent Glenda to get Kathy to come with us, but we hadn't. We were up early the next morning, had breakfast, and then rode out to the place where the supposed son of big Red was living now.

If he wasn't a son of big Red he damned sure looked the part anyway. He was a little heavier than his famous sire, but it suited me fine. One thing I liked was the owner hated to sell him.

"He's been a damned good stallion and put some fine colts and fillies on the ground, but he's just about to old to cut the mustard any more. Only about a third of the mares we breed him to stick nowadays. I just wonder what you want him for?"

I let Cowboy Jack spin the yarn about us only having a Quarterhorse mares and I figure the guy would have never believed it if he hadn't known Jack already. It sounded like a good end to a nice career as a stallion though, and the guy bit. I guess he was also thinking about the hundred thousand he was getting for a horse that was surely on his way to that big pasture in the sky too. We loaded the magnificent red bastard into the trailer and turned right around and headed home with him.

I could tell the old man was having a little trouble with his getalong due to his age, and I hoped the healing chamber would do him some good. He could still walk ok, but when I let him out at Cowboy Jack's place I could tell the long ride in the trailer hadn't done him any good. We let him lounge around out in our makeshift pasture for a couple of days, but finally I put a halter on him and led him through the portal.

Kathy was happy to see me and she even came out to take a look at my next Hero Companion. Red could tell something was up, but he didn't give us any shit about going to the healing chamber and he calmed down even more when we got him in it. He lay down inside it like the others had and soon enough he was asleep and we were outside with Kathy looking at some type of readout.

"He has a lot of arthritis in his joints and he had something wrong with his equipment," she said.

"What equipment?"

"He had some form of cancer in his balls. It's a wonder they worked at all," she said.

"Is it going to fix it?"

"Sure, it isn't much trouble, but it does say it will be a while," she said.

Hell, we decided to go give my equipment a try or six and we didn't come out of the bedroom until in the morning.

Apparently since we weren't around to let him out the healing chamber kept him out of it until we got back. He came back as soon as I checked on him the next morning though and he got up and I led him out to the entrance room where Kathy ordered him a bale of alfalfa hay and had his water tub put down.

I left him eating and headed to the kitchen for some of Kathy's vocal cooking. She came up with three choices of missions the next day and I took the one that let me start out in Jacksville so I could deliver the Red horse. It was slightly inconvenient since I needed to go from there to Mary's town and then about fifty miles farther. Oh well, I was supposed to love riding horses then, wasn't I?

Kathy didn't like my choice because there was a Damsel in the hands of a large group and they were supposed to be heading to a larger town to sell her. It was a pain also in that I needed to get on the ground and get moving. At least if Red worked out I'd have some longer legged horses in a mission or two. After I made my decision Red and I stepped into the chamber and through the portal. He took ending up in a bank vault better than I had any reason to expect and he waited patiently while I retrieved my things, put on my weapons, and led him out of the vault.

The same old guard didn't even raise an eyebrow as we walked out. I had taken the time to saddle Red while I was gathering my stuff and I swung up onto his back as soon as I had him outside. When I gave him my heels he sprang into a trot and it seemed the healing chamber had done a wonderful job on him. We were at the Heroes Ranch in minutes and I trotted up to the main barn and showed him to Ben right away.

Ben could tell he was a little on the old side right away, but I let him know he was here to stay for breeding purposes. I told Ben I'd need some horses to leave on tomorrow and I also asked if he thought he could get along without a couple of the armsmen. He sent me to see them and told me to take all I could use. I knew where they lived and so went directly to their houses.