Chapter 7

We had to wait for Angel to finish getting ready. Bill was a big guy, not fat mind you, but tall and lean. He was from New York and had the thick accent of a northerner. We had hit it off when we’d finally met, him saying Angel had talked a lot about me.

We took my truck into Marfa where I had made reservations at Holland’s Steak House.

“Jake,” Angel said. “We can’t eat here.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “I called in advance and they said they would serve New Yorkers.” I looked at Bill and gave a laugh.

“No.” she said, swatting my arm at the joke. “I mean, it’s too expensive,”

“If I remember correctly, I asked you guys out to dinner,” I said. “That means I pay.”

We were escorted to a table that was far enough away to hold a conversation without being disturbed. We placed our orders with the waitress and she brought us our tea. Neither Angel nor Bill liked alcohol.

“Bill, Angel, my pastures are starting to turn green,” I started. “That means my cattle are getting fat. In six months I expect to be selling beef to this restaurant and every other Holland’s Steak Houses. Bill, I want you to be the butcher for these cattle.”

“Damn, Jake. That’s at least twelve restaurants,”

“Fifteen,” I said. “They just opened a new one in Amarillo. If you count the restaurant I want to open at home, that will be sixteen.

“Angel, right now I’m paying three employees. Slim and Todd has their hands full as it is and I plan on hiring another couple hands to help. I have the water business going and plan to venture into the electrical business in the very near future.”

“Electrical business,” she asked.

“Wind turbines,” I said. “I’ve already check on prices. But I’ll get to that in a minute.

“Anyway, I need someone to help me keep this all organized. You know, pay the employees and withhold the appropriate taxes. Keep records for my taxes. Make sure nothing unusual shows up in the figures.”

“Jake, you need an accountant,” Angel said. “Or a personal assistant.”

“Call it what you want,” I told her, “but I want that person to be you. I also want you to manage the store and restaurant once it has been rebuilt. I know you’ll have to hire some help, but I have confidence you will give them the training to make the business successful.

“Bill, you’ll probably need help too,” I said, looking at him. “Sixteen restaurants is just the start. Once restaurant owners find out the quality of beef I hope to be selling, I expect that number to double, or triple.”

“It sounds to me like you need a business office and a butcher shop,” he said.

“I want to modernize the store. Build it large enough to stock more merchandise. With the pump crew and water haulers, I believe you could do a respectable business selling breakfast and lunches. Right now the crews are bringing their lunches to work. Once they learn they can buy a respectable lunch that is freshly made, they’ll abandon their sandwiches for the meals. I also expect the number of workers will increase when more wells are installed.”

“I can see where there will be an increase in daily traffic,” Angel said. “Do you think that will support a restaurant?

“That’s where the land will help,” I said.

She looked puzzled.

“Reserve the front twenty acres for the store, butcher shop and restaurant. In the beginning the store, butcher shop and restaurant will be the only businesses in the area. Use the remaining thirty acres to build a subdivision.”

“A subdivision,” Bill said. “Who would want to move out here to live,” he asked.

“Pump operators and water haulers to begin with,” I said. “As families move into the area, there will be a demand for more businesses to move into the area.”

“That’s where the rest of the twenty acres in the front comes in,” Angel said.

“Now you’re catching on,” I smiled.

“But I’d hate to see the neighborhood go down because of a bunch of low income housing,” Bill said.

“We’ll control that with the size of the lots and the houses we build,” I said. “Some of the subdivisions back home were built with the houses so close you could here when the neighbor’s baby was conceived. If we divide this property into three quarter to acre lots and build something larger than a starter house, the quality of buyers would be a lot better.”

“What’s this about wind turbines,” Bill asked.

“I’m going to have holes all over the southern part of the ranch pumping water. The northern part of the ranch is at a higher altitude and although water is there, it’s a lot deeper.”

I paused to take a swallow of tea.

“We used windmills to pump water to the cattle before we started using electric pumps. In fact, we still have those windmill pumps keeping water tanks filled. The windmills never stop. The wind at the higher altitudes is just as constant and if nothing else, a little stronger. If you travel to the northern part of the state, you’ll see fields of turbine windmills producing electricity. From what I’ve learned, it is one of the cleanest ways to produce energy but currently produces less than one percent of the nation’s electricity.”

“So you want to put up these windmills to produce electricity for the ranch,” Angel asked.

“Not just the ranch,” I said, “the community. The turbines will be tied in with the electrical company’s wiring. A computer monitors the amount of energy the electrical company uses from the turbines.”

“I see,” she said. “And they pay you for what they use.”

“Now you see why I want you to manage my businesses,” I smiled.

“I like it,” Bill said. “All if it. But this is something we need to talk over.”

“I understand, Bill,” I said.

“How would we be paid,” Angel asked.

“I would pay you both a salary,” I told them. “You would invest half of the money from selling the store. I’ll invest any additional moneys. When the businesses are up and running we both would receive twenty-five percent of the capitol.”

“What about the other fifty percent,” Angel asked.

“That would be used to pay back the initial investments ... your fifty grand and whatever I invest, which I anticipate will be considerably more. I want your investment to be paid first. After that, we’ll start working on my investments.”

Angel and Bill looked at each other as if they were communicating through telepathy and then looked back at me.

“There’s one catch,” I told them and could see hope drain from their eyes. “I have controlling interest until all investments have been paid in full. If this fails, it will be my fault. Once the investments have been paid, controlling interest will transfer to you.”

“That’s the catch,” Angel asked. “Can’t you sweeten it anymore?”

“I do have a request,” I told them. “I don’t know if you have any attachment to ‘US 90 Stop and Shop, ‘ but I would like to name this place in memory of my parents.”

“What would that be,” she asked.

“McAlister’s”

“I like that,” they both said together.

I knew nothing about decorating the house so I hired Angel to be my decorator. The store had been demolished so she was happy to have something to do to occupy her time. The storage company back in North Carolina had shipped my belongings to me and for their efforts, I told the owner to keep the money I had paid for the year. Angel had already made trips to Dallas and San Antonio to buy furniture and other items.

My contractor had agreed to build the new store and restaurant after he completed my house. The work was under way and looking good.

We were now irrigating six fields but continued to feed the cattle hay. Winter was on the way and overgrazing was still a concern.

Slim, Will, April and I were out riding the northern part of the ranch. We were checking the sites for the windmill turbines. April, being the eager little horseman, was leading the way.

We’d been riding about three hours and decided to head back to the barn when I saw April’s pony rear up. At the same instant I saw the cause. A rattlesnake was coiled up on the edge of the trail sunning itself in the cool fall weather. As if in slow motion, I saw April start to tumble off the rear of the pony and would hit the ground right in front of the rattler. The next thing I knew the snake was flying backwards through the air, its head gone, disintegrated by the large bullet from my Colt Army, the gun smoking in my hand.

I jumped off Blaze and ran to April. She was fine but the pony, spooked by the snake, had bolted. I was sure we would find it back at the barn.

“Are you okay, sweetheart,” I asked April.

“Yeah, Uncle Jake,” she said. “I landed on my arm but I think it’s alright.” She stretched out her arm and worked her fingers just to be sure.

I turned to look at Slim and Will. They looked at each other and then back at me.

“What,” I asked.

“I ain’t never seen anyone ever shoot that fast,” Slim said. “You cleared leather and blew that thing over the hill before little Miss April ever hit the ground.

“And he shot him right through the head,” Will added.

I tried to remember exactly what happened but couldn’t. I didn’t remember removing the loop over the hammer so I could draw the gun. I didn’t remember grabbing the grip. I didn’t remember the sound or the recoil. I just remember the gun out in front of me, smoke drifting up from the barrel. Come to think of it, I couldn’t remember putting the gun back into the holster. I looked down and saw the loop had been placed back over the hammer to keep it secured in the holster.