Down the Hole

by Sally Six

  This time they stayed closer to each other. They were just a few feet apart and made their way and not worrying too much about how quiet they were in the process. There was so much gunfire that no one could have heard them. They got lower as they could see the top of the house over the bushes. They found themselves across the road from the house which was only about 60 feet off the road. There in front of both he and Duke were three men divided by about ten feet each. They were behind pine trees. Their backs were clear targets. Duke got a big smile on his face. He thought this would be like shooting ducks in a barrel. He took in the men’s clothes; long t-shirts, jeans, tennis shoes and that they were filthy. Nope, no way these we’re the people that lived here and invaders had gotten in and things were reversed. Duke raised his rifle.

  “David I’ll take the one in the middle. You shoot the one in front of you.”

  “Wait Duke, how do we know these are the bad guys?”

  David didn’t see Duke roll his eyes. The longer they took to take these guys out the more likely someone in the house was gonna get killed. Duke lowered his rifle and whispered to David.

  “Look how their dressed David. No way would anyone with sense be up here dressed like that and dirty to boot. No these guys have been on the road. They don’t belong here and they are trying to take what they want. Now let’s take them out before they hurt someone.”

  With that Duke raised his rifle and David did too. A second later and they both shot. Duke turned and took out the guy on the left before he understood what was going on. David turned around and threw up in the grass. He also wondered if this would be the first time of many that he would have to kill someone. All that target practice had paid off. He had gotten the guy right through the heart. He stood up and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

  “I can’t believe that I had to shoot someone in the back. I always thought cowards did that. I guess that I watched too much TV.”

  “We have to do what we have to do sometimes David. I think your granddad is right. We’re in for a world of hurt if we can’t cope and get on with what we need to do.”

  They both went around the bushes and went over to the bodies to inspect their work. They were careful to make sure the men were dead so they didn’t get shot by a wounded man.

  Duke raised his hands and cupped them to his mouth.

  “Hello in the house. It’s all right now. We’ve taken them out.”

  From the house they heard a man’s voice.

  “How do we know you’re good guys and you won’t shoot us? Then take what you want like those others tried to do?”

  “We’re from the Double O Ranch a few miles from here. I have Mr. O’Dell’s grandson with me. Does that work for you?”

  They didn’t hear another word, but then the door opened and a man stepped out and stood half in and half out of the doorframe.

  “Show yourselves and make sure you don’t have a gun pointed my way or I will take you out.”

  Both David and Duke stepped out from behind trees and into the road. Their rifles were pointed at the sky and lying on their shoulders. They then started to walk towards the house.

  “All right you two lay down those rifles at the road edge. I am a bit nervous at the moment.”

  Duke yelled back. “I would be too if someone had been shooting at me and mine.”

  They laid down their rifles making sure it wasn’t in the dirt, and walked closer to the house. Somehow David felt a bit naked without that rifle at this moment. He never in a hundred years thought he would feel that way about a gun. He had heard that saying in old movies, but he thought it was just bull hockey. Well, live and learn.

  When they were fifteen feet from the man at the door, he told them to stop. He stepped out and saw they both had holsters on. He was a large man six foot four inches tall if he was an inch and around 290 pounds. Not flabby at all. It looked like all muscle. He had salt and pepper brown hair and laugh lines around the eyes and mouth. His rifle had been lowered but came back up.

  “Okay boys, I want you to lose those pistols and holsters too.”

  Duke just stood there in front of him. David didn’t know what to do.

  Then Duke spoke up. “No sir, this gun and holster stays right where it is. I will not be without protection of any kind. I laid my rifle down for you, but I draw the line there. We are who we say we are. You don’t seem very grateful for us taking out your problem across the road.”

  The guy just stood there and to David it seemed like an eternity. But it was less than a minute.

  “All right keep um on. I believe you somewhat, but we will keep a close eye on you. Come on in the house.”

  He lowered his rifle barrel again and turned and went inside. David let out his breath. “Man alive I bet I’m turning gray ahead of time.” Then he thought, “The guy said we.” So then he knew they might still have guns on them.

  Duke and David went the rest of the way and stepped into the house. Duke was first through the door. David stepped inside and out of habit closed the door behind him.

  As he looked around for a few seconds, the family was gathering. He saw light coming through the bullet holes that had been put in the house. Windows had been smashed and many things ruined. He heard, “Bert and Tammy you scramble out there and collect any guns and ammo those men had. Then high tail it back here. You got that?”

  David saw a boy of about 17 or 18 years old and a girl of around 14 to 15 years old paying close attention to their father. The boy, Bert, was about six foot three inches tall and weighed180 pounds. He had brown hair and blue eyes with tanned skin. The girl was around five foot six tall, weighing about 135 pounds. She was not a stick but not heavy either. She had shoulder length light brown hair and blue eyes and also a slight tan like she had been working outside.

  “Yes Dad,” was said in unison and the two teenagers went out the door.

  A woman was coming into the room who looked about 60 years old or so. She had white hair with no coloring to try to mask that she was growing older. She looked to be about five foot three inches tall, 150 pounds, dressed in jeans, t-shirt and a blue flannel shirt over that. She carried a 30.30. It looked like she was a real hand with it. On her right hip she wore what looked like from where he was a 38 special, one deadly grandma.

  “Reece can they be trusted?” She said this as she looked in Duke and David’s direction with her rifle in her right hand and the barrel only slightly lowered. David just knew that if they made one wrong move that she wouldn’t hesitate to take them out. Her family had been threatened. She was a real she bear.

  Reece turned to Duke and David. “My name is Reece Porter. This is my mother-in-law, Carla Lang. Now, I will thank you gentlemen for taking out those no account bushwhackers. I didn’t mean to seem ungrateful. I just needed to make sure of a few things first. Which were mostly you two. Mom here had my back covered while we watched how you acted. No insult intended.”

  Duke nodded at David. So David stepped ahead and reintroduced himself and Duke again to make sure there weren’t any mistakes as to who they were.

  “No insult taken Mr. Porter.” David noticed there was no Mrs. Porter, but he figured that was Reece’s private business. So he went into why they were there. My grandfather is extending an invitation to all those that we talk to. To come down and join us on the ranch for mutual safety. Make no mistake. It won’t be to just take care of you, but for you and everyone else that’s there and comes there to help work to take care of and protect each other.”

  Reece looked over at his mother-in-law. “Well Carla, they have given us something to think about. We just sort of saw what could happen and imagine if it had been more than three scum balls. We wouldn’t have lasted long I am afraid.”

  One of the teenagers gave a hoot right then. Reece went over to the window and gave a hoot back. A minute later, the teens came back in with rifles and pistols stuck in holsters in their arms.

  They brought them over to their dad who was still standing by Duke
and David in the middle of the small living room. Carla was still off to the side near the kitchen door.

  David was curious about something. “Excuse me Mr. Porter. I have noticed there aren’t any vehicles in your driveway or anywhere by the house. Did you all walk up here?”

  “Oh that yeah, we were headed up here in one big hurry in my pickup and trailer. We got a mile away and it stopped running. We had it packed to the gills. It took us days to go back and forth bringing our things here. Made me wish that I had given into Tammy here and gotten a horse.”

  Tammy was smiling. “Told you so Dad.”

  “Don’t be a smart aleck girl.” Reece told his daughter with a grin.

  She stuck her tongue out at him and then said. “Oh wait, this was hanging out of one of the dead guy’s pockets.”

  She pulled a gold locket on a chain out of her jacket pocket. On the chain was attached five rings, four women’s and one man’s diamond ring.

  Reece’s face was drawn. “I wonder who they stole these from? Sad state of affairs peoples’ belongings ending up on some thief. I just hope the folks weren’t home when they took these. Kids these men have asked us to join them and their family over at the Double O Ranch.” He looked over at Carla. “Do you have your two cents to put in Carla?”

  Carla needed to know a few things first.

  “First off, I want to know if there are any women folk at this ranch of your grandfathers or is it all men? Then what kind of housing would we expect to have? Most of all how do we get our things down to your ranch if we decide to come?”

  She stared at David with her arms folded, but at least her rifle was now leaning against the wall next to her.

  As he looked into those cold eyes, David at first had a hard time answering her. “Ah, yes to the first question. There are women, my wife and her little sister, Kate. For the second question I will turn that one over to Duke here. My family and I are also new comers to the ranch. He knows more about that than I do. But the third is we come up here with horse drawn wagons and get you. We will be coming up to get the North family as it is. They live about a mile and a half from here around the mountain. They have decided to come down to the ranch.”

  David then looked to Duke and Duke took over.

  “We have small cabins built for just this. Mr. O’Dell was very forward thinking. They look like sheds so no one will get curious. There is nothing fancy, but they are built strong and insulated well.”

  David could hardly believe what he was hearing. Now that he thought about it, he began to look at the ranch in a different way and did remember some old large sheds here and there around the place. Who would have known? He certainly hadn’t. He just thought they were for supplies and such and the odd things a ranch needs.

  Reece then looked to his son and daughter. “Well you two can have your say also. You’re going to be adults now and will be treated as such.”

  Bert was trying to think of something to say that sounded adult and he just couldn’t come up with something. So he just went for it.

  “If my dad and grandmother agree to go, then I think that’s fine. I think we will need more people to really protect ourselves. Today was a real eye opener for me. I thought we wouldn’t have a problem taking care of ourselves up here, but now I know that’s not true. So whatever Dad and Grandma say its fine with me to go down. Oh yeah, how old is your wife’s little sister?”

  Bert was thinking if this man is say in his 30’s then the wife must be too. The little sister can’t be too old, or can she?

  David smiled and said. “Kate is her name. She’s 19 years old, the baby of the family.”

  Now that brought a grin to Bert’s face until he thought. “Oh no what does she look like.” But David was way ahead of him and had brought out his wallet to show them a picture of his family.

  “Here take a look at this,” as he was passing the picture around. That’s my wife, Olive, our twins, Tyler and William, and Kate there on the right.”

  Bert just so happened got the picture last and was trying not to show how much he wanted to see it. But everyone could tell anyway. His sister held onto the picture as long as she could and then finally handed it over to Bert with a smirk.

  He was glaring at her. “What’s that smirk about Tammy.”

  “Oh nothing, just nothing.” She then turned to David. “You have a nice family.”

  Carla and Reece concurred with that. Bert who was still holding and looking at the picture thought, “I’m not being picky with what girls are around, honestly I am not.” He was telling himself and he hadn’t realized how much it had mattered to him.

  Kate was a nice looking girl, but! “Ah David does she really have purple hair with white streaks?”

  David had a good chuckle over that one. “No she doesn’t anymore. She’s a dark blond in real life. She had her sister put it back to its natural color so it would be easier to get a job.”

  David was taking the picture back and slipping it back into his wallet.

  Tammy was sitting there thinking.

  “Well Dad, I see I won’t be the only girl. That’s nice, but are there any older boys?”

  She said this as she turned to David and Duke.

  Her dad slapped his right hand to his forehead. “Is that all you kids worry about if there are other people your age of the opposite sex?”

  David decided to answer. “There will be. The North’s have a son around your age Tammy.”

  “Far out, sure it’s ok with me if we go to the ranch too Dad.”

  She was going up and down on the balls of her feet by now.

  David looked back at Carla and saw how warm her eyes were when she looked at her granddaughter. There was no steel cold woman here now.

  Reece sat down on the sofa behind him. Everyone just stood there waiting for him to talk. After about three minutes, Reece looked up.

  “All right boys, I have made up my mind. We’re coming and if we can, it will be lock stock and barrel. Carla what do you say now?”

  “I say fine. I think it’s a smart thing for us to do. We were just shown that we won’t be able to go it alone even up here where we thought we would be away from all the trouble.”

  A soft moo was heard from out back. “Oh man,” Reece said. “I forgot all about poor Annabelle.”

  Tammy was already high tailing it out the kitchen door and headed for the back yard. David and Duke could hardly believe the family had a cow. They all went out the back kitchen door and there standing by a shed in a small corral 50 feet from the house was a miniature Jersey cow and a calf. Tammy was already getting the cow and calf some fodder and water. The water running a few feet from the corral where there was no animal manure run off. The spring had been dug out on higher ground further away so there wouldn’t be a problem with that.

  Reece was talking. “We were so lucky when we found this place and that it had a natural spring on it. We dug it deeper so that we could bucket water out for any animals we might get. We brought Annabelle and Turk up with us in the pickup. Everyone needs an experience like that I tell you.”

  The whole family was smiling when he mentioned their trip up here with the cow and calf.

  David saw the calf was a bull.

  “How do you plan to breed her? This is her calf, isn’t it?”

  Reece answered that question.

  “No, it’s not her calf. We thought of that. We just bought Turk two weeks ago. We have a five-acre place on the outskirts of town and thought these were just the right size for us. That’s also why we we’re so packed with feed. We threw on a lot of 50-pound bags of grain for winter and a few bales of hay. We had just bought a bunch of feed for these two. That’s about all that was in the trailer. We had planned on getting an animal trailer in the spring. I guess I should have just gone ahead and bit the bullet and bought one. Hind sight I guess is always 20-20 they say.”

  Reece then turned to Duke and David. “You boys going to stay the night?”

  David looked
around and couldn’t believe it was almost dusk. Man talk about time flying.

  “What do you think Duke? It’s a whole lot better than sleeping outside tonight.”

  “Fine with me David, but right now I am so hungry I could eat one of these mini cows. Let’s go get our horses and packs”

  Tammy was busy milking Annabelle who just stood and ate as she was being milked.

  Carla turned toward the house. “The least we can do for you is feed you a decent meal. That all right with you Reece?”

  “Yes fine with me. These boys deserve it.”

  David was shaking his head. It had been a long time since he had been called a boy. It had started with his grandfather when he got back to the ranch and now again. He felt younger and younger.

  After a great meal of camp stove beans and Spam, Duke and David were given the living room to spread out their sleeping bags. The horses were out back in a separate corral beside Annabelle and Turk with saddles off and had been fed and watered. They had decided who would take guard shift with who and sacked out for the night except for Reece and Duke. David felt like he had just laid down and closed his eyes when he was being shaken awake.

  “Mr. O’Dell, it’s me Bert. You’re supposed to take this shift with me.”

  “Right, right Bert be right with you. Give me a second to unkink.”

  Bert was thinking, “Old men, gee hope I’m not that bad when I get that old.”

  David was up about two minutes later. Duke was already in his sleeping bag and beginning to snore. David was thinking, “Somehow I don’t even think that would have bothered me one bit.” He was sitting on the sofa and groaned as he slipped his boots on and tied them. He felt like he had worn them without a break for weeks, not just two days. He looked up to see Bert going out the front door and Reece coming in. As David slipped on his coat and hat, he followed the young man out the door. Good thing that he had to move from time to time. It was getting darn right cold here in the mountains. He tried not to do or be in the same place more than twice. He and Bert tipped hats. The next time they got close and say ok then make their rounds again.