Sins of Our Fathers (9781571319128)

by Otto, Shawn Lawrence

  “You gonna take any of that copper money?” Eagle asked.

  “They were just looking for a short-term payroll depository. Anyway, you know how Mark Twain defined a mine, don’t you?”

  “No,” said Eagle.

  “A hole in the ground with a liar standing next to it.”

  Eagle snorted and nodded, and JW wondered if he had been thinking about going for the copper money himself, if in fact Nature’s Bank was a real bank. But he knew that the tribes didn’t like the idea of the mine. The sulfate runoff could kill the wild rice. And he didn’t think even Eagle would be that duplicitous.

  When the tow truck finally pulled out, they got into the Bronco, with Jacob sitting in back. “You sure you don’t want to go to the doctor?” Eagle asked as they buckled in. “That nose looks pretty broken.”

  JW shook his head. “I don’t have health insurance at the moment.”

  Eagle nodded, absorbing the news.

  JW had tossed his belongings in the back, but the last item he grabbed from the Caprice was the Big Book, and without thinking of it, he had it on his lap. He saw Eagle glance down at the book’s cover, so he casually rested his hand over the title.

  JW looked out at the place where his car had landed. A long straight scar jutted into the pasture. Then he stared at the passing scenery as they pulled away. It was awkward to be getting a ride from this man, of all people, and from his angry son. He glanced back at Jacob.

  “Thank you.”

  “Mmm-hmm,” the boy mumbled.

  “My son’s getting a lot of pressure from those boys,” Eagle said, glancing at him in the rearview mirror. “I was hoping the horse would pull him away from them.”

  JW looked across at Eagle. He was watching the road, but he gave JW an appraising glance. “He said you were like a shaman or something. Horse whisperer.”

  JW shook his head. He looked back out over the road. “I grew up training them.”

  Eagle nodded with the air of a man playing poker. JW wondered if Eagle was thinking through what it could mean that he had moved in across the street from them.

  “Fladeboe said you got fired from the bank,” said Jacob.

  JW glanced at him, but didn’t answer. The scrub pasture had given way to a pine forest as the road climbed. The rusty red banks were thick with blueberries. They crested a ridge and then headed down into a new valley, and the forest fell away into fields of green and purple alfalfa, mixed with pink balls of clover, short after the second cutting.

  “He said it was a gambling problem,” added Eagle.

  JW glanced at him. “I suppose it doesn’t help that I laid him off at the bank.”

  Eagle laughed. “No, I suppose it doesn’t. But to tell you the truth, most people out here probably feel you’re better off not working for that asshole Jorgenson anyway.”

  “Yeah, why’s that?”

  “Because he’s an asshole.”

  Eagle navigated the narrow gravel road effortlessly. Such profanity sounded unusual and strange in his stately voice. He had an air of confidence and education that seemed above it. But JW didn’t disagree with his assessment.

  “Aren’t you married?” Eagle asked.

  “No. Or, yeah. We’re separated.”

  Eagle shook his head and smiled.

  JW glanced at him. “Whatever. You got a captive audience here. Go ahead, give me all the grief you want.”

  “No, it’s just—”

  “Right. Look, I’m sorry about your loan,” offered JW.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Eagle replied. “Ancient history. So, what are you going to do now?”

  JW looked back out over the road ahead. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, if you need work, we might be able to use some help.”

  JW was surprised. He glanced at Eagle, who seemed to be silently kicking himself for having made the offer. He saw him look down at the speedometer.

  “What, you gonna open a bank?”

  Eagle laughed and glanced at him, then at his son in the rearview mirror. JW thought he saw a look pass between them. “And hire you? Gambling and all?” He laughed, then lifted a hand, catching himself. “I’m sorry, that wasn’t polite. It’s a wild rice business.”

  “Wild rice. Huh.” He imagined paddies and barefoot Indians with their pants rolled up, swiping at rice with scythes. He suddenly realized what he had seen Eagle and the other man doing in the pole barn. Was it possible that’s what the new building on the highway would be, too? Nature’s Bank? Could it be some sort of seed bank? Or a natural food co-op? The tribes were always trying out that kind of back-to-the-Earth-type business, even though they never seemed to pan out.

  “Yeah. I package and sell wild rice,” Eagle said. “What’s so surprising about that?”

  12

  Eagle dropped JW off in front of his trailer and invited him to come over to see the operation once he got cleaned up. Bending over the tiny sink, JW gingerly daubed his nose with a white alcohol pad. He examined the jagged split in the mirror. The skin was partly open where the bone had punched through, and it was puffy and magenta on either side. Deep within the cut lurked a glistening maroon worm.

  He pulled his nose down and pushed the bone back into position, crying out as he did so. He swooned with nausea and had to sit down on the toilet seat, then he gently pushed on either side with his fingertips until he was satisfied that he had gotten it right. He got up and looked into the mirror again, breathing heavily, then pulled the cut open, crying out again, to make it bleed freely. He dabbed it dry with a tissue and then pinched it shut and taped it in place with a small strip of white medical tape. He stretched another piece over the top of his nose to hold the first in place, creating a cockeyed white cross on his nose. He opened the cabinet, popped a couple ibuprofen, and drank some water. When he closed it he paused and regarded his face, struck by how different his reflection looked from his own self-image. Older, with a few graying whiskers. Gaunter, the eyes more haunted. Criminal, almost. It scared him. He pulled the light chain and walked out.

  Eagle was still sitting in his SUV when JW emerged from his trailer. He could see through the trees that the driver’s door was standing open and that Eagle was parked in the driveway that led toward his barn. As he crossed the road and walked up it sounded as if Eagle was on a business call of some sort. He glanced back and JW nodded.

  “Okay, Jim, he’s back. I gotta go,” he said and hung up. “All patched up? Doctor White?”

  “As patched as I’ll get. Were you talking to somebody about me?”

  “No. Just one of my buddies. Come on down and have a look,” Eagle said, hopping down and leading JW toward the pole barn.

  Jacob was in the paddock with Pride. “That horse is a pretty big project,” JW said.

  “Used to be some fancy show stud. White lady couldn’t ride him, was gonna sell him to the rendering people,” replied Eagle.

  “So you’re teaching him?”

  “We’re Indi’ns. Isn’t it supposed to come natural?” Eagle said with an edgy grin.

  JW laughed and shook his head

  They sidled up to the paddock rail. Jacob was trying to lead the horse, but it was giving him a hard time again.

  “Hey, Jacob!” Eagle called.

  Jacob ignored him. Eagle whistled sharply.

  “Jacob!”

  “What?”

  “Come on over for a sec,” he said.

  Jacob ignored him.

  “Hey!”

  “I’m busy!”

  Eagle sighed and shook his head. JW could see his body stiffening. At the same time, Pride was backing up and pulling Jacob, and he began tugging hard on the rope. Anger filled the air like pollen.

  “Get over here!” said Eagle, oblivious to the problems his son was having.

  Jacob growled in frustration and let the rope go. It trailed in the dust as the horse trotted away and stopped some twenty feet off. He trudged toward the rail, dragging his shoes through the yellow lim
e.

  “Got a nice horse there, son,” offered JW.

  Jacob looked up at him in surprise. “Yeah, when he wants to be.”

  “What else?” added Eagle, bearing back down on his point.

  Jacob shook his head. “Thanks,” he mumbled to JW, rolling his eyes, “for yesterday.”

  “No problem.”

  Apparently satisfied, Eagle started walking back toward the barn. “Come on,” he said to JW, “I’ll show you the operation.” JW shrugged at Jacob and turned away to follow Eagle, leaving Jacob to contemplate how he would recapture the horse.

  The barn had a clean, varnished concrete floor and was lined on both sides with pallet racks. On either end were large sliding doors. A large stainless steel winnowing machine with a purple conveyor feed sat in the center aisle, its clear round exhaust duct running out through a sidewall. Other equipment was scattered around the barn, including a packaging and labeling machine, a longer conveyor, an immense black cast-iron commercial scale by the front door, shining stainless work counters, and rice-packaging supplies.

  An old oak desk sat close to the front, scarred and disfigured from the nicks and stains and burns of sixty years. On its top was a dirty old computer. JW took it all in, walking around with his hands in his pockets as Eagle showed him each piece of equipment with the pride of Geppetto.

  “It’s an amazing operation,” he said as they walked toward the winnower. “But what I don’t understand is why you’re even up here.”

  Eagle stood by the machine, a hand in his pocket. “For my son,” he said.

  JW nodded. So maybe the whole thing was not really what they had thought. Maybe the bank was just an idea Eagle had been toying around with. Or maybe it was in fact a food co-op.

  “He started getting into trouble in Minneapolis,” Eagle explained, but as he was talking, JW heard yelling. He glanced up toward the paddock and saw Jacob pulling on Pride’s rope. Pride reared slightly, opposing the boy and trying to get some slack. Eagle’s back was to the paddock and he seemed oblivious. “I figured it’s healthier for him up here,” he said.

  JW saw Jacob pick up a riding crop and whip the horse behind the jowl.

  “Stop it! You listen to me! You stop!” he heard Jacob yell.

  The horse pulled back and lurched Jacob off his feet. JW hurried up to the paddock. He ducked through the rough-hewn rails and whistled sharply at the horse.

  “Whoa! Ho!” He grabbed the halter, then he grabbed the crop from Jacob’s hand and threw it to the ground while the horse jerked violently at his arm and tried to pull away from him.

  “Whoa, boy,” he said, calmly turning him. The horse jerked a few more times, but when JW didn’t get upset or hurt him, he settled.

  “Why are you so dang mad at him?” he asked Jacob. “That’s the second time he almost ran you over!”

  Jacob glanced at him and JW noticed that one of his hands was in a fist. Then he glanced over at his dad, who was just walking up from the barn.

  “He wasn’t listening,” Jacob replied.

  “He was trying, but you were hurting him and scaring him off. Look, come here.”

  Jacob looked away as if the whole episode were some ridiculous exercise that JW had instigated. JW glanced over at Eagle.

  “This okay with you?”

  “Go for it,” Eagle said from behind the rail.

  “Okay. Don’t be looking at your dad now. Son. Look at me. Look at me.”

  Eagle lifted an eyebrow and nodded toward JW. Jacob turned and looked at his chest.

  “Now watch the horse. Keep your focus,” said JW.

  He turned sideways to face the horse, gently started petting his back and neck, and spoke to him in a low soothing murmur. He gestured to Jacob to come closer. The boy sulked over in his baggy shorts. He stepped up to JW’s right, near the animal’s flank, and JW nodded to him to pet the horse. Pride tried to shy away, but JW held him by the halter and turned with him, signaling Jacob to follow. He kept petting him until the horse let out a long low snort, dropped his head slightly, and allowed Jacob to pet him.

  “Okay,” JW said, and Jacob stopped. JW stepped back and gave his palm to the horse’s muzzle, ran it softly over his leathery lips and nostrils, then reached up to scratch his cheek. Then he rolled his hand into a fist and began to rap lightly between the horse’s eyes.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Rapping his sinuses. Calms him down.”

  Pride seemed to slowly become hypnotized, as if the gentle rapping were some sort of massage. Jacob glanced sideways, not wanting to be impressed. JW felt the old animal magic.

  “Okay,” he said. “Look.” He touched Pride’s side with his fingertip, running it lightly over the animal’s hairs. Pride’s skin flicked.

  “He felt that,” he said quietly to the boy. “A horse may be big, but he’s sensitive. He can feel a fly on his hair. Pet him.”

  Jacob reached up with an open palm, and this time Pride didn’t react. He ran his palm over the animal’s coarse reddish hair in gentle strokes.

  “He felt that,” said JW. “He likes it.”

  Pride’s eyes were getting droopy. He let out a deep sigh and dropped his head farther, sniffing and nudging at the ground, exploring for flecks of hay.

  “How much you weigh?” JW asked.

  “I don’t know,” said Jacob.

  He was short and fine-boned. JW figured he was probably under a hundred pounds.

  “Big guy like you,” he said, “I’d say about a hundred and twenty pounds. That sound about right?” He winked at Eagle, who didn’t notice. He was watching the horse, completely enthralled by what was happening.

  “Maybe,” said Jacob.

  “Well, he weighs maybe twelve hundred. That’s ten times. At a minimum. So he’s gonna win every argument he wants to, right?” He wanted Jacob to see that there was no winning these fights. The boy shrugged, not wanting to give any ground.

  JW petted the horse’s face. “Even with me,” he said. “He’s too big. The only way to get him to do something is to make him want to do it. To work with his head and his heart at the same time.”

  Jacob started toeing the ground.

  “Let me show you,” offered JW. “Take the rope.”

  Jacob looked up, surprised. He took it, and Pride raised his head to let out a long, careworn snort.

  “Okay, face forward,” JW said. He stepped around the boy and out in front of the horse, so he could see them both together. “Up by his head.”

  Jacob stood side by side with the horse, next to his head, both facing JW. He could see the horse’s tail swooshing lazily in the background.

  “Good,” he said. “Now scratch his cheek. Go on.”

  Jacob reached up to Pride’s cheek. The horse shied and threw his head up, but then brought it back down, and when Jacob scratched him he wound up leaning into it.

  “See, he likes that. Okay, now drop your hand.”

  Jacob did. The horse stood still, in a mild state of attention.

  “Now take one step forward.”

  Jacob took a big step forward, pulling Pride along.

  “Don’t pull on the rope. We don’t want him learning to pull all the time. He’s got to decide to follow you. Right? So keep it slack.”

  Jacob let the rope hang and Pride stayed standing a step behind him.

  “Okay,” JW continued. “Now we wait. Don’t look at him. Don’t pull, and don’t move.”

  Jacob stood there, fidgeting nervously, facing forward. The horse snorted and stamped once with his left foot. He nodded his head, but didn’t move.

  Jacob let out a frustrated pssht. “Pretty stupid training method if—”

  “Watch it!” Eagle said sharply.

  “All in little steps, son,” JW said quietly, “all in little steps. Gotta get him to toddle before you can get him to run.”

  The horse bobbed his nose down and up, then finally gave in and stepped forward. Jacob let out an awkward laugh, truly surprise
d. “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe it!”

  “You see? Okay, pet his cheek so he knows he’s done good. Nice! Okay, drop your hand and step again.”

  This time the horse followed much more quickly.

  “Holy shit,” said Jacob. “It’s like he knows what he’s supposed to do.”

  “He does.”

  “Bullshit.” Jacob grinned and took another step. Pride followed. Eagle laughed and shook his head, frowning at the boy’s profanity. JW grinned at him as the boy and the horse took another step, then another.

  “One step at a time,” said JW. He brushed his hands on his jeans and ducked back through the rough-hewn rails. He put his arm on the top rail and watched Jacob walking slowly around the ring with Pride on a loose rope.

  “Kid’s got an aptitude,” he said. “He just doesn’t know it.”

  “I’ll be damned,” said Eagle under his breath, as much to himself as to JW.

  13

  JW brushed his teeth over the tiny porcelain sink and banged out the brush. He could hear loud music somewhere outside. He swirled out the sink and turned off the light. The windows were open to the night and he could hear the faint sound of glass breaking, and a brilliant rise of laughter. He passed through the kitchen toward the moonlit table, curious about where the sounds were coming from. The gold-flecked Formica glowed like a pool of milk, the gray shadows of leaves rushing and dallying over its surface like fish.

  The mysterious neighbor’s place up on the hill was lit up like a roadhouse, its windows cranked open. The faint sound of laughter and the clink of drinking reached him over the music. Several cars were parked in the street and the driveway. He noticed a shadow moving nearby in the trees, and then a silver horse emerged and began to cross the road. It was one of the wild ones he had seen in the scrub pasture. One by one, the others followed, appearing silently and moving like spirits. Their backs shone and faded in the moonlight, their varied colors washed to shades of gray. They crossed onto Eagle’s grass as if in a silent movie and walked up to the edge of the paddock, where Pride had been left to roam. JW watched him look up at the wild horses. He took another mouthful of hay, then slowly began to mosey over, his head down and trailing hay strands. When he reached the rail, he lifted his nose to sniff the intruders. Their muted muzzles rubbed and bumped in the moonlight. There was a sudden sharp whinny and Pride lifted his head over one of them. Then, pecking order established, they fell quiet and sniffed each other again. Pride turned and walked back to his hay, and the wild horses walked toward the woods beyond the pole barn and evaporated into the trees.