by JL Curtis
Francisco broke in, “Matt, I think she lives not too far from where you are going to be stationed. I think Encinitas, Escondido, something like that.”
The old man just sat drinking coffee and watching the dancers, he noticed that Jesse had finally convinced Aaron to try some line dances, and they were both laughing. They made a good couple.
At six-feet-plus Aaron topped Jesse’s height by four or five inches, and he obviously loved her. Couldn’t ask for much more, whether he realized it or not. Glancing over at Matt, the old man thought he and Felicia were an interesting pair: Matt looked like a Viking berserker, holding Felicia like she was a little Spanish doll and he was going to break her; that got him chuckling.
Jesse turned the stereo down and all four of them came over. Jesse turned to Matt and Aaron. “Eduardo and Rosa are going to do the Hat Dance, and that will be the last dance. They’re married and actually professional dancers, but tonight it’s for fun! Since I don’t think y’all know the history, it’s pretty much the representative dance of Mexico now, and represents the courtship of a man and a woman, with the woman first rejecting the man’s advances, and then eventually accepting them. Now, Rosa is wearing the most traditional outfit is called the China Poblana: the blouse and skirt combination is named after a woman from India who came to Mexico on a ship in the early 19th century. Why China? I dunno. But the Asian dress was adapted in the State of Puebla, with the skirt now heavily embroidered. The traditional outfit for men is that of the charro, generally heavily decorated in silver trim; and Eduardo’s using the traditional real silver Conchos that have been in his family for years.”
After the dance, everyone started packing up and picking up, and the old man bid everyone a good evening and thanked them for coming. The ladies quickly and efficiently fixed the twenty-five plates for the sheriff to take back to the station, and everything else went into the fridges or freezers based on Juanita’s direction. By midnight, everything was pretty much done, with the exception of the tables, and the old man gave Jose Ramos a check for his help and profuse thanks for doing the cooking.
Juanita finished cleaning the kitchen and poured one more cup of coffee as everyone filtered off to bed. Sitting down, she realized it had been a long day. Thinking back, Juanita remembered her first days here, not knowing if Francisco was going to live or not; then being offered a place to live and a new life. She had first thought that it was just out of pity, but now she knew it was really a partnership.
When Amy died, she’d become the de facto mother to Jesse. She’d been worried about Jesse and her finding a good man, but now after meeting Aaron and watching him for a couple of days, she was feeling a lot better. Both Matt and Aaron were a lot like John, the depth of character proven on the battlefield didn’t show unless you knew what you were looking for; but both of them had it in spades. Aaron was almost as quiet as John, and it was funny to watch him try to figure out situations. She thought he probably hadn’t had any siblings and probably wasn’t real good at personal interactions.
And Jesse liked to poke him, but she was doing it both because she’s truly in love and because she was testing him. Just like I did with Francisco those many years ago in Guadalajara, Juanita thought. Yes, I think they’ve made the commitment, even if neither of them realizes it just yet.
Finishing her coffee, Juanita made her way quietly out the door to her and Francisco’s little house deciding all the work had been worth it after all.
13 Practice
Breakfast Sunday morning was done and on the table before Matt and Aaron made it out of bed and to the kitchen; both of them felt the night’s exercise. When they came in they were laughed at by everyone else, and they both noticed that everyone wore shirts, pants and boots and pistols this morning. They helped themselves to the bacon, eggs, biscuits and sausage, along with coffee and orange juice before sitting down.
Sipping his coffee Matt asked, “Is there something I’m missing? Did somebody forget to tell us something last night?”
Juanita laughed. “But of course, today is training day. Every Sunday morning we go shoot for practice.”
Aaron looked over a Jesse. “Where is this? Or is this something else you didn’t tell me about?”
Jesse stuck her tongue out at Aaron. “Well, we are going to go shoot, you can stay here and be lazy; and honestly, I never even thought about it. So there…”
The old man looked over at Matt. “We have a little course we run. Then, shoot some steels, then do some rifle work. It was Francisco’s turn to set targets this morning, so it’ll be fairly easy; when Juanita does it, you’re gonna have to work for it!”
“A course?”
“Yeah, the range is down in the creek bottom behind the corrals about fifty yards, so we put some targets on the trail, just for practice purposes, then when you get down to the bottom, we’ve got some steels at various ranges and the calliope. Francisco will bring down a couple of rifles so we can work them too. Speaking of which, you guys have eyes and ears?”
“A calliope? Yep, eyes and ears sir.” Aaron nodded around a mouthful of biscuit.
And everybody except Matt and Aaron burst out laughing. “You’ll have to see it first,” Jesse said. “Then it will make sense.”
After breakfast, Matt and Aaron changed into utilities and boots and both dug out thigh holsters for their Glocks as well as their eye and ear protection.
Trooping down to the back corral, they sat at the picnic table just behind the corral gate as Francisco gave everyone a safety brief and told them how many targets were set up. Today, it was nine targets, and he said the calliope was on and set at five seconds. The old man told Matt to follow him and for Aaron to follow Jesse to see the set up, and explained that one person ran it at a time, then came back and patched their targets; when they were back at the bench, the next person went.
The old man got up and motioned to Matt saying, “Stay about five yards behind me, that way you can see what I’m doing and I don’t have to worry about your inadvertently getting into my field of fire. Eyes and ears.”
Matt nodded, slipping his ear protection muffs down and adjusting his glasses. Out of habit, Matt reached down and hit his timer as the old man took off at a slow jog, quickly dropping down into the arroyo that formed the creek bottom. His first shot surprised Matt, as he wasn’t really looking at the terrain, but realized the old man had never stopped, just acquiring, drawing and firing in one smooth motion then reholstering on the run. Matt looked closely after that and decided all the targets were IDPA[14] targets and some of them were damn well concealed in the brush at ranges from six feet to probably ten yards. Thirty seconds later they came out on a bench by the creek with an old rock building and a metal contraption sitting there.
Suddenly, the old man drew and fired five shots and Matt realized it was a mechanical steel target resetting machine as the six fallen steels dropped down and reappeared upright. Five seconds later, they disappeared and reappeared randomly about ten seconds later.
Matt looked down at his watch, forty-five seconds for the whole run; and now he understood how the old man and Jesse had beaten them at the sniper shoot. They did this all the time, so it was nothing new!
The old man pulled his ears out, turned to Matt and said, “Let’s go patch some targets, that sneaky sumbitch put one in the ‘y’ in that cottonwood and I damn near missed it. Sometimes when Juanita is wanting to screw with us, she’ll dress them in t-shirts or camo shirts and it takes forever to find the damn things.”
Matt just shook his head saying, “I never saw the first target you shot and I only picked one out the same time you did, the rest I was playing catch-up! And now I see why you call it a calliope!”
Walking back up the trail, the old man patched each target as he came to it, and Matt noted that all but one target was a head shot. Shaking his head, he concluded his thoughts in West Virginia were dead on: this was one old man not to mess with!
When they got back to the top, it was Aa
ron and Jesse’s turn. Knowing what was coming, Matt hit his watch as they started, and forty-two seconds later the last of six quick shots sounded. They came back to the picnic table and Aaron was shaking his head. “I’ll be damned, that almost looks like one of our training scenarios, but a lot harder. I think I saw three maybe four of those targets! And Jesse hit em all in the head except one!”
Juanita got up and adjusted her ears, turning to Francisco she asked, “You want to watch me shoot?”
Feigning fear, Francisco shook his head. “No, I don’t need to be scared any more than I already am.”
Juanita stuck her tongue out at him and went down the trail. Forty-five seconds later Matt heard a quick six shots and then a seventh ten seconds later.
Coming back up the trail, Juanita stomped over to Francisco. “You are sleeping on the couch you sonnabitch. You know I can’t see over that damn log… Arghhh… And I wasn’t sure on the sixth steel, so I shot it again.”
“Matt, Aaron, y’all want to give it a try?” The old man asked.
Aaron shrugged. “Sure, nothing like embarrassing myself here… Not the first time and won’t be the last.” He got up from the table and walked over to the head of the trail, set his ears and looked at Jesse. “You want to come laugh at me?”
Jesse just smiled and shook her head. “Nope. I’m going to sit here and drink coffee.”
Aaron rolled his eyes, hit his watch and started down the trail. Sixty-two seconds later and two additional shots on the steels ended his run. Back up the trail he sat on the bench and said, “Well, one thing’s for damn sure, these thigh holsters aren’t worth a shi… er… crap for something like this. I tried once to reholster and damn near missed the second target. The rest of the damn time I just carried the pistol.”
Matt got up without a word, set his ears, slapped his watch and went down the trail. Fifty-eight seconds later his last shot sounded. A couple of minutes later he was back at the top. “Yeah, Aaron’s right, but when you add in the other crap we’re carrying, a hip rig just doesn’t work either.” Poking at Aaron he said, “At least I didn’t miss any of the steels.”
Everybody laughed and the old man stood up, handed the thermos of coffee to Francisco and said, “We’ll walk down and pick up targets, meet you at the bottom.”
Francisco nodded and took off on the ATV, as the others walked down the trail. The old man and Jesse pulled down the targets as they worked their way down the arroyo. At the bottom they walked to the old rock building and the old man collected the targets and put them in the inside.
Aaron and Matt both stuck their heads in and realized this must have been a pump house at one time. Noticing them behind him, the old man turned. “This was maybe the first building on the site, we’re not really sure, but it’s been shot at more than once. It was turned into a pump house sometime after the old house up the arroyo was built, and until the 60s this was where they got water from.
The creek is part of an artesian spring, and some of the only reliable water within fifteen or twenty miles. I think that is why this was the original homestead section, and one of the quickest ways to prove it up, was to build a place to live, that qualified back in the day. I can remember as a little kid, there was still a pump in the kitchen of the old house, and you could pump water up from the creek directly into the kitchen.”
Walking out and shutting the door, he went over to a covered bench sitting behind the house. “Okay, let’s shoot these poodle shooters and call it a day. Matt, Aaron, there are steels out there at 100, 200 and 300 yards. Jesse, why don’t you and Aaron start off. I think you guys are familiar with these things.”
Aaron walked over to the bench and checking safe, picked up the AR-15 that was laying there. It was configured almost identically to the one he’d carried in combat, lacking only the combined laser/light combo. Rolling it over, he glanced at the fire/safe and realized there was a third position. “Hey, this is a full auto, this is a damn M-16!”
Jesse, grinning said, “Actually it’s an M-16 A2 that has been re-barreled with a sixteen inch upper with ARMS rails, and it’s got the MAGPUL tactical butt stocks. Papa has all the original pieces and parts up in the safe for them, but we’re authorized them and have been since, what 1998, Papa?”
“Yep,” the old man answered. “Ever since the North Hollywood shootout. The decision was made by the sheriff to upgrade our ‘inventory’ and since we’ve got the Army close, we were able to get some M-16s off them as permanent loans, and the Army ran all of us deputies through their qualifications course. Actually, most of us deputies carried something heavier than an 870 in our cars anyway, because of the time required for a backup to get here. Hell, I carried an M-1 in the trunk for years! Now shoot!”
Jesse and Aaron proceeded to ding the steels with every shot, and Aaron proved to be the better shot with the M-16, as he had a lot more time on them than Jesse, so he was smiling when they finished the magazine.
Matt and Francisco stepped up to the line, and both ran through a magazine each, Matt suddenly realized Francisco was shooting three-round bursts, and every round was impacting the steels. There was apparently more to Francisco that met the eye, because that skill and accuracy was not something that one just picked up.
Stepping away, and watching the old man and Juanita shoot, Matt asked, “Francisco, you’ve done that before I take it?”
Nodding Francisco answered, “I was trained in the Mexican military.” Turning away he went to retrieve the gun cases for the rifles as the old man and Juanita finished up. Matt guessed he’d touched a nerve of some type, and vowed not to follow up or ask any more questions.
Walking back up the arroyo, Matt realized that it was true; a family who shoots together stays together, and this family could damn sure shoot!
After the guns were cleaned and placed on the bench in back of the house, Jesse went to her room to get a nap and Aaron decided to do the same. Francisco and Juanita went to church and the old man spent some time doing bills and working on the computer.
Matt sat in the living room, casually flipping through channels on the TV, thinking back over the last six months. At the sniper shoot, when he first saw the old man with that old rifle, he was sure it was going to be a clown act at the sniper shoot. But meeting Mr. Cronin and talking to him opened my eyes and I’m still amazed at how damn accurate the old man is. And Jesse, God what I wouldn’t have given to find somebody like her, he thought.
14 Riding the Range
The old man came into the living room stretching his back, “Hey, Matt, you want to go for a ride? As in horses? I need to check on the stock up on the North 40.”
Matt got up. “Sure, as long as it’s not a bucking bronco. I haven’t ridden in a few years.”
They went out and saddled up, and the old man reminded Matt to carry his pistol. “Better safe than sorry and we do get snakes out here.”
While Matt went back to grab his pistol and holster, the old man grabbed two personal radios out of the rack and his MT1200 police radio. When Matt came back, he handed one of the personal radios to him. “We use channel five, but in an emergency come up channel nine and hopefully somebody will hear you.”
Mounting up and with Rex trailing alongside, they trotted out of the ranch yard and toward the North 40.
As they rode along in a companionable silence, Matt’s thoughts churned. I’m staying in a house with real history, with folks that actually are good folks, what they call the salt of the earth. I’m pretty sure they are millionaires, probably several times over, but you wouldn’t know it to look at either of them. And he’s been a Deputy Sheriff for thirty years, when he damn sure didn’t have to be, and Jesse is the proverbial girl next door, but I don’t think most girls next door shoot as well as she does. I’m glad she and Aaron hit it off, Aaron is truly a good kid; well, good man. And after last night, not to mention their interactions with Francisco and Juanita, it’s obvious there is a lot of cross respect between the Hispanic community and the Ang
los down here. Sure not the way it’s portrayed on TV or in the east coast papers. Sure not what I saw growing up in Virginia and the Carolinas. It’s times like this I really miss the folks; at least that damn drunk went to jail for killing them. And I wish I’d had the balls to ask Felicia where she lived and for her phone number.
About twenty minutes later, the old man stopped and gave Matt a quick rundown on the section and what he was looking for. As hard as it was for Matt to believe, they could only run between fifty and sixty longhorns on that much acreage, but the old man explained it was due to the lack of grass and water he said it took about eight to ten acres to keep one cow healthy.
As they rode along, Matt realized it had been a long time since he’d ridden as his thighs started complaining. But he also realized he was up on a real cow horse, as this horse responded to every command and pressure.
Looking down at the saddle he was riding, he noticed there were plenty of scars on the horn and pommel, which meant it was a roping saddle that had seen some use. He also noticed the old man had a rope or lasso or whatever it was called looped through a thong on his saddle horn, and he had a Winchester in a scabbard under his knee. Shaking his head, he decided he’d better stop daydreaming and pay attention.
Pulling up on a bench above the creek, the old man pointed down toward the creek, “Hear that bell, Matt?”
Matt had wondered what he was hearing, but now understood. “Yep, I thought my hearing was going for a while there.”
“That’s old Bessie, when we need to move the cows for one reason or another, like moving them to a different pasture, we go dig her out of the brush, and the rest of the cows follow her. Good thing she’s pretty even tempered, cause she’s a big ‘un.”
About that time, Matt saw Bessie walking out of the brush and saw how big she was. “My God, how big a spread are those horns?”
The old man laughed. “About six feet the one time I measured them, and she’d go about 2000 pounds on the hoof.”
