Rebellion in the Valley

by Robyn Leatherman

  Overhearing the men talking unusually loud, Hailee returned the wheelbarrow to the barn, hanging the fork back in its proper place on the heavy nail on the wall before heading over to all the noise.

  “Whoa! Hold on right there,” she heard one of them shout. “That’s far enough!”

  The water pump for the house had malfunctioned earlier, leaving Richard without any water for cleaning the kitchen up or preparing lunch; Tobias and two others had been attempting to repair the mechanical parts, but as she got closer to the group of men huddled over it, it didn’t sound very promising.

  “The pin fell down in the shaft. We just gotta get another one, simple as that. Who wants to go into Rosita?”

  Glancing over his shoulder, Tobias squinted and held a hand up to his eyes, shielding the sun. “Hey, anyone see Duffy today? That’s what’s missing–I haven’t seen him all day.”

  Richard shook his head. “Didn’t come in for breakfast, so don’t ask me.”

  Tobias had a look of irritation on his face now; spotting Hailee, he nodded his head toward the tack room. “Hey, you wanna run over to Duffy’s area and see if he’s in there? Nobody’s seen him all day and we need an extra pair of hands here.”

  In compliance, Hailee darted over to the tack room, only to find it empty.

  “Dang it,” Tobias mumbled. “When you actually need the man…”

  Hailee glanced down at her dress. “Well, boys, I’m headed inside to clean up some.”

  “Oh, no, you’re not,” Richard replied. “Not with our pump down. Best get to walking down to the creek to clean up. I’ll go up and fetch you a clean dress from your room. Which one do you want?”

  While Richard was upstairs, Tobias and the other men gave opinions about where they figured Duffy might be.

  “All I know is, he’s not here right now and he best have a good reason for disappearing like this. He’s always hiding out in his work room, organizing and doing nothing, if ya ask me,” one of the younger hands offered. “Seems like he always has something to do if a good sweat is gonna be involved.”

  Tobias nodded his head. He understood his work mate's frustration; he’d felt the same way a time or two. His eyes trolled the landscape. Barn, hog pen, vegetable garden, horse arena, outbuildings. Finally, a thought came to Tobias and he snapped his fingers.

  “Hey, what if we’ve been going on and on about Duffman being missing and he’s laid up in his bunkhouse sick or something? Here it is, nearly eleven in the morning, and nobody’s even checked his living quarters. I’ll head on over and check things out,” he offered.

  Tobias only shook his head. “Duffy better be sick, or I just might hurt him,” he grumbled.

  P

  With her left hand, Hailee yanked the soiled dress up and over her ankles, just enough to watch her step. Bared feet stepped into the chilly water and her lips pursed a bit; it had been too long since she her last romp in the creek, she thought.

  One step after the other, Hailee lowered herself toward the center of the rolling waters, allowing its healing weight to ease away both the stall mucking and her sore limbs.

  Eyes shut and face toward the Colorado sunshine, the young woman allowed the crispy coolness to wash over her shoulders and neck. A large boulder serving as a convenient seat gave Hailee her own aquatic throne as she began humming a tune to herself, head swaying ever so much when she realized the cicadas surrounding her had joined in song.

  “I am bound for the Promised Land, I am bound for the Promised Land; oh, who will come and go with me? I am bound for the Promised Land.” Hailee let one of her favorite songs soothe her mind in a different tone as her ears half-way covered with water.

  A lazy grin eased its way across her face as her song began to find its ending, but that grin came to a sharp close when she felt eyes watching her; she’d spent less than twenty minutes in comfort and her initial thought at being disturbed was one of annoyance.

  One eyelid raised very slowly, just in case she had been mistaken and was indeed alone.

  What she saw was a man on a horse. And he stared down at her as she floated in the center of the creek. It was only Duffy, though, so she didn’t budge very far from her comfort zone.

  “Daddy’s been looking for you,” she stated without much feeling behind the words.

  “Yeah? What for? I’ve been tending to business.”

  Hailee shook her head. She had no intention of telling him why her father was looking for him. “Guess you best head on back to the ranch and find out what he needs for yourself,” she told the horseman.

  He offered her a lop-sided grin and asked almost lewdly, “You want some help in there?”

  Taken aback by his most inappropriate question, Hailee refused to allow the man to know he disturbed her either mentally or from her relaxing bath.

  “Nope. I’ve got it handled,” she stood up a bit to let him see she gone in fully clothed.

  “Now why are you bathing with your clothes on? Don’t you have any sense about you anymore?”

  Hailee just snorted and pointed toward the ranch. “If you would have been home earlier, you would know that the water pump went down and I got horse manure on my clothes. Figured it would be easier to see where to clean if I just went in with everything on,” she explained, although she felt he deserved no such courtesy.

  Duffy’s horse whinnied and began making his way toward the creek for a drink.

  “So the pump’s down, huh? What’s that got to do with me, anyhow? I don’t know how to fix that problem.”

  “Just get on back, so I can finish up here, will ya?”

  Duffy pulled his horse from the edge of the creek after it had taken its fill and took too long looking at her, obviously observing the fact that Hailee certainly had grown into young womanhood as she stood in her soaked dress. He grinned far too much as he turned his horse and his own head away from her.

  P

  Just as the men had come to the conclusion that there wouldn’t be any saving the water pump except a new pin set, the elusive Duffy came riding up over the farthest hill toward the ranch.

  “Well, look at what we have here,” Tobias scowled at the man on the horse. “I’ve got half a mind to – “ Bruce put a hand on his shoulder to indicate he would take care of it himself.

  “Not worth it, Tobias. If he’s going to be angry with anyone, it’s best that he take it up with me,” Bruce reasoned. “And besides, I need to tell him a couple of things anyway. I’ll be right back, fellas.”

  The ranch owner walked toward the mounted Duffy, wishing he would have been a little more considerate of everyone else this morning.

  “Morning, Howard. Where ya been off to so early on in the day?”

  Duffy dismounted his Palomino and tipped his hat up a tad. “Been into Rosita. Had some business to take care of, Boss.”

  Nodding in understanding, Bruce held a hand out to the horse, fingers scratching him under his muzzle. “I sure can understand that, but if you don’t mind, maybe next time, would you mind poking your head in the door and letting me know you’ll be gone for a spell? We came across a near-emergency this morning and a couple of extra hands would have made the chores move faster with the animals and all.”

  A look of protest on Duffy’s face, he turned his back on Bruce and acted like he was tending to the horse before speaking up.

  “I had business to tend to,” he repeated.

  “And I understand that. I don’t have a problem with that in itself, we all have personal business to tend to. Any time my workers have needed time away from their duties it’s never been a problem, has it? I’ve never even given it a second thought. I guess I’m just asking that you let me know in advance, that’s all. Tobias thought you might have been sick, so he even went to your bunkhouse to –“

  Duffy’s face shot Bruce a look that he had never seen before. “He didn’t go inside my house, did he?”

  Confused, Bruce answered, “I imagine Tobias probably did knock first, Duffy, b
ut when he didn’t get any response from you, he probably just took a quick peek in–just to make sure –“

  “That’s my living space! I don’t want him nowhere near my place!” Duffy jabbed an angry fist into his palm, his mood changing from not so good to worse.

  Bruce stepped closer to Duffy, aware that he was now invading this man’s personal space and not much caring at this point. Speaking in a serious tone, Bruce started in on the man.

  “Hey, what’s really going on here, Howard? If you have a problem, you best work it out right here, right now. You’re a valued worker on my ranch, no better and no worse than the others. Tobias was concerned about you, believe it or not; but for some reason, it seems like you’ve had a burr on your tail for a while now. I want to know what’s wrong.”

  Duffy’s head reeled.

  What was this talk of him being a common ranch hand? A worker, like all the rest of them?

  “You’ll find out in due time,” was all that Duffy revealed.

  Bruce cocked his head to one side; he had never seen this side of Duffy before, and it made Bruce think hard about how to deal with the new situation he could see brewing.

  “Do you have a problem with me, or with somebody else on the ranch? Because if I can help you, I would like to help get this straightened out.”

  When a couple of uncomfortable minutes had passed, Bruce shook his head, ran a hand through his hair.

  “Look, Duffy. I know you just came from town, but I’m gonna ask that you head back in and sign at the store for a new pin set. We need to get that thing functioning by dark tonight so we can take our leave for the hunt at daybreak. It’s a Coalbrookdale, and we need both the pin and the seal. Just sign for it and tell Jake I’ll send someone in to pay up in a few days. Maybe you can do some more thinking and come back ready to talk to me.”

  Wanting to say something he knew his boss didn’t want to hear, Duffy opted instead to reach for the reigns and hoisted himself up. He gave Bruce one last look before galloping off.

  When Bruce removed the thumbs from his eye sockets, Hailee stood before him, dripping wet and out of breath.

  “What was that all about, Daddy? He’s really starting to worry me.”

  P

  “Dang it all to fiery heck!”

  The look on Duffy’s face told the story of how he felt inside; the words spewing from his mouth filled in any gaps anyone might have had.

  “Why in the world nobody else could have gone into town for these parts is beyond me,” the grumpy man mumbled aloud, although nobody else was around to hear him complain about matters. “Least it gives me the chance to get away for the whole day,” he gave his Palomino a nudging of the boot. Duffy let his eyes settle in on the Lodge poles and remembered when he was a kid, when his folks had prepared a family picnic area under one of those trees on the property they owned. Those days felt like they happened a million years ago.

  As the muscles in Duffy’s jaw tightened with thoughts of being just another one of the common ranch hands, the man flinched in his saddle. A drop of sweat found its way down his temple; the sun overhead reminded him of what he’d seen in the creek earlier; too bad that Tobias was in the way.

  P

  Business in the kitchen had not slowed down very much with the pump being out of commission; if anything, Richard found himself scrambling around even more than usual trying to come up with ideas for lunch and dinner minus the ingredient of water, the task proving to be more difficult than he figured it would be.

  As he piled a few food items on the table, he had to hand it to himself. ‘Not bad, guess we won’t starve after all,’ he thought aloud.

  Sourdough bread from the day before, some cheese and apples, plus the cookies he’d put up a few days earlier. Thank goodness for cows-there would be something wet to wash it all down with.

  The man turned to grab his knife from the oversized canning jar he kept most of his knife collection in and checked the edge of the blade. The cook’s mouth turned up on one side, he frowned, and poked it back into the canning jar. Continuing the search until he pulled out one with a sharp serrated blade, Richard offered the loaves of bread a satisfied grin and began to work on slicing them up for the cheese sandwiches he planned on serving. Out of the corner of his eye, a blonde-headed girl caught his attention when she entered with one of her books, walking without bumping into anything as her eyes never even left the printed pages.

  “Hi, Richard,” she offered without looking up. “What are you doing?” Finishing the chapter, Hailee pressed the open book to her chest and sighed. “Sometimes my stories just pull me in and I forget where I’m at. Can you imagine living in Ireland or walking on a real beach?”

  “I’ve never been outside America, but when I was a kid, my grandmother lived in California, and I got to spend a whole summer at her house. We went to the beach every single weekend,” he reflected.

  “No kidding,” she perked up, tugging the book even closer to her bosom. “That must have been wonderful! What do you remember the most?”

  His nose sniffed the air. “The smell, to tell you the truth. It didn’t really smell very good.”

  Hailee’s head cocked to the side. “You’re kidding me.”

  Handing her a platter of sliced bread, Richard motioned for her to lay a dishtowel over it. “No, it smelled terrible! Like rotting fish and old socks,” he laughed. “If you think the stalls smell bad, multiply that a few times over and toss in a bushel of old fish to boot.”

  Almost on cue, Tobias opened the door and stepped in, running a hand through his hair after he removed his hat. “We’re having fish tonight? When did you go fishin' without me?” he teased his favorite gal.

  Richard grunted. “No fish. Someone’s been reading, not fishing. But it sounds like a good idea if anyone wants to load me up with a basketful,” he hinted with wiggling eyebrows.

  “It’ll probably have to wait til we get back from that cat hunt,” came the reply. “I think I’ll spend the rest of the night getting ready to be gone for a few days.”

  The sad droop in Hailee’s posture didn’t go unnoticed.

  “Speaking of getting things done, the water pump is a big deal; that’s gotta be the first thing we get situated before we can even think about leaving. Doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen today, either, the way Duffy’s taking his ever-lovin sweet time getting back with that pin and seal,” he tapped his fingers on the counter top. “I’ll get on it first thing in the morning, unless by some miracle the man slinks back in before dark.”

  Hailee frowned and opened her mouth to say something about the creepy way Duffy had looked at her and the rude manner he’d spoken to her earlier, but after recognizing that look on Tobias’ face, she opted to keep her thoughts to herself.

  ‘Guess I better not add even more kindling to this campfire,’ she reasoned.

  “Chin up, we won’t be gone that long,” Tobias promised, thinking her facial expressions reflected her feelings about her father leaving. “And if we’re lucky, the cat won’t work us over too bad,” he teased.

  “Ha ha. Not funny.”

  Richard’s knife sliced through a few peeled potatoes, creating vegetable circles. When the pile grew big enough for his taste, the taters found their way into a cast iron skillet he’d already prepared with hot bacon grease.

  Speaking a bit louder to be heard over the potatoes crisping in the skillet, Richard reached over for the bag of salt and asked Hailee to refill his containers.

  P

  Standing in front of the man holding the smoking branding iron, Duffy pulled his wallet out. “So what’s this gonna set me back?”

  “Well, you threw the shoe pretty clean, so it shouldn’t be too bad. If you want to go grab yourself a bite to eat down there at the saloon, I bet I’ll be done by the time you get back. We can settle up then,” he confirmed.

  Duffy stuffed the wallet back in his pocket and nodded. “See ya in a bit, then.”

  The heavy wooden door creaked
when his shoulder shoved against it, and then the whiff of roast beef and chicken hit him. On his way to the bar at the back of the room, and with boots clacking against the old planked floor, Duffy gave a nod to a couple of men he knew as he strutted by them.

  The sign above the bar had been repainted since he’d been in the last time; it was easier to read now. A bit for a drink of beer, two bits for a drink of whiskey, unless you order food. Five cents with paid meal.

  Duffy was absolutely going to eat.

  He didn’t have the chance to eat twice in town in the same day, but maybe once a year. He aimed to take advantage of the situation; and once those mine shares paid off, he would be doing this more often, maybe even paying for a meal or two here and there for someone else. A grin emerging across his face, Duffy leaned back a bit in his chair and figured he might as well give the folks a little preview of what was to come.

  Once the saloon owner’s wife waddled to the table with his bread and cold roast beef, she wiped her hands on the pale blue apron tied about her thick waist.

  “Want anything with your beer? We have some cheese and salt pickles,” she offered.

  He glanced down at his plate. “Well,” he rubbed his chin. “Sure! I’ll take some,” he told the woman. Reaching down for a bit of meat and bread, he wasted no time shoving it in.

  Glass platter nearly licked clean, Duffy flipped four bits on the table. “You can keep the change,” let the woman know.

  Duffy pushed his hat back enough to get a good look at the sky; he figured it was time to head on over to the store to pick up the pin and seal. Sure as anything, Bruce would be waiting to get that pump going again. Not that he could blame the man, but he did feel the stab of resentment of being the go-get-it person instead of someone else. A younger man who hadn’t put in as many years as he had, for instance.

  Or better yet, how about that danged Tobias?

  P

  Richard gave one more glance into the sink filled with dirty dishes, thankful there weren’t any more than that. He knew that once he finally had some warm water to suds up with his lye soap, he would first have to let them soak an hour before he could scrub them down. ‘Dried-on egg is a beast’, he grumbled without anyone hearing him. Just as the older man turned around, he heard the sound of Hailee laughing outside.