Beneath the Tombstone (The Tombstone Series)

by Martin Cogburn

  “Time to start the day,” a voice opened the door and called in.

  Jason opened his eyes and sat up. He couldn’t have been asleep for more than a few minutes. The door slammed back closed and Jason grabbed his phone to check the time. Five a.m. is what it read. He had been asleep for a good seven or eight hours. It sure didn’t feel like it. He sighed as he lay back down. The sleepless nights that he had encountered over the past few days had taken their toll on him. Another few minutes, and he would be set to face the day.

  A noise from inside the shack drew Jason back out of his slumber. Snatching up his phone, he looked at it. Five thirty! His heart began to race. Not a good way to start off the first day!

  It was then that he saw Tyler heading from the other side of the room towards the door… and he was carrying some of Jason’s things! “What are you doing?” Jason yelled out as he bounced from the spring loaded bed, causing it to call out its protest loudly.

  Dressed in a tee-shirt and shorts, Jason chased the cowboy out the door. With a clunk and a clang, Jason’s things were being carelessly thrown into the bed of his truck, which he’d left parked near the shack overnight.

  “What, what are you doing? Jason yelled again.

  “Loadin’ your things,” Tyler said calmly as he walked back past Jason and into the house without looking at him.

  Jason chased him back in and was about to log another protest when the cowboy began to kindly explain, “You just go back to bed. I’ll load your things and when you think you’ve gotten enough sleep, go home.”

  “Go home?” Jason was confused. “Why?” he asked, and the desperation of his situation was evident in his voice.

  “Yesterday I said you either do as I say or go home,” Tyler spoke firmly as he turned around to face Jason. “Thirty minutes ago, I told you to get up, and you didn’t… so now you go home.”

  “I’m up. I’m up,” Jason shouted desperately as Tyler went back to his task of moving him out.

  “Jason,” Tyler said, and his tone hinted he was doing his best to be patient, “I’m sorry for what happened to you. I really am. But this training is going to take an undying sense of dedication, and I don’t smell that on you. If you can’t accomplish a task as simple as getting out of bed when I tell you to, there is no way you can handle the things to come.”

  “Hey man, I’m sorry,” Jason pleaded as he stopped in the door and watched helplessly as the cowboy chunked more of his things into the bed of his truck. “I really am. What I did was stupid, and I won’t let it happen again… I promise.”

  Tyler paused from his mission and propped his arms over the edge of Jason’s truck bed. With his back turned, he stood there for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. Finally, he turned back slowly. “Okay, I’ll give you one more chance,” he spoke slowly. “That’s something I very rarely do, but others have done it for me, so here it is. Don’t waste it.”

  “I won’t, sir,” Jason spoke rapidly and with all sincerity. “What do you want me to do now?”

  Tyler pointed to all the stuff in the bed of Jason’s truck as he spoke, “Get all your stuff inside.” He paused for a moment then gruffly added, “I thought I told you to do that last night.”

  What in the world? Jason had just watched the horseman completely destroy half of his property in the process of moving it from the shed to the back of his truck. And to make things worse, the horseman knew he’d done it and he knew that Jason knew he’d done it, yet he still acted like the mess was due to Jason’s negligence.

  “I had it all…” Jason started to say but realized that it might not be in his best interest as Tyler turned back around with an I-dare-you look in his eyes.

  “I mean, I will have it all inside in just a bit,” Jason corrected.

  “Meet me down at the saddle shed in five minutes,” Tyler ordered then disappeared into the pre-dawn darkness.

  Jason ran in with a load of his things and looked at his phone beside the bed then, with no more carefulness than what had been used to load his stuff, Jason unloaded it all, threw it back into the shack, jumped into his clothes, flung his coat on and raced down the hill to the horse barns. He spotted Tyler up ahead under one of the barn lights, saddling a horse. Jason pulled out his phone to check the time. Four minutes. Yes! He made it.

  “Slow down,” a voice from the darkness ordered.

  Jason skidded to a halt and said, “I just didn’t want to be any later than I already am.”

  “Well, you’ll be doing a lot of running over the next few weeks, so save your legs, plus, if you run up and spook one of them colts he’s saddling, you may wind up hanging from a tree by your feet.”

  “He does that a lot, huh?” Jason asked.

  “Nope,” Rye responded quietly, the distant light picking up his features as he approached “that’s the first time I’ve ever seen that stunt, but don’t worry… he’s got lots more.”

  As they made their way over to Tyler, Rye handed Jason a burrito wrapped in foil. “Breakfast,” he spoke. “You’d better eat it quick.”

  Jason was starved. That can of beans from last night was long gone, so he was grateful for the instructions to do exactly what he wanted to do… wolf his food down. He took a big bite, and his eyes lit up. “This burrito is delicious,” he managed to exclaim with a full mouth. “Who made it?”

  “I did,” came Rye’s casual reply. “My mother taught me how to cook.”

  “Well, you tell her she did a good job,” Jason completed.

  Rye’s face set into a hard line, and he didn’t respond or acknowledge Jason’s praise. Jason, unsure of what he’d said wrong, quickly finished the burrito while he waited close by, watching Tyler saddle the horses.

  “Let me show you your job,” Tyler instructed as he finished tightening the cinch on one of the colts. He led the way over to an empty wheel-barrel that had one of the weird looking shovel things sitting in it. “This is a poop scoop,” he said as he picked it up. “You’ll get to know it real well before you leave here.”

  “Okay,” Jason said willing, “but when does my training begin?”

  “Now,” Tyler responded as he handed the cleaning tool to Jason.

  “You’re task is simple,” Tyler spoke as he led the way along the stalls, pushing the wheel-barrel. “Scoop up the manure and leave the sand and wood-shavings.” He came to a stop at the far end of the barn. “See that big wagon-like contraption over there?” he asked, pointing towards a piece of equipment barely visible on the outer edge of the light.

  “Yes sir,” Jason replied.

  “It’s called a manure spreader. Put manure in it then hook up to it with the tractor and spread it over the fields for fertilize.” Made sense to Jason. “When you get a wheel-barrel full, push it to the top of that ramp,” he indicated towards a metal frame sloping up to the top of the spreader. “You’ll want to get a good run at it, or you won’t make it to the top. But be careful. As a matter of fact, on your first few trips, I wouldn’t fill it up completely. That way you’ll get a chance to get the hang of it.”

  Get the hang of it? Was he serious? Jason was going to be shoveling up horse dung, and Tyler thought he could mess that up? Did he need to get a degree in poop scooping first? Of course, these thoughts never left his lips. He’d just have to show the horseman that he wasn’t as dumb as he was thought to be.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Jason assured the cowboy. “Then what?”

  “Get this done then we’ll worry about ‘then what,’” Tyler ordered as he was walking away. “Oh,” he added on second thought, “don’t let any of the horses out. They’re pretty sneaky and always looking for a chance to escape.”

  - - - - - -

  Jason wiped the sweat from his brow and smiled down at the brimming-full wheel-barrel load of horse manure. Tyler had said take it slow and get the hang of it. Please. There was just too little trust being placed in Jason’s abilities for his liking. It was time to change all of that.

  He lined up on
his goal, which was the top of the manure spreader, and charged the several yards towards it. He hit the ramp and… uh-oh, he was losing momentum – fast. The load stalled halfway up the ramp, and his foot slipped on the slick metal. Then Jason, the wheel-barrel and its contents all came crashing down in a big green heap.

  Jason leapt to his feet, brushed the manure from his clothes and quickly glanced around, hoping no one had seen. No such luck. Tyler had been trotting a horse around inside a nearby round pen from which he had witnessed the whole thing. He just shook his head as he trotted by again, an I-told-you-so look written all over his face.

  An embarrassed and humbled version of Jason began quickly shoveling the load back into the wheel-barrel. He knew what his problem had been. He hadn’t gotten far enough back – needed more of a run at it. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. With the wheel-barrel brimming-full once more, he backed up as far as possible, which was a good thirty yards, and charged full throttle. He hit the ramp and didn’t slow down… not even when he got to the top. Like water over a cliff, he did a nose dive into the half-filled manure spreader. Jason fought his way to his feet and, as he rose in triumph over his addition to the manure spreader, he cast a quick glance over at the round pen. Both Tyler and Rye were sitting atop their horses, having halted to watch the show. Huge grins were spread across their faces as they chuckled and shook their heads at Jason’s stunt.

  “We’ll keep him around for entertainment purposes if for nothing else,” Jason overheard Tyler say to Rye, and they both laughed as they nudged their horses up into a trot.

  After the two embarrassing episodes, Jason decided to take Tyler’s advice and empty his cart before he got it completely full. It was almost noon when he finally finished cleaning the stalls. He had thought it would take far less time than that. He went and retrieved his coat from the stall door he’d hung it on and made his way over towards the saddle shed where Rye was unsaddling a colt that was so sweaty it looked like it had been ridden by Paul Revere. Jason wasn’t sure what kind of operation this was, but they sure did seem to go through a lot of horses. He’d seen them wash off and tie up at least ten since the morning began.

  Approaching Rye, he decided to see if he could get an answer to his question. “What are y’all doing that wears out so many horses? Y’all must be working a lot of cattle.”

  Rye smiled politely. “Actually the opposite is true. We’re not using the horses to work the cattle; we’re using the cattle to work the horses.” Seeing the confusion in Jason’s eyes, the young man continued. “All these horses,” he made a broad sweeping gesture to the horses tied out along the pipe fences, “they’re cutting horses.” Jason had no idea what that was. Rye saw that the lack of understanding was still apparent in Jason’s eyes, so he added. “When we’re finished training them, we’ll be able to sort a cow from the herd, drop our hand and let the horse take over, keeping the cow away from the others on its own.”

  That sounded really cool, but how could two grown men spend all day teaching a bunch of horses tricks? It sounded fun, but Jason couldn’t see how that paid the bills. “I don’t want to sound ignorant, but why do y’all do that?” he asked, still as confused as ever.

  “What you’re really asking is how can we afford to do that, right?” Tyler asked as he rode up behind Jason.

  “Well, um, yeah,” Jason admitted, turning and looking up at the tall cowboy sitting horseback.

  “While cutting horses are fun they are also big business,” Tyler explained. “People pay us good money to keep their horses here to train.”

  “So you guys don’t own any of these horses?” Jason asked, thinking he was beginning to understand.

  “Only a few,” Tyler responded. “Most of these horses are two and three year olds being trained for the Futurity that takes place at the end of every year down in Texas. Some of the better bred horses here cost more than you mortgage.”

  Wow. Now Jason understood both the why and the how of what these guys did. “I finished cleaning out all the stalls,” he stated matter-of-factly.

  “I saw that,” the tall cowboy stated. “Looks like you did a pretty decent job… once you figured out how to get the manure in the manure spreader, that is,” he added, grinning. Jason gave a sheepish smile. The ribbing was duly earned.

  “Wait while we unsaddle these two then we’ll go up to the house and get something to eat,” Tyler instructed as he stepped down from his horse. “After lunch, I’ll get you to go around and clean out all the water buckets. Once you finish that and fill ‘em back up, it’ll probably be about time to do the evenin’ feedin’. We feed every mornin’ at five and every evenin’ at five. You missed it this morning’, but I’ll show you what to do this evenin’… Tomorrow morning, it’s all yours.”

  Jason stood by and watched as the horses were unsaddled and washed off before being tied to the fence, out of kicking range from one another. Once they got inside the ranch house, Tyler and Rye began sticking half full dishes into the oven.

  “We always cook twice as much as we’ll eat, every evening,” Tyler explained, “that way we’ll have enough to just warm up for lunch.”

  Whoever had cooked supper the night before had done an excellent job because just the leftovers from it were delicious. Shortly after eating, Jason found himself back out in the barns, cleaning out water-buckets and refilling them. He was determined to beat the amount of time Tyler had said it should take for him to complete the task.

  Jason finished cleaning out and filling up the last bucket ten minutes before four. Yes! He had beaten the time by over an hour. With a delighted-in-himself grin, he walked out to where the men were doctoring a few sick claves to announce his victory.

  “Already done, huh?” Tyler asked, seeing him approach.

  “Yep,” Jason said, about as proud as a strutting turkey. “Thought I might run up to the house and rest a bit until five. Is that okay with you?”

  “I’m okay with part of your idea,” Tyler said with a gleam in his eye. “The part where you said you’d run.” He turned to the young cowboy and asked, “You got things under control here?”

  “You bet,” Rye responded. “Y’all go have fun.”

  Tyler swung into the saddle and, as he trotted past Jason, he said, “Follow me.”

  Follow him? Was he serious? Jason would have to practically run to keep up, but remembering the results of not following an order first thing that morning, Jason obeyed.

  He had no idea where they were going. Tyler took the trail that led up towards the shack that Jason was staying in. It wasn’t until they got to it that Jason realized the trail actually went further. The horseman didn’t even slow down – just trotted right on by.

  The trail fell away down a steep hill, and at the bottom of it, small cliffs were on all sides. Jason began to get excited. He was fixing to learn how to climb! But again, to his dismay, the horse and rider never slowed. Tyler didn’t even seem to notice the cliffs. He just nudged his horse into a lope and headed up the narrow trail that led out the other side.

  “Come on, Jason,” he instructed. “Don’t make me wait on you. We don’t have much time. Gotta be back to the barn to feed in an hour.”

  Jason dug deep, found a little more speed, and charged up the trail behind the man who sat easily upon his horse, the trip costing him little to no effort, whatsoever. Sweat began to pour. Jason was feeling nauseous. Just when he thought he would crumple to the ground from exertion, Tyler slowed his horse to a walk.

  “Let’s give my horse a minute to catch her breath,” Tyler said. “I don’t want to wear her out.”

  “Where,” Jason huffed from behind, “we going?”

  “You’ll see when we get there,” Tyler responded flatly.

  Soon, he returned to his original pace of trotting and loping his way down the trail. They kept this pace up, switching from walking to running every few minutes, for most of the next hour. Finally, Tyler stopped and said, “Here we are.”

  Ja
son couldn’t see what they had traveled so far to look at because the horse was in his way, but as he began making his way around the critter, he knew one thing for sure. It had better be good. What he saw took his breath away. “The ranch?” he asked in disbelief as he gazed out at the barns and shed they had left behind an hour earlier. “We went through all of that to look at what we’ve already seen?”

  “Yeah,” Tyler replied proudly, “but this is from the other side.”

  Jason sat down on the ground shaking from exhaustion. He chuckled and shook his head. “Is that the shortest way you know?” he asked the big cowboy sarcastically.

  “Nope,” was the response, “but it’s my favorite.” With that, the horse and rider began making their way over towards the ranch at a slow walk. “Come on,” Tyler instructed. “It’s time to feed the horses.”

  That evening, Jason sat at the table in the ranch house and dozed off a few times as the two cowboys fixed dinner. As soon as he finished eating, he thanked the men for the meal and made his way up to his shed. The picture of Jason and Misty together on their wedding day had somehow survived the beating it had been given earlier that morning. Now, he gently took it out and placed it on the table beside his phone which had its alarm set for fifteen minutes before five in the morning. The bed gave out a loud creak as he flopped down on top of it. He was sound asleep moments after his head hit the pillow.

  The next morning, Jason was up and getting ready when Tyler stuck his head in the door. “Good, you’re up,” he said with a satisfied nod.

  Jason fed that morning, cleaned stalls until lunch, and then did odds and ends until it was time to do a lap, following Tyler around the trail before the evening feeding. Several days passed by in this manner… then a week. Time soon became a blurred rhythm of working eating and sleeping. Up at five, feed, clean stalls, eat, work, run, feed, eat again, go to bed then get up and do it all over again.