“Was it something I said?” Susan asked out of concern as she turned to Jason.
“Not what you said,” Jason answered quietly. He looked down at Ken before nodding for Susan to step away out of earshot from the boy.
Once out of the hearing of little ears, Jason spoke, “I said something that sounded a lot like the question Ken asked when I first meet Tyler. He got kind of defensive… made him downright mad is what it did.” He looked for a moment at Susan’s questioning face before he bluntly added, “I think he really did shoot somebody.” Susan’s head bobbed back, like she couldn’t believe it, prompting Jason to pose a question. “How else would you explain the way he reacted?”
“He just doesn’t seem like the killer type,” Susan said, defending the image of Tyler she seemed to have drawn in her mind.
“Sometimes good people make mistakes,” Jason said quietly.
Susan gave a gentle chuckle. “You’re starting to sound like me,” she said with a smile, drawing an amused laugh from Jason.
Leaving things in the more than capable hands of Susan, Jason headed towards the saddle shed. Tyler and Rye had several horses tied to a fence by the shed and were busy brushing them down.
Tyler looked up at Jason. “While you’re just running around and cleaning stalls, you can wear whatever you want,” he said in normal conversation tone, “just as long as it’s not too weird, but when you get on a horse, there’s a dress code you gotta meet.” He gave Jason a smug smile as he added, “Go back up to your shed. Should be some clothes up there that’ll work for you.”
Not sure what the big cowboy meant, Jason headed back up to his shack. What he found inside astounded him. Four or five pairs of button down, long sleeve cowboy style shirts lay on his bed with blue jean pants and a belt placed beside them. On the floor by the bed sat a pair of boots with spurs on them. A cowboy hat hung on top of one boot. The pants and shirts looked worn, but everything else appeared to be brand new.
Miraculously, the clothes, boots, and hat all fit; and as Jason walked out onto the wooden porch, he wore a big grin. Now he had spurs that jingled, too. He gave the porch a little stomp, intrigued by the ringing sound that he knew would follow.
When he got back to the saddle shed, he stood by as the two horsemen finished their task of putting the bridles on three of the horses. Tyler turned to him with a grin. “Look who’s all cowboyed up,” he said in a satisfied tone. He seemed to approve of Jason’s getup.
Rye just glanced at him and whistled.
“Thanks for the outfit,” Jason said, directing his attention to Tyler.
“Well, I can’t take all the credit,” the tall horseman admitted. “The hat, boots, and spurs, I bought as a bonus for you. The shirts and pants are from Rye.”
“Well, in that case, thanks to both of you,” Jason said, shifting his attention over to Rye who, in response, simply nodded his head.
Tyler led two horses over to Jason, one set of reins in each hand. He passed one off to Jason and said, “This is Edgar,” introducing a big speckled gray horse. “He’ll be your ride for today.” He patted the laid-back looking critter on the neck as he added, “The ole’ boy knows more about herding cows, roping, and turning back than the two of us combined, so really all you’ll have to do is just kind of directing ‘em and give ‘em an encouraging nudge from time to time.”
Tyler separated his set of split-reins and flipped the right one over the opposite side of his horse’s neck, joining them back together in his left hand. After stepping up into the saddle, he turned his attention to Jason once more as he said, “Judging by your height, I think we got the stirrups set at about the right length. Feel free to adjust them if you need to, though.” He then turned his attention to Rye. “I’m gonna go get the gates ready,” he told the younger cowboy. “Y’all circle around and get the herd from pasture two heading in this direction.”
“We’re on it,” Rye said, swinging up on his horse. Jason quickly followed suit and fell in step behind the two cowboys as they trotted off. After a bit, Tyler split of into the square pen, leaving Jason and Rye alone in the pre-dawn darkness. Soon they came to a gate and, without getting down, Rye leaned over, unlatched it, pushing it open as he rode through then waited while Jason entered before pushing it back closed, re-latching it.
As they made their way across the big pasture, Jason looked up at the stars. Misty would have loved riding under a sky this clear and filled with stars. It reminded him of a night long ago when he and Misty had stayed at her parents’ ranch. About midnight she had started begging him to slip out with her for a ride through the starlit night. Thinking it would be more trouble than it was worth, Jason had refused… And now he knew he could not have been more wrong. He should’ve went; she’d have loved that. Maybe there was another chance planned somewhere in his future.
The limb from a nearby tree brushed against Jason’s leg as he rode past, bringing his mind back to the present. “Thanks again for the work clothes,” he said while brushing off the little twigs that had fallen from the limb. “They’re comfortable.”
“You bet,” Rye responded quietly. “No problem.”
“Were they yours?” Jason asked.
“My father’s,” the boy explained. “He was about your size, so I thought I’d give you a few pair.”
Jason picked up on the fact that the boy had spoken of his father in the past tense. “Um, well, thank you,” he said voicing his gratitude once more before going ahead and asking the question that was on his mind. “So, um, Tyler… he’s not your dad?”
“No,” Rye answered quietly. “Not really. Not biologically anyways.”
Jason hesitated for a moment, but then his curiosity became stronger than the small voice that warned him not to pry. “So what happened to your biological father?” he asked.
“You ask too many questions,” Rye replied in a quiet tone. He looked off into the distance for a moment before answering. “He died.”
“I’m sorry,” Jason replied earnestly. “How’d it happen?”
“That is too many questions,” the young horseman responded as he gently nudged his horse up into a trot, leaving Jason behind and removing any chance for further questions.
As they began gathering the herd, Rye, in a low pitched voice, called over to Jason. “These girls ain’t been worked much so gather ‘em easy. Push ‘em too hard, they’ll scatter.”
Tyler joined them and dawn was beginning to light the morning sky as they drove the herd across the square pen into a holding pen on the other side. Tyler and Rye entered the holding pen behind the heifers. “Might want to get out of the gate,” Rye spoke to Jason, who had stopped, unsure of what to do. Doing as advised, he trotted over to one side of the pen and watched as the two horsemen began counting part of the herd back into the big square pen.
“Twenty-one,” Rye called out as he jumped his horse out in front of heifer number twenty-two, cutting her plans of entering the square pen off short.
As Rye shut the gate, Tyler rode over to Jason and said, “We’re gonna hold this bunch up against the fence, on the other side,” he said, pointing at the far side of the pen where the heifers had already gathered. “Part of your job will be to make sure they stay there.”
Jason nodded in understanding as Tyler began lopping his horse. Several minutes later, he gently entered the herd and sorted one out. The horseman dropped his rein-hand down to the horse’s neck, and with the other, he gripped the saddle horn. Horse and rider seemed to become one as they danced in rhythm with the calf, which was determined to get back to the herd. After letting the horse make a few moves on its own, Tyler lifted his rein-hand and made a few adjustments over the course of the next few minutes.
Soon, the calf came to a stop and just stared longingly at the herd on the other side of the big horse bully that wouldn’t let her back to her friends. She was on Rye’s side of the pen and, after Tyler sat patiently for a moment, he gave the younger horseman a nod. Rye eased towards the heif
er until she moved. When she did, he backed off. Next she stopped on Jason’s side. He did the same thing – waited until Tyler nodded, eased forward until the heifer moved then backed off. After a short time, Tyler stopped and sorted out another cow.
A while later, Jason and Tyler were turning the first group of yearlings back into the pasture as Rye saddled more horses.
“So how much land do you have here?” Jason asked, looking out across the pastures.
“Just uh-couple uh-hundred acres,” Tyler replied. “But it’s not mine. It all belongs to Rye.”
Jason’s head bobbed back. “Rye?” he asked like he found that hard to believe. “How’d he afford a place like this?”
Tyler pulled the gate closed as he replied, “His father left him a large sum of money.”
“Wow, that’s cool,” Jason said, very impressed. “His father must’ve been a good man.”
“He was,” Tyler replied in a voice that was void of all emotion. Turning away, he trotted off back towards the holding pen.
At noon they stopped for lunch. Susan warmed up leftovers that the two horsemen had fixed for supper the evening before. After eating, Jason helped put all the horses they’d worked that morning back into their stalls.
As Jason was putting up the last horse, he saw Tyler putting a halter on one a few stalls down. Without breaking his eyes away from his task, the tall horseman spoke. “We’ve got a few two year olds left, and we’re going to work them in the round pen; we won’t need you for that.” When Tyler went to lead the horse from the stall, it refused to follow. “Somebody don’t wanna go to work today,” he chuckled as he walked around to the side of the horse and pulled, forcing it to move its feet. After breaking the horse’s frozen stance, it followed him as he lead it in a complete circle. As he headed towards the gate once more, the horse followed him out with no more trouble.
“Anyways,” he said, pausing for a moment by Jason, “we can handle this. What I want you to do is run the loop once then do it again with those big rocks, just like yesterday.”
“Yes sir,” Jason replied without hesitation as he headed up to his shed to change clothes and shoes. “Consider in done.”
Several hours later it was. Exhausted from the two trips, the last one made clutching the stones, Jason trudged up the hill to his shack and plopped down on the floor of the porch and leaned against one of the brace post. Several minutes later, Tyler came trotting up on one of the work horses, dragging two mattresses behind him by a rope.
Jason was about as bug-eyed as the poor horse, who obviously was not overly confident that the big bouncy thing following wasn’t trying to eat him. “Camping out?” Jason asked, like he wondered if dragging mattresses around was a normal thing that all real cowboys did.
“Crash pads,” Tyler explained in a lively voice. “Those cliffs are no more than fifteen feet up, so there’s no need to bother with ropes. We’ll just put these at the bottom in case you fall.”
A worried look came to Jason’s face. “Is that normal procedure?” he asked, perplexed and more than a little concerned.
“Yep,” Tyler replied with a proud smile. “Nobody uses ropes for bouldering.”
“They use mattresses?” Jason asked, unable to believe it.
“Well no,” Tyler admitted, looking a bit defeated. “Most people use real crash pads.”
“Real crash pads?” Jason asked, his concern growing. “You don’t have any real crash pads?”
“Nope,” Tyler responded, seeming like that fact really bothered him… but then a thought seemed to brighten him back up. “But I have two mattresses,” he stressed as he held up two fingers. “Might work even better.”
Seeming not to notice Jason’s look of sheer terror, the tall cowboy asked, “You know any stretches?”
“Yeah,” Jason responded, having barely acknowledged the question. He was still back at the last curve ball Tyler had thrown him, wondering if the mattresses would save him.
“Do ‘em,” Tyler instructed. “Stretch every chance you get but ‘specially after workouts. Aside from strength, flexibility is the most important asset to a rock climber.” With that, he bounced off down the path on his frightened steed with the two mattress-demons following close behind. Jason began his stretches as he watched Tyler depart.
Several minutes passed by before the tall horseman reappeared. Trotting by Jason, he said, “Head down there. I’ll be right behind you.”
A little while later found Jason sitting on the mattresses that had been piled on top of each other and placed against one of the cliffs. Soon, Tyler came walking down the trail towards him. Honestly, Jason was surprised. He thought there was some cowboy rule against walking except for in cases of extreme emergency. But what was more startling than that was the fact that his hat, button-down cowboy shirt, and boots were gone. Instead, he wore a T-shirt and climbing shoes with his denim jeans. Of course, Jason realized it would be hard to climb in a button-down shirt and boots, but he was still shocked, nonetheless.
He rose to his feet as Tyler walked right by, without saying a word, straight up to a cliff that didn’t have the mattresses under it and climbed to the top like it was no big deal. He then walked over to the cliff that had the mattresses positioned below… and leapt off. He hit rump-first, bounced off the mattresses and landed cat-like on the ground.
“Your turn,” Tyler said with a laugh as he turned and saw the astonished look on Jason’s face. Jason walked across the top of mattresses and, as he put his hands on the cold, hard rock wall, the tall horseman said, “Just a second ago you saw me use what is called dynamic motion to get to the top. Dynamic motion is when you use the forward momentum of an object to help it along. I kept my body weight moving upward. Don’t try that yet.”
He paused for a moment before going on. “We’ll begin with what is called the static technique,” he explained. “Always try to maintain three points of contact as you’re going for the next hold. In other words, if you’re locked into the side of the cliff,” he said as he raised his arms, positioning them like he was climbing a pretend rock, “and your next hold is up and to the right, you want both feet and your left hand in some sort of a hold before you let go with your right hand to reach for it.” He was silent for a moment then added, “No desperate moves now, you hear? I want to see slow, deliberate, well thought out climbing… now go for it.”
Jason did. “You’re doing good,” Tyler encouraged after Jason became stalled halfway up the face of the cliff. “Do you see that next hold up and to your left? Remember what I told you? Three points of contact – nice and easy.”
Jason obeyed. Right foot solid – Left foot solid – Right hand solid… and then he went for it. As he reached up with his left hand, the added strain was too much for his right. Slipping, he felt himself fall before landing in a heap on the mattresses. Sprawled out, he bounced few times then lay there for a moment. It seemed that the two mattresses combined did actually make a pretty good crash pad.
“Good,” Tyler said calmly. “Now try it again,” he ordered, and so Jason did… again… and again… and again, falling every time.
That night at the supper table was special with Ken and Susan there. She had fixed a wonderful meal and insisted that one of the men needed to bless it. Jason and Tyler just looked at one another uncomfortably before the tall cowboy turned to Susan and admitted, “I ain’t done that in a while, ma’am.”
Susan just smiled sweetly and said, “Well, it’s just like riding a bike. God’s hotline is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”
There were a few moments of awkward silence before Tyler bowed his head. “Dear Lord… It’s been a while. Um, thanks for the food and, uh… Amen.”
“Amen,” they all chimed in, Ken especially loud.
The supper smelled wonderful, and everyone began talking in a lively chatter as they dug-in… everyone, that is, except Tyler. He silently rose for his place at the table and wiped his eyes with his shirt sleeve as he walked ou
tside. After a moment of looking at the door with concerned filled eyes, Susan also rose and followed, leaving Jason sitting with Rye and Ken in awkward silence.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Ken spoke loudly after a moment, making Jason jump.
“You know where it is right?” Rye asked kindly.
“Yes sir,” the boy replied but made no move to get up.
“Go ahead,” Jason directed.
“Thanks,” Ken said with a smile as he pushed his chair back and headed to the bathroom, leaving the two slightly amused men behind.
When the boy disappeared around the corner, Jason looked at Rye. “What was that about?” he asked as he nodded towards the door.
Rye ran his fingers through his hair as he looked over at the door. “Tyler and me, we’re from South Texas, and back a few years ago he, um, well he went through some really hard times.” The conversation seemed to be making the young cowboy a bit uneasy. “He made some mistakes – one really big one.” He shook his head as he went on, “And now he doesn’t seem to be able to let himself off the hook.”
The young horseman gazed silently at the door for a moment before turning to Jason as he added, “To make things worse, when the opportunity came for him to redeem himself, redeem himself is exactly what he did… but it cost him someone very close.”
“Who?” Jason asked, completely absorbed in the young man’s words.
“Kate… his fiancé,” Rye responded quietly. “One of these days, he’s gonna have to let her go. She left him when he needed her the most. She tried to make it right,” he sighed, “but you can’t take back the past.”
He turned away from Jason to the door and gazed thoughtfully at it for a moment. When the young cowboy turned back, he looked deep into Jason’s eyes as he said, “No matter how wild things get, you never bail-out on those you love. Turns out Tyler had a very good reason for his crazy actions.”
Beneath the Tombstone (The Tombstone Series) Page 24
