Into the High Country

by T J Reeder

  They went back to shopping while I loafed at the counter talking to the owner. He said he had been born right here as had his father and his grandfather, but said it looked like he might be leaving soon.

  I asked why and got the same story as from the brothers Wilson and said as such. He smiled and said the Wilson’s were his family’s oldest friends and their great grandparents had founded the small town when they all settled here way back. I asked why he would leave if he didn’t want to. He said it wasn’t worth causing a fight that good folks would get hurt over.

  He said he was not LDS nor had his family ever been. I was getting a bit pissed off at this crap. Good folks settled this land and now some bunch of assholes were going to run people off over religion? And not even the religion as practiced by the people who lived here. I knew folks like the Wilsons would fight if and when it came to it but just would not start it. Right then I had the feeling I should hurry the girls along, but it was too late.

  Three gents walked into the store and one walked to the counter. He interrupted what I was saying to tell the store owner it was time for him to get moving that he wasn’t wanted here.

  I asked him if all of his family was impolite inbred assholes or just him. Well his eyes bugged out and his face got red but he calmed down and said “You don’t belong here, you are not one of us!” I said “You’re right, I’m not an inbred impolite asshole.”

  He took his shot at me with an awkward swing which I slipped and kneed him in the balls and that was it, he went down with a moan and a thud. His two buddies both rushed me but being a wonderful general store there was a barrel of various tool handles there. Ever seen what happens when somebody runs into a pick axe handle making a back swing? Depending if you’re the swinger or the ball it can really hurt, it did and he wasn’t gonna move for a while.

  The last one was smarter, he pulled a gun but instead of using it he talked about using it, a bad habit he won’t repeat soon. The old fellow behind the counter took him out with a 12 gauge double barrel with about 16 inch barrels. He was dead before he hit the floor.

  I stood there blinking and trying to hear but that blast had fixed my hearing for a while. I looked at the old man and he looked sick but was reloading. My kind of man! I looked around and found the girls, one behind a stack of wooden boxes and one behind a metal drum full of something. Both had their squirt guns out and were watching the door. Good training, I was proud.

  I finally could hear again and looked at the man behind the counter who was shaking like a leaf so I patted him on the back and said “Thank you, you saved my life.” Well that got him, he stopped shaking and just changed right there. He was a different man. I asked if this was his first fur ball and he said “Well yeah, since Bastogne.”

  Well I understood that, flashbacks can do that. And this man had seen enough at the Battle of the Bulge to have earned a bucket of flashbacks. He reached under the counter and brought out a bottle of brandy and took a big swig then said “Excuse my manners” and handed it to me so I took a drink. I looked at it and he said “Sometimes not being a Mormon has its good points” and laughed. He was still shaky but I needed to find out what was going to happen now because we couldn’t just leave this mess behind us and leave these people to deal with it.

  By now Sam and Robert were inside with their AR’s at the ready with astonished looks on their faces. I told them to get their wives out of there and home. Sam went after the women who were deeper in the store with the kids. He herded them out the door and into the van and sent them home and told the eldest boys set up the guard posts they had trained for. We were in it and for once I couldn’t blame Sandy for it, since this was all on me. She and May joined us at the counter and May nudged the one holding his balls and said “Want me to shoot this dip shit?” And they really got him to moaning, the other one was just flat out cold.

  First things first I asked just how many we might be facing and was surprised to hear it was maybe twenty men. Well three were out of it so that left seventeen so I asked where they were. Sam figured very shortly most of them were gonna be right here. Well, it was time to set up a welcoming party for them. The old trooper went back to the counter and came out with a nice old AK and a dump bag of mags. I raised a eye brow and he said he had almost decided to not move and was gonna take some with him when we came in and got the party going. I love old combat grunts! Not much bullshit!

  We headed out the door and had just gotten behind cover when here come a quad-cab truck and a cop car full of men. They piled out and I counted nine. The leader looked at the store and yelled for the old man to come out with his hands up.

  From behind an old car parked across from his store he yelled out that he already was outside and for them to drop their guns. They turned and the leader opened fire with no thought of who might be in the building behind the car.

  Then the rest opened fire and they never heard the single shots that took them down but finally one fell into the man next to him and they knew they were in a fight. It lasted maybe two minutes and they were all down.

  We could hear a vehicle coming fast with loud pipes on it and around the corner it came right behind the girls. Both turned and opened up with their sub guns and tore the windshield out of it, Both were behind cover and reloaded before the truck hit a power pole and stopped dead. The ones still in the truck were falling all over each other and started shooting at us in the street but we were on the move, so they didn’t see the girls who opened up and just tore them a new one. In less than five minutes the whole mess was over. The locals were coming out and while there were some folks who had appeared to like the brand of crap these folks were spreading, they seemed to be changing sides real fast.

  I’ve always been a strong believer in maximum firepower delivered from behind good cover at fools who watched too much gangsta shit in the movies. Real troops, trained to fight as a unit would have torn us new asses. People who think waving a gun is akin to a magic wand in a Harry Potter movie don’t live long. It’s usually about picking the time and place that best suits you and not the enemy. Today it was just fate that we came out of it as we did, all in one piece. But we, meaning the girls and I, had a lot of this shit behind us and the old trooper sure as hell remembered his training. The rest was just luck.

  The only ones left were the two in the store and when we checked they were gone, out the back door. Sam sent some of his friends after them but they returned to say they had took a car and were last seen hauling ass out of town. I had some bad feelings about their families but Sam’s wife said don’t, that they had been more like slaves than wives and would be fine with these abusers gone and the community would take care of them.

  On that note I followed the old man back inside and he got his jug of brandy out again but the Bobsey Twins horned in and grabbed it before we could have a drink. Then they turned around and passed it to the brothers who looked embarrassed then both took a big drink and handled it like pros. The old man laughed and said “John them ol boys are Jacks don’t let ‘em fool ya.”

  We shared the jug for a while and let the shakes settle down and the girls headed for their baskets and located the ones the Wilson wives had to abandon. Sandy paid for it with gold coins in smaller denominations than the big cartwheels I used.

  Clyde said we had made his year in more ways than one. He said wait a minute and hurried away and returned with a dusty box and opened it and handed each of the girls a pocket knife. They looked at them and both found the button at the same time, they made one clicking sound and out popped a long slender blade. They did their “Bright Shiny Sparkles” sounds and hugged old Clyde. I was scared they were gonna cut him in their efforts to both hug him at the same time but they were good girls and didn’t.

  I took Sandy’s and looked at it and blinked because I knew the name on them, one of the top custom knife makers back several years. Clyde said he had them for years but didn’t offer them for sale because they were illegal back before the event. He forgo
t about them but figured they would be good to have with the PPKs. Who was I to complain?

  The girls hugged Clyde again and we got the hell out of another Dodge City.

  I swear I’m gonna stop going into any towns but I couldn’t blame this one on the Doom Twins. I did this one all by myself. May leaned over and snuggled me and said “Yes you did!” The brothers looked back at us because I hadn’t said a thing.

  Sandy leaned over and snuggled her side and said “Daddy you show us such a good time.” I choked and they laughed and the brothers just shook their heads. Of course the girls told the story about our stay in the motel and the lady referring to them as my daughters. They laughed but Sam said the woman most likely had it figured out but was being nice about it.

  We accepted the offer to stay a few days because I wasn’t wild about leaving until we knew the problems were over. We were offered room in the house but chose to sleep in the hay loft. I didn’t believe things were over yet and wanted to not be pinned down in the house if hell broke loose again.

  That night in bed I lay quiet for so long the girls both rolled to me and May said “Wanna share it with us?” I didn’t but knew it was useless because they already knew I was sure, how I don’t know but there it is.

  Finally after a deep breath and a long sigh I asked them “Counting before we left home, how many people have we killed just this trip? I can’t even remember the count.”

  I added “we joke around with the Wyatt and Doc thing, but in truth both of you have killed more people than the whole Earp family plus Doc Holiday tossed in.” I added that if my count was in the pool, we were like the flu epidemic of 1917 or whenever it was.

  Before they could speak I added that yes we never went hunting for trouble and the people we had killed had all deserved it one way or the other. But it was starting to bother me and I was afraid that would lead me to hesitate which could cost one of them their life and that would be the death of me.

  They both laid there a long time and finally Sandy said “Well we can go back to the canyon or to Texas and settle down because if we want to live the free life then there will be days like today. Human nature is what it is. Somebody always wants what you have, be it money, goods or power of some kind, or even good looking women, since god knows we’ve helped free enough women from a short life of being sex slaves. So if killing those types is bothering you then let’s go home because you’re right we don’t belong out here in the free world. We need to be someplace where bad people can’t make us defend ourselves.”

  I laid there for a while and finally said “you know I hate you right?” She snuggled in closer so I rolled my head to the left and said “You too, I hate you both” and then I started tickling them, which tore the bed apart and hay was flying everywhere as they shrieked and laughed but I could only hold one and ended losing both and then it really got bad. Well, bad being subjective. We ended up becoming three which had never happened.

  And now I turn off the lights and close the door, go find your own imagination.

  We woke up to the sounds of the boys milking the cows. I felt like I had been in a fight with devils which in a way I had. I eased out of the bed and put on my mocs and went down the ladder very slow. I had aches where I never knew I could ache. Stress from the day before I guess then I heard “Yeah keep telling yourself that” said May “It’s ok old man” said Sandy. I told them both if I had the strength I’d climb up this ladder and spank them. One said “Oh Daddy” the other said “exactly!” The boys giggled, one of them said “Pa said come in and have a nice hot shower, something about being sore?”

  “Are you hurt Mr. John” asked one. The sound of laughter came from above. With no dignity left I hobbled to the house where one of Sam’s wives pointed to a door and as I closed it I heard both of them giggling.

  Now these folks knew about showering! This one would hold a squad of Marines although I never saw any I’d wanna shower with. The nice part was the door opened and I had company. I was worried about the hot water but May said one of the wives said don’t worry as their solar tank was about 500 gallons! Damn ours in TX was only 75 and we had never run out.

  So we relaxed and got slippery. Things had changed, that was easy to see, so I just relaxed and let them work it out. Finally I got out and dried off and dressed in my sweats again and went into the kitchen for coffee with the brothers.

  Robert, with no expression at all said “You have flashbacks from the old days huh?” He said he heard me, said it sounded like a real fight. His wife hit him a hard whack with a spoon getting a painful yelp out of him but they all burst out laughing just as the girls came out of the bath room and looked at me with raised eye brows. I just shook my head and said “beats me” and that really set them off. Robert trying to say “beats me” but couldn’t get it out. Finally they all stopped laughing and handed the girls coffee. Robert said sorry ladies but it was funny, sorta?

  “What was?” asked May with a smile. Sam said “Oh, we were talking about flashbacks and dreams” and his wife smacked him with the spoon.

  The girls got it in a flash and Sandy said with a very serious look “Yes it’s sad. John has these late night issues but May and I help him control it with in-depth therapy.” Now the dam really broke, and both the brothers wives fled the kitchen and the brothers were about to slide under the table. I got more coffee and went to the barn and returned with a bottle of blackberry brandy. I poured some in all the cups and that quieted things down. The ladies returned to the kitchen and both took a big drink of coffee and choked. I had the last laugh! Breakfast was a great time, lots of laughing and I was sure most of it was because they could relax because the town issue was fixed. And I realized I was fine today and happy we could help out as we did.

  The next few days were fine but I wanted to make another run to town before we left so again we loaded up in two vehicles except the four women left the kids at home with the older kids in charge. We arrived to find everything looking normal and Clyde was happy to see us. He said there had been no problems from the rest of the bunch and that some seemed relieved that the problem was gone. I knew they would work it out among themselves, I also knew none of the widows or kids would be left in need and would be cared for. It was just that simple. I really liked these folks, always misunderstood and often wronged but good folks.

  At last we took leave of these good folks and hugs were exchanged along with promises to drop by if we passed this way again. I had asked the men about their ammo supplies and they had what they had, and there wasn’t any to be had. So I broke out a case of 1000 rounds of 223 and gave it to them. They were astounded and wanted to pay for it but I said their hospitality more than paid for it.

  With our map now updated we headed north again, always north it seemed but not so long ago it was south. Gypsies we were for sure, and loving the life even with the bumps.

  With Walker ranging out in front we rode deeper into the mountains away from humanity and that was good for now. We spent the first night in a small clearing with a stream running through it so I broke out the tackle and dug some worms and started pulling in brook trout with almost every cast. Of course the girls had to take over and had I not stopped them they would have emptied the creek.

  I showed them the proper way to clean Brookies; leave the head and tail on, corn meal, fry in hot grease. The way to eat them is to remove the dorsal fin and put your mouth and your bottom teeth where the fin was on the back and roll the meat off the bones and into your mouth! The girls took to that and soon we were stuffing our faces as fast as they pulled them from the hot grease. We forgot to fry some potatoes which was funny because we never even missed them.

  Somehow I knew the brook trout population was in trouble from now on. When these two get something new going they let nothing get in their way. Sandy had had brook trout on our way south but had forgotten about it. The beast was reawakened now and with her sister in arms they were a force to contend with, trout beware. Think endangered.
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br />   One thing we needed to be aware of was where we would be when winter hit. That was a ways away but by early September it’s winter in the high country and it’s damn easy to get caught in a bad storm so we needed to think about it. We agreed we weren’t much into being in a town but if we found a good one, we could do it. Plus being snowed in for several months with these two would kill me.

  Looking at the maps I spotted something I knew was gonna please the girls. I kept it to myself and two days later on a forest service road was a trail head with a sign that said “Hot Springs 3 miles, no vehicles.” That got them going. We rode up the trail and found the springs, and like most it had been improved by people who visited it. They had removed rocks and built a dam making a nice deep pool.