Percival Everett - Wounded

“Company?” David asked.

“Apparently.”

Before I could get worried, Daniel White Buffalo stepped out onto the porch with Gus and two other men. I got out and told David to drive the truck into the barn to get the hay out of the rain. I walked to the porch.

“Daniel, what are you doing way out here?” I said in the way of a greeting.

“Wanted to check your reservation for a change.” He pointed to the other men with a nod. “You know Wilbert Monday. And this here is Elvis Two Horses.”

“Wilbert. Nice to meet you, Elvis.”

“We been talking to your uncle,” Daniel said. “He says you’re crazy.”

“It’s not a secret,” I said. “What’s up?” I was on the porch with them now. “More dead cattle?”

“No dead cows,” Daniel said. “Just weird things. Tell him, Wilbert.”

Wilbert looked at Daniel, then at me. He was a lean man with his mother’s hard eyes. His voice was somewhat high and appeared to come from someone else. “I was over in the Owl Creeks looking for cows,” he said. Then after a long pause, “I saw two figures in the hills.”

“So?” I said.

“Nobody we know will go into the Owl Creeks,” Elvis Two Horses said.

“You were over there?” I said to Wilbert.

“Like I said, I was looking for cows.”

“Maybe they were looking for cows,” I said.

Wilbert lit a cigarette. “Who looks for cows on foot?”

I saw David walking from the barn toward me. I called to him. “David, check all the water while you’re out there.” He made an exaggerated pivot and walked away. “So, why are you here?” I asked again.

“We want you to talk to the sheriff,” Daniel said.

“And tell him that Wilbert saw two men walking through the hills?”

Gus cleared his throat. “I tried to tell them that Fucky Bucky was going to be of no help to them or us.”

“Why me?” I asked.

“If it comes from just us nobody listens,” Daniel said.

“What makes you think that anyone will listen to me?”

“I don’t know,” Daniel said.

“Things ain’t right,” Elvis Two Horses said.

“What do you want me to say to him, the sheriff?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Daniel said again.

I looked up at the gray sky. The rain had stalled. “I’ll give him a call.”

I shook their hands and watched as they left, Daniel in one truck, the other two in the other. “How did I get elected club president?” I asked.

“I have to apologize for something,” Gus said, changing the subject.

“What’s that?”

“I forgot to ask you to pick up my medicine at the pharmacy.”

“That’s okay, Gus. You need it today?”

“I’ll need it tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll drive in now and get it. Where’s Morgan?”

“She saddled her horse and rode out. About a half-hour ago.”

David walked toward us.

“I’ve got to make another run into town,” I said. “Want to ride along?”

“I forgot about my damn medicine,” Gus said.

“You’ve got work to do,” David said. “I’ll go. I know the way there and back. If I can drive that truck, I can drive the Jeep.”

I suddenly felt like an overprotective father. I didn’t want to say yes, but I didn’t know why. “That would be good, David,” I said. “I appreciate it. That’ll give me time to work the animals I didn’t work yesterday.”

“Thanks, youngblood,” Gus said. “I’ll grab the prescription.” Gus ducked into the house.

“At least the rain gave up,” I said.

David looked at the sky, but said nothing.

Gus poured hot water into our mugs.

I stood at the window and watched my mule walk back into the barn. “What do they expect me to do?” I asked.

“They’re just scared. They think you can talk to the sheriff.”

“Why do they think that?” I asked.

“Because you don’t hate him,” Gus said. He sat down at the table and rubbed his knee. “Grab the honey over there.”

I grabbed the honey pot and put it down in front of him, walked back to the window and looked out.

“They think you trust the sheriff.”

“Hmmm,” I said.

“Do you?”

“Why shouldn’t I?” I felt on the defensive. I felt that admitting trusting the sheriff was admitting to stupidity or naïveté. Worse, I had the sense that my trusting him suggested a kind of betrayal, but I didn’t know of whom.

To my question, Gus merely offered a shrug.

Morgan rode her horse at a walk through the gate, leaned over and closed it. She dismounted at the hitching post by the barn and looked up at the window. I waved to her. She tipped her helmet.

“Morgan’s back,” I told Gus.

“Good.” He picked up Emily and held her in his lap.

I left the old man in the kitchen and walked across the yard.

“Hey, there,” she said.

“You want to get hitched?” I asked.

“You bet.” She gave me a kiss.

“Nice ride?”

“It’s beautiful out.”

“It’s perfect horse weather,” I said. I’m going to work those colts, then put Felony through his paces another time.”

“Where’s David?” Morgan asked.

“He drove into town for Gus’s medicine.”

“Oh, really,” she said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“Is there something I should know about?” she asked. She undid the cinch and let the girth swing under the horse. “Is there something between you two?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“John, I’ve known you for a long time. I know when you’re not telling me something and you’re not telling me something. Ever since that night he ran off and almost got himself killed you’ve been acting funny.”

“Maybe so,” I said. “I guess I’m worried about him. I feel bad that all that grizzly stuff that happened with his father here and now I wonder why he’s here.”

“He has a crush on you,” she said.

“I know,” I said. “It makes me uncomfortable.”

“Me, too,” she said.

“I don’t know what to do about it. Should I say something?”

She unhooked the horse’s breastplate, then walked around to remove the saddle from the off side the way she always did. Her saddle was heavy and she’d always pull it off and swing it over the post in one motion. She came back to me, took the bridle from my hand and kissed my chin. “I don’t know what you should say, either,” she said. “I’ve got a crush on you; why shouldn’t he?”

I nodded.

“Besides, he’s not your type,” she said.

“Too tall?”

“No, he’s emotional.” She untied her horse. “So, you let him drive into town alone. Big step.”

“He’s twenty years old.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I followed her as she led Square to his stall. “He doesn’t have much use for me, I can tell you that. I don’t think he dislikes me, but I’m in the way, if you know what I mean.”

Once Morgan had closed the stall door, I put my arms around her. “I have to admit David’s pretty cute, but he’s too young for me, don’t you think? And then there’s the fact that he’s a man.”

“I’m being silly,” she said.

I kissed her. “You’re not being silly. For some reason, I’m overattentive to the kid. I like him a lot.”

“Did something happen that night?” she asked.

I looked at Morgan’s eyes and I couldn’t find it in myself to lie or maybe it’s that I didn’t believe I could lie believably. “There was one thing. He was soaking wet, so I had to undress him. I held him close, trying to keep him warm and he kissed me.”

“He kissed you,” she repeated.

I nodded. “On the mouth. Then he passed out again. He remembers doing it and he’s embarrassed by it.”