That’s what we done. We put Vox’s saddle on the other Indian pony. We didn’t even take time to shorten the stirrups. We knowed them ponies was old and couldn’t hardly run but we was boys so we tried to make them run anyway. You could get them to gallop for a real short spell but then they’d go to trottin’.
Now, when you ain’t rode much and when you’re ridin’ a trottin’ horse you about get your insides shook out of you. I was ridin’ the pony with the long stirrups and I ain’t real skinny but when that pony was trottin’, I was thinkin’ them bones was gonna come right out through that skin on my ass. And there’s worse things than that. When them ponies are trottin’ and you can’t reach the stirrups, you go to bouncin’ on that saddle and when you come down, you don’t always come down on your ass. There’s other hangin’ out parts of you and if you come down on one of them… Well, if you ever done somethin’ like that you know what I’m talkin’ about. If you ain’t, ain’t no use tryin’ to explain’ it to you. Ain’t no hurt in the world like that.
Me and Paco soon seen them ponies was gonna die on us didn’t we let them walk so, we done it. Made my ass and them other hangin’ out parts happy, them ponies walkin’.
We followed the creek and we knowed we was headin’ toward Claude. Lot of the time, we let them ponies walk right in the creek. They liked that and I reckon we did to. Seemed cooler ridin’ in that creek.
About mid-mornin’, looked like them ponies needed a rest. Didn’t know it when I was sittin’ that saddle but when I got down, I was some sore. I never rode much. That red-headed cowboy rode me on his horse when I was real little and two or three times some cowboy let me ride his horse after I got some bigger.
Paco rode real good from playin’ with them Indians. He said them growed-up Indians acted mad if they caught them boys when they was ridin’ at night, but Comanche boys had been doin’ that for years. Paco said in them old raidin’ days it was kind of like them boys was practicin’ for goin’ on raids and stealin’ horses. Them growed Indians wasn’t mad with them boys for ridin’ them horses. They was mad with them for not bein’ careful enough and gettin’ caught. Them Indians wasn’t raidin’ no more but them boys was just doin’ like their daddies done.
From all his ridin’ with them Indians, Paco was doin’ real good but my legs was all stiff and my ass was sore from bouncin’ and from sittin’ so long, I reckon. We’d been on them horses about three hours by then.
We was lettin’ them ponies drink and I was shortenin’ them stirrups. The trail went right along the creek right there and pretty soon a peddler man come along in his buckboard. I knowed him pretty good from him comin’ to see my mama but he was actin’ like he never seen me before. He stopped and looked at us for a long time.
“What you young ’uns doin’ with them Indian ponies? Where you from, anyway? I know this whole country and I ain’t never seen you before.”
“You ain’t looked good then,” I said. “I seen you lots of times in Claude. You’re the one who’s always whorin’ on my mama and this Mexican boy’s mama and tryin’ to get off without payin’. You’re the one who sings in the choir in that there church on Sunday and who’s always talkin’ against booze and you got a bottle under your seat right now.”
I knowed for sure about the bottle ’cause I could smell whiskey on him. I guessed about the choir but I knowed I had a good chance of bein’ right. Lot of them men was like that. I didn’t know if they had Mexican whores in Claude or not but I seen him try to get away from my mama without payin’. She hit him long side the head with the barrel of this six gun I got. I must have guess close to right on the rest of it. He said, “Them Claude whores don’t look old enough to have boys big as you.”
He didn’t say no more. He just got real red in the face and drove on. I knowed he wouldn’t tell on us. We had stuff we could tell too. Stuff he didn’t want told.
Folks in this kind of half wild country is awful skittish of strangers. They’re even skittish on young ’uns like me and Paco. We’d talked our way out of that one, but I knowed what he said was gonna be trouble for us. Two boys ridin’ alone was gonna raise questions in people’s minds. We had to get food and some better britches for Paco but we had to do them things in a way that folks wouldn’t be too mindful of us.
We started them ponies on toward Claude and I was thinkin’ on how not to attract too much attention when we had a stroke of luck. We come around a bend in the creek and just about rode into a whole passel of them covered wagons.
You don’t see too many of them covered wagons no more. The railroad took away the need for them. But here, the railroad wasn’t done no farther than Amarillo. In fact, the railroad’s the reason there is a Amarillo. They’re buildin’ on west and they got to have a supply stop for all them rails and ties and such they need for makin’ a railroad. Looks like rails and ties ain’t all they need for railroad buildin’. They got all kinds of folks workin’ on that railroad. They got white folks and Chinamen and Mexicans and I don’t know what all but whatever kind of people they are, they all want that whiskey and them whores. I reckon if you don’t have no whiskey and whores, you can’t build no railroad same as if you ain’t got no rails and ties. They always got some rails and ties in Amarillo but they got a hell of a lot more whiskey and whores. At least, that’s what all them men was sayin’ in Goodnight.
Come to find out, them covered wagon people was goin’ on to Santa Fe. They come this far on the railroad. They was met by a troop of soldiers just outside Claude and they was makin’ up the wagon train there. They needed them soldiers ’cause folks still wasn’t sure them Apaches in New Mexico Territory and Arizona was gonna stay on the reservation. There was always talk that some of them was still actin’ up. Them soldiers wanted that train good organized before they got to Amarillo ’cause Amarillo was a real rowdy place. There was some folks who was tryin’ to make it a place where you would want to raise a family but there was mostly them real tough railroad and outlaw kinds in Amarillo, specially on the west end and they’d be causin’ trouble for them wagon train folks if they wasn’t good organized.
It looked like most of the organizin’ was done cause you could see a lot of them wagon folks walkin’ into Claude, I reckon to get some last supplies before they headed on west. That give me a idea. I told Paco, “You go on back yonder and keep hid in them cottonwoods but before you go, give me them britches. You wear mine until I get back.”
He got a scared look on his face. “You ain’t gonna leave me, are you?”
“Paco, I reckon I need you same as you need me. I ain’t gonna leave you. I’ll be back and if things go good, I’ll have us some better horses.”
He went runnin’ to them cottonwoods and I rode off toward Claude, leadin’ that other pony.
First off, I went to the Livery and told the man that my ma and pa was joinin’ up with that wagon train and we needed better ridin’ horses since ours was stold and these old broke down Indian ponies was all we could get along the trail. We wasn’t like most of them wagon train folks. We didn’t come this far on the railroad. We’d been drivin’ that wagon from Wichita up in Kansas but we’re joinin’ the train now. Pa figured that was better since them Apaches was still actin’ up in New Mexico Territory and that Arizona Territory. I told him, Pa was some sick or he’d have done his tradin’ hisself. What did that livery man have that wasn’t too rich for a mover’s pocketbook?
“You got money, boy?”
“Yes sir.”
“Why did your Pa send a scrawny piss-ant boy like you that looks like he’s wearin’ his daddy’s old britches. Don’t your Pa have no friends who could do business for him?”
“Yes sir, he does, but he said I’m gettin’ old enough to learn dealin” and I can’t start no younger. And you’re right about these britches. I growed so much since we left Wichita, I come right out of my old britches. They got so tight around my ass you couldn’t button them buttons in the front and I wasn’t about to show the whole goddam world what nobody ain’t s’posed to see. Ma gave them britches to my brother and I been tryin’ to keep this old pair of Pa’s on my ass for about two weeks and I’m gettin’ plumb tired of them. Ma didn’t have no makin’s for new britches for me since nobody reckoned I’d grow so soon. I ain’t but ’leven. Pa says the way I been growin’ he reckons soon I’ll be singin’ bass and chasin’ everything in skirts. Hell, I think on chasin’ them skirts now but I don’t get no chance. Them girls all run faster than me.”
“If you been growin’, I reckon you started out mighty small. Ain’t that much to you yet.”
He made me some mad, lettin’ on like that that I was little. “Pa always says, ‘Us Morgans might be small but it don’t take no damn giant to let the air out of a wind bag.’”
“Don’t take offence, boy. I was just funnin’ you.”
“I didn’t come here to be funned on. I come to trade horses.”
He laughed. “Well, let’s get to it then. Reckon I can’t help you none with them britches or them skirts but I got some horses that might be just right for you.”
He showed me a bay and a buckskin’ that looked hard used but fair enough. Reckoned if we put some feed in them, they’d do right good. He motioned to two rough lookin’ but sturdy cow workin’ saddles and said, “Eighty dollars for them horses and them saddles. You’re gonna need them saddles, boy. I can see from the length of them stirrups that you and your brother been ridin’ them. When your Pa gets better and can sit a horse, them rotten old saddles is gonna bust down under his weight.”
“Mister, might be I ain’t done no dealin’ before, but I sure watched a hell of a lot of it. You wait until I give you forty dollars a-piece for them crowbaits, you’ll be a pile of dust. Twenty dollars a-piece.”
“You might have been watchin, boy, but you wasn’t payin’ attention. You don’t know nothin’ about prices. Them’s forty dollar horses and I’m givin’ you them saddles.”
I started to walk away. “We’ll make do with what we got until we get to Santa Fe if we have to. Reckon we can do better. Can’t be that every horse trader in Texas and New Mexico Territory is a thief.”
“Now look here, boy. Don’t be callin’ a man a thief when all he’s doin’ is tryin’ to get his best price. That ain’t thievin’. That’s horse tradin’.”
“Looks like thievin’ to me. I got some britches to buy and some found and Pa wants me back at them wagons before dark.”
I kept on walkin’.
“Thirty dollars each, “ he shouted after me.
“I’ll be over to the general store. When you get tired of tryin’ to rob me, look me up. Might be we can do some business.”
“Boy, I come down half way. What the hell do you want?”
“You started twice too high. I want a fair price.”
“O. K., goddamit, twenty-five dollars.”
“And fifty pounds of oats.”
“Jesus, goddam almighty, boy. Now who’s the goddam thief?”
“You want to sell them horses or do you just want to stand there and cuss?”
By now some folks was standin’ around watchin’ and laughin’. The livery man was all red in the face and was actin’ real nervous. Not the mad kind of nervous but the kind like you get when you’re tryin’ to cast a loop in a rope and it just won’t open up for you. I didn’t know how much them horses was worth but I was havin’ fun and if I pushed him too far and he wouldn’t sell, we could always ride them Indian ponies on into Amarillo.
I went on into the general store and told the same lie I done to that livery man. Them new britches looked so good, I almost bought a pair for me too but I didn’t figure no movin’ boy had two pair of britches and that store man would have got to wonderin’. I had to buy more found than we really needed since I had them thinkin’ I was buyin’ for a family of four. I bought mostly beans and jerky so nothin’ would go bad on us.
I bought more bullets for the six gun and a jug of whiskey. I figured that would really make it look like I was buyin’ for my Pa. The store man put all my stuff in two sacks and tied them sacks together at the top. That was so I could throw them over my horse behind the saddle. Since I bought so much, he gave me two sticks of candy, free.
I was about to throw them sacks of found over that Indian pony when that livery man come walkin’ up, leadin’ that bay and that buckskin. They was saddled and there was even saddle bags on each horse. Lyin’ on the broad rump of the buckskin’ was a half full gunny sack.
“You give me fifty dollars and them broke down Indian ponies, these is your horses. I got the papers right here. Don’t reckon you got no papers on them ponies?”
“You sure there’s fifty pounds of oats in that sack?”
All them who was standin’ along that dirt street went to laughin’ like you thought they was gonna bust. Someone shouted, “What’s your name, boy? I want to know who you are so if you grow up to be a horse trader, I can stay shy of you.” They all laughed again.
I looked real serious and scratched my head. “I don’t know if I can part with them ponies. I was fixin’ to sell them to the Apaches. They’ll eat them son-a-bitches.”
“You go near them Apaches, boy, they’ll grab you so fast, you couldn’t even hear your own fart. Now boy, I come as far as I’m gonna come. I get them ponies or the deal is off.”
Now, I got to tell you, I was showin’ off by now. Most folks cussed me and run me off but these folks was really likin’ me. I acted like I was thinkin’ real hard and finally said, “Well, it would take us two days to get near a tradin’ post and Pa might still be feelin’ poorly. You’re right. Pa wouldn’t want me goin’ near them Indians and, anyway, we’d be bothered with them ponies two extra days. I reckon you can have them.”
I throwed our bags of found over the bay and tried to get on the buckskin. She was too tall for me to put my foot in the stirrup so I had to jump up and grab the pummel and pull myself up until I could get my foot in the stirrup. I done that fine but I couldn’t throw my other leg over. That sack of oats was in the way. I felt somebody lift me higher and I was sittin’ that horse. I felt proud up there. She wasn’t the best horse but she was mine and I bought her good. When I started to ride away, someone shouted, “Y’all come back soon. I reckon Carver will want to trade horses with you about once a week.” I could hear Carver cussin’ and all them men laughin’ as I rode off. It was comin’ on to dark when I come up to them cottonwoods where Paco was hidin’. He seen them different horses comin’ and he hid in the creek behind some reeds ’cause he thought I was somebody else. When he seen who I was, you should’a seen the look on his face. He come up out of that creek like a snapper was hangin’ on his ass or somethin’ and he went to that bay and grabbed the bridle. His eyes got so big I thought they was gonna come right out of his head.
“Is this one for me to ride?”
“Reckon so, unless you want to ride this buckskin.”
I slid down off that horse and pulled them bags of found off that bay. We was pretty well hid in that grove of cottonwoods so we decided to camp there for the night. Before we unpacked that found, I gave Paco one of them sticks of candy.
“What’s this?” he asked and I couldn’t believe a boy could get his big and not know what candy was. He sure never was nowhere and he was damn sure used bad.
But looked like he learned somethin’ from spendin’ all that time with them Indians. He knowed how to go about settin’ a fire and he had that pot we brung from Vox’s on and them beans cookin’ in no time. I was puttin’ the found in them saddle bags.
First off, I hid my money way down at the bottom of one of mine and fill it the rest of the way with beans. Paco never knowed it, but I had just took some of that money to Claude. I had hid that poke in some tall grass by the edge of the creek. I knowed I was takin’ a chance but I was sure Paco wouldn’t steal it, did he find it. The chance was that someone else might come along.
Still, there was more of a chance of losin’ that money if someone in town seem all I had. If they didn’t try to take it from me in town, I knowed they’d follow me and take it from me on the trail. What I took, I had stuck in the holster of that gun that I had tied around my belly. The pockets of them britches had holes in them and I could reach right through them to that gun. Folks would think I was gettin’ that money from them pockets. I reckon nobody knowed I ad that gun. Nobody said nothin’. Reckon them baggy britches hid more than just my ass
When I was packin’ them saddle bags, I pulled off them britches of Vox’s and throwed them aside. I was fixin’ to burn them after we ate. I didn’t want them burnin’ when them beans was cookin’. I didn’t want the stink of them gettin’ in them beans.
I put the gun near the top on one of my saddle bags. I didn’t know if I’d need it but I wanted it where I could get it quick did I. A boy my age wearin’ iron was sure to make too many people start wonderin’. Anyway, that belt was too big for me and I didn’t have nothin’ to punch new holes with.
When I come to them new britches, I near about kept them myself. I think I can remember once when Mama bought me a new pair and that red-headed cowboy used to buy me some when I was real little, but mostly I wore them that was about wore out from that store-keeper’s boy. Like I said, I had throwed Vox’s britches off and was runnin’ around naked. It would have been easy to put them new ones on and let Paco keep my old pair that was still soakin’ wet from him hidin’ in the creek.
But it come to me, “That boy ain’t had no britches at all since Vox got him.” I was gettin’ that feelin’ for him harder and harder. I still couldn’t explain’ what I was feelin’ but it was the kind of feelin’ that makes you want someone else to feel good too. I had only knowed him less than a day and already if he was happy or sad kind of wanted to make me happy or sad. It made me feel real good when I seen how he took to that bay and that candy.
“Skin off them britches and hang them on that tree so they can dry. I ain’t slept in no wet britches since I was three and I ain’t plannin’ to start again now. I bought as much stuff as I thought I could without gettin’ them people to wonderin’ too much. I didn’t get no bedrolls so we’re gonna have to sleep cold tonight. I reckon we can get more stuff in Amarillo tomorrow.
“Here’s your britches.” I held them out and he got them big buggy eyes again only this time there was water in them. He was kind of cryin’ again.
“You hurt?”
He turned away like he done before. I knowed he didn’t want me to see him cryin’. But I wasn’t sure. I went to him and asked again, “You hurt?”
I reckon I knowed he wasn’t but I didn’t know was it them same mixed up feelin’s I was havin’ or did I hurt his feelin’s somehow.
“I ain’t hurt and I ain’t no baby, Sam, but I ain’t had so much good done to me since I can remember. It always fretted me that Vox never got me no britches. Even them Indian boys had them cloths in the front but I was bare-ass naked for the whole goddam world to see. T’weren’t right. I never minded bein’ naked over to Vox’s and even around them Indians. They wasn’t wearin’ nothin’ over their ass and them cloths was always flyin’ up when we was runnin’ so they was about the same as naked. But it fretted me that I could never go nowhere. I ain’t been to no town since Vox got me. I don’t mind tellin’ you, I like the feel of bein’ naked. You feel all loose and free like.
“But I did mind nobody carin’ enough to ask did I want some britches or did I want to go to town. You knowed me less than a day and you already done me more good than I can remember happenin’ before. I didn’t know that feelin’ good and kind of took-care-of made you want to cry. I ain’t no baby. It won’t happen no more.”
“I reckon you ain’t no baby. I done the same thing once when that red-headed cowboy done me good.”
I told him about havin’ to sleep in that shit house pit and how that red-headed cowboy kept knockin’ that damn preacher man down and how he fetched me off to the pump and bathed me.
“I reckon feelin’ good makes you want to cry sometimes just like feelin’ bad do.”
Paco put them new britches on the branch of the tree where he hung them wet ones. “Ain’t you gonna wear them?”
“Not until I’m finished with these beans and this fire. I don’t want to get them messed up.”
Them plates at Vox’s was such that we didn’t want them. We’d get new ones in Amarillo. We did take some wood spoons that Paco said he carved hisself and we took the only tin cup Vox had on the place. We had to eat them beans right from the pot and them damn things was hot. We had to set that pot off for a long spell before they was cool enough to eat.
It was real dark before we went to eatin’ and I was real tired but them beans was worth waitin’ for. Paco made them taste real good. He had shaved some jerky into them while they was cookin’. He said he could have shaved that jerky thinner did he have a better knife. I decided to remember that good knives was somethin’ else we needed.
As hot as it gets in north Texas in the daytime, it can get plumb cold at night. Them britches of mine was still some wet and I knowed I’d be cold if I tried to sleep in them. Don’t know why I didn’t buy bedrolls. What the hell was I thinkin’. I had them stinkin’ britches of Vox’s but I knowed they’d make me crazy did I try to sleep in them.
“I’d sooner freeze than sleep in these stinkin’ things,” I said as I throwed them on the fire.
“You’re sure one for frettin’ on how things smell. Reckon you’d have choked to death if you was livin’ with Vox. There was times he’d leave them hides lay around for a week before he’d take them to town. By then, they’d take on a smell that got your attention, all right.”
“I can’t help it. Some smells just get me riled. If I had to smell them damn britches all night, I’d have been ready to whip your ass by mornin’.”
“You’d have been ready to try.”
I could tell Paco wasn’t mad but I also seen again how he’d had to learn to take up for hisself. I was bigger than him and he knowed it, but if I’d have whipped him, it wouldn’t have been without a fight. But that feelin’ for him was growin’ in me so I figured there wasn’t gonna be no reason to find out. I didn’t answer nothin’ back about whippin’ him.
“You ought to kick my ass, me not thinkin’ to buy us some bedrolls. How the hell we gonna sleep. We only got one pair of dry britches. I about froze them nights I was sleepin’ out and I had on britches. What the hell am I gonna do?”
Paco said, “There’s ways of keepin’ warm without bed rolls. Indians don’t use bed rolls when they’re on the trail. They got all kinds of blankets and robes in their tipis but when it comes to trailin’, they go real light. Them growed braves don’t hardly trail no more but when us young ’uns was ridin’ at night, I learned that there’s ways for keepin’ warm without no bedrolls. We’ll just throw them found sacks over us and skooch up real close to each other. Them Indians say that your insides make heat so if you sleep skin to skin, you keep each other warm. It works. I done it with them Indians lots of times.
“Anyway, when it comes to sleepin’ in the dirt, we ain’t got no britches. I ain’t puttin’ the first britches I’ve had almost since I can remember in no dirt. I reckon I been sleepin’ naked most of my life, cold or hot so one more night ain’t gonna kill me.”
I got me a found bag and laid close to the fire. You know how when you’re goin’ to sleep you lay on your side with your knees bent. Least that’s how I go to sleep and that’s the way them boys I slept with at that orphanage went to sleep. That’s how I was layin’ with my belly toward the fire. Paco got him the other found sack and bent his body just like mine with his front against my back. He was right. The heat comin’ from his insides made my back almost as warm as the fire was makin’ my front. His legs was even keepin’ the back of my legs warm. I felt real cozy but I got to thinkin’ could be his back was cold, bein’ away from the fire and all. “You warm enough?”
“I’m fine. I been a hell of a lot colder than this lots of nights.”
“You ain’t got nothin’ warmin’ your back. Ain’t it cold.?”
“Ain’t that cold. I’ll make out.”
I asked if he thought he’d be warmer if he slept on the other side of the fire. He said, “That fire’s gonna go out. When that happens, the only thing we’ll have to keep us warm is each other. Don’t worry none about me. I ain’t gonna be no colder before this night’s over than you are.”
When we woke up, we was layin’ face to face, kind of huggin’ each other like. I reckon we one that when we was sleepin’, tryin’ to keep warm. Them found bags wasn’t even on us no more but I reckon we was warm enough. I don’t remember wakin’ up none and Paco said he didn’t either.One thing I didn’t forget to buy in Claude was some soap. I reckon I’m different than most folks I know. I already told you that them men that come to my mama never bathed. They smelled like shit and sweat and piss. Make you sick. My mama hardly never bathed. She’d pour some of that cheep lilac water on herself when she had some man comin’. Didn’t cover nothin’ up. Just made her smell worse to my way of thinkin.
Seemed like most folks hardly never bathed. I reckon fancy folks like that store-keepers woman bathed and I s’pose she bathed her young ’uns but most folks didn’t see no need for bathin’. There was even some who said bathin’ would give you the namoni.
I don’t reckon it did ’cause I was bathin’ all the time and I ain’t never had no namoni. I already told you there’s some smells that just put a mad on me. Ever since that damn preacher man made me sleep in that shit house pit, if I smelled bad or if I was around folks who smelled bad, I’d get this scared-mad feelin’. I didn’t even like to be too dirty. Reckon I ain’t no different than most boys. Seems like I can get some dirty just gettin’ out of bed but if I was real dirty it made me feel like I done when I had that shit on me. Most every day when it was warm enough, I’d go to the creek even though it was three miles away from our cabin. When it was too cold or rainin’ or somethin, I’d bath as good as I could from a bucket in our cabin.
My mama would never wash my britches, so I washed them from that bucket about once a week. I just couldn’t stand to be too dirty, and particular I couldn’t stand to smell bad.
I had washed Paco as good as I could that first night I seen him but I already told you, I couldn’t get all the dirt and stink off him. Even before I let him at the rest of them beans, we went to the creek. Seemed like Paco was one for frettin’ on cold like I was one for frettin’ on smells. He yelled and cussed but I didn’t pay him no mind. I give him a good scrubbin’ with that soap
He said he never seen soap before. He didn’t even know to close his eyes and you ain’t heard no yellin’ like he done when I got his hair all soaped up and some of that lye soap got in his eyes. I knowed what he was yellin’ about. I already got some of that lye soap in my eyes. It burns like hell itself, I reckon.
I pushed his face under the water to get the soap out and told him to keep his damn eyes closed. I was about to go back to bathin’ him when around the bend of that creek come a man and two boys. They was different than any kind of folks I ever seen before. They had real short haircuts but there was long curls hangin’ down in front of their ears. The man had a real black beard and he had on his long johns and a little round, black, funny lookin’ hat on his head. Them two boys was naked. I reckon they was all bathin’ in that creek too. Most men I ever seen didn’t get naked when they was bathin’, ’specially if there was women or young ’uns around. They’d soap their face and hands and hair and then turn their back and soap inside them longjohns. Then they’d sit down in the water to get the soap off them. In a way they was washin’ their longjohns at the same time they was washin’ themselfs. I’d seen a lot of men bath like that but I never seen one wear a hat to bath before.
One of them boys was about the same big as me and Paco and the other one was just some smaller. Their skin was some dark but not as dark as Paco’s or a Indian’s. But the thing I couldn’t keep my eyes off of was their pissers. They didn’t have no skin on the end of them. It was embarrassin’, lookin’ at them like that, but I never seen nothin’ like that before.
The man seemed some worried. “We heard you screaming. Is something wrong?”
“I was helpin’ him wash his hair and he got some of that damn lye soap in his eyes. I reckon he’s fine now, ain’t you, Paco?”
“Hell no, I ain’t! My eyes is still burnin’ like you put hot coals in them but it looks to me like them boys got more troubles than me. They must have been bathin’ their pissers with that damn soap. Rotted half the skin right off them.”
Them boys kind of smiled and the man laughed out loud.
“No, that skin didn’t rot off. We’re Jewish and we circumcise our male children when they are eight days old. It’s a religious custom.”
“What the hell is circumcise or whatever it was you said?” I’d never heard of such a thing.
“Circumcision is the removal of the foreskin from the penis. Our Rabbi does it. It’s part of our covenant with God.”
He was usin’ words I never heard of before but I wasn’t about to take time to find out what they meant. When he started talkin’ about God, that kind of scared me. “Are you some of them damn Christians?” I asked, half scared that they was.
“No, we’re Jewish. It’s a different religion.”
“Well, I’m glad you ain’t none of them Christians. Them sons-a-bitches is mean, I’ll tell you!”
He laughed again. He was real nice and even if he did say a lot of words that didn’t make sense, I knowed I’d have liked him could I get to know him better. He asked again if we was sure we was fine and when we told him we was, he said, “Rubin, Ezra, we better finish our baths. The wagon train will be moving on soon.”
They went back around the bend and we finished our washin’. Paco was bitchin’ all the time about how cold he was and how he was never gonna bath again and it didn’t make no difference what that man said. Paco knowed that damn soap rotted that skin off them boys’ pissers.
I couldn’t see no sense in cuttin’ that skin off but I reckoned what that man said was true. I been washin’ mine with that soap since I come back from that orphanage and no skin rotted off mine.
All the time Paco was bitchin’, you got the sense he was more playin’ than mad. He had that ornery grin and while what he was sayin’ sounded mad, how he was sayin’ it was funny. The way he was actin’ got me to feelin’ kind of playful too. I splashed water on him and then wondered should I have. I stood back to see how he’d take it. Looked like I really got him mad. He started stompin’ toward the creek bank and sayin’, “Damn, these white folks is dumb. I had one didn’t know enough to put britches on a young ’un and now I got one who puts fire in your eyes and then tries to put it out by throwin’ water on your ass.”
He was almost to the bank when he turned real quick, started laughin’ and pushed me backward and dunked me under the water. He wasn’t mad. He was playin’ with me. We went to laughin’ and playin, dunkin’ each other in the water and swimmin’ under and grabbin’ the other one’s feet, stuff like that. I don’t know how long we done that but it come to me pretty soon, we better get a move on. There was things we had to get.
You never seen nobody prouder than Paco when he put on them new britches and seein’ him proud give me that good feelin’ again. We cleaned up our cookin’ pot and got all our stuff on the horses. We had trouble with the oats. That buckskin’ was too tall and that oats was too heavy for us to get it to stay on her back like that livery man done. We had to put half in each of them found bags and throw them across the bay’s back like I done when I brought the found to our camp last night. The found all fit in the saddle bags.
Them horses stood real good for us while we was saddlin’ them and even with all that foolin’ with the oats. I don’t know too much about horses. Paco had rode enough to know what you was s’posed to do but him bein’ so small, he couldn’t have handled no rank horses. It was good these was gentle.
I don’t know how we was so lucky with them horses. I wondered why somebody would give them up, they seemed so good. I wondered if they was stold. They didn’t have no brands but when I thought about it, I knowed they couldn’t be stold. I had papers on them. I figured somebody sold them ’cause they needed the money or they was ridin’ east and sold them ’cause they was goin’ the rest of the way on the railroad. Reckon it didn’t make no difference. They sold them and I got them and I was proud I did. They was good horses and seemed like they liked us already.
If Paco looked proud when he put on them britches, you should have seen him when he got on that bay. His eyes got water in them again and me seein’ him feel good, here come that good feelin’ inside me again, enough of that good feelin’ that I watered up a little too. He was my friend and even though he didn’t say it yet, I knowed I was his friend too. You could tell by how he was doin’ me. I reckon when your friend feels good, you just naturally feel good too.
Copyright © 2003 Gordon L. Klopfenstein