Chapter 7: Jainie the Bronc rider
Musical theme: Ride ‘em Cowboy by Juice Newton
Dave took a place at the breakfast table. Marti served up huevos rancheros, pancakes, bacon, biscuits, and the usual stuff to them. Dave did not say anything to Jainie, nor she to him. Billy Mouse and Harlan Wright were there, eating, but probably wishing they had not taken the offer of a free breakfast. Then again, they knew how good Marti Salavinos cooked, so there was that. Cowboys pass up good food with extreme reluctance.
As 11am came close, Dave went out, followed by the cowboys, and Jainie. The others were there at the corral. Billy and Harlan brought Rastafarian to the corral and put a saddle on him. Nobody seemed to be having any fun. Rastafarian least of all, looking at Dave and rolling his eyes. When Jainie got into the saddle, there was none of the usual tussle. They opened the gate, and out he came, jumping wildly, crow hopping, and circling around, almost throwing her but not quite. Then he stopped in the middle of the corral and abruptly bucked, throwing her to the ground. He ran to the far side from Dave, and stood still, breathing harder than would have seemed normal.
Billy and Harlan took the saddle off, and took Rastafarian back to the stable. Jainie walked over to Dave. “You threatened him last night.”
“You can threaten a horse, but about something that will happen tomorrow?”
“But you did, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell him?”
“If he hurt you. I would hurt him.”
“Oh, that is so great.”
“I don’t believe I am explaining this. I told him I will let him to stud at a ranch that has been trying to get him if he would just not hurt you. Ralph Cunningham’s”
“He is afraid of you.”
“He should be, if he did something to you.”
“But he pulled his punches.”
“What do you want, for him to go nuts and stomp you to death? One of those is enough. You felt his power. You rode what may be the greatest bronc of our time, and then he threw you into the dirt the way he has thrown every cowboy who ever tried to ride him.”
“You always make me feel a little bit unreasonable.”
“Maybe you are a little bit unreasonable. I suppose I kind of like it, but when it goes too far, then I start worrying.”
“Let’s go to lunch.”
They headed back to the house, and the gang followed at a discrete distance. Marti and Lucy served an enormous feast with tacos, enchiladas, hamburgers, pork ribs, and all the things Texans like. There was beer, from the high of Shiner Bock to the low of Natural light, and it was consumed gladly. They adjourned to the back yard, and sat on lawn chairs, nibbling on lunch and drinking beer.
Marti came out to Dave. “You have a call from Kevin Lake.”
Dave followed her in to the little ranch office, and picked up the phone. “Kevin, what’s up?”
“Well, dem auditors got de goods de weasel, an de FBI dey on it now, he got im 2 million maybe your baby’s money. So we hear de feds, you do too, not dat long. De weasel dey wan.”
“The ranch is all right?”
“De ranch fine. De boys be very good. Dey work de fence dese days, fix tings dat de weasel din’ care ‘bout.”
“You know that Jainie will not let them work the fence and all this winter?”
“She doan’ wan’ a man los’ in de blizzard. Dey know. Dat happen ‘ere.”
“Not on our watch.”
“Dat right. Dey care for de stock take no chance dey doan ‘ave to.”
“Well, then, it sounds all right. Jainie says put out 25 thousand in bonuses to whoever you want. She marked off ten for you on top of that.”
“Ain’ notin’ I done to be get no ten thou’san’ bonus.”
“You’re getting it. Also, she ordered a truck for you, and she says you cannot let anyone else drive it. It’s a big Ford diesel pickup with a sedan cab and four wheel drive, all the cool stuff. I know you don’t care about that kind of thing, but she thinks you need to have certain symbols of authority. So this truck has an air compressor, cutting torch set, Snap on tools, utility boxes, all kinds of stuff like that. It even has a towing winch.”
“I doan’ need all dat.”
“She thinks you should have it, and I agree. We figure you may need some of those things, and the fact you have them shows management’s high regard for you. She had it done up like the Baby, and she is having it delivered in a week or two.”
“OK, I like a nice truck, uh. Now ‘ow it be down dere?”
Dave told him about Jainie riding Rastafarian, and wanting to ride the 400, and all that.
“Dave dis be crazy. You got to put de limits dis girl, or she ‘goin’ end up dead. I maybe need talk wit her.”
“You get to de shop, get dem hey heys crunched, an’ you make dis girl behave. She got no sense de self preservation. You get her off de boat, you get her off de bike, not for no tinking ot’erwise.”
Jainie tapped on the door, and he opened it. “Kevin, she is here.”
“You give de girl de phone, an’ you go somewar. I talk ‘er.”
“Kevin Lake would like to speak with you privately, Jainie.”
“Not ‘honey’.”
“No.”
Dave left her with the phone. “Kevin, are you there?”
“I be here.”
“You sound mad.”
“Oh, I do be, girl.”
“At me?”
“You tink I bark de moon? You, no miss on dat. You tink what you do Dave, you do dis stupid tings you do? I answer for you, no you doan. You ‘avin’ fun, ride de bronk. Dave doan sleep, but dat ok, uh? You love im? ‘ow you treat im? You doan love im, you treat im li’ dat, I unerstan’, but you love im, an’ treat im li’ dat, den dat make no sense ‘tall.”
“How am I mistreating him, Kevin?”
“You jus’ tear out is ‘eart. Let im see you goan die some awful ting in fron’ his face, wha’ you tink?”
“You think I’m doing something bad, just because I do something he does not want me to do?”
“You ‘urt im like nobody never. ‘e be better ‘e never met you, you goan’ to do dis to him.”
She went silent for a minute. “Are you still there, Kevin?”
“I still ‘ere.”
“I’m hurting him with this. Wanting to ride the horse, and the bike, and that kind of thing.”
“You ‘urt im wors’ he ever been ‘urt.”
“I did.”
“You.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“De road to ‘ell.”
“But you know I love him!”
“I tink you do, but dat make not’in’ really. You put ‘im to torments, and den say you l’ve im an’ you don’ tormented ‘im, den w’at matter?
“The way I have treated him is what matters.”
“Ri’t action. Not de words, ‘ow someone is.”
“I think I’d better go talk to Dave about all this.”
“I tink, too, so you do.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
She hung up, and went to Dave, who was sitting in the living room, casually talking with their guests. “Can we talk?”
“Sure.”
She led him down the hall to the bedroom. “This isn’t about sex, although I’m willing any time. Dave, I just talked with Kevin.”
“Talking with Kevin is always interesting, if you can get the Kevin out of the words.”
“Well, I think I did. He says I’m tormenting you with my dangerous activities. He thinks I should stop if I love you, or else decide that I don’t. Something like that.”
“I worry about you.”
“Let’s cut to the chase. Am I really tormenting you with riding Rastafarian, and all that?”
“That’s Kevin’s word?”
“Yes.”
“I’m not sure it is the right word. But it’s close. I didn’t want you to ride Rastafarian. I don’t want you to ride the 400 either. I’m terrified about what could happen to you.”
“Like I would be if it was you.”
“Right. Just like that.”
“OK. I am not going to ride the 400. I thank Rastafarian for his kindness, or you for scaring him, whatever. He also wants you to ‘get the hey heys crunched.’”
“You know what those are.”
“Oh, I guess I do.”
“Let’s go crunch them.”
They took the AK’s into the shop, and took them apart. They threw the stocks into the fire in the woodstove, and then Dave showed Jainie how to cut metal with an oxyacetylene torch. They cut up the metal parts, and dropped them into the forge. In a few minutes, they sank into the melt. Dave dumped in a bunch of old bolts, welding rod junk, and other small scrap, and then showed Jainie how a sand mold is done, using a small wood model of an anvil. They gently poured the molten steel into the mold. A few minutes later, they took out the anvil, and Dave cut the sprue off with the torch.
He dusted the anvil with carbon flakes, and then sprayed water on it, putting a mild case harden on it. He continued spraying the water until the anvil was cold.
“Now we mill the base flat.” He put the anvil upside down on a milling machine’s table, and arranged some hold downs. “This is an old Bridgeport. One of the best milling machines ever made. Uncle Jack had good taste.”
He ran a surface cutter over the bottom of the anvil, as Jainie stood back, even with safety glasses, wanting to stay clear of the chips. He drilled the four hold down bolt holes with a bit from the quill, and took the hold downs clear. “We just made an anvil, honey.” He said, as he lifted it down and set it on a sturdy metal bench. He handed her a pair of heavy leather gloves. Then a strip of metal, and a 2 pound ball peen hammer. “Give this piece of steel a few good whacks, and see if the anvil feels right.”
She bashed the strip of metal ruthlessly. “It feels real nice, Dave. Can we keep it?”
“We can, but we don’t need it, unless you want it for the Wyoming ranch. This is as big as I can cast; a 125#. Uncle Jack’s blacksmith shop has bigger ones.”
They walked around a big concrete support post to the blacksmith shop. She looked at the metalworking tools. There was a big, although not sophisticated iron bender, and several anvils, including a huge one that Jainie ran her hands over. “This thing is immense!”
“That’s about a 1500 pounder. That’s the biggest anvil I have ever seen. I have no idea what it was made for. I use it a little bit, but I could do the same jobs on a much smaller one. Let me show you the machine tools.”
They went past the mill, and there was a gigantic metal lathe. “This thing is really cool. It was made to turn shafts for ships. It’s totally obsolete, but it still works, and it can still turn a twelve inch diameter piece of steel. This next machine is a press. It squashes metal into shapes. I get orders for a few hundred pieces from it a year. I make about $10 a part. But the people who want those parts want them a lot, so it makes some money, yeah. The next one is a shaft surfacing machine. We can get work for it any time, but after costs, we make about $8 an hour surfacing shafts. They go in that end and come out here, and that is that. You put in your hours surfacing and changing grinding wheels and cleaning up crud. Now this one is my favorite. It’s a South Bend screw lathe, built around 1935, I think. You could make a six inch diameter bolt on this thing, and a nut to fit it, too. But most of the work you can scrape out is rough outs for tool and die work. Hard, heavy work, and not a lot of money. Over on that side are the toys. Little stuff that every shop in the U.S. has. If you were a master machinist, you could make a nice living on that bunch, but I am not, nor are you.”
She looked at several little metal lathes and mills, and some specialized machines. “You have an Umberti surfacing machine.”
“Unfortunately, 16 inch.”
“A 5016. One of my dad’s friends ran one of those. That’s a real nice machine.”
“It is. You might get enough out of it to pay the operator minimum wage.”
“From the smell, you have a wood shop over there.”
“Yes. Some more obsolete classic equipment.” He led the way. “Here we have the star of the show, a 24” circular saw mill. About half the size you need to make any money. And then behind her, this cute little band saw mill. You can get a few bucks a foot for a nice bit of mesquite, but they seldom run more than a few feet. The planer and jointer are old school cabinet maker’s tools. Drill press, belt sander, some little machines you can have fun with, nothing back there that can make any money.”
“So what can you do with all these nice machines?”
“Make about what you would as a clerk in a convenience store.”
“What is happening to America?”
“Nothing good. Everything is made in China cheaper than we can do it with these machines. They sell us stuff made with slave labor, and we lose our industries. We go into debt, and run up our credit cards. Then they come with piles of dollars, and buy our real estate, and after that, we have them for landlords and employers, and we have become a colony. Our work produces almost nothing, and we are a third world nation.”
“You really think that could happen?”
“I think it will happen.”
“The greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere.”
“With a surprise new center.”
“Why don’t you let me saddle up Rastafarian, and just ride him wherever he takes me?”
“There has to be a way out of it. Maybe even going to another country. We could. The working class of America is the ones who are stuck.”
“It might take longer than our lifetimes. I think it will. America has still got all these exports like high technology, aerospace, and military hardware.” She stared into space.
A big yellow pickup pulling a horse trailer came into the yard. Ralph Cunningham got out, and went to them.
“I came to pick up Rastafarian.”
“I have to ask you a few things, Mr. Cunningham.” Jainie said.
“Which is?”
“You are not going to hot shot that horse, whip him, or mistreat him in any way. If you do, I am going to personally beat the hell out of you.”
Cunningham looked at Dave. “Y’all can’t be serious.”
“I’m afraid she is, Ralph. And she would back it, too.”
“I’m not taking a devil horse under those conditions.”
Dave shrugged. “I understand. We’re still friends?”
“Yeah, sure.”
“I would like you to be friends with Jainie, too, if you are Texan enough for it.”
Cunningham shook Jainie’s hand. “You may consider me your friend, Ma’am.”
“You may consider me yours, Mr. Cunningham.”
“Ralph, I’m sorry I brought you out here without knowing what we would have to ask you to agree to. But Jainie likes that devil horse. Something to do with riding him, I suppose.”
“She rode Rastafarian?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s probably a good thing I didn’t provoke her.”
“Ralph, since you came all this way, would you like to borrow Amos for a month?”
“Well, I sure would.”
Dave called Mouse over. Would you help Ralph load Amos on his trailer, Mouse?”
“Sure.” They left to get the bull.
“So Dave, what are we going to do?”
“We could go to New Orleans, get the Baby, and haul some cows. It’s pointless, but beef prices are high.”
“Let’s do it. I want to take Rastafarian with us.”
“What are you doing that for?”
“I’m going to make him into a riding horse, if it doesn’t give you nightmares.”
“It might, but let’s give it a try.”
Billy Mouse drove them to a local airport, and they went from there to Dallas, and then New Orleans, where Danielle picked them up. They went into New Orleans and to Marcie’s house. Jainie went in with her suitcase, and left Danielle and Dave to get the rest of the stuff. “I wish you would have married me instead, Dave. You guys are having all these neat adventures.”
“Be careful what you wish for, pretty girl.”
“You think I’m pretty, Dave?”
“Yeah, and I think the Gulf of Mexico is wet, too. Jainie was fishing a lot further off shore, so she found me first. But there are more nice guys with reasonably good looks than there is a market for. They just are not in the art gallery.”
They collected the stuff and went inside. Jainie looked at the junk. “Well, just any old where. We’re going to take you girls out to eat and then head for Wyoming. I already called Kevin, and he’s getting us a load of cattle ready to sell. IBP wants more than we could ever haul, and so.”
“Dave, where are the eligible bachelors?”
Jainie answered. “Danielle, get a CDL and get on the road!”
“Oh, I can’t see myself doing that.”
Dave put in “Construction. Work for a contractor. Get a human resources gig in some company that has mostly men in the workforce. Get a job selling Carhartt overalls.”
Jainie started laughing. “Take tickets at a rodeo. Get yourself assigned to handing out numbers to cowboys. They will every one of them make a play for you. Hell, go to work on my ranch. I’ve got 20 guys up there, and probably not one that wouldn’t like you to share his bed.”
Dave took the keys out of his pocket. “Will you bring the Baby around, Jainie?”
“Yeah.” She said, with the proud look of a student who has been asked by the teacher to do some little task. She went out the door.
Dave took Danielle’s hand. “I like you. I’ll tell you straight up that if you had found me first, this would all be a lot different. But things are as they are. There are lots of nice guys out there, and you just need to somehow be where they pass by. And then you need to sort out the creeps, the married jerks, and the other bums, and pick out the ones that are worth your while. You’ll be all right. He moved to kiss her on the cheek, and she turned to take the kiss on her lips. Of course, that was the precise time Jainie came in the door.
“So, my cousins are my problem.”
“I was telling Danielle about men a little bit, and it went a little too far. But we have been down this road already. If you want to dump me, OK, fine. I’m still yours. But if you want to kick me to the curb, you’ve picked the wrong place to do it, honey.”
“You belong to me.”
“That’s right.”
“You are married to me.”
“That’s right. I belong to you. I like Danielle, but I belong to you.”
“Well, then, put that stuff in our truck, and let’s get moving for Wyoming. I already cut a deal with IBP for a load of cattle. I want to stop in Texas and pick up Rastafarian.”
“We can do that.”
Dave grabbed up the stuff. “Watch this, Danielle. You find the one you want, you stake your claim, and you hold on.”
“Dave, we have a schedule to make.”
He sent Danielle a quick smile.
They put their junk in the truck. “I know you like Danielle.”
“It’s a lot different from being disloyal.”
“If I kissed some other guy, you would take it differently.”
“You may be right. I don’t have any male cousins.”
She got in the driver’s seat. “I knew those girls would try for you. And I know you didn’t actually do it. So if you want to invite Danielle into your dreams, I suppose I should understand it, even though I don’t like it.”
“She is not in my dreams. The main players in my dreams are my mom and dad, who are both dead. And you. Most of the ones I remember have you in some awful danger. Being pulled under by an outgoing line on the Clarissa Marlene. I’ve seen that one a hundred times. And never gotten a decent night’s sleep after it. You might have let that happen.”
“I didn’t ride your 400. You know why?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Kevin Lake told me what I was doing to you.”
“Kevin?”
“Yeah. I listened to that. The day we cast that anvil.”
“But it really was Kevin you listened to.”
“Kevin.”
“But he never kissed you.”
“Kevin would never do that.”
“That’s true.”
“I-22 West to Big Bird, Texas.”
“You like that name.”
“Yeah. It’s so ridiculous it’s cool.”
“Don’t make too much fun of it. I live there.”
“You live wherever I am. I don’t want to have to explain this material again, my mathematician.”
She got on the I-22 on ramp, and went up through the gears as slick as a veteran trucker. Dave looked at her lane control, and the way she checked the mirrors and gauges. She put it in cruise at 72. As the road bent to the right, she looked at the right mirror for that moment when she could see a mile or two behind her. She was a veteran trucker. Dave could not say when it had happened, but it had.