Beneath the Tombstone (The Tombstone Series) (25 page)

“She
is, um, she is doing okay,” the doctor said, but there was a bit of uneasiness
in his voice.

Jason
picked up on it. “Are you sure?” he asked. “You seem a little uncertain about
it.”

“I am
sorry, Jason,” Tomas said with a reluctant and sad sigh. “With everything else
you have going on, I wasn’t going to tell you this, but,” he sighed again,
“she’s gone.”

“Gone?”
Jason asked in disbelief as he stood abruptly, spilling his coffee all over the
table.

“Yes
Jason,” Tomas said soberly as he scooted his chair back a bit to avoid the
spilled liquid as it drained his way.  “Gone. I am so sorry, my friend. I
do not know if she ran away to look for you or…” he let his voice trail off.

“Or
what?” Jason demanded.

“I am
not sure,” the doctor said quietly as he looked up into Jason’s eyes, “but I
think there was blood on the ground in her pen.”

Jason
stood in stunned silence. How could someone do this? There was a person out
there who wanted to make Jason suffer so badly that they had taken the last
living thing that he loved and called his own and removed it from his life.

“Some,
um, somebody killed my dog?” Jason asked as moisture began to seep into his
eyes. Jason didn’t have to wonder who. He knew. “It was Denton,” he said in a
shaky voice. “He’s always been jealous that I got Misty. Now he wants to see me
suffer.” He paused for a moment. “Dixie was the only thing I still had that
loved me unconditionally,” he said as he whipped the dampness from his eyes.

“I’m
sorry,” Dr. Throckmorton spoke quietly as he looked away. “So sorry.”

Jason
just nodded his thanks. “I’ve got to be going,” he said quietly, trying to mask
some of the emotion in his voice. “Thanks for listening… and for taking care of
Dixie while she was still here.”

“Glad
I could help,” the doctor replied before looking up at Jason. “I want you to
remember one thing for me, Jason,” he instructed. “Can you do that?”

“I
can try,” Jason answered while staring blankly at the ground.

“Sometimes
it is okay to give up,” the doctor said softly. “You have lost everything.
Considering your circumstances, it would be perfectly normal.”

“Then
I don’t want to be normal,” Jason replied flatly. “And you are wrong, my
friend. I haven’t lost everything.” He took a deep breath and put on a brave
smile as he took a few steps back from the table. “I still have hope,” he said,
raising his hands in a bowing gesture.

“That
you do, Jason. That you do,” Tomas said then took a sip of his coffee as he
watched Jason walk away.

The
smell of soured corn, oats, and other grain filled Jason’s nostrils with a
bitter aroma. Past rainstorms, the snow melting from the previous winter, or
some other form of moisture had invaded one of the big metal feeders that sat
out in one of the cow pastures. Some of the ruined feed could be shoveled out
through the gap in the bottom, which opened to a tray that ran the full length
of the feeder, but some of grain had become so mildewed together that, no
matter how hard Jason banged on the side of the metal bin, the spoiled feed
would not be shaken lose.

Finally,
with no other option than to climb through one of the big doors on top, down
into the inside and shovel the feed out through the openings above… that is
exactly what Jason did. After a few minutes of the hard, sweaty, nasty work, he
stuck his head out of the top to get a breath of fresh air. When he did, he
noticed that a small group of curious heifers had gathered around, trying to
figure out why their food was flying from its pen, seemingly of its own accord.

With
a smug look on his face, Jason ducked back down into the feeder, got another
shovel full of the rotten grain and flung it back through the door in the
direction of the gathered herd. As soon as he did, he popped his head back over
the top and watched as the group scattered a few feet away from where the
shovel load had landed, gazing wide eyed at their food lying scattered on the
ground. Jason watched them for a moment longer then smiled a little as he shook
his head and disappeared back below deck.

A
while later, Jason wiped the sweat from his forehead as he stood triumphant at
the top of the feeder, towering over a job well done. He had removed every bit
of the stinky, smelly substance from the feed bin. Giving a satisfied sigh, he
swung the shovel over his shoulder then climbed down and headed from the
pasture over to the round pen where Rye and Tyler where working horses.

“Hey
Jason,” Tyler hollered when he got within shouting distance. “I know you’ve
only been out of jail for a day,” he spoke with a grin when Jason got closer,
“and I’ve never done this so quickly for any other ex-convict, but you’re
getting promoted.”

“Promoted?”
Jason asked.

“Yep,”
Tyler responded in a matter-of-fact way. “We’ve been working in the round pen
for the last several months, due to our lack of help, but it’s time we
introduce these three year olds to the square pen – make ‘
em
start shaping things up, you know. For that to happen, we’re
gonna
need extra help.” He sized Jason up and down before
asking, “Can you ride at all?”

“Yes
sir,” Jason replied with certainty. “My wife’s parents have a little ranch. We
go out there and ride their horses sometimes.” He paused for a moment before
asking, “But if I’m helping
y’all
, who’s
gonna
feed and clean stalls?”

“That
has been arranged,” Tyler said with a subtle smile. “I hired someone just
yesterday.”

Wow.
Yesterday Tyler had busted Jason out of jail, helped Rye take care of things at
the ranch and still had time to hire extra help. That was a pretty impressive
feat.

“Well,
when do I start?” Jason asked.

“New
help’s
gettin
’ here first thing in the morning,”
Tyler replied. “You’ll start then.”

“All
right,” Jason responded with a nod. “Until then?”

“You finished
with the stalls and cleaning out that ole’ rain-rotted feeder?” Tyler asked.

“Yes
sir.”

“Well
then, I reckon the only thing left to do is run,” the tall horseman said with a
smile.

Jason
groaned as he turned away and hit the trail. He had hoped that the
all-day-and-half-the-night endurance test, from several days ago, had put all
the running behind him.

Jason
made two laps in under an hour and a half before Tyler stopped him.

“All
that
runnin
’ slimmed you down to good size,” Tyler
said as he studied Jason, “but we need to start focusing on your pulling
muscles.”

Several
minutes later, Jason stood beside Tyler, who sat comfortably on his horse
gazing up at the outside wall of an old storage barn. One-by-fours were nailed
horizontally up a small section of the wall. The boards were only about a foot
in length and spaced about the same distance apart. “Looks a bit like a
ladder,” Jason commented, “only, it doesn’t seem to go anywhere.”

“It
is a ladder,” the cowboy said, verifying Jason’s observation. “And you are
correct. It doesn’t go anywhere.” Jason cocked an eyebrow as he turned to
Tyler. “You climb up and down it to strengthen your climbing muscles,” the
horseman explained, “mainly in your hand.” He turned to Jason as he went on,
“Let’s see how high you can go.” How high? That was simple. Jason knew he could
climb all the way to the top. “Oh, and you can only use your hands,” Tyler
added. Yeah… that might make things significantly more difficult.

Jason
gave it all he had but only made it four boards up before his hands started to
give out, forcing him to dig his feet in and back-down. “You’re fairly strong,”
Tyler commented, giving Jason a study as if weighing the pros and cons of a
horse. “Your endurance is good, but your hands,” he said with a sigh, “your
hands are weak… follow me,” he instructed as he turned his mount and rode away.

“Pick
those up,” Tyler ordered when he came to a stop, “one in each hand.”

Jason
looked to the ground where the cowboy was pointing and spotted two rocks that
probably weighed fifteen to twenty pounds apiece. He walked forward and obeyed.
Tyler gave no further instructions, so Jason just stood there patiently. Soon,
his hands and forearms began to burn like they were on fire.

“Wow,
that’s starting to hurt,” Jason said with a strain in his voice.

“Good,”
Tyler spoke. “That’ll help toughen up your hands.”

Jason
dropped the rocks with a relieved sigh. That must not have been what the big
cowboy had in mind. He frowned at Jason who, unsure of his transgression,
cautiously asked, “So you want me to pick them up and hold them a few times a
day… or what?”

“No,”
the horseman responded flatly, seeming to be a bit offended by the question. “I
want you to make the circle with them, one time every day.” Jason looked up at
him like he wasn’t believing what he was hearing… so Tyler got more specific.
“Starting now,” he ordered as he pointed off down the trail.

Jason
picked the rocks up, once more. A short time later, he crossed through the pit
and charged up the other side, dropping his load before reaching the top. And
so the next several hours went – picking up the rocks, charging down the trail
until his hands became too weak to bear the load, dropping the rocks and
resting his hands for a moment. Finally making it back to the ranch, Jason
dropped the rocks back into their place and lifted his hands, giving them a
study as they began to clinch into fist of their own accord. His mind was
ordering them to open back up, but they refused. He cringed in pain as he
hooked the fingertips of one hand onto the fingertips of the other and pulled.
He got them opened slightly before kneeling down and shoving them onto the
ground, forcing them open all the way.

“Burns
don’t it?” a voice asked calmly.

Jason’s
head bobbed up. He had been so focused on his task and the pain it was creating
that he didn’t even hear Tyler ride up. “Yeah,” he said in a tense voice. “From
my fingertips to my elbows, it feels like I’ve been set on fire.”

“Yep,”
the tall horseman laughed. “I know the feeling.” With that, he sat silently by,
giving Jason a chance to gain control of all of his appendages.

Finally,
once Jason could raise his hands from the ground and not have them begin
balling back up, he stood and looked at Tyler. “That was very painful,” he said
in a matter-of-fact way.

Tyler
smiled but didn’t say a word. He just sat there, seeming to find some sort of
humor in Jason’s discomfort. Several moments of awkward silence passed by while
he studied Jason. Then he stepped his horse closer. “I think you’re ready to
climb,” he said.

Climb?
Finally! Jason wanted to scream and shout like he had obtained victory over his
worst enemy but, instead, he maintained his composure and said, “Okay, um, if
you think I’m ready that sounds good to me.” But when Tyler turned his horse
and began to ride away, Jason jumped up in the air and mouthed the word, “Yes!”

“Once
you have finished rejoicing,” Tyler said in a calm voice, “then come and follow
me.”

“Alright,”
Jason said happily, but his joy was short lived. His smile disappeared into a
frown as he watched the big cowboy began trotting off down the trail. He seemed
to have in mind taking Jason on another tour around the loop. What on earth did
that have to do with climbing?

“What
are we doing here?” Jason asked when they came to a stop in the basin with the
small cliffs all around.

“This
is an old abandoned gravel pit,” Tyler replied, not answering the question
directly. “They drill holes down into the rock every so often and pour in
explosives… then
ka
-boom!”
he shouted,
“they blow the rock into pieces.” There was a gleam in the cowboy’s eye that
said he sure would like to have seen that.

After
sitting silent for a moment, seeming to take pleasure in some fiery picture
he’d drawn in his mind, he went on. “They take the rocks they busted lose and
grind them into gravel to top roads with.” The horseman then made a sweeping
gesture around the crater as he added, “And this is what we are left with – A
perfect climbing gym.”

Jason’s
head spun a little as he looked around. He had been wondering where he would
learn to climb – actually it had bothered him for quite some time now. He
hadn’t thought about climbing these little cliffs since his first day of
following Tyler around the loop.

“We’ve
got just about everything you need to learn to climb, right here,” Tyler said
as he looked around the pit. “Crack climbing, face climbing, a few spots where
the slant is beyond vertical… even have a few
dihedrals,” he added while
pointing over to spot where two cliffs met forming a ninety degree corner. A
crack, varying in width from about one to maybe six inches, separated the two
cliffs all the way to the top.

“We’ll
start tomorrow,” Tyler said as he turned his horse back around and headed
towards the barns. “It’s time to feed the horses.”

Jason
had to admit… he was a little disappointed. He had hoped to start climbing
right away, but, at least, now he had his answer as to when. Plus, he wasn’t
sure if his hands were ready for more torture, at the moment.

Climbing
was the prevalent thing on Jason’s mind the rest of the evening, and when he
laid his head down on his pillow to sleep that night, the thoughts of climbing
flooded in, making sleep an elusive prey. But finally, Jason drifted off to
sleep.

He
opened his eyes, looked at the clock and sighed. It read four thirty… already.
After lighting the lantern, he got dressed, straightened up his bed and headed
out the door to meet the new help. As he made his way through the darkness,
down towards the barn, thoughts of the new help came to mind. Would they be
able to handle his old job sufficiently? As far as their attitude, would they
be easy to get along with or grumpy? Would they be hard working? Would they be…
really, really short? Jason stopped in his tracks. What’d Tyler do… hire an
elf? Or was that a kid? It was a kid. Was that…

“Uncle
Jason!” the kid shouted out for joy as he ran towards his bewildered uncle.

“Ken?”
Jason asked before he stooped down and swept his nephew up in his arms. “What
are you doing here?”

“We’ve
come to help clean stalls so you can train!” the boy exclaimed. Then with
excitement in his eyes, he studied his uncle. “You look tough,” he said as he
reached up and rubbed the hair on Jason’s face. “Momma said you’re
gonna
get Aunt Misty back – You
gonna
get Aunt Misty back, Uncle Jason?” Ken asked with eyes full of innocence.

“Yes,”
Jason said as he fought the moisture back from his eyes. “I sure am.” He looked
up and saw Susan smiling at them. He honestly didn’t know what to say. Having
people he knew – having family there with him through such a hard time would
mean more to him than words could express.

Fighting
the tears back from his eyes, he said, “Susan, you don’t know how much I
appreciate
y’all
coming but,” he paused for a moment
then added with a sigh, “I just – I can’t ask you to quit your job, leave your
home, and drag Ken away from his friends to come clean stalls so I can have
more time to train.”

“I
said I’d do whatever it takes to get my sister back,” Susan said with a smile.

“But
all I’ve got to do is try,” Jason reminded her. “Even if I fall, she is
supposedly going to be set free.”