Water and Stone (14 page)

He listened to tales of the valley all his life.

"If you ever have the chance, Church, travel to a village in Mexico called Angangueo. It's where all the butterflies go each winter."

He loved listening to his mother's stories of the places where she lived before coming to Texas. Though she seemed like a young girl the way she talked she had lived in Mexico for ages, and before that on an island in the Caribbean called Cuba.

She didn’t often speak of her former life. Every once in a great while, however, his mother seemed to grow pensive... at the turning of winter into spring and also when summer began to fade into autumn, those were the times she opened up to him.

Church couldn’t remember being more than five miles from the little chabola in his whole life. The Triple Six hacienda was grand and beautiful but it too seemed to pale into insignificance against the backdrop that was the world and all its magnificent treasures.

He was needed, though.

The ponies expected him to come to them each morning with little treats he purchased in the tiny village on the outskirts of the ranch. Church didn't exactly know how many ponies there were but he knew them all by name and delighted at their snickers of greeting each morning as he walked into the corral.

There was more that ponies holding him at the hacienda... he didn’t want to leave all the work for his brother and of course he worried about his father having to do too much in his absence too. Still, Church sometimes wished he could simply evaporate like the rain that fell so sparsely sometimes turning into nothing but mist hanging like curtains in the air even before it hit the ground.

"Do you ever wonder what would happen if you just disappeared one day, Billy Ford?"

They were saddling up to ride out to the western boundary where some fences were down. Sometimes it seemed to Church that all he did was go in circles around the ranch and no sooner had one broken fence line been set right a half dozen more needed mending.

Now he understood why Rancher had admonished him to think carefully before accepting a job at the Triple Six. That was ten years ago and in his excitement Church never considered the consequences.

"Oh, I expect the world would keep right on turning with or without me, Church. You sound preoccupied, little brother. Tell me what's on your mind."

"I heard you talking to father about going to the university next year. Is it true?"

"I want to stay here on the Triple Six, Church. I mean, look at me. Do I look like a college boy to you?"

"No, not really... but aren't you excited to see new things?"

"I've been back east with my mother. It's a different world out there, Church."

"How is it different, Billy? Do you mean the big cities as compared to open spaces?"

"Sure, there's that, but the people are different too. Here, if someone gives you their word on something and shakes your hand, the deal's done. Back east, people are always trying to get the better of everyone else. They draw up complex contracts and then hire an attorney to figure out how to get around it."

Church didn’t want to say so to Billy but he'd heard talk all his life about Rancher Ford taking advantage of people down on their luck. He checked the cinch on his saddle by leaning over to pass his fingers through it to make sure it wasn’t too tight and then straightened up to look at his brother.

"I don't know much... I've never been outside King county, Billy. But I expect people are the same everywhere. There's good ones and bad ones."

"Maybe you should be the one going off to college, Church. It might open your eyes to the world."

"I'm like you, Billy. I'll always be a cowpoke. But I wouldn’t mind seeing the world one day."

"Father keeps telling me how he thinks I should go away to the university. I know it's really my mother's idea and I love her but I don't want to go. I know I'd hate it. I'd end up spending four years there... years I can never get back... and come home poorer for the experience of it all."

"I expect father understands what you're going through, Billy. He never went to college. I'm sorry to say I never got to know your mother before she left."

"It's my mother who is insisting. Don’t get me wrong... she's a fine woman but she never liked Texas. Maybe in time father will see how much he needs me here and agree that I don't have to go away at all."

"I'd sell my soul for a chance like that, Billy. I mean, to see the world and meet new people and learn all sorts of things I never thought of before... it'd be like a dream come true for me. I'm not so sure about going to the university, though."

"Hush, Church... don't talk of selling the only thing that's really yours, especially around here."

"It's just a figure of speech, Billy. Who'd buy it anyway?"

"Your aunt might make you a bargain for it."

"What do you mean by that, Billy?"

"Just forget I said anything, Church. Come on... let's get to running those fences... they aren't going to mend themselves."

Was Billy beginning to understand that his infatuation with Evalena would lead him down dark paths better left untrodden? Perhaps it wasn’t too late for his brother to break free of the woman.

The sun was just coming up and the day promised to be another hot one. Church poured the stale water from his canteen to refill it at the water spigot before slinging it over his saddle horn, stepping into the stirrup, and pulling himself onto his horse.

Billy was already a good thirty paces ahead but Church didn’t hurry to catch up. He sensed his brother had things on his mind that doubtlessly pertained to Evalena.

In one way Church was secretly happy that Billy Ford wasn’t going away. Conversely, though, he wondered if that wasn’t exactly what Billy needed... to get away from the girl, to let his spirit settle and to give himself some breathing space. It seemed to Church that Billy's cinch was pulled way too tightly.

For years the talk had been that both boys would one day leave the ranch to attend universities meant to instruct them on the ways of the world. But to Church, the ways of the world couldn't be taught inside any building.

Still, he yearned to see the world... to learn the secrets kept in those high towers of ivory and taught only to the select few deemed worthy. On the other hand, to be forced to sit inside a classroom day after day didn't appeal to him, not after the years he'd spent riding the open range and living under a wide Texas sky.

He'd rather be traveling light with only the clothes on his back, an old pickup truck, and a few dollars in his pockets. When he got tired he'd pull over somewhere and sleep. When he grew hungry he'd stop and fix himself some dinner. In the summertime when the weather was hot he'd travel north... in the winter he'd reverse course and head south.

Though he loved reading he didn’t cotton to the idea of being told what books to read. Rather, if he picked up a book off a shelf and liked the beginning he enjoyed reading it through. He didn’t need any professors forcing him into their curriculum.

Perhaps with Billy's lead he wouldn't be forced into attending college either. Church detested the thought of being indoors all the time and though he loved learning new things he had no desire to emulate the stuffed shirt teachers that spent their lives instructing others on how to live without ever learning themselves.

"Have you ever had a girlfriend, Church?"

Since his horse was more heavily laden it wasn’t long before Billy fell back with Church as they rode down the arroyo and into the hardpan.

"No, not really... remember Tree? I sort of liked her but I haven’t seen her since school ended. What do you and Evalena do when you're together, Billy? Is she your girlfriend?"

"No, nothing like that... we talk... that's about it."

Sometimes he thought how he might take Billy inside the chabola to reveal Evalena's alter. He remembered what an impression it'd made upon him when he first saw it so he imagined it might do the same for Billy. As ever, though, his aunt seemed to sense Church's intentions to show Billy Ford things before the time was ripe. She was always home when Billy came to visit like they made plans for it to be that way.

"I guess we better be getting started on those fences, Billy. It feels like it's gonna be another hot one. Will Evalena be around later? I have something I'd like to show you but only if she's gone."

"You can show me anything, Church. I don’t care if she's there or not."

"Well, if you say so, Billy... she might not like me telling you our family secrets though."

"What kind of secrets does your family have, Church?"

It weighed on his mind that his aunt might be taking advantage of his friendship with Billy Ford. He remembered how she'd asked him a lot of questions about Billy when they first became friends. At the time Church thought his aunt had something against the boy. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

"My mother and her sister came here from Mexico but before that they lived in Cuba. Remember those two men who were killed in that stampede years ago but no one could find any sign of tracks around their bodies?"

"Sure, Church... I remember that. What's that got to do with your family?"

"Those men were from Cuba too. I heard they were spreading rumors about my aunt the day before they died... about how she belonged to a cult."

"Are you saying Evalena had something to do with their deaths? Come on, Church... she's just a girl. How could she do something like that?"

"I don't know. You're probably right. Forget I said anything."

The way his eyes flashed angrily for just a moment along with his vigorous defense of her told Church that Billy was already too wrapped up in Evalena's charismatic nature to easily break free. She was setting up Billy Ford for something... but what? A woman like Evalena wouldn't interact with a boy like Billy unless she had a motive... a good reason for it... and one she'd carefully plotted out from beginning to end.

Everyone knew the Fords were wealthy... probably the richest family in north Texas. The Triple Six ranch was legendary for having been built piece by piece by Rancher Ford. The story went how the man started out with nothing, not even shoes on his feet, and yet he had made himself into a man to be reckoned with even by Presidential contenders like Senator Townsend.

By insinuating her way into Billy Ford's good graces did Evalena hope to partake in the riches of the father? If so, Church had a feeling she was in for a huge disappointment. Rancher Ford was not a man to be taken advantage of so easily.

"Do you believe in magic, Church?"

The question caught him off guard. They had stopped at the dry gulch marking the western boundary of the ranch to unfurl a roll of barb wire and stretch it over a section of fence that had either rusted away or more likely been cut by cowboys leading a herd over land that didn’t belong to them. Church loved working with Billy... they each seemed to feed off the other one's energy so that the job in front of them seemed to evaporate before it had begun.

Looking up while wiping his brow with a dusty bandana the sun was a green blowtorch in the middle of a hard blue sky... not even a simple breeze stirred over the hardpan that was cracked and dry as far as the eye could see while iron weed and sage brush eked out an existence along the old chalk-white waterline that marked either a wetter climate or one of the frequent flash floods that periodically ran roughshod over a land too dry to soak in the sudden rains that came too seldom and then too powerfully to do any good.

Between the two of them the work progressed quickly. Sometimes Church thought how he and his brother communicated in ways others didn't. Each time one was ready for a tool the other had it standing by. He'd worked with many of the migrant workers but none of them could compete with Billy's skill set and knowledge.

They were wrapping things up now and would be home for supper within the hour. Church noticed empurpled thunderheads rising high into the southern sky like a forest of gigantic treetops portending rain but he reckoned the moisture would spill itself out well before reaching the Triple Six. They were in the midst of another periodic drought but this one seemed as harsh as any he had known.

"What kind of magic, Billy? Why do you ask?"

"It's just what you were saying about your aunt... that you thought she might've had something to do with the deaths of those cowpokes. Do you believe there are witches in the world who can cast spells over people they hate?"

"I think there are people who believe they're witches but the only people they can hurt with their spells are those who believe in witches too."

"You're pretty smart for such a little guy, Church."

"I'm not so little anymore, Billy. I'm as big as you."

"Yeah... but you'll never be as handsome. Last one back to the Triple Six has to clean the stables."

It wasn’t a fair race... Billy Ford was already mounted and Church had yet to gather the rest of his tools they used to fix the broken fence. He told himself it didn’t matter... Billy would have beaten him anyway. His horse was known for its speed and endurance and Church didn’t much like to push his little pony more that necessary.

Riding back alone gave Church time to think. Billy Ford had changed over the last few months and not for the better. It seemed to Church that ever since Evalena has taken up with him, Billy had become more covetous than he was before.