Boys Become Men: Book Three ~ Mountain Ranch

Tommie came to live with Billy and Andy as Billy had promised the boy long ago, when they had first escaped from Flagstaff. Billy was an expert wood carver and the first thing he did was fit Tommy with a wooden foot to replace the one he lost due to injury. It took Billy several weeks of shaping and figuring out how to cushion the stump that Doc Paul had left and making bindings that would hold the foot on, but when it was finally done, the boy could walk without his crutch! He did need a cane when he went outside, but he could maneuver around the apartment without the need of his cane and with hardly any limp at all! The first time he walked across the living room without the cane or crutch, the entire ranch knew about it! His scream of joy was heard by everyone! He didn't care that it would have to be replaced as he grew, he was free of that **&*^ crutch!

Spring came at last to the High Country, and lambs were dropped, the hens went broody, and the cattle demanded release to the lower pasture. Even the horses were anxious to get back to work!

Oliver had just about turned all his responsibilities over to his Grandson, Jimmie and Carl was running the home projects, the mill, the penned animals, the horses and maintenance of the homes and houses and the large garden they planted each year.

Billy had taken over the drayage business and was currently negotiating with a neighboring ranch for the purchase of two Percherons, a mare that had a foal and a stallion.

The old steam tractor was on its last legs, the boiler had been patched so many times, it looked like a metal quilt and the preceding fall, the fly-ball governor had flown apart and they had never been able to find all the pieces. They had no idea how they were going to cobble together something that would control the steam to the tractor's drive pistons.

They eventually had cobbled together a replacement governor, but it flew apart almost immediately. All things combined, they feared to depend upon the tractor, their very lives depended upon the garden that the tractor was used to plow. If the garden failed, they might not survive a winter.

Like everything else since the bombs had fallen, machinery was beginning to fall apart. Billy ended up trading two heifers and a breeding ram for the three horses. They were a pair of blacks, the stallion was slightly smaller than the mare, but the two horses worked well in team. The mare had a young colt that was about a year and a half old, in another year, he would be ready for training to the harness.

Since the stallion had not been gelded, Billy planned on having more young Percherons by the next winter! A Percheron is a huge animal and he realized that a Percheron Stallion in rut could be a fearsome creature indeed! Once he had performed his "duty" Billy would have to remove the mare and her half-grown colt to prevent them being injured.

Andy had a talent for farming and he was busy with his crews planting the early vegetables and getting the corn and wheat fields ready for planting. There was no sense in wasting any further time or effort to repair it. He looked the old tractor over and decided it was a goner, so he asked Billy to plow the fields for him with his new team.

The job took longer using the team, but Billy was a proud man when he looked over the field he had just finished turning. His furrows were straight and the two horses had hardly worked up a lather! He knew that, as he became more proficient in working the two horses, he would be able to plow almost as fast as they had with the old steam tractor.

They were all just finishing up for the day, and the two couples were looking forward to a hot bath and a good supper and an evening with their son and his new partner. As they were leaving the barn, they heard a keening wail from the big house, and they knew something awful had happened.

The four young men ran up the front steps, their long legs taking three steps at a time as they raced into the house. Emma was sitting on the floor of the front hall, pointing up stairs and wailing, "He's gone, he's gone and left me! We were gonna go together!"

The poor old woman was hysterical. Jimmie had an awful foreknowledge of what they were going to find upstairs, but, with Carl at his side and Billy and Andy on their heels, Jimmie led them upstairs to his Grandparent's bedroom.

They rushed into the room, and there was Oliver fallen across the foot of the bed, dead!

Carl grabbed his mate and held him as Billy and Andy straightened the old man and laid him gently on the bed, with his hands crossed over his chest. Billy closed the old man's eyes and, with tears in his own eyes, knelt beside the bed, bidding goodbye to the man who had saved him and given him and his mate, Andy, a home when they needed it most.

The other three knelt beside him, praying that the kindly old rancher had gone to a better place. Emma joined them, followed by George Yellowbush and his people, all kneeling in the hallway and on the stairs, the women wailing a death chant as was custom to their people.

Jimmie held his Grandmother as she bid the man she had loved for more than seventy years, goodbye. He then carried her to the spare bedroom and tucked her into the bed. He sat with her until she cried all her tears and fell asleep in total exhaustion.

He returned, red eyed and trembling, to Carl's arms and the Indian women began the Final Death Chant. They would chant for the next twenty-four hours before they would dress the body for burial.

George Yellowbush led the young men from the room and took them downstairs, where he insisted they drink a cup of coffee, before he sat to speak with them. Finally, George said, "Jimmie, your grandfather entrusted certain papers and instructions to me that I was to give to you upon his death."

He pulled a sealed envelope out of his pocket and handed it to Jimmie, saying, "I have never opened it, but Mr. Oliver told me what is inside. We are going to leave you now, the papers concern all four of you and you should read them right away. The women will sing Mr. Oliver on his way to the Great Spirit and tomorrow we shall pay homage to his Earthly Body in accordance with his wishes. Jimmie, you are now Mr. Jimmie, may The Great Spirit Bless you and keep you close to His Heart!"

All the visitors left, except the women upstairs holding vigil.

Jimmie held out the packet of instructions to Carl and said, "My love, I cannot bear to read this, please, read it to all of us." Carl opened the envelope and withdrew several hand written pages, he almost dropped them as he scanned the first couple of lines. He stammered a couple of times, then began reading in a shaky voice,

Carl was crying openly as he stammered to a close, he sat on the floor holding Jimmie in a tight hug, each clutching the other in the desperation of grief. They were joined by Billy and Andy and Little Tommie and Wolf, there was not a dry eye among any of them in that room.

They sat there for several hours before Jimmie said, "We must continue what Grandpa began here, we have people to care for and animals to tend, it would be a terrible offense to The Great Spirit should we neglect anyone or any animal that we have been given care over."

Everyone, except Jimmie and Carl filed out of the room, they all looked in on Miz Emma to make sure she was still sleeping, before they went downstairs to prepare a late lunch for all of them.

Jimmie and Carl could hear the Indian women chanting in the parlor downstairs and, somehow, it gave the two of them a sense of peace and release of their tension.

As they came down the stairs, the Indian women went back into the bedroom and resumed their song, they would remain on their knees, praying Mr. Oliver into the Great Spirit's keeping for the rest of the day and that day's night, then, they would prepare the body for burial. George Yellowbush was already out in the family graveyard, guiding the Indian men in digging Mr. Oliver's grave.

Carl laid Jimmie down to sleep, he was totally wiped and could not function, so deep was his grief. He arranged for the kitchen girls to prepare a light supper to be served to everyone on the ranch and then he went to his, Wolf and Jimmie's home to change into his best clothes.

He picked out clothes for Jimmie and brought them back to the Ranch House, where Wolf helped his Papa into his good clothes before Papa Carl went to each and every person living on the ranch to assure them that everyone would be cared for and nothing was going to change, he and Mr. Jimmie would carry on just as if Mr. Oliver were still there.

Carl and Wolf sat with Jimmie until none of them could stay awake, Carl held Jimmie in his arms throughout the night and Wolf held his hand until it was time to get up and prepare for the funeral and they all knew would have to be repeated again all too soon for Grandma Emma.

The next day was the funeral, Carl practically carried Jimmie and, when it was finally over, he and Wolf put Jimmie to bed and laid beside him until he had fallen into an exhausted sleep.

They then got up and moved some of their things from their house up to the main house, He was certain that Jimmie would not want Miz Emma staying there alone. He and Wolf put their things in the upstairs parlor until they decided who was going to occupy which rooms.

They then went outside to watch Billy and Andy load the wagon and haul hay down to the lower pasture, the grass was not quite enough yet to keep the cattle fed.

Wolf admired the huge horses that Billy had acquired, they were magnificent animals. He wondered if they could be ridden, then he remembered that Billy had brought a pair of saddles with the horses, so they must be saddle broke as well as dray animals.

He was mesmerized watching the huge animals strain to start the wagon rolling, it was piled high with hay bales. As soon as it began rolling, the two horses walked calmly, as if they were just leading the wagon down the road!

Wolf Hunter tagged along with his Father, he had not really known Miz Emma that long, but he knew his two Papas were very upset. The small child did everything he could think of that would relieve his Papas, he did not realize that just his mere presence eased both of their souls. The days passed and, while their grief remained, each day was a little bit easier than the day before it.

The days turned into summer and the first mowing was made of the hay, with the added horses, they hoped to get three cuttings, big horses had even bigger appetites!

Billy was out at the far end of the hay field when he spotted a piece of cloth in the nearby trees. He stopped the mower and went to investigate. The cloth was an old blanket that had been draped over a low limb to make a tent.

He looked inside and saw some bloody clothing, but nobody was inside. He looked around and saw where there had been a small fire ring, all the pine needles had been carefully brushed away and the remains had been thoroughly doused with water. Whoever was staying in the tent was being very careful not to cause a fire problem.

Not knowing what else to do, he called out, "I am Billy Redmond Bates of Red Mountain Ranch. I won't harm you and you are welcome to camp here, but, please, come out and let me meet you properly."

A young voice replied, "You won't hurt us will you Mr. Bates?"

Billy sat down on a nearby log and replied, "I am just Billy, Mr. Bates recently died, so maybe my older Brother is now Mr. Bates. Please come out and meet me, are you hurt, I saw blood in your tent?"

A teen boy came out from the bushes, holding a girl about his same age. The girl had a dirty rag wrapped around her arm and she looked very frightened, like she was ready to bolt at any second.

Billy did not move a muscle, he was afraid the frightened girl would run. He said, quietly, "I don't care why you are here, that is your own business, but one of you is hurt and we have a small infirmary and a real doctor here. He can fix you up and then you can go on your way, or, if you wish, you may stay with us for so long as you want."

The young man led the girl to a place near Billy and he said, "Mr. Bates, eeer Billy, Sir, wes runned. Norma's Papa hated me and he tol' her she couldn't see me no more. She were on the porch when he beated her with a stick, I couldn't take no mores, sos I grabbed her and wes runned away."

Billy's anger rose several notches, but he remained outwardly calm and said, "OK, that's his problem. Our problem here is that Miss Norma here has a hurt arm, would you please let me take a look at it?" The young teen girl came closer to Billy, she was shaking in fright. Billy said to her, "I won't hurt you and I am not looking for sex, I am a happily married man."

The girl held out her arm and Billy unwound the filthy rag to expose what looked like a knife wound. He exclaimed, "Who in the hell did this to you?"

The girl shyly responded, "My Daddy, he swunged a big knife at me and I couldn't run fast enough. He tried to kill Johnny, but Johnny grabbed me and wes both runned."

Billy asked, "Please tell me your names, I can't go on calling you boy and girl."

The girl responded, "I am Norma Tilottson and he is Johnny Bash, we commed from Bend, Oregon, sir"

Billy washed the wound out with water from his canteen and asked, "Guys, Miss Norma is hurt kinda bad and I think Doc should look at her arm. Suppose we go up to the ranch house and have Doc Black Stone look at Norma's arm and get you guys something to eat. Maybe then, you will see we mean you no harm and you will stay with us for a spell, OK?"

Norma asked, "Hows wes gonna git there?"

Billy bowed to her and said, "My chariot, madam!" The two youngsters looked at the matched pair of huge black horses and they both gave a nervous giggle.

Billy opened the clutch on the cutter bar and had Norma sit on the operator's seat while he and Johnny stood on either side of the transfer case. He gathered up the reins and clicked to the horses.

The gentle giants moved forward with ponderous steps, the mower gathering speed as they headed back to the ranch house. The two huge horses never even began breathing hard as they walked the mower and their passengers up the steep incline to the ranch house.

Jimmie was standing on the porch watching as the mower returned from the hayfield, he could see three people on the rig and he thought to himself, "Oh, Oh, Billy has been collecting again!"

When they pulled into the yard, Billy shouted, "Fetch Doc, we got an injured girl here!" Billy dropped the reins, knowing the horses were trained to remain there until someone picked up the reins.

Tommie went running for Doc and Jimmie came down the steps to help Billy and his "passengers". He started to ask the two youngsters where they were from and Billy shook his head in a "no" and whispered, "Later Bro, these kids are too scared to do much more than see Doc!"

Tommie brought Doc at a dead run and, when he saw how deep the knife wound was, he picked up the girl and carried her into the Infirmary with Billy and Johnny following right behind him. Jimmie went into the kitchen and asked his Grandmother to put together a nice lunch for two starving teens.

She looked at her Grandson and said, "All teens are starving all the time, which two do you have in mind?"

Jimmie grinned, delighted that his Grandmother was coming out of sorrow over his Grandfather's death, and said, "Billy has been collecting again, he found two kids camping down at the low end of the hay field. A boy and a girl, I don't know much yet, but the girl has been hurt pretty bad by her own father. Doc just ran her into the Infirmary."

Emma lit out of the kitchen like all the Bats of Hell were on her tail as she headed for the Infirmary downstairs! She found a boy standing in front of the door, tears were running down his face. Emma held him and asked, "What are the tears for?"

The boy sniffed and said, "tTtThat maaan, he won't lllet mme bbbe wwwith MMmmY NnNoorma!'

Emma hugged the boy and said, "Dry your tears son and come with me." She barged in the door and went straight to Doc as he was working at the treatment table. She said, "This young man and I are here to help!"

She gave such a glare at Doc, all he could say was, "Yes, Ma'm, you two go wash your hands."

Johnny looked at the kindly old lady and thought, "God, I wish I had a Gramma like that!"

Doc cleaned the wound and trimmed the distressed flesh carefully, after numbing the whole area with numb weed that the Indians had prepared for him. He carefully stitched up the wound, sprinkling it liberally with some of the antibiotics that remained to him.

When he had completed his task he sighed and said, "Young lady, you are mighty lucky, a few more days and gangrene would have set in and I would have had to take off your arm, just to save your life."

He then put his arm around both teens and smiled, "Now that the emergency is over, hows 'bout ya telling me what this is all about?"

Johnny asked, "Wes cain't pay ya', Sir, kin I work for Norma's treatment?"

Doc replied, "No, son, you can't pay me 'cause I don't accept pay here."

Emma came up to the group with Jimmie at her side and said, "I have some lunch upstairs for you and my Grandson here, Mr. Jim, wants to talk with ya'. It ain't much, just some fresh baked bread an' thick slices of ham. I put a couple of homemade pickles on the side and there's a piece of fresh baked cream cake for each of you."

Johnny's eyes started to go squirrelly, "Cake.... Ham.... Fresh bread...... ughhhhhhh" He broke down into tears and looked up at Miz Emma, "Ma'm, wes runaways, Norma's father is lookin' fer us, he tried to kill Norma n' me!"

Jim spoke up and said, "Not here he ain't gonna kill nobody! This is MY RANCH n' I SAY who is gonna live here an' I SAY you two are our welcome guests. If ya' want, I will put two armed cowboys outside your bedroom door to protect you, but there ain't no way he can find you here!" Even if he does find you, he can't have ya''cause I'll hang him if'n he steps foot on MY RANCH! If'n I ain't here, my life mate mate will take care o'ya. He wrapped his armed around Carl and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. The two runaways blushed when Carl returned the kiss.

So it was that two runaway teens, desperately in love with each other, came to live at Red Mountain Ranch. Johnny insisted on working for their keep and, as soon as her arm healed. Norma loved working with Miz Emma and the Indian Ladies in the kitchen. She learned a lot about cooking and was able to share her Mother's recipe for peach cake that became a favorite of the Bates Family.

Eventually, she would replace Miz Emma in running the household and kitchen and her husband, John, would spend the remainder of his life as the ranch handy man. A job that would become increasingly vital as time progressed and things began to wear out.

Through the summer, they had to pull heavily from the scrap pile to keep the ranch machinery running. Jim and Carl were getting worried that they may not be able to keep enough running to protect and feed everyone who was depending on them.

John asked them, "Is there an old town nearby, where we can scrounge for parts and junk?" Carl replied, "Yeah, Flagstaff is not too far and we can take the big wagon and the Black Team.
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Everyone knew that the BLACK TEAM was the Percherons. The last time they had been in Flagstaff, it had not been a very nice place and they had hanged a couple of slavers there and left them swinging in a tree.

They decided to take a dozen cowboys with them, all armed with Winchester .30-30's. The ranch had a good supply of ammunition and all the materials, primers and powder to reload the spent cartridges.

Both Carl and Jim were carrying side by side double barrel 12 gauge shotguns, both loaded with double ought buck shot. The business end of a shotgun is one of the most intimidating sights a man will ever see! That and, perhaps, an angry wife!

They packed water and trail rations on the big wagon, they had no knowledge what the conditions and situation was in the nearby town.

It would be a two day trip each way and they planned to spend at least a week locating parts and metal to be used on the ranch.

Doc said that he would come along, the last time they had gone to Flag, they brought back injured people and gangsters had tried to kill them. Both Jim and Carl recognized the wisdom of Doc's words, so he was added to the party.

Jim loaded a couple of radios, but he told his Grandmother that they would use them only in an emergency because the batteries no longer held a good charge. He hoped he could find an electronics store that had not been looted and maybe he could find some new batteries. The windmill would keep the ranch batteries charged, despite their poor condition.

It was late summer when they took off for Flagstaff, the cowboys trotted their horses alongside the wagon and the "Blacks". They were both Indian and White Cowboys and they were already proven in battle against wolves, both the four-legged variety and the two-legged kind too!

Late on the second day, they hit the outskirts of the abandoned town, they heard no sound that they could connect with humans. There were songbirds singing and they could hear a coyote "yipping" off in the distance, otherwise, the place was as silent as a grave.

They found a treasure trove in an old gasoline station. There were some steel tanks and an old air compressor that John thought he could make into a steam engine.

He had an idea that they could restore running water to the ranch if they had something they could connect to the pump. John had already proved himself as a mechanical wizard, it seemed there was nothing he could not fix or get to working, somehow. He could visualize a broken part in his mind, then proceed to hammer it out over a forge and anvil.

When he spotted a second air compressor that was smaller, he envisioned it running the generator, their supply of diesel oil to run the generator to charge batteries and run a few lights, was nearly gone. They loaded everything they could carry off onto the wagon, leaving John to sit with the junk, a dreamy smile on his face as he pictured electric lights and running water.

The further they got into town, the worse the destruction became. Much of the town had been burned and what little remained was falling down. Most of the buildings were unsafe to enter but they did venture into the ruins of the town's only large hardware store. There, they were able to salvage many tools and they found the area where welding supplies were still intact under a partially collapsed roof.

They gathered up welding rods, tools and all the repair plates they could find. John knew he just HAD to get that old generator in the barn running!

They camped for the night in the old city park, it had been trashed, but there were a few trees still alive and they laid their bedrolls out on the dried grass that had been struggling to live during the brief spring.

They set their roving guards after eating sparingly of their trail rations and drinking several cups of water each. Not long after dark, those men off-watch settled into their bedrolls and tried to sleep. The desolate ruins of a once prosperous town had them all unsettled and sleep did not come easy, despite their weariness. There was an undercurrent of noise they could not identify and it had them all on edge.

Just after the second watch had taken over, Alex Green Tree came over to Jim and Carl and shook their shoulders. He whispered, "There is someone out there, I caught a glimpse of them and I can hear them whispering to each other. They sound afraid of us and I don't think they mean us harm, sir."

The two men got up and slipped their feet into their boots to follow Alex. They leaned against a struggling tree and quietly listened. They could hear the breeze moving the dry leaves of the tree and then, Carl heard it! A whispered, "Duz they gots food, mebbe un some water?"

Carl called out into the dark night, "We have food AND water that we will share with you. Please come to us and let us help you!"

A voice came out of the dark, "Wes 'fraid yous be hurt usin's"

Jim shouted, waking all the men, "We will NOT hurt you, we are from Red Mountain Ranch and we have lots of folks like you living with us. Please, come out so we can see you. I promise, we will NOT hurt you!"

Two young men who they looked to be in their early twenties, came out from behind the dead bushes. They both carried tree limbs for clubs and held them ready to protect themselves. Jim called out to John, "John, please bring a jug of water for these men!"

Alex rummaged through their supplies and offered the men some roast beef sandwiches and the last of Nora's peach cake. The newcomers held off eating or drinking any water. Carl asked, "Do you have others hiding back there who need the food more than you two?"

Both young men looked shamefaced, and one replied, "Yes sir, we is a small group what we have kept alive, sir. Wes be at the end of everything wes kin find and nones of usins has eaten in a week, sir!"

That was just about all any of them could stand, all the cowboys were standing around Carl and Jim, ready to help. Jim said, "For goodness sakes, bring them here and we will feed them all!"

One of the young men asked, "Sir, why is yous doing this?"

Carl replied, "The Great Spirit Commands us all to care for our fellows and to help them along in this terrible new world. If you have children among you, we will feed them first!"

The young man said, "Yous promise yous ain't no slave catchers?"

Carl screamed, "NO, in the name of the Great Spirit, we are NOT slavers, we are but farmers who have come here looking for materials to repair our homes and farm! WHERE ARE YOUR CHILDREN?"

Out of the dark came some teen boys leading a few girls and about eight small children some still being carried by the girls. The cowboys lit the lanterns and began heating the beef slabs to make sandwiches for all the people who had come out of the darkened ruins.

When the small children smelled the meat heating in the skillets, they crowded around the Cowboys, their mouths drooling in anticipation of the spiced beef.

Several of the cowboys feared they were going to lose a finger as they handed the sandwiches to the starving children. They didn't have any milk, but they did have several jugs of fruit juices that Miz Emma had put up.

Suddenly, there was silence, the cowboys found small children curled up in their sleeping rolls, they just slid in beside the child and kept them warm for the rest of the night, smell and all.

Jim and Carl talked for some time with the two young men and the teens, convincing them that they could come and live at Red Mountain Ranch. The two young men told them of several abandoned machine shops that had tools and machinery in them that they could scavenge. They had taken a few things, but they had neither the knowledge nor the skills to make anything more than the most basic repairs to their primitive weapons or their clothing.

In two days of hard labor, they had the wagon piled high with "junk" they could use. It was ALL good junk!

The small children rode up on the two Blacks' backs, it was a delight to see happy children sitting up on those two huge horses, and even the horses seemed to prance a bit, making their harness' jingle as they hauled the heavy wagon back to their home. The two young men and the teens found places for themselves among the metal parts and rusty junk the visitors had collected.

They were surprised when nobody said a word when two of the girls started nursing their babies. The girls told them they had been raped by men wandering the old town, and the two young men, Lester and Carlton James, they were brothers, took them in and cared for them the best they could. Good OR bad, they had cared for them through their pregnancies and childbirth, and both the mothers AND their babies survived and were thriving.

It was a long trip home, the wagon was heavy, and the horses were walking at a slow pace. One of the cowboys brought down a wild turkey, and they were able to extend their food supplies so that nobody went hungry

When they arrived back at the ranch, no one was surprised that they brought "guests" with them, Carl and Jim were "people magnets", especially YOUNG PEOPLE!

Doc looked the newcomers over and applied creams to some of the children who seemed to have bug bites and poison oak rash. He pulled a couple of teeth for the teens and told the new teen mothers to go see Miz Emma. He told them that they were to eat plenty of good food and drink lots of milk.

John was already pulling parts off the wagon and tinkering with metal pieces, muttering to himself. Nora had to come out and get him, so that he could get some rest. He tried to protest, but she was adamant and dragged him into the kitchen for a light supper before he hit the shower.

It would not be many weeks before everyone heard the shrill whistle on the old boiler down at the sawmill screech, and, suddenly, the lights came on!

The Red Mountain Ranch is surviving, but how long will it be before the leavings that remain of civilization run out? Is there any hope for their future? Hopefully, there remains some civilization somewhere and they can make contact for their own survival.