What you say about a house like that? We didn't even get inside before we was smellin' one of them big dinners. Them big houses ain't like them cabins. Most cabins I seen have just one door. Them houses got a whole lot of doors. Paco said, "I was thinkin' I was gonna like this fancy livin' but now I ain't sure. It's gonna take so much of your time decidin' which of them doors to go in you ain't gonna have no time to be in there. I reckon I like doors real good but, Daddy, what's the sense of all them doors?"
"They're mostly just for handy. I don't reckon you need that many, but they're there so we use most of them. Since you like doors so good, there's one door that I want you boys to get to liking better than the others and there's one I don't want you to like at all. See that door right there in the front? That goes into the parlor. That's the door I don't want you to like. There's a door back here that goes into the dust room that I want you to learn to love. I want you to love it so much that you use it all the time."
We went into this room that had some benches along to wall and a lot of pegs for hangin' clothes you wasn't wearin' right then. I reckon I seen why Daddy called it the dust room. When you come in all dusty and dirty, you changed your clothes there before goin' into the livin' part of the house.
There was a board kind of layin' on the floor that had a V cut out of the end. Daddy put his boot heel in that V and pulled his boot right off. I declare. I knowed there was other things I never knowed about. I never seen one before, even in them chore hirin' houses and it was so simple, I wondered why I never thought it up. 'Course I never hardly wore no boots.
I was real anxious to see could I pull my boots off with it. After Daddy pulled off his other boot, me and Paco went to pushin' on each other to get to be next. We wasn't really fightin' but I give in to him and let him be first but I was kind of mad about it.
I seen what Daddy was sayin' about me gettin' some cross with Paco. It come to me that I was gonna have to learn how to do when you had folks around you all the time. I already told you that my mama never paid no mind to what I done and I reckon I done what I wanted when I wanted. Wasn't nobody in my way. Wasn't nobody wanted to do the same thing I did when I was wantin' to do it. I remembered when I got some mad at my daddy for not lettin' me have no coffee. Since I come to have them, I was thinkin' mostly on how much I love my daddy and Paco. Made me some scared, this bein' mad at them. I already told you I hardly never was mad at them Goodnight folks but I didn't care nothin' about them. It come to me that when you feel strong one way about folks, it's easy to feel real strong on them the other way.
I remembered Daddy and Judge Walton. They was mad at each other and you seen that they loved each other too. It come to me that you could do that. Seemed funny 'cause love and mad didn't fit good together in my thinkin' but I knowed they could both be there at the same time 'cause I seen it. I reckon the thing that made them fit together was forgivin'. I seen Daddy and Judge Walton forgivin' each other.
I didn't know if me or Paco was right about who should have been first on that thing that Daddy was callin' a boot jack, but I decided that if Paco was wrong, I forgive him. That forgivin' must be like that real hard lovin' I been doin' lately. It kind of wants to make that water come to your eyes.
We was gonna just leave them boots lay where they fell but Daddy made us set them neat along the wall. He showed us where a good place for Paco's would be and which of them pegs on the wall was for him. He said if we used the same hooks every day, we wouldn't have to be lookin' for what britches was ours. He done the same thing for me. He said, "It just makes for easier living when folks put things away. You can find things better and you aren't always fallin' over things. I reckon you boys never had to learn that because you never had that many things to fall over. It would make me proud if you boys learned to take care of your things."
Daddy had us pull off all our clothes but them little white britches and told us that Señora Maria had a hot bath waitin' through that door. He pointed at a door that looked like it went into a room away from the main part of the house. Daddy said he done his bathin' in a room he had fixed for that up by his bedroom.
When we went in there you could tell it was a wash room. It smelled like soap and there was a stove for heatin' water and washboards and tubs and rope strung up for hangin' up clothes that was wet from washin'. I knowed that from some of the chorin' I done. I never done much scrubbin' but folks would have me do a lot of carryin'. I mostly wasn't even tall enough to hang them clothes on them lines but a whole lot of them chore ladies hated to carry stuff. I seen a lot of wash rooms like this one but most of them was smaller and didn't have no clothesline inside. It hardly never rained so I didn't see no sense in havin' a clothesline there but if that's what my daddy wanted, it was fine with me.
But there was somethin' about this house that just made you want to look. It was the biggest house I ever seen, bigger even than Judge Walton's and even though we'd just seen the dust room and the wash room, them was finer places than I ever lived in. I know damn sure they was a hell of a lot better than Paco ever lived in. While me and Paco was still lookin', we heard a lady's voice say, "Hola, muchachos."
We seen this Mexican lady who looked some younger than Daddy and she wasn't no fat señora neither. She was some pretty and she was smiling and acting real glad to see us and she had a baby in her. I seen some of them chore hirin' ladies when they had babies in them so I knowed that baby wasn't gonna be real soon. Her belly was just stickin' out a little and you knowed that it wasn't the fat kind of stickin' out. It was the baby kind.
After she said, "Hola," she talked to us in white man's talk but in that funny way that most of them Mexicans I ever heard talk done. Paco said some of his words that way but he mostly sounds just like white folks when he talks.
That smile made you like her right off. I knowed that she was a lady but it seemed I was comin' to know more ladies lately that was like Emma and Cill than was like them fat lady Christians so she wasn't scarin' me hardly at all. She said, "Well, you're finally here. Everybody on the Bent-Y's been looking to your coming ever since Mr. Shay sent Manuel to say, 'Get them rooms ready. Mr. Shay's bringing home two boys.' We're real glad you're finally here. Mi hijo, Juan, is ... how you say ... once..?"
Paco knowed and he said, "'Leven. That's what we are."
"Si, 'leven. I know you boys are the same age. That's why Juan is so excited. That's all that him and Virgil Whitacher and Nate Taylor could talk about since Manuel told us. All those boys are your age.
"Juan's papa is a wrangler. Virgil's and Nate's papas work cows. But what folks do around here isn't that important. The thing about bein' on the Bent-Y, it makes no difference if you're a Flynn like you two or just a dust eatin' cowboy. You're somebody. The folks livin' on the Bent-Y are real happy. Muy contento."
"Cuando comemos?"
I was never around folks whose talk I couldn't make out and I didn't like not knowin' what was bein' said. "Paco, if you and Señora Maria are gonna be talkin' that Mexican talk around me, you gotta learn me how to do it. What did you say to her?"
"He asked me, 'When do we eat?'"
Well, I should have knowed. Next to our daddy and maybe me, Paco loved food better than anything in this whole world. But that questioned me too. "When do we eat?" I asked. "We ain't had nothin' to eat but jerky since breakfast and whatever you're cookin' smells real good."
Paco said, "Don't you remember what Daddy said? There's some Chinaman in there cookin'."
"Oh, no," said Señora Maria, "I don't do the cooking. Mostly Mr. Shay eats with Mr. Brian or Mr. Kevin but since you're here, he's looking for a cook of his own. I clean his house but I have ...siete..I can never think of those English numbers.."
"Seven," Paco broke in.
"Si, I have seven children to look after and there will soon be another one." She patted her belly where it was stickin' out. "I told Mr. Kevin I'd stay tonight to help you boys bath but mostly I come about two?..." she looked at Paco to see if she was right.
"Si, dos...two.."
"I come about two times a week to clean up. I started doin' it when I first came to the Bent-Y. I just kept doin' it even when I was gettin' more and more ninos. With just Mr. Shay here, there's not much to do. Sometime I send Isabela, she's diez..?" She looked at Paco.
"Ten."
"Isabela is ten and Mr. Shay doesn't make no more mess than she can clean up but if I know muchachos, you two are going to make more cleaning up than me and Isabela can do. With all mi ninos a mi casa and this new one coming, Mr. Shay's going to have to find someone else muy pronto."
She kept mixin' up them white man and Mexican words and I wasn't keepin' up too good on what she was sayin' but it didn't matter. By now she had both me and Paco in one of them big wash tubs and it come to me how tired I was from that long ride. That hot water does somethin' to you. Seems to take all the sore out of you but it gives you the weaks. Even was my ass sore from all that ridin', it didn't feel like that, sittin' on it in that hot water. And that brushin' on your back. Lord, that's likely so relaxin' it could put to sleep a wild bronc with a burr under his saddle.
When you're sittin' in that hot water and you been ridin' all day you get the feelin' that you can't even stand up. It makes you feel weak but it makes you feel good.
Paco was really likin' this bathin'. I laughed at him again about him comin' to likin' it so much. I said, "I remember you sayin' that you wasn't gonna have no more bathin'. What do you call what you're doin?"
"Damn, you white folks don't know nothin'. I'm doin' el baño. I told you already. This is Mexican bathin'. Them Mexican mamas know how to bath you and leave your hide on you and with Señora Maria, you don't even have to watch out for your ass. If you think on it, Sam, it'll come to you that I ain't had none of that damn white folks bathin' since I said that."
Señora Maria looked surprised at how we was talkin' to each other. I come to know later that some white folks and Mexicans who was friends was real careful not to fun on each other about what they was and I reckon Señora Maria didn't know: was I one of them folks. When she seen we was funnin' on each other and not mad, she kind of went to funnin' on us too. "I don't know about Mexican bathin' and white folks bathin' but I know that the dirt that gets on muchachos is the same. It's just dirt and the state of Texas never seems to run out of it even though mi muchachos have brought home enough of it to start our own state."
When she was done bathin' us, Señora Maria give me and Paco each one of them big cloths for dryin' off but she didn't give us no britches. She give us each a real long coat. I never seen no coat like that. It wouldn't do a damn thing for you was you to wear it in the cold and I wouldn't wear it even if it did. The damn thing come almost to your feet and even if folks wouldn't be laughin' at you, you'd be fallin' on your face from trippin' on it. When I said, "I ain't never seen no coat like this," Señora Maria told us it ain't no coat. It's a bathrobe. She said she didn't see no use in gettin' into britches. We was both so tired we'd be wantin' to go to bed right after our eatin' but we needed them bathrobes. Folks didn't run naked on the Bent-Y. I seen that Paco liked that real good. He put his on in a hurry. His days of runnin' naked was over.
I reckon they was a good idea but you had to hold them around you with a string-like thing you tied around your middle. Until yesterday, I never wore nothin' in my life before but them bib-overhall britches that was held up with shoulder straps. You didn't have to be chokin' your middle to keep your britches up like with them fancy clothes we left in Amarillo. This bathrobe was makin' me feel like I was in them fancy clothes. The worst thing I seen so far about fancy livin' was they kept makin' you wear things that choked your middle.
Well, my middle was just gonna have to get used to it, I reckon. If it took a little chokin' on my middle to get to that good eatin' I been smellin', I reckon I could stand it.
Señora Maria took us through that dust room to the main part of the house. Our House. This was our house and even though the first thing you go into from that dust room is a hall that goes by the kitchen, I knowed that this wasn't no regular fancy folks house. It give you some the same feelin' that come to you in Grandma Walton's house, like you was in a castle but you didn't get no feelin' that this house was just for lookin'. I ain't sure why, but you could tell right off that no lady lived here. The room we was in and the pictures on the walls and the chairs and the table was like our daddy, big and strong and handsome but gentle and it give you the feelin' that it wanted you to be in there.
It come to me then that them houses I been in was all like the folks that lived in them. Grandma Walton's house come at you all at once and kind of smothered you like she was doin' me with them things on her chest. But once you got used to it, you felt right cozy there and you knowed it liked havin' you there. I done chorin' for folks that wanted my chorin' but they didn't much want me. Their house give you the same feelin'. I never knowed that things could talk to you but these houses was sure tellin' me things.
Daddy was in that room waitin' for us. He had one of them long coats on too. You could tell Paco was likin' his real good. He went from havin' nothin' to cover his ass to havin' all kinds of things in just two days and he was puttin' a lot of stock in that. In his thinkin', the thing about Vox that showed the most how he didn't care nothin' about Paco - even more than the beatin's - was that Vox never got him no britches. Seemed like Paco wanted britches more than even he knowed. I ain't sure where he got this thinkin', livin' like he done, but britches meant lovin' to him. Vox never got him no britches and that told Paco that Vox hated him. Daddy showed him in a whole lot of ways but Paco gettin' all them things to wear told him real loud that Daddy loved him.
"Where'd we get these coats that's just the right big for us?"
"I bought them in Amarillo and had Manuel bring them up. When you get to your rooms, you'll find other things that you'll need."
"What kind of things?" Paco's eyes was gettin' big.
"Mostly clothes."
Paco run over and hugged Daddy. Seemed like I was bein' told things by the house and Paco was bein' told things by them clothes. I got to thinkin', could be I hated that damn tumble down cabin more than I knowed I did.
When we sat down, that Chinaman come in the room with big plates of steak and taders and I don't know what all. What you say about eatin' like this? So many good things happen the last two days that I ain't got words to tell them all. Well, I reckon I got words to tell them but I ain't got words to tell how they make you feel.
As tired as we was, we was hungry and we eat good. I reckon Paco could eat even was he sleepin' but I couldn't say too much about him. I was keepin' right up with him.
Me and him couldn't get enough of that buttermilk. I heard of it before but I never had none. It tasted some sharp but real smooth, some like that cheese I had at that storekeeper's house. Our daddy finally told us we'd better not get to likin' that too much. It was some hard to come by. It was what you had left after you made butter and a lot of folks on the Bent-Y liked it, so mostly from now on we'd just have it at breakfast. Daddy said he seen we liked it real good in Amarillo so he let us have it tonight but from now on, we'd be drinkin' regular milk, 'cept, o'course, at breakfast. Regular milk sounded good to me. I didn't get none too much before but I liked it real good when I did. That storekeeper's woman said it was good for younguns. She had to fuss at hers to get them to drink it but I took all I could get. Paco most likely never got none. Probably some of his malnutrition come from that.
Our daddy said that since we had a hard day on the trail and since we was probably both some done in from that beatin' Jigger give us, he was gonna let us sleep until we wake up in the mornin'. Hell, I always done that. I thought that was how everybody done but Daddy said: mornin's after that he was gonna need us to help him with some chorin'. I couldn't think why somebody would want you to wake up before you was done sleepin' but I liked chore doin' so, I reckon, it kind of evened out. Paco got real excited. He never had no regular chores. Vox would tell him things to do but he never knowed when and it wasn't like he was doin' somethin' to help. It was like it was a way for Vox to be mean to him. I reckon it made him feel important that Daddy needed him for somethin'. Me and Paco already know that our daddy loves us but now he's tellin' us that he needs us to do things for him. We ain't just here. He's sayin' he's got to have us for gettin' some things done. It come to me - it's good to be loved. It's good to be needed too.
I was learnin' things about eatin' that I never knowed before. If different folks fixed it, you could have the same thing but it tasted different. We had them steaks at the Continental in Amarillo and they was good but these steaks we was eatin' now was a whole lot better. I seen that too from eatin' Grandma Walton's meat and noodles. They was some better than that storekeeper's woman's, at least to my way of thinkin'. I asked Daddy why that was. Seemed to me that steak was steak and noodles was noodles. Daddy said there's other things you put in with them steaks and such that give them a different taste. I can't remember what he said they was.
I said, "Well that Chinaman sure as hell knows the right stuff to put with them steaks. He makes them real good."
Daddy said, "Sam, and I reckon, Paco, you better listen to this too. Folks have names. The cook's name is Ho Boy. It's a way of respecting a person, showing them that you think a lot of them to call them by their names. Do you remember how angry I got at folks in Amarillo who were calling you unkind names? Some Chinese folks think Chinaman is an unkind name. Even if you don't mean anything by it and folks don't take it wrong, it's just better manners to use folks' names."
I knowed he was tellin' me what to do and I know I told you I didn't let nobody do that to me. But when somebody who loves you is doin' it, you take it different. I was likin' what he was tellin' me and Paco. I knowed how it felt to have folks namin' on you and it never come to me that other folks could be some hurt from namin', even if you wasn't tryin' to be mean to them. I always figured that when folks named on me, they was tryin' to be mean. I was wonderin' if somebody thought that about me. I reckon you can hurt folks as much by not thinkin' or not knowin' as you can when you're meanin' to. Anyway, our daddy knowed a whole lot of things and he was wantin' me and Paco to do good so him tellin' me what to do felt good.
Pretty soon that Chin....ah...Ho Boy come out and took away them dishes we was done with. He come back in with a big, biscuit looking thing that didn't smell like no biscuit. When you cut into it, you seen it wasn't. It just had that biscuit like stuff on the top and the bottom. The middle was full of them dried apples. Daddy said it was a apple pie.
Well, I swear. That's what a pie is. I heard tell of them but I never had none before. Hell, I never even seen one. That storekeeper's woman made a whole lot of cakes but she never had no pie when I was there.
"This damn pie is good!" I said.
Daddy looked at me real tender and said, "Sam, it seems like I'm being awful bossy tonight. I don't want to be fussing at you too much. You're going to be living different and there are just some things you have to know. You too, Paco. I want you both to listen to me. When we're on the trail or around the hands, I reckon cuss words aren't a problem. That's the way those folks talk. I reckon that's the way you've been taught to talk. Both of you have been used to talking that way every place you were. But it's like manners. There are some places where cuss words just shouldn't be used. Some folks just don't want to hear them and your aunts are some of them. Your aunts even get upset if they think their children have to listen to cussing.
"Some of these different ways of living, you can learn slowly and folks will understand. Some of those different things you have to learn fast so folks won't take to disliking you. Cussing is one of those things.
"Do you notice how I watch my talking and change it by who I'm with?"
It had come to me that sometimes he was talkin' like a cowhand and sometimes like a schoolteacher but I never put no reason on it. It even come to me that he cussed some but I seen now that he never done it around no ladies and he done it mostly with folks he knowed real well, like when he was mad at Judge Walton.
Daddy kept tellin'. "When I'm with range folks, I generally talk like range folks. It makes folks feel comfortable. Folks can be real touchy on how their talking makes them look so when I'm with folks, I try to talk like they do. It just makes sure people are listening to what you're saying and not only paying attention to who's saying it. But there is a proper way to talk. You'll learn it soon enough. You're both real smart boys. Folks won't think bad of you if you use range talk for a while but they will think bad of you if you cuss. You are both good boys. You're my sons and I love you and I don't want folks thinking bad of you. I know you may forget once in a while, but I'd like both of you to work real hard at not using cuss words around these houses. Will you do that for me?"
Well, he knowed we would. He was our daddy and he was tryin' to teach us good and we loved him. But this fancy livin' was gonna take some work. Just like not havin' a daddy and then havin' one, this fancy livin' was going to take some gettin' used to.
When Daddy was sayin' them things it was givin' me a question though. "Daddy, you said Judge Walton was one of the smartest men you knowed. He was cussin' and usin' range talk."
"That's a good example, Sam. Jasper's been a country lawyer for years. His job depends on being able to talk with folks, to make them trust him and to make them comfortable. He talks like they do. But I've heard him give speeches at the State House in Austin that would make Demosthenes sound like a cracker. You don't find many like Jasper Walton. He's brilliant but he can talk with anybody and make them think they are just as smart as he is. Learn from Judge Walton. He knows which kind of talk to use where."
"Daddy, how come when we ask you a question do we always have to ask five more to know what the hel... - to know what you mean?"
Daddy laughed. "Sam, I reckon what folks say about politicians is right. I guess we talk too much."
"I reckon you do. You just done it again. I reckon I don't have five questions but I got two. Who is Demosthenes and what's a politician?"
Daddy laughed again. "I reckon you boys will either learn a whole lot from me or quit talking to me. Demosthenes was a Greek who could make real good speeches. A politician is someone who asks folks to vote for him so he can be a sheriff or, in my case, a state senator."
I reckon I wasn't gonna quit talkin' to my daddy. I was lovin' him too much and I was likin' all that learnin' he was doin' to me. Well, most of it anyway. I reckon I could do without some of them long answers.
I wasn't gonna quit talkin' to him for good but I was thinkin' I wanted to quit for tonight. I was some sleepy. I seen Paco was almost like on his bay. I don't think he was sleepin' but his head was sure tryin' to put his chin on his chest.
Daddy showed us our rooms. They was right next to each other and they was bigger than that whole cabin I used to live in with my mama. They had them big beds and you could tell they had them soft mattresses. Paco checked under the bed. There was a chamber pot there. They had chairs and tables and wash basins and there was pictures and mirrors on the walls and there was more clothes, it seemed to me, than a body could ever wear in them closets. Paco went to his clothes and just stood there with water in his eyes touchin' them clothes real gentle like. He didn't say nothin' but he looked at Daddy and you could tell there wasn't words for what he was feelin'.
Them was both fine rooms. There was just one thing wrong with them. They had a wall between them. I wasn't gonna say nothin' but Paco said, "Daddy, these is fine rooms and I'm real proud of mine, but until I get used to this different livin', can me and Sam have our two rooms but just sleep in one of them? There's so much different the last two days and I ain't had Sam that long but he's the only thing that's the same. I ain't no baby but I need to know he's close by me when it's dark and I wake up in the night. I feel him and I know I ain't alone no more. I ain't got to worry none about Vox comin' home drunk and beatin' on me. When I know Sam's there, I remember that I got a daddy and a whole better way of livin' and I can get real cozy up to Sam and go back to sleep. I ain't gonna get beat. I ain't gonna go hungry in the mornin'. I ain't gonna be bare-ass naked. I got somebody takin' care of me and lovin' me."
Daddy had a little water in his eyes. "Sure you can sleep in the same room. You can sleep that way as long as you want. I slept with my brothers when I was your age. I thought about just giving you one room but it won't be long before you'll want your own rooms. You may not think so now but as you get older, you'll still love each other but you'll need your own rooms. Sleep where you want. You'll know when it's time to sleep in your own rooms."
Daddy pulled down them blankets - he called them covers - and we hung them bathrobes on them pegs in the wall. Daddy didn't even have to tell us. We just done it. He smiled and we got into that bed and it was as soft as it looked. Daddy pulled them covers up over us. I was excited about havin' a house like this and I was havin' them strong feelin's but I was tired and I knowed I wasn't gonna have no trouble gettin' to sleep. Me and Paco rolled with our backs to each other and I could feel Paco scoot over until his ass was touchin' mine. If he didn't do that, I reckon I'd have scooted over to him. I reckon I got just as much comfort out of knowin' he was there as he did from knowin' I was there. Daddy kissed my forehead and walked around the bed and kissed Paco's forehead.
"Good night boys. I can't tell you how happy you make your daddy feel. My house is finally a home. I have two fine sons. I'm a very proud and happy man. 'Night."
"'Night, Daddy." We said it together. He blew out the lamp and left the room.
I reckon when you're 'leven your thinkin' can't get hold of somethin' as big as this. I knowed I was home. I knowed I was safe. I knowed I had a daddy and a brother. I knowed I had somebody who loved me. I knowed all them things in my head but I didn't know what they was gonna mean for me. I was gonna have to learn that a little bit every day.
I heard Paco kind of whimperin'. "You cryin?"
"Sam, I ain't never been much of a crier. I was gonna be damned if I was gonna let Weir and Vox make me cry. I done a lot of screamin' and yellin' when they was beatin' on me but that was from bein' mad. I reckon cryin' comes from feelin'. I wasn't gonna feel nothin' from them.
"But too much good has happened. I reckon I'll get used to these feelin's so I don't cry on them all the time. I don't want to be cryin' the rest of my life but I don't never want to stop feelin' how I'm feelin' now. I can't never hardly think on Daddy that I don't want to cry. I want to stop wantin' to cry for him but I don't ever want to stop lovin' him. There's too much feelin' to keep in you, Sam. I reckon it's like Daddy said. Cryin's the only way to get it out."
He was right. I didn't cry but I went to sleep thinkin', "What you say about all this?"
It took me quite a spell to think where I was when I was waken up in the mornin'. I was havin' a dream where that damn preacher man and my mama was chasin' me and I was tryin' to get away on my buckskin. Them dreams is real funny sometimes. I was ridin' my buckskin, wearin' that bathrobe and that damn preacher man and my mama was chasin' me on my daddy's gray. You know how them dreams go. The next thing I knowed, they had my bathrobe and was leadin' away my buckskin and I was standin' there naked in a place where there wasn't no trees or grass or nothin' and I had this feelin' that someone was lookin' at me but I couldn't see who it was.
Now, I've got to tell you, that dream had me scared. When I woke up I was holdin' real tight on to Paco and he was just wakin' up hisself. Even when I knowed I was awake, I still had this feelin' that someone was lookin' at me. When Paco got full awake his eyes got some big and he said, "What you two doin' in here?"
I rolled over to see who he was talkin' to and there was them two oldest boy cousins of ours.
"You fixin' to sleep all day? Uncle Shay said we better get you up. It's way past noon. You ain't gonna sleep none tonight."
I remembered. That was Danny who said that. He's ten. The other one was Seamus. He's nine and he was named for our daddy. I couldn't remember. "What did you say they call you so they don't get you all mixed up with our daddy?"
"Spike, that's my nick-name. My real name's Seamus Sean Kevin Liam Charles Flynn but I don't hardly never say all them names. I'm some like my mama. I ain't much of a talker and you need to talk a whole lot to say all them names. I'm the only boy I know who's got six names. I don't know what anybody needs with six names but I got them. My daddy said I got all them names 'cause he didn't know if he'd get another boy and he wanted to get all the men folks in there that he holds real high in his thinkin'. I got Uncle Shay, Uncle Sean, Uncle Kevin, My grandpa Flynn and my Grandpa Davis.
"You gonna get up so we can play some? I ain't much of a talker but I sure love to play. I'm just nine so mostly I don't get to play with Danny and them older boys 'cause they're always ridin' off to the swimmin' hole and my mama don't know nothin'. She thinks I'm too little. I ain't too little. I'm just not much of a talker and I reckon from that folks think I'm too little.
"Come on, get up. Uncle Shay said you can't go swimmin' until them cuts you got heal some but we can go ridin'. My mama's gonna let me go, do you bigger boys keep a close eye on me. If you don't want to go ridin' from your sore behind, we can play baseball but I hate baseball. Rosie can hit the ball a whole lot better than me and she's a girl. I don't reckon that's right. No girl should hit no ball better than no boy. I hate baseball. Do you want to play some or do you want to go ridin'?
"We could go fishin' but there ain't hardly no fish in that creek. My daddy said when the Indians left Texas, they took all the fish with them. I don't know why they done that. I reckon them creeks in Oklahoma got so many fish in them you can't see no water. I ain't much of a talker but since I got new cousins my mama's gonna let me go with you bigger boys today. Jorge and Ho Tau got to stay here. They ain't big enough to go off on a horse without their daddy yet. 'Course, Ho Tau's daddy don't ride no horse so Ho Tau don't go off the lot without he's with Señor Pablo or my daddy. I ain't much of a talker but I reckon I'm big enough. Least my mama said I can go. Come on. Get up. My mama said come to our house and she'll feed you some breakfast. She's like me. She ain't much of a talker but she makes good hotcakes. Come on, get up."
I don't think that boy even took a breath while he was sayin' all that. If he wasn't much of a talker, what the hell was that he was doin'? I got to thinkin', if that wasn't bein' a talker on the Bent-Y, what the hell did a talker sound like? I looked at Danny. He was smilin'.
"Reckon I don't have to tell you. Spike ain't much of a talker."
I seen right there I was gonna like Danny real good. He was some like Paco. He was some funny when he talked. He could say things that sounded one way but you knowed he meant somethin' else. I liked Spike too and you could tell all that talkin' come from him bein' excited. Made me feel kind of good 'cause I knowed that excitement come from me and Paco.
I asked Paco to see did he remember. "Who's Danny's daddy?"
He knowed right off. "Uncle Kevin. And Spike, the one who ain't much of a talker, he's Uncle Brian's boy. Spike, is your baby awake? I ain't never seen no baby up close. Them Indians had the notion that since I didn't have no mama or daddy I had a curse on me. Everything that goes bad, them Indians think comes from a curse. They thought if they let me too close to their babies my curse would come off me on them babies. Them Indians thought my curse would make them mama and daddies die like mine done. I like them Indians and they was some good to me but they had some real different thinkin'. I never been close to no baby but there's somethin' in me that makes me want to hold some. It kind of feels like lovin' to me when I think of holdin' a baby, but with them Indians, thinkin' like they done, I ain't never got to see no baby up close and I ain't never got to hold none. You reckon your mama will let me hold your baby?"
It come to me when Paco was sayin' that, that thinkin' on holdin' babies give him his "thing". Might be it come from his rememberin' how that old Mexican lady was holdin' him and singin' to him.
Spike looked some scared. "What Indians you takin' about? There ain't no Indians around here but some come to help with the round-up. I don't know where they come from but I hope it's a long way off. We ain't got no Indians around here. I ain't scared of Indians but we ain't got none around here. Don't know what I'd do did I come across a Indian. I ain't much of a talker so I reckon I couldn't think of nothin' to say."
Danny said, "You ain't got nothin' to worry about, Spike. Them Indians would never find you. You'd never say nothin'. You're lucky you ain't much of a talker."
Spike didn't answer Paco's question about holdin' his baby. I seen Paco really wanted to know and he was thinkin' on askin' again but he wasn't sure he should. He seen that if you get that boy talkin', he might still be doin' it when you're a hundred years old. I reckon Paco wanted to know bad enough so he said, "You think your mama will let me hold your baby?"
"Reckon so but you got to be careful. Them babies shit on you. I was holdin' him in my go-to-meeting clothes one meetin' day and that real runny shit come out his diaper and got me all messed up. My mama has to stop the horses by the creek and bath me right there. She bathed Buck in that cold water and he screamed his head off. Reckon he deserved a little freezin', shittin' on folks like that. Rosie had to diaper Buck and my mama washed my clothes in the creek. We went back home. We didn't go to meetin' that mornin'. It's funny now. Wasn't very damn funny then."
You know Paco. He asked Spike right off, "You're cussin'. Our daddy said don't cuss around these houses cause your mamas don't cotton to it."
Danny laughed. "They don't cotton to it but I reckon that don't stop us none. Just don't forget and let them hear you. My mama washed my mouth out with that damn lye soap one time when she heard me cussin'."
We all laughed. "Paco's a expert on that damn lye soap," I said.
"The only expert I got on that damn soap is keep it out your eyes. What was you callin' your baby, Spike? I remember your mama told me last night his name was Brian."
"Buck. His nick-name is Buck so we don't get him mixed up with my daddy. His name is really Brian David Flynn. He's only got three names. I got six. My name is......"
"You already told us that. For a boy who ain't much of a talker, you sure do a hell of a lot of somethin'." Danny seemed to know how to do Spike so he'd shut his mouth and not get his feelin's hurt.
I liked them cousins. I liked Danny real good and when you seen why he was doin' it, Spike's talkin' didn't bother you none. But I was some worried about that talk about goin' to a meetin'. "What kind of meetin' was you goin' to when your baby shit on you? Are you some of them Christians?"
Danny answered. "I reckon we are but you don't have to worry none. My daddy told me about how that preacher man done you and about that orphanage. We ain't that kind of Christians.
"It's our mamas who are the Christians. Our daddies are some kind of Christians too but they don't go to meetin' none. Their mama and daddy was Irish and all them Irishmen is them Catholic Christians, I reckon, and there ain't no Catholic church no closer than Amarillo. That's too far for goin' to meetin'.
"I don't reckon they'd go even if there was a closer church. Our daddies have the feelin' that church goin' keeps folks from doin' how they should for other folks. I heard my daddy tell my mama a whole lot of times when she was fussin' at him about goin' to church, 'Well, I reckon goin' to church would be the easiest thing to do. All you got to do is sing hymns and pray and talk about how the Lord is blessin' you and thank Him 'cause you ain't like other folks are. You don't have to get involved with folks. You don't have to do folks right. You just have to sit there thinkin' on how good you are.' My mama don't like that kind of talkin' at all and she don't ask my daddy nothin' about goin' to church no more.
"My daddy told me that my Grandpa Flynn was one who was real strong for all folks bein' the same. He told my daddy that God made all folks in His image so everybody was part of God. My Grandpa Flynn thought that so hard that when he was in Ireland and them English was treatin' them Irish bad, he was tellin' them other Irishmen they shouldn't let them English do them that way. They should stand up for their rights. They was God's children the same as them English.
"Grandpa Flynn said that it says in the Bible that God thinks all folks are the same. My Grandpa said if that kind of thinkin' was good enough for God, it was good enough for him.
"Reckon it wasn't good enough for the English though. They was lookin' for my Grandpa and did they find him, they was gonna throw his ass in jail. My Grandpa didn't want no jail so he just brought his ass to America.
"My daddy said he taught his boys to think like he did. Us Flynns are real strong on thinkin' all folks is the same, ain't nobody better or worse than nobody else. Folks can do bad things and that might make them bad, but ain't nobody bad from just who they are or how they think on God."
I reckon my Grandpa Flynn did say all them things 'cause I remember my daddy tellin' me and Paco how Grandpa Flynn said God made everybody in His image. I didn't know for sure what that meant but it looked like I better be findin' out. Looked like if you was gonna be a Flynn you had to know what the image of God meant.
I was rememberin' too what my daddy said last night about proper talkin'. "Do you always talk range talk? Daddy said there's a proper way of talkin' and me and Paco got to be learnin' it."
Danny laughed again'. "You're gonna find there's when- your-mama's-around ways of doin' things and every-other-time ways of doin' things. Mamas don't understand range livin' too good. They mostly want you to be a fancy pants but you just can't be no fancy pants if you're gonna be a cowboy. Clay Bronson, one of them bunkhouse cowboys, told me that if you don't cuss some and talk range talk you won't never learn to open a loop on a rope. He said his mama was the same way as my mama and he tried bein' like she told him, so he knows that if you don't cuss that damn rope, won't nothin' happen for you. Anyway, my daddy does proper talk and range talk and a little cussin' dependin' where he is."
I was still thinkin' on them meetin's and them Christians. "Do you go to meetin"?
"My mama makes me go."
"You reckon they'll make me go?"
"They won't don't Uncle Shay say go. Uncle Shay's the oldest one here and he's kind of the boss of the Bent-Y. Uncle Sean's the oldest in the family but he lives in San Francisco and he can't run no Bent-Y from there. I reckon there ain't really no boss here. Our daddies all talk things out but they generally let your daddy have the last word. Anyway, I reckon nobody in their right mind fusses much with Seamus Flynn."
I was likin' Danny better all the time. I was likin' how he was talkin' so proud about my daddy but I couldn't get my worry out of my head. "You reckon my daddy will say go?"
"Don't reckon he will. I know he thinks like my daddy. Daddy said he reckons the Lord has enough folks sittin' on their asses in them churches, singin' them hymns or sayin' them prayer beads like he says they do in them Catholic churches. Daddy says he figures the Lord can use a few folks out doin' other folks right.
"He knows it ain't no use tryin' to get my mama not to make me go so he keeps tellin' me to think hard on how I'm doin'. He don't want me to get to thinkin' like a lot of them church folks think - that just bein' a church folk makes you better than somebody else and that just goin' to meetin' is all God wants from you. Daddy says God wants folks really doin' folks right, not just goin' to meetin' and sittin' around talkin' about it."
Well, I seen that it didn't make no difference what Flynn you ask a question. You was gonna get a long answer. I wondered, since I was a Flynn now, was I gonna have to learn to give them long answers. Paco was a Flynn now too but he had a long head start on me when it come to long talkin'. He was probably gonna be one of them long-answer Flynns before me.
But I liked what Danny was sayin'. It give me a lot more sense about God than all them things that damn preacher man said was givin' me.
Spike was quiet for all of Danny's tellin'. He seemed like he was as interested in what Danny was sayin' as me and Paco was, but I reckon there was just so long he could keep his mouth shut. "You gonna lay there all day? Come on, get up. My mama's got some breakfast waitin' on you."
Them cousins had on just britches and no boots so me and Paco done the same. I couldn't find them old britches that I wore out of Goodnight but there was some new ones hangin' in my closet so I put them on. Paco had to go to his room for dressin' and he came back with them britches I bought him in Claude. He asked, "You reckon Daddy will care if I bring my clothes over here? Looks like we're gonna do our sleepin' in here and I want my clothes where I can see them. I ain't never had none to look at before. I just like havin' them where I can see them."
I told him I didn't reckon that Daddy would care but Spike got some upset. "You ain't got no time to move them clothes now. We got to get you fed so we can do some playin'. Sam, is your behind too sore? I sure hope it ain't 'cause I want to do some ridin'. I ain't much of a talker so folks don't think I'm big enough to go ridin' with them bigger boys. I'm gonna get to do it today if your behind ain't too sore. I hope it ain't. I sure want to do some ridin'. We can show you the swimmin' hole but we can't get in. It'll fester up them cuts you got. Come on. You can move them clothes later. We got to get to playin'. Come on."
While we was walkin' to Spike's house, it come to us we ain't seen our daddy this mornin'. Paco acted almost scared. "Where's our daddy?"
"He went with my daddy and Uncle Kevin to see how the north herd's doin'. Come on. We got to get some food in you so we can go to playin'."
Spike and Paco walked on ahead. Paco was headin' for that food as fast as he could. I asked Danny, "For a boy who talks so much, why does Spike keep sayin' he ain't much of a talker?"
Danny said, "He ain't, really. He only does like he's doin' today when he's all excited and we all been excited for your comin'. Anyway, Spike's feelin' kinda big for his britches today. His friends Ho Tau and Jorge don't get to go with us bigger boys but Spike does 'cause he's got two new cousins. He keeps sayin' that about not bein' much of a talker because his daddy funs on him when he gets this way. Uncle Brian says to him, 'You're just like your mama. You're not much of a talker.'
"Aunt Jenny ain't much of a talker but Spike don't know his daddy's funnin' on him yet so he says that for true. He'll grow up. It'll come to him one of these days. Don't let how he's bein' today worry you none. He's all right and you're gonna like him fine."
Aunt Jenny kind of fussed at us when we went in her kitchen but we could tell she was funnin'. "What kind of men of leisure do we have here? They come waltzing into my house at one o'clock in the afternoon and expect breakfast."
Paco, as usual, had an answer. "We come up on these houses last night that looked like castles and we're livin' in one of them so we figure we're kings. I reckon a king can have his breakfast any time he wants to or it ain't no use bein' a king."
Aunt Jenny laughed and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. "You are funny. Your daddy said you were a clown."
"What the he..... - uh - I mean - what's a clown?"
I told him. "It means like Daddy said. It means you got a sense of humor. You make folks laugh."
Them hot cakes was good. They had butter on them and sugar syrup and sure enough, we had us some buttermilk.