Boys Become Men: Book Three ~ Mountain Ranch

It would not be long before the winter snows fell upon them, the next day, the men began putting the shutters on the windows and moving the hay up to the loft in the barn. The cowboys brought the herd up from the summer pasture and they put the sheep in the paddock next to the barn. They repaired any weak places in the coyote fence around the hen house and moved the firewood into the basement of the ranch house. By the time the first snowflakes began to fall, everyone was snugged down in their homes or apartments for the duration.

Gordon Black Stone thought he was being very discreet as he went over to the Tall Oak apartment. Mary was always waiting for him at the corner of the building so they could go for their walk. They did not know that there were several sets of eyes following them, her Mama and Poppa, Little Bush and Iron Tree Tall Oak and also his own Papa, Paul Black Stone. None of them realized there was yet another set of eyes, Gordon's little brother, Tommy, was also keeping them under surveillance.

The two young lovers would wander through the trees near the ranch house, holding hands and speaking of things that young lovers usually speak of. They could lose each other in the pools of their eyes, just staring. It had been love at first sight and, by Christmas, it was a love so deep, it would last their lifetimes. Gordon had always thought he was gay, but, at the first sight of Mary Tall Oak, he was hooked for life!

Gordon was frantic, he had no idea how to ask his own Papa, let alone Mary's Poppa. Tommy watched his big brother mope and pine for his love and he was frequently seen crying when he thought he was alone.

Finally, Tommy could stand it no longer, he came up behind his big brother and threw his little arms around him, "Brother, it is time. I will go with you so you may ask Mr. and Mrs. Tall Oak to marry their daughter, Mary."

Gordon replied, "HhhHooow dddid yyou knoooow?" Tommy laughed and wiped the tears from his brother's face.

Paul was watching from the shadows and decided to let the two boys handle the situation. He had already spoken with Little Bush and Iron Tree and they were all waiting for the young man to gather up his courage. It seemed that Gordon's courage came in a young boy size, his own little brother!

Both sets of parents were happy with the idea that their children would be together and, of course, little Tommy was delighted that he would be getting a sister. Just maybe, some little nieces or nephews to hold and cherish included in the deal! He was old enough to know how babies came into the world and he figured the only way he was going to have a baby to hold was having his big brother make one!

Gordon decided to go right then, before he lost his courage again, he picked up his younger brother and carried him as the snow had gotten too deep for Tommy to use his crutch.

They arrived at Tall Oak's front door, only Tommy saw Mary peeking from the window. He smiled at her and gave a "thumbs up" sign that THIS WAS THE DAY! She giggled and hid behind the stairs going up to the bedrooms.

Gordon straightened his clothing and stood straight and tall as he could before he knocked on the door. Iron Tree answered the door, wearing his most solemn face and invited the two boys in.

When the two boys stood in the room, Gordon just stood there until Tommy kicked his ankle and he squawked in surprise. He jumped a bit and said, "Mr.TallOakIwouldliketomarryyourdaughterMary, SIR!"

Iron Tree could not help but chuckle at the young man's nervousness as he called for his wife, who was standing just around the corner listening to every word, as was their daughter, Mary.

Iron Tree looked very solemn and asked, "Can you support my daughter?" Gordon replied, "Yes sir, I am my Father's Apprentice and I doctor all the young boys on the ranch. I have delivered my first baby, SIR!"

Iron Tree then asked, "What do you offer as a bride price for our Daughter?"

"III, uh, Bride Price?" he squeaked.

Finally, Mary's Mother, Little Bush came into the room and scolded her husband, "Shame on you Iron Tree, son, your Daddy has paid the Bride Price of one silver dollar coin. Now you two boys come in here and have some hot herb tea to warm your bodies. Mary will be down in just a few minutes."

Mary Tall Tree came down the stairs in the prettiest dress she owned. Gordon just stared at her. He would never remember anything beyond the kiss she gave him. Tommy just giggled and drank his tea. He planned to let ALL the boys in the village know that his Big Brother was going to marry the prettiest girl in the village.

They planned the wedding to take place on the Winter Solstice and it was fortunate that Tommy was sitting there, listening to all their plans because neither she nor Gordon would ever remember what the other said that day.

There were two other couples that longed for the day they could marry, Jim and Carl and Billy and Andy. They had been committed couples since the seventh grade, endured the taunts of their fellow students and remained faithful to their partners since that time. They walked back to the main house, each with his arm around his partner and a few tears were threatening to cascade in overflow below their eyes.

Oliver and Miz Emma were watching out the window in the upstairs hallway. Emma said, "Oly, is there anything we can do for our boys, their sorrow and unhappiness just cuts my heart."

Oliver stood there thinking and finally he said, "Em, I wonder, what is the condition of the old Manager's House down next to the mill pond?"

Emma smiled as she replied, "It ought to be in pretty good shape, it has been closed up and the windows boarded over ever since Hector Lamb decided to go down to Phoenix and try his luck."

Oliver smiled and said, "The weather is kinda nice and the snow ain't too deep, let's you n' me take a nice walk down by the mill pond." They were gone for several hours.

It was a mild winter as winters in the high mountains go and the cowboys were kept busy chasing down wolves who were looking for a tasty sheep supper. Christmas came and went, the four boys, Jim, Carl, Bill and Andy received some strange Christmas gifts that they couldn't figure out. The strangest gift of all was a small box with Jim's and Carl's names on it. Inside, was a key and a note that had them all puzzled.

After a couple of days wondering, Jim had an idea. He hollered at Carl, "Come On, Carl, follow me!" as he went running out the front door. He ran by the old mill pond, where they used to store logs to keep them wet before sawing them into lumber, and ran up to the old Mill Manager's House. Jim tried the key in the front door and it opened, showing a recently cleaned house and a sign on the table that read, "MERRY CHRISTMAS BOYS. IT'S ABOUT TIME YOU ALL BEGAN HOUSEKEEPING AS A COUPLE. LOVE, OLIVER AND EMMA BATES."

Both boys sat on the floor, trying their best not to cry. After each had hugged the other, they explored the house, everything was there, sheets, towels, blankets, dishes and table silver, even pots and pans. The pantry was stocked and the wood bin was full of firewood. Carl tried the pump at the sink and a few strokes brought fresh, clean water gushing in the sink.

The cistern had been recently filled because the toilet flushed. Even the lamps had been filled with oil and the wicks had all been trimmed. They spent the rest of the day, carrying their clothes and personal treasures down to the little house beside the mill pond.

Jim was the cook among them and he put together a first meal that astounded them both, he brought out a beef stew, biscuits, and an apple pie made from dried apple slices that he had soaked in warm water, flavored by a few drops of cooking brandy.

They even had hot water, there was a small boiler on the back of the kitchen stove that heated water.

The cottage was two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and a storeroom. One of the bedrooms even had a youth bed in it, with blankets and pillows just waiting for a small head to go to sleep. There was a wood heater set into the fireplace that heated the whole house and the kitchen would be heated by the cook stove. They both were wood burning and there was a wash room off the kitchen that held a huge old cast iron tub and a cold water shower. Bath water was supplied by the hot water boiler behind the stove.

There was even a cellar with a cold room for storing vegetables and smoked meats. Both of which were stored there in two small lots! It was all ready for their occupancy, needing only themselves to make it a home. They spent a couple of hours lugging their personal items down to their new house and, by the time it was dark, they were fully moved in. They did wonder, however about that child's bed.

Their first night in their own home was peaceful, after the couple had called, "GOOD NIGHT" to each other across the pillow, they slept peacefully knowing their mate was with them in their own house!

The next day, other than a few red faces, the two young men were happier than they had ever been! They settled in living together, sharing the simple chores and, in the evening, they sat before the open door of their wood burning heater, toasting their feet and holding hands and each man stared into the eyes of his mate, seeing only love and contentment.

Almost immediately after the New Year, one of the cowboys discovered the carcass of a slaughtered heifer at the lower end of the winter pasture. The young cow had been brutally mauled and torn apart. Everyone agreed it was wolves! Jim was beginning to take over as Range Boss and Carl was moving on as Farm Boss. The two young men were leaders and those working for them would have walked over hot coals, barefooted, had either of them asked!

Jim made sure all the range herders had rifles and he assigned two men to work the night shift from dark until midnight and two others to cover until dawn. Wolves were nocturnal and the dark hours were the greatest danger. The very first night, three wolves were shot!

Nobody believed for a minute those were the only wolves in the mountains and over the next week, six more wolves met the Great Wolf Spirit in the Sky! Emma had the skins saved, she had plans for that fur!

The herd had grown over the last several years since the bombs, and it was feeding everyone on the ranch, plus two visiting tribes of local Indians who had come, seeking protection from the raiders.

Carl and Jim led hunting parties into the mountain wilderness, seeking the refuge of the wolf pack. They located several small packs, but, from the wolf-song at night, they knew there was a large pack somewhere in their mountains and they had to find it, otherwise, their food supply and their very lives would be in jeopardy.

Finally, they heard that some Indians had been ravaged by wolves over at Lukachukai in the Navajo Reservation. It was unusual for wolves to attack humans, but, if they felt threatened or the humans appeared weak and disorganized, there was no question that they would attack!

The four Brothers gathered a war party of twenty Cowboys and headed cross country to check out the reports. It was a long trip and the snow made travel slow.

When they finally reached the small Navajo Village, they found death and destruction! There were a few injured folk wandering around and bodies of their families on the ground, unburied! The wolves had paid them a visit and those who had survived were shattered!

The cowboys gathered up those who had survived the attack and treated their injuries. They dug into their own supplies to feed them and even gave them some of their own clothing.

Jim and Carl were standing, trying to figure out where the wolves might have their lair, a small Indian boy came up to the and shyly said, "Mr. Cowboy, those wolves hide at Spring Canyon, my Papa found them and now he is dead. He tried to stop them. The wolves killed my Mama and baby Sister. Please, Mr. Cowboy, kill them for me that my family may rest in peace with The Great Spirit!" The boy was manfully trying to hold back his tears.

Carl picked up the lad, he could not have been more than four or five years old. He picked up the child as his tears came flooding out. Carl hugged the boy and dried his tears with his own kerchief. He then asked, "Can you show us where this place is?"

The child replied, "Me think me find it, Mr. Cowboy."

Carl placed the child on his horse and swung into the saddle, he shouted, "Let's be done with these night devils!" Two cowboys remained behind to assist the injured villagers and the rest mounted, ready to follow Jim and Carl to kill the four-footed murderers.

It was one thing to kill cattle, but the murder of people was more than they could take. It was unusual, wolves did not normally attack humans unless they were cornered or felt threatened.

The child led them into a wide canyon that wandered into the deep mountains to the north. He pointed to a side canyon and then hid his head in Carl's chest, tears were flowing out of the child's eyes and wetting Carl's shirt as they passed the mauled and half eaten bodies of a villager hunting party.

As they entered the canyon, they could hear the yowls of adult wolves. The men pulled out their rifles and held them at the ready as they guided their horses by knee pressure. The horses sensed the wolves nearby and had to be forced to enter the small canyon. They were, however, well trained and they responded to their rider's knee commands.

Jim looked up just in time to see a wolf getting ready to leap on Carl and the young boy from a rock. Jim shot the wolf as he began his leap and it fell in a heap right in front of Carl's horse. The horse shied a bit, but Carl kept control as more wolves came racing from behind the rock.

It sounded like a war had begun and, when it was all over, more than sixty wolves lay dead on the snowy ground! Their rifle barrels had become too hot to hold. They rode up, into the canyon and shot a few stragglers, it was a box canyon with steep sides, no wolf escaped their anger.

On their way out of the canyon, they stopped and buried the Indian Warriors who had been killed, including the little boy's father. The child was trying his best not to cry and shame himself before this kind white man, but he just could not hold it back any longer and the child's sobs sang like music in the cold air. The boy music rolled around Carl's head, telling him, beyond any doubt, that the Great Spirit approved.

Carl held the boy until his sobs had subsided, then he whispered in his ear, "I do not have a son, will you be my son and live with me?"

The child looked up at Carl and asked, "Will I have a new Mama, also?"

Jim had arrived beside Carl and he leaned over to the child as he said, "No, but I will be your other Papa and we will raise you as our son, love you as our son and protect you as our son."

The little boy replied, "Whoopee, no baths!"

Carl looked at Jim and whispered, "Oh, God, what have we gotten ourselves into?"

They returned to the ruined village and helped the two Cowboys who had remained behind, to bury the dead villagers. Besides the child, only six villagers had survived. Jim asked, "Do you wish to remain here or would you like to come with us and join with our folk at Red Mountain Ranch?"

Since half the cowboys were Navajo Indians, the villagers knew they would be among their own people, so they agreed to come with the cowboys and go live at the ranch.

They gathered up the horses of the dead villagers and found a small pony for the boy. The child refused to give his name, he wanted a new name from his new Papas! Jim and Carl thought about it and asked him, "How about 'WOLF HUNTER'?"

So it was, a young Indian Warrior came to live with Carl and Jim, whose name was "WOLF HUNTER". He had no shame that he had two Papas, he was proud of them both and boasted that they were the best wolf killers in all the world! He wanted to be just like them!

They kept to a slow pace, the surviving villagers were all wounded and still grieving their lost ones. When they got closer to the ranch, Jim called home on the hand held radio and reported what they had found and that they were bringing refugees home with them.

They no longer worried about attracting unwanted attention from the use of the radios, there was no one else in the area that had radios of any kind, except for the local ranchers.

When they arrived, homes had been made ready for the lost villagers and Miz Emma reconciled herself to being a Great Grandmother. The first thing she did was to place young Wolf Hunter in the warm bathtub and go over him with a wet cloth and a bar of soap. The boy was highly indignant, until the white-haired old lady cuddled him in a warm bath towel and held him on her lap while he ate fresh ginger cookies and drank hot chocolate. The small Indian boy had never tasted either before, he was hooked.

That night, Jim gave his old childhood bed to young Wolf Hunter. The child had never had a whole room to himself and the next morning, the two men found their son curled up in their bed, sound asleep. They didn't have the heart to make him go back to his own room and they all snugged down as a winter storm dropped snow on them, effectively shutting them off from the outside world.

Wolf curled up between the two men, warm and safe as he dreamed mighty dreams of hunting and being a Great Warrior protecting his two Papas and all their people!

Wolf was fascinated with his Papas' house, it was so big and had strange things in it. Water that came out of the stove, already hot, a toilet that flushed and a cold room full of fresh vegetables!

When he discovered the books on the shelf in the living room, he picked up a picture book and held it to Carl, saying, "Read me, Papa Carl, make me story!" Carl read him a very appropriate story, "Peter and the Wolf"!

It would become the boy's favorite story and he would pretend being Peter! He would stalk around the house and jump over the couch waving a small piece of firewood, pretending that it was a war club! The child soon memorized every word in the story and, if one of his Daddies left out so much as a single word, he made them read the whole page over again!

They spent the remainder of the winter cooped up on the ranch, the snow was deep and the terrible high country cold kept them in the houses for weeks on end. Both Carl and Jim became tolerable cooks and they frequently had Bill and Andy over for supper.

Bill and Andy had finally figured out the meaning of the key in their Christmas gift. The key fit the door of the old Farrier's Apartment and they were happily living as a couple. Their Christmas gift had included a map that led them to their new apartment above the horse barn. It had two bedrooms, a kitchen, bath and a combination living-dining room. Miz Emma had fully furnished it and they had running water from the ranch high tank.

Billy was the cook among the two of them and the first time they had Jim, Carl and Wolf over for supper, he had fixed a braised leg of lamb, completed with baked potatoes and sprouted wheat berries. He fixed a cobbler made from dried peaches that the five of them totally demolished in one meal! Wolf was filling out and could eat almost as much as a full grown man.

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!

He and Wolf became close friends, there was a slight age difference, but neither boy cared. Tommy would help Wolf with his reading and in return, Wolf would tell Timmy about the legends of his people.

Neither household knew whether they would have two boys for supper or no boys and, wherever bedtime caught them, it was that house where they slept for the night! The two boys were inseparable and they would become a couple themselves before very many years were to pass.

Neither boy recognized it yet, but both sets of parents saw the signs and would be prepared for it when it hit the boys. They would see to it that Wolf's and Tommie's transition to being a couple would be as easy as their own had been.

At last, the long, harsh winter began to show signs of loosening its grip on them and their thoughts began to turn to the outside. They were ready!

Is civilization ever going to return? How are they going to feed and house all the refugees they are collecting? Will young Tommie and Wolf get some brothers?