The Trip
They'd planned this trip for weeks, Bart Maverick and his daughter Maudie. Right on the border of Texas and Mexico, word of a ranch breeding and willing to sell Mexican Criollo horses to gringos had reached the B Bar M. The Criollo horses were hardy, with a brawny and strong body and a broad chest. They were famous for their endurance and ability to live in harsh conditions. Bart had been cross-breeding different horses for years and thought that the Criollo and the blue roan strain he'd developed would give the western cowboy the perfect horse. Of course, he needed the Criollo to find out, and it had been impossible to find any for sale.
When he first heard of the sale he was skeptical, but the more he learned the more excited he became. The rancher was a reputable breeder who'd been in business for years. He discussed the trip with his partner, his brother Bret, who agreed it was worth it to find out if they could purchase half a dozen or so mares in an effort to advance the cross breeding they'd been working on for some years.
The trip they'd planned included Bart, his father Beauregard, brother Bret, and Cory Anderson. Cory had been their breeding manager since Tim Demerest was killed. Cory was a good man, but Tim had been part of the family, and it was a blow to the whole operation when they lost him. Preparations were made for the trip, and Bart's eldest daughter Maudie begged her father to let her go. Just turned eleven, she was big for her age and had been involved with everything the ranch did since she was small. Bart gave it some thought and decided it would be a good experience for her. That's when the worst that could happen, did.
Influenza swept through the valley, and its attack on the Maverick family was vicious. Beauregard, Bret and Cory all came down with a bad case of it, and there was talk of canceling the whole venture. Until it was discovered there was another buyer interested in the entire herd. If they put off the trip it could be as long as two or three years before they had another opportunity. And by that time the breeder could have moved on.
Bart had a long talk with Maudie, then another talk with his wife, Doralice. Finally he consulted his brother and the decision was made – he and Maudie would go. They'd get to El Paso by coach, then hire a crew to bring the horses back to Little Bend. If they bought some. Maudie was excited but kept herself under control. She was determined to prove to her father that she was serious about running the ranch someday, and this was the first step.
Plans were finalized, and father and daughter boarded the stage on Friday morning. It felt odd to be riding the stage to El Paso and not playing poker. Bart seemed fidgety and Maudie finally said something. "What's bothering you?"
"You'll think it's silly, but it's the way your Uncle Bret and me used to pass the time. We played poker when we traveled, and we had one rule and one rule only. We changed deal on whoever won, and the dealer got to cheat. "
"Each other? You cheated each other?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Why?"
"Two reasons. We got to practice cheating in case we ever had to do it, and we learned to recognize it, in case it was being done to us."
"Daddy."
"Yes darlin'."
"You realize that Uncle Bret taught Beauregard to cheat."
"Yes, I know that."
"And you realize that we all played poker with Beauregard."
"Yes, Buttercup, I know that."
"So doesn't it stand to reason that we all learned Pappy Beauregard's methods of cheating?"
Bart sat in silence for a minute while he pondered his daughter's question. Finally he asked, "You did?"
"Yes, Daddy, we did."
"So that means we can play Maverick Poker?"
"Yes, Daddy, we can. If you have a deck of cards."
Her father's face lit up as he pulled a deck of cards out of his coat pocket. "Like these?"
"Just like those," Maudie answered as she matched his smile.
Bart shuffled and dealt the cards, and father and daughter began talking about exactly what they were looking for in the Criollo stock. As they played their peculiar brand of poker, they then progressed to discussing what they would be interested in if it was a colt or a stallion.
Their main focus was the Criollo filly or mare. It was their intention to cross-breed the mares with the B Bar M blue roan-Arabian studs, producing an animal that had the hardiness and endurance of the Criollo, along with the willingness and sensibility of the Arabian, but possessing none of the extreme temperament. At least that was the original intention.
By their second full day of traveling Maudie was working on another possible scenario, one that involved breeding the blue-roan mares with the Criollo studs. And Bart had come to understand that his eleven-year-old daughter was almost more skilled at poker than he had been at the same age. Fortunately, she had no desire to roam the countryside and be another Poker Alice. She was more than content to run the B Bar M and raise colts and fillies.
Maudie's interest in the horses and the ranch began when she was a wee lass, due to her attachment to her father. If she was involved with the same things that caught her father's attention, then she would naturally spent more of her time with him. And that was just fine with her. As she got older, she confined her interest in poker to a pastime she shared with her siblings, but her love for the ranch and the horses grew as she aged and tethered her closer and closer to Bart.
She kept a secret, even from him. She wanted to be a man so that it would be naturally assumed that she would take control of the ranch when her father and uncle decided to give it up. Maudie knew she was going to have to fight for it. None of her brothers appeared to have the interest that she did; and her cousins were too small to give any indication of their interest. So Maudie had to bide her time; waiting to see who emerged as the brother or cousin she would fight for control of the ranch.
In the meantime, she stayed close to her father and learned everything she could. Her heart was broken when she thought he was dead; and what was worse, she blamed herself. She'd been such a child about the whole incident that the only reasonable thing left to do was to drown herself, and the creek would accomplish that nicely.
She couldn't do it. She tried to pay the ultimate price, and even after the burial service on the hill, when she felt there was nothing to live for, she couldn't do it. It was a good thing she couldn't, because fate had thrown her a curveball, and her father was still alive. She never told anyone. And she swore that she would never dream of doing anything so foolish again. No matter what happened. Maudie had learned a valuable lesson, especially for one so young.
There would be times in her life when she felt she'd lost everything, but she could look back on the incident with her father and know there was always something in her future that was important, something worth living for.
