Saddle Talk, The First: Close Since Our Kid Days (Or, How Heyes Got Curry's Goat)
"Kid, do you remember when we were kids, how close we were to the kids?"
Curry glanced at his partner with skepticism. "Heyes, you okay? You're repeatin' yourself and not makin' any sense."
"Sure I am. The time when we worked with those kids."
"You mean at the home?"
"No," Heyes replied, "when we were still with our folks."
Curry thought for a second. "I don't remember workin' with any kids except our brothers and sisters."
"No, not family – the other kids. How could you forget? We were sorta close to those kids for a while, working with them every day and all. They were kinda cute 'til they grew up."
"Heyes, you talkin' about girls?" Curry smiled. "Glad it's changed, but back then I didn't really like playin' with girls, and neither did you."
The brown-haired man paused to think a moment before continuing. "Well, yeah, some of them were female, but just the kids in general."
"When was that?"
"Oh, the summer I was probably about eight or nine, so you'd have been six or seven."
Curry's brow furrowed. "When did we work with anybody else? Besides our families, I only remember playin' with other kids."
"Well, yeah, we played with the kids, too, but it was more like work, at least for me. We did kinda get close to them sometimes, being around them every day and all. And we both had our favorites."
The blue eyes expressed puzzlement. "Heyes, I have no idea what you're talkin' about. Maybe I'm just hungry and tired from all this ridin', or maybe you're just not makin' any sense. Why ya rememberin' that anyway?"
Heyes shrugged. "I don't know. Was just thinking of how it was when we were kids. Things we used to do and that sort of stuff. Don't you ever think about when we were kids?"
Curry considered the question. "Sometimes, but not much. Not usually unless somethin' reminds me of somethin' back then, or you start talkin' about it, like now."
"Well, guess I do about the same. But for some reason I was thinking about those kids when we were kids. I'm not sure why."
"Heyes, I'm tired. Can't ya find anything better to do than keep me awake with some nonsense about kids when we were kids? I don't get it, and I'm not sure I want to!"
"Don't be so proddy, Kid. Don't you remember the summer we helped Old Man McKeever out on his farm?"
"Umm … Oh yeah, the summer ya kept gettin' my goat because I couldn't keep up with ya in all the work?"
"That's the one."
Curry reminisced. "But I was kinda little. And I think my pa only let me do it because you'd be there to watch out for me and all, just like ya still do. Only now I'm watchin' your back, too."
"Yup, you definitely do your part in keeping me around, Kid. You know how much I appreciate it, too. And I kept getting your goat because it was so easy to do and there were so many of them around. That was real easy to do!"
Blue eyes rolled. "Unfortunately …"
Heyes smirked. "So you remember the kids now?"
