Ketcham and Cheatham

1877

The Barkley brothers didn't often get the chance to kick back together on an outing. Nick and Heath were always busy with the ranch. Jarrod was always busy at his office or even off in San Francisco. So, when they had a chance, they took the time.

Camping out on an early autumn evening, as the air grew cold and they gathered at the fire drinking hot coffee with a touch of whiskey in it, they planned the fishing they intended to do in the morning and talked about things like women, and memorable poker games, and fishing escapades when they were young.

"You know, we three bachelors, we sure do talk about women a lot," Jarrod noted.

"That's why we're three bachelors," Heath said. "Still having too much fun to settle down."

"I don't know," Jarrod said. "I'd settle down if I found the right one."

"Well, you're the old man in the group," Nick said. "You've gotten your wild days out of your system."

Heath laughed. "I can't imagine you having wild days, Jarrod."

Nick burst out laughing. Jarrod looked contrite. "Well, let's just say I wasn't all that different from any other kid when I was younger," Jarrod said. "I was just more – reserved."

"Listen, Heath," Nick said, "this whole picture Jarrod paints of himself as the studious, well-behaved boy learning to become Stockton's most prominent lawyer by cracking every book he could get his hands on – don't you believe it for a minute."

Jarrod feigned offense, clutching his chest. "I was the epitome of decorum. I had to be. The moment you came into the world, I had to ride herd on you."

"That's a lie," Nick said. "I was five or six before you started riding herd on me."

"That's when you started getting into trouble and I had to spend all my time reining you in."

Nick's eyes twinkled. "I know the truth, Big Brother."

Jarrod laughed sarcastically. "The truth, do you?"

Nick's eyes twinkled more. "I know the truth about Ketcham and Cheatham."

Jarrod's face fell.

But Heath started to laugh. "Catch and cheat who?"

"Not verbs, Brother Heath," Nick said. "Names. Ketcham – K-E-T-C-H-A-M and Cheatham – C-H-E-A-T-H-A-M. They ran one of the first mercantiles in Stockton. Long time ago. I was just a little kid – couldn't have been more than four or five but Jarrod was more like eight or ten. And I know what happened."

Now Jarrod took on a suspicious eye. "What do you think you know?" he asked.

Nick went on, "Jarrod and I were staying in town with a couple friends of the family because Mother and Father were working so hard on the new house, where we live now. Jarrod kept sneaking out at night – "

"I did not!" Jarrod protested.

"Jarrod, I was in the bed beside you! I knew when you went out that window!"

Heath burst out laughing. "Jarrod? Out the window?"

"You think Big Brother just started taking off and getting into trouble all the time since he became a lawyer?" Nick asked. "When we were kids – even before I was born - if there was a horse around, he was on it and gone. If there wasn't he was off on foot. Ask Mother, she'll tell you."

"Uh – " Jarrod said cautiously. "Mother doesn't know about this story you're about to blame on me, does she?"

"Mother knows everything, you know that," Nick said.

"Ugh – " Jarrod groaned.

"Go ahead," Heath urged, still grinning in the firelight. "What about Ketcham and Cheatham?"

"One morning Stockton woke up, and somebody limber and sneaky had managed to climb up to their sign and paint an 'I' in front of Ketcham's name and a 'U' in front of Cheatham's," Nick said.

Heath burst out laughing and nearly rolled off the log he sat on. Jarrod grabbed him by the arm and kept him upright. "If you're about to blame me for that, Nick – "

"Jarrod, you had paint on your pants when we got up the next morning," Nick said.

Jarrod looked surprised.

"You thought I was still asleep when you saw the paint and stashed your pants under the bed," Nick said, "Good thing you had another pair. When you went out to the necessary I dug the dirty ones out and I saw the paint. I shoved them back under the bed but they disappeared. What did you do with them?"

Jarrod gave in, looking contrite. "I put them in the Baldwin's burn barrel – the house a few doors down." Then he looked at Nick. "You were maybe five years old and already collecting dirt to use on me!"

"Don't change the subject," Nick said. "How did you explain your missing pants to the Pearsons and to Mother and Father?"

"I don't even remember," Jarrod said.

"Well, when word of that new sign on the mercantile got around and nobody knew who did it, I knew I had some pretty good ammunition to use when I needed it."

"When did you tell Mother?" Heath asked.

Nick looked shocked, but it was fake.

Heath said, "Come on, Nick. If you had that on Jarrod, I know you used it as soon as you needed to get out of some kind of trouble of your own."

Now it was Nick's turn to give in. "I suppose it was a year or two later when I got in trouble over something and screamed it out to get her to be mad at Jarrod instead of me."

"She never said a word," Jarrod said.

"Of course not," Nick said. "Now she had dirt on you she could use when she needed it. I guess she just hasn't thought she needed it yet."

"Which means she could still use it," Heath said, still laughing. "Whatever happened to Ketcham and Cheatham? They're not around anymore."

"Cheatham was a southerner," Jarrod said. "He went back and fought for the Confederacy. I really don't know what became of him in the war, and I don't know where Ketcham went. Do you, Nick?"

"No," Nick said.

"Somebody fixed the sign pretty quick," Jarrod said.

"What I don't get is how you got up there and where you got the paint and the paint brush," Nick said.

Jarrod smiled. "They were building a new place down the street. Somebody left a brush out and left the lid loose on some paint and that's where I got the idea. And I was a climber, Heath. Ketcham and Cheatham's place had some pretty good footholds and handholds in the siding – at least for a kid. I was almost too big already to get my hands and feet in there but I managed it." Jarrod looked at his hands.

"They always were darned big," Nick said. "Heath, by the time Jarrod was thirteen, he couldn't hold a gun right. He has to curl his little finger under the handle. It won't fit proper. And the bootmaker had him in adult sized boots by the time he was eleven."

Jarrod said, "Are there any other points about my unusual childhood you want to bring up, Nick? Because I've got a few stories I can tell on you."

"Aside from the time you told me about when he thought he could fly?" Heath asked, still laughing.

"Heath, my boy, that was just the one that got me hurt the worst," Jarrod said. "Let me tell you about the time Nick decided he could break a mustang."

Heath grew suspicious. "How old was he at the time?"

Jarrod said, "Six!"

The End