Heyes walked into the saloon and spied Jim Santana sitting at a small table near the back. He ordered a beer and headed back to the table where Santana was sitting.
"Ah, Mr. Heyes. How is your friend?"
"Partner," Heyes corrected him and sat down at the table.
Santana smiled and offered a nod of acknowledgment. "Partner," Santana affirmed.
"He's had a rough day, but he's doing better."
"You're...a difficult man to read, Mr. Hayes."
"Just Heyes," came the reply.
Santana studied Heyes. He certainly saw promise in the young man. But he was uncertain if he could detect the potential of loyalty and decided he should tread the waters slowly, very slowly.
Santana drew in a breath as he reached for the half spent whiskey bottle and filled his glass.
"How long have you been working as a ranch hand?"
"You mean this time?"
Santana nodded.
"Kid and me have been there a couple of months."
"And before that?"
Heyes shrugged. "Odd jobs, here and there. That's what Kid and me are use to. It's how we like it."
Santana took a sip of his whiskey. "The two of you... You've had jobs that are...creative to your needs," Santana said, more as an observation than a question.
Heyes smiled. "We manage to get by, Kid and me."
"Do what you need to do?" Santana said with an amused look on his face.
Heyes leaned in to the table. "What exactly is it that you're asking?"
Santana shrugged with a bit of nonchalance. "You just...intrigue me."
"Why?"
"Because you're not...what you seem to be, what you're trying to be."
Heyes smiled. "I'm not? Then what am I?"
"You think...outside the law."
"Me?" Heyes asked with surprise, but quickly shook his head. "No, that's not me."
Santanna smiled. "Oh, it is you, Mr. Heyes. More than you know, it is you."
"No. Kid and me might have pulled a few penny ante things, but only cause it was necessary to survive. Not for sport or adventure, or even profit... Just to survive."
"There is much to be said for sport, adventure, and profit, Mr. Heyes."
"Are you inviting me to join you in something...outside the law?" Heyes asked.
"I'm telling you to take a good look at yourself. Mr. Heyes. An honest look."
Heyes uttered a single chuckle, then slowly sat back in his chair. "My partner is lying over there at the doctor's office, hurt, facing the possibility of losing his leg, and it's my job to help Doc Heiser pull him through this in one piece. That's the only thing I gotta know about myself right now. So, I guess you're barking up the wrong tree."
"Perhaps...For now."
Heyes sighed. I'm afraid you'll just have to excuse me...For now."
Heyes took one last gulp of his beer and stood up, pushing the chair back with his legs. He reached in his pocket and dropped a dime on the table. Then he turned and walked out of the saloon.
Heyes was feeling frustrated and restless. He understood Santana was hinting at something, likely illegal, but just what that something was remained vague and unclear.
Almost two years ago, just after Kid had turned eighteen, he and Kid had separated for brief time, a matter of months, during which Heyes had fallen into some gang activity with a group lead by a man by the name of Jim Palmer. But the interlude had been brief, a matter of months, before Palmer had double crossed the gang and run off with the thirty thousand dollars the gang had gotten in a bank robbery. It was the first and only experience Heyes had with a gang and after the leader ran off, leaving the gang with nothing, Heyes himself left without ever having been identified as a member of the gang or of being involved in the bank heist. At the time he had considered himself lucky and quickly went in search of his cousin and partner who readily agreed to resume their well established partnership.
So why, Heyes wondered, had Jim Sntana picked him out of a group of obscure men who simply happen to be drinking and playing poker in the same saloon one night? Heyes had no answer, and moreover, he really knew nothing about this Jim Santana beyond the fact that the man was a good poker player, and kept his private life personal and obscure.
With no place to go, Heyes returned to the doctor's office and once again settled in to the chair beside Kid's bed, his book in hand and the oil lamp turn up high.
0-0-0-0-0-
The next morning it was Kid who woke Heyes from a sound sleep.
Heyes? Heyes, you awake?"
Heyes shifted in his chair and opened his eyes. "You alright, Kid?"
"I gotta use the privy, Heyes?"
"Can't I just help you stand up beside the bed?"
"I don't need it for that reason."
"Oh...Doc said you have to use a bedpan."
"Heyes, I can't do my business on a bedpan."
"You ever seen a bedpan, Kid?"
"No."
"They really don't look that uncomfortable. Cold maybe, but not uncomfortable."
Kid knew he would not win the argument, not so long as he was still in the doctor's office. Once he was able to move to the line shack, things might be different. He might be able to talk Heyes into things that just weren't feasible in the doctor's office.
"Is there one around here that I can see?"
"I would think so. I'll go look."
Heyes walked over to the closet and opened the door. He stepped inside and began scouring the shelves. On the top shelf he spied an oddly shaped metal bowl sort of object and he reached up and pulled it down for inspection. The object was somewhat oblong in shape with rounded edges and a deep center.
"I thought I heard some talking in here," Dr. Heiser said and Heyes turned around with a start.
"Needing a bedpan, are you?" the doctor asked and Kid closed his eyes and sighed with embarrassment.
"Here, give me that and I'll show you how it works," the doctor said with a very matter of fact tone in his voice.
"Heyes," Kid pleaded.
"No point being embarrassed, son. It's just a call of nature," Dr. Heiser told him. "Now, Mr. Heyes, you go stand on the boy's right side and pull him over toward you and on to his right side. Be very careful of that broken arm and the sore leg."
"Heyes," Kid growled through gritted teeth.
Heyes just looked at Kid and shrugged as though the matter was completely out of his control.
"Now just pull him over on his side."
Heyes took a deep breath and pulled Kid onto to his right side. Kid's eyes grew very wide as he felt his underwear being tugged down and then felt the sudden sharp coldness of the pan against his skin.
"Heyes!" Kid snarled, but Doctor Heiser continued to speak to Heyes as though what they were doing was an everyday occurrence.
"Now roll him back so he's sitting on it."
Heyes looked at Kid with great empathy and guilt but rolled Kid back onto his back.
"Now, you and me are going to go have a cup of coffee in the other room and give this boy some privacy."
Again Heyes looked at Kid and shrugged apologetically, then followed the doctor out of the room.
"Don't worry, he'll get use to it. The first time is the hardest time for everybody. But he'll live through it.
"But I'm not too sure I will," Heyes replied, following the doctor into the kitchen.
0-0-0-0-0-
"Doc, I got a question for you," Heyes said as they sat at the kitchen table drinking coffee.
"What is it?"
"You ever hear of a fella by the name of Jim Santana?"
"How long have you been in these parts?" Dr. Heiser asked.
"Couple of months."
"Well that explains you not knowing. "Santana is the leader of a gang of outlaws. Their hide out is maybe twenty miles west of here, though I don't know the exact location. Somewhere near the town of Claymore I believe."
"What's the name of the gang?"
"Devil's Hole gang. They're a pretty big operation."
"And Santana is the leader you say?"
"That's right. You happen to run in to him, did you?"
"I think I played poker with him one evening. Of course I can't be sure. I've never heard of him or seen him before."
"You lose your shirt?"
Heyes smiled. "I did lose some money to him."
"I've always heard he's a very good poker player, compares to Doc Holiday."
"I wouldn't know. I've never met Doc Holiday either. Heard of him, though."
"If you want to do yourself a favor, you'll stay clear of Santana."
"Well, I don't think that's gonna be too hard to accomplish. I'll be back to work in a couple of days and Kid and me will be hold up in the line shack."
"Speaking of Kid, we'd best go check on him and then change out that leg dressing and get him stitched up again."
"Kid ain't gonna be to pleased with how this day is starting out," Heyes said and he and the doctor headed back into the room Kid occupied.
"You all finished with your business, son?" Dr. Heiser asked.
Kid didn't reply but Dr. Heiser took that as a yes and he started to walk to the other side of the bed.
"Hold it right there," Heyes protested. "You think I'm gonna do this part?" Heyes asked.
"Gonna haft get use to it. This ain't the last time this is gonna happen."
"Don't be too sure of that," Kid grumbled.
"Listen, I might hafta do that at the line shack, but that's what we're paying you to do in here," Heyes protested.
"You're paying me? I ain't seen a red cent outta either one of you, you know."
"That's cause you ain't done fixing him up yet. You'll get your money! And in the mean time, I ain't doing your job!"
"If you two want to go have an argument, I can probably figure out a way to do this myself," Kid said, his face growing red with anger. "I mean it ain't something a person likes an audience for, you know?"
Doctor Heiser and Heyes looked at each other and both began to see the humor in the situation.
"Alright, I'll do it this time, but you do it the next time," the doctor told Heyes.
"Agreed," Heyes said.
"Agreed my ass! I get some say in this, you know!" Kid griped loudly.
"This time around, you don't get any say in it," Dr. Heiser told Kid. "Now, Heyes, pull him over onto his right side again."
Once the task was complete, Kid reached for the sheet and pulled it over his head, not wanting any contact whatsoever with the two other men in the room.
Now, who wants some breakfast?" Dr. Heiser sad as he carried the bedpan out of the room.
"Kid, you hungry yet" Heyes asked.
"Long as I'm here, Heyes, I ain't eating another bite," said the muffled voice of the man still hidden under the sheet.
"Kid, I'll come up with a better way to do this at the line shack. Maybe I can just cut the seat out of a chair and put a bucket under the chair. That way you can just take care of such things yourself."
"You're all heart, Heyes."