Winter's Refuge

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Five

JED 'KID' CURRY

The Sunday after I took the kids and Auntie to church, Chrissy asked me to take them again and "Pray for me and the babies I carry." So, I did. Not sure if God listens to sinners like me but I hope this prayer gets answered.

This time we sat in the third row from the back. Father Patrick was away. His replacement was Monsignor Lance. First thing he did in his homily was to make sure that we all know that as a monsignor he was Father Patrick's superior. And then he told us that his homilies will not be on the Gospel of that day, but on the commandments. I shuddered. Me and Heyes broke an awful lot of those rules.

"SINNERS REPENT!" His voice echoed off of the walls around us.

Everyone jumped. Joy began to cry. Auntie picked her up and held her tight. Ruth Ann looked around confused. Even that boomin' voice hadn't gotten through to her.

"You are all sinners and headed for perdition unless you repent and confess your sins." His voice wasn't as loud as before, still it filled the church, and the congregation was stunned. This was radically different from the sermons of God's love and forgiveness that Father Patrick preached.

"The Lord said we must remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. You must think you all are going to heaven because you're sitting here in the pews. But that's folly talking. It's what you do ALL day on the Lord's Day that matters. God's wrath will come down upon those that break his commandments. Repent and confess. Can you tell me if there's one of you that has not broken this commandment? Just one?" he screamed the question.

I thought about all the times me and Heyes robbed banks on a Sunday so no one would know until Monday. Guess we broke this commandment then and the next one he was yellin' about now at the same time.

"THOU SHALL NOT STEAL!" Again, his words shook the walls around us and Joy was not the only child to be frightened. This time Auntie picked her up and took her outside.

"Fire and brimstone awaits those who steal. There is no redeeming reason to steal."

Can't count the number of times me and Heyes broke this one from small things like apples and bread, then wallets and con games. This kept two orphans alive. Then we moved onto banks and railroads. And never felt guilty. We never stole off the people and we never shot anyone. I realized I hadn't been listenin' to the continuin' deafenin' sermon. It was actually hard to hear through his yellin'.

"Repent before the Lord or you will be one of the sinner's condemned to eternal damnation. REPENT!" He raised both arms high in the air and stood still before turnin' around and continuing Mass.

Monsignor Lance was right…I'm a sinner. I'm sorry for what we done, but I don't feel much guilt. I'm a failure and God knows it.

Includin' Joy refusin' to go with us to church the next Sunday, this sermon brought fear to our house. The twins were scared by his sermon, askin' questions about hell, and havin' nightmares. How could he preach damnation like that when innocent kids were listenin'.

The next Sunday was worse. There were many empty seats. At least this time, the congregation expected the yellin' of the word "Repent!" to begin the homily. But the shakin' of the walls was just as disturbin'. Martha and Michael, on either side of me, cuddled closer and I put my arms around them.

"Thou shall not kill!" Monsignor Lance demanded loudly. He followed with a vivid description of hell that he had heard. "Hell is like being shot with a bullet with the hot burnin' pain as it enters your body. Only the pain doesn't lessen. It stays that intense for weeks. Then the bullet is cut out and immediately you are shot again. This repeats over and over for eternity and there is no way you can stop it unless you REPENT NOW."

I thought of the men I killed. I always tried to avoid it and I never drew first, but they were just as dead. And me and Heyes were alive.

"The lake of fire in hell is symbolic of eternal pain. Here on earth the pain of loss and the pain of the body and senses are punishments for your wickedness. This is a sin that goes against the Lord's most precious creations, your fellow man. It is unforgivable. But repent and ask for forgiveness and if you have repented in your heart, the Lord just may have mercy on you."

Even though I was sittin' in the back of the church, his eyes were lookin' right at me, accusin' me. Seemed like he was darin' me to stand up and fight him. But that couldn't be right. He's a priest, a monsignor, no less. We was taught that they spread the good news of salvation. This certainly was not what he was doin'. When he first started to speak, I concentrated on being calm. I know my face showed no emotion. The only movement I made was to hug my twins closer to me. But I knew I was goin' to break my pact with Preacher and Lom. I wasn't comin' back to Sunday services.

Afterwards, the only person I told was Heyes. He listened quietly to it all, noddin' at the right time. We certainly broke these commandments. When I finished, he asked, "Where was this monsignor from and what was his name?"

"Name's Monsignor Lance. Don't know his first name. Need to think on where Father Patrick said he was from."

"The name Lance sounds familiar but another memory hole." I try to think why I know it and all I get is nothing."

"Heyes, you're right!"

"Right my memory has holes? We both know that." Heyes answered.

"No, the name Lance sounds familiar, and Father Patrick said he was from Blossom, Texas originally. That get around the holes in your memory?"

Startled, he looked at me with wide eyes. "You were in a gunfight in Blossom, Texas. I remember the man was cheating at cards…not even bothering to hide it. When I called him on it, you stepped in. There was a gunfight, and he was almost as fast as you. Don't have no memory of his name or anything after the shooting though. What does that have to do with the monsignor?"

"You're right the man was fast, and he held his gun very low, about thigh high. He moved when I just barely shot first. He shifted his weight. I missed his gun, and he took the bullet in the knee. His name was Ben Lance. Me and you went in and paid his doctor's bill. Doc said he'd never walk right on that knee again," I said rememberin'.

"Just remember the gunfight. The rest is gone. You think this preacher and that gunfighter are related," said Heyes. It was an observation not a question.

I nodded. "Explains a lot. When Father Patrick comes back goin' to ask him how it came about that a high and mighty monsignor replaced a parish priest in a small town like Three Birds."

Heyes looked thoughtful. "Didn't we learn from Gramma Curry that the Lord said vengeance is mine? Seems a monsignor would know better than to seek vengeance himself."

I didn't go back to Sunday services for a long time.

LOM

Quiet day at work. When I came back from my afternoon walk around Porterville with, of course, a stop in to be with Wayne, I found a thick envelope on my desk.

"That came by special messenger a few minutes ago," deputy Nat Bickson told me. "Never saw a letter delivered like that before. Must be important."

I picked up the envelope and looked at the return address. It simply said HH.

"This came special messenger you said?"

"Yeah, man said it was important it got to you today," answered Nat. "Looks long. If you want to sit in the back room and read it, I'll take care of things here."

I opened the letter slowly as I settled into the comfortable chair in the back room. Heyes hasn't written a letter since he was in prison that I know about. I was curious but became worried after reading the first line.

Heyes's Letter

Hi Lom,

I'm sending this by messenger instead of the regular mail because I want you to get it before you read it in the newspapers tomorrow. All of this beginning part is what I pieced together from other people in Three Birds afterwards.

We all been staying real close to Phoenix. Don't know if you heard but Chrissy gave birth a couple of weeks ago. She had triplets but the first girl died. Everyone here is pretty torn up about that, especially the Kid and Chrissy. She had two more babies after that first one and they're healthy. They named the boy Josiah James after Preacher and the girl Diane Frances after Auntie. The one they lost they named Trinity Rose. "

Lom

I stopped reading. I lost Susan in childbirth. That grief returned as if it was yesterday. "Deputy, going to get Wayne and finish this letter at home, if you can handle it here."

"Under control. Been a slow day. If I need you, I'll send someone to get you."

And that's what I did. After hearin' the Kid had lost a child, I needed to hold mine close.

Heyes' Letter

Well, anyway like I said, we all stayed close to home after that and we were all sad for the baby girl that died and happy about the other two at the same time. Kid didn't even open the blacksmith shop except shoeing horses, which Rocky does now. And a lot of the townsfolk came out to the funeral, and they were just trying to give us some privacy.

A week or so later, The Kid said that Aiden told him about a new man in town named Skylar Shaw that was opening a second saloon. The doctor just said he didn't like the look of the man. Thought he wasn't a good fit for Three Birds. Well, the doctor was right, but we kinda ignored what he had told us until things started to happen.

Found all this out later. This Shaw and two of his friends rode into town one day, looked around and walked right into the bank. Mr. Robertson didn't like his look either. Shaw wanted to buy that building at the end of Birde street that's been empty as long as we've lived here. And the For Sale sign has been on it just as long. When Shaw produced the asking price plus ten percent in cash, Robertson couldn't think of a reason to say no. He didn't even ask what he was going to do with it.

Shaw and his friends disappeared for a few days and then came back with wagon loads of wood and building supplies. Didn't take them long to make it into a saloon. Turns out while they were gone, they bought the Pokora farm. It's aways out the other way from Three Birds from Phoenix. The Kid didn't know them real good but their kids, Freddie and Flossie, were friends of the twins at school.

When Mr. Pokora declined their offer, they shot his elderly mother. Killed her dead right in front of the whole family. Gave them until the next morning to be gone and leave the deed or another of their family would be killed. More would die if they told anyone about this. They left Polora a meager payment on the table. Pokora is a good farmer and family man but he's meek. And he was submissive this time. Did what Shaw said, and they were gone by morning, leaving the deed to the farm on the table. The next day Shaw took the deed to the banker and changed the name on the deed. Told Robertson he had made them a good offer and they went to live with his parents in Kansas. And nobody knew there was any trouble yet. Robertson knew the man had a lot of cash and figured it went down like he told him.

And like I said, Lom, except for coming into Three Birds for Sam's graduation, we were all staying close to home. When the family ate at the diner after the ceremony, there weren't many customers. The waitress looked like she wanted to tell the Kid something, but he just figured it was to give him her condolences. Looking back, she probably wanted to tell him what was going on in the town, but his recent loss stopped her. Wish she had said something.

Well, a couple of days later the Three Birds Saloon had a fire. Someone threw burning rags in bottles through the windows. A few and everything was in flames. Did you know that Fred Birde started that saloon when he and his brothers moved here? And now he's the mayor, but he ain't here much at all. He's his brother Fritz's aide. Fritz's a state representative now. They were away in the capital. Anthony, the bartender, was killed. I'm told they could hear him scream but no one could get to him fast enough.

Anyway, the Three Birds Saloon was a total loss, and no one could prove who did it. All the customers moved to the Shaw's Star. People here were used to a nice friendly bar with honest gambling, but Shaw's Star was neither.

And we were unaware of all this until the twins came home from school one day talking about how two more of their friends' families had moved away. Nobody asked why but me and the Kid talked about it later. Decided next time he was in Three Birds he'd ask Jeff, after all, he's the head of the Town Council. We didn't get the chance.

The next night, well after dark, when everyone but me and the Kid had gone to bed, we heard the bell clang on the gate. And the Kid went on the alert.

I don't wear my gun anymore, Lom. I practice shooting with the Kid sometimes, but I keep it in a locked box on a high kitchen shelf. Kid made the lock and key, but I can open it without the key. I got it out now.

I left the holster in the box and pointed the gun down the road as the Kid went out onto the porch. Arnie heard the bell from his room in the barn and came out pulling his pants over his long johns. He doesn't own a gun. But Juan came running from his house, gun drawn, and joined the Kid on the porch.

Two horses carrying three men stopped just inside the gate.

"Hello, Mr. Curry."

I recognized the yelling voice as Mr. Dwyer and relaxed some. Still, the Kid stayed alert in his gunfighter stance. We had no idea why they were here this late, had to be after eleven p.m.

"Who's that with you, Mr. Dwyer?" Kid called down.

"Gabe Birde, Jeff's brother. We need your help," said the man next to Mr. Dwyer.

"Come on up to the house. Who's that ridin' double with you?"

"Believe he picked up his mare from you yesterday. Stayed in Three Birds last night. He's hurt bad."

"Arnie, wake Auntie," the Kid said, moving down the steps to help the injured man off his horse.

I recognized the man. "That's Max Delgado from the Double P Ranch in Colorado. He picked up Black Swan this morning," I told the Kid.

"Beautiful horse. Gabe, help me get him in the house. Juan, get Dr. Arden."

"NO!" said Gabe and Mr. Dwyer.

The Kid didn't really need help once Delgado was off the horse. He carried the man in and laid him on the living room couch. There was a blood-filled rag tied around the man's thigh. He lost consciousness while the Kid was carrying him in the house.

We heard Auntie's cane click through the kitchen as she joined us in her robe. "Arnie said someone's hurt. Oh, my!"

The Kid stepped back from the couch and let Auntie examine the man. And he pulled Gabe Birde and Mr. Dwyer into the kitchen. I followed.

"Who shot him?" the Kid growled.

Gabe and Mr. Dwyer looked at each other. Finally, Gabe said, "How much you know about what's going on in town?"

I looked at the Kid as he shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing except a few families have lost their farms and moved away lately. Was going to talk to Jeff about it tomorrow."

Gabe looked at us and I saw something in his eyes I didn't see in the darkness outside, anger. "That's not going to happen. My brother was shot earlier tonight. Dr, Arden's working on him right now. He told us he has less than a fifty-fifty chance of pulling through. We brought Delgado here to hide him. Knew there would be help for him here."

The Kid's face hardened. The men stepped back in fear. "You tell me what's happenin' in town right now."

The bank was robbed. Shaw and his friends just walked in there and demanded all the money. Held a gun at a teller's head to make Robertson open the safe. When they had all the money, every penny from the safe, the teller's drawers, and the three customers, one of his men held a gun at Miss Duhamel's temple.

Shaw grinned. "Now Mr. Robertson, you don't want these people hurt, do you?"

"No, Mr. Shaw, I don't. Please take the money. Don't hurt anyone."

Shaw smiled. "Mr. Robertson, are you saying you are GIVING us this money?"

"Take it. Just don't hurt anyone," Robertson answered.

So, Skylar Shaw claimed that no one stole the money from the bank; Mr. Robertson gave it to them."

"Skylar Shaw?" I asked.

"You know him, Heyes?" asked the Kid.

Closing my eyes, I searched my memory…and found emptiness. "I think the name Shaw sounds familiar but not quite right, ominous, but I can't connect it to anything. Sorry," I answered.

Turns out this Skylar Shaw and his friends had been terrorizing the town while we were holed up at Phoenix. After his saloon was the only one in town, he…"

"You know who threw the flamin' bottles into the Three Birds Saloon?" the Kid interrupted.

"We know but we ain't got no evidence. One of Shaw's men, Herc Lowry. The Herc is short for Hercules. Funny because he's short and skinny. But we can't prove it. The townspeople urged Jeff to arrest him cause the Sheriff is out of town, traveling with his brothers. Jeff kept refusing.

He's living at the old Pokora farm. Family left really quick-like. Not sure why, but people are saying it's because Shaw killed his mother and said he was going to kill all of them if they didn't leave."

"Where you hear that?" I asked.

"Jeff said he got a letter, but I never saw it," Gabe answered. "But two other families have sold their farms to him and left unexpectedly."

"Shaw has control of almost everything except the mercantile. He made Jeff an offer, but he refused. Then the robberies started. They had bandanas over their faces but there was no doubt who they were. Each time it was when Jeff wasn't working. Each time the clerks were pistol whipped. No one will work there anymore so my younger brother Curtis and me been helping out. No one is willing to testify, they're all too scared, so Jeff can't arrest anyone. Townspeople ain't save after dark. Three Birds has become a haven for every outlaw and crook and Shaw is in charge."

"Why didn't anyone tell us?" the Kid demanded. I could see he was readying himself to go challenge Shaw, but I had something else forming in my brain.

"At first, we were letting you grieve in peace. But things went from normal to bad real quick. Shaw and his men don't let anyone leave town without their permission," Mr. Dwyer hesitated.

"Might as well tell him. He'll find out soon enough," Gabe said, sadly.

Mr. Dwyer looked at me and then the Kid and at his hands. "First man that Shaw killed in town was the telegraph operator, Glen Chinelli. He was trying to get a telegraph for Jeff out to Bridgeport. I'm sorry. I know he was a friend of yours."

"More than a friend, family," the Kid said, showing no emotion. But he took his gun out and was checking it was loaded. I know he would share his grief with me later.

"Glen's dead?" Arnie asked from the living room where he was helping Auntie. I could hear the tears he was holding back.

'I'm sorry to be the one to tell you. Don't even know if he has kin to notify," Mr. Dwyer spoke softly.

I saw the Kid look upstairs and knew he was thinking about his wife and kids. He'd do anything to protect them, protect all of us. So would I.

"Gabe kept telling us what happened. Earlier tonight, there was a poker game with a lot of strangers. Shaw made it clear that he expected men from the town to play in it. We've all learned the hard way that the games there are rigged. Most of us don't have any more money to lose. Jeff objected. Shaw wasn't happy. He was so frustrated he punched Shaw. Shaw put two bullets in him."

"Delgado there, he went to help Jeff. Shaw laughed and yelled to let him lay in the street and die. His words didn't stop Delgado. He picked Jeff up and started to carry him to the doc's. When we seen him defy Shaw, Mr. Dwyer and me helped him. We were just about to the doctor's office when Shaw shot Delgado. Dr. Aiden had opened the door. Probably to see what all the shooting was about, and we rushed in carrying my brother and dragging Delgado."

"There's a curfew in this town now unless you're coming to Shaw's Star. I'll shoot anyone that comes out of that doctor's office," Shaw yelled after us.

Gabe continued talking but was looking out of the kitchen at Delgado. "Wasn't even his fight."

Lom, Gabe was wrong about that. We found out that later Shaw had claimed Black Swan as his own. Threw a twenty-dollar gold piece at Delgado in payment for her and threatened to kill him if he wasn't out of town in an hour. Delgado left Three Birds, but he didn't go far. He planned to get that horse back. Wasn't his to sell. Belongs to the Double P. Coming back at dusk, he planned to challenge Shaw. Then he saw Jeff bleeding there in the street.

Anyway, Mr. Dwyer said that the doc went right to work on Jeff, but it didn't look good. Miss Denise helped him, but she came out to talk to us. They put Delgado in the other exam room but Dr Aiden said he couldn't work on both of them. Delgado said he could wait but Miss Denise shook her head.

"Don't worry Aiden will treat them both. He's jumpy the last few days. Been treating a lot of injuries that don't look like accidents."

"But it might be best for this man if he were to disappear. Shaw is unpredictable and violent. I've seen some of the beatings that he claims were accidents."

Mr. Dwyer thought for a moment. "Why don't we take him to Phoenix. It's time they know what's going on. And Mrs. Clark is pretty good at doctoring."

That's what they did. Miss Denise showed us stairs that went down from the kitchen. They led to a root cellar and further along a thin corridor to a storm cellar that had steps back up…and a way out. Gabe stopped talking and looked at Delgado.

"Heyes, Jed, one of you put on some coffee. Bring that water Arnie started boiling and boil some more," Auntie ordered.

Gabe was too nervous to sit down for long. "If they find out we're gone, don't know what they'll do to the doc and Jeff," he said. "Anyway, we figured the only ones around here that could help us were you two."

"Where'd you get the horses?" the Kid asked.

"Me and my little brother, Curt, rode the horses to work at the mercantile today. Left them in back though. Shaw's men hang around the livery. Horses disappear. We walked in the trees behind the buildings until we found the horses and came the long way here. Not down the main road."

LOM

Heyes letter was indeed long, and Wayne needed to be fed and changed. While I was doing that, I also made myself some coffee. But what I'd read kept going through my head. It would be like the Kid to ride down the main street and challenge Shaw. Heyes said he had another idea. I hope he convinced the Kid that was the thing to do.