************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
"I got it, Mith-tew Cuwwy! I got it!" Jasper was not about to let another man do his job, much less a man with broken ribs, even less, a man who was a good friend of his boss! He jerked the collar from Curry's hands and stood between him and the horse to be harnessed to Jenny's wagon. He wouldn't let The One Glaring Blue Eye faze him if it meant his life!
Jasper was the son of a prominent colored family of Cheyenne who were in show business, a large troupe of extended family who were very popular among all levels of society in Cheyenne. Jasper, though, had the unfortunate speech impediment caused by excessively protruding front teeth that kept him out of the family business. Working the stage and curtains, watching others do what he yearned to excel at, was too much for the boy. Jasper took the job with Jenny previously filled by her son Billy.
Curry relaxed on seeing the determination in the boy's eyes. "Alright. You handle the horse and harness. I'll be back with my uncle." Jasper's shoulders dropped as he breathed a huge sigh of relief.
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
"You say it's been closed for over a month? We're talking the same place, now, North Plains Land Office?" Heyes looked intently at Harry on the other side of the bar.
Harry leaned with his hand pressing into a damp towel on the bar, a solemn look on his face. "Yep. Just moved out in the middle of the night. No one knows where. You say that's where Jeddie got his forty acres of land and the loan?"
Heyes nodded. "Listen. Don't say anythi..."
"Heyes! HEYES! You comin'? It's almost eight o'clock!" Curry stood in the kitchen doorway waving at his aggravatingly slow cousin. "Get the molasses out, will ya?"
Heyes took a deep breath and walked toward his cousin. "Alright, Curry, keep your britches on."
"We shoulda gone there when we got to town. I'd have my money back by now."
"We were both too beat up to do any business dealings Friday, weren't we? Didn't think waiting the weekend would make any difference, didn't we?"
"Sure, sure. Let's just go, can we?!"
They climbed aboard the wagon, Curry moaning as he pulled himself up and took the lines. Heyes watched from the side as Curry clucked and started the horse on a trot through town.
How do you tell your cousin and best friend he's been taken by unscrupulous men for the third time in his young life? Heyes started adding the financial losses in his head, but let it go. Somehow, he has to give Curry the bad news.
"Those lines pulling on the ribs?" He wanted to take the lines and give himself time to come up with a way to break the bad news.
"We're almost there."
"Kid, listen." He didn't know what to say, his silver tongue useless in this situation. The horse trotted on.
Curry glanced at him. "Huh?"
"Harry just told me. It isn't good news, kid." But Curry's eyes were locked on the building up ahead. The horse was pulled to a stop in front of the building with boarded up windows. Heyes watched his cousin's reaction of confusion.
"Did they move?" Curry wondered out loud, then his cousin's words sank in. "What did Harry tell you?"
Heyes kept his voice calm. "North Plains Land Office cleared out a month ago in the middle of the night." Curry sat staring at him, unmoving. "Kid, the sheriff looked into it, and it appears all of North Plains dealings..."
He was cut short as Curry slapped the lines on the horse's croup and the wagon sped up the street, taking the corner at a dangerous speed and throwing the left side wheels off the ground, Heyes hanging on with both hands, until the wagon came to a quick stop across the street from the sheriff's office.
"C'mon!" Curry ordered and jumped down, turning straight for the office. Heyes hesitated.
"In there? Me?" He pointed to his chest. "Jeddie, I don't like goin' in... ...new sheriff... ...don't know him but could be he knows me... ...office hasn't been checked out..."
The protests continued as Heyes climbed off the wagon and turned away from the sheriff's office, setting his forearms on the top rail of the wagon. He pulled his dark hat lower.
"You forget what I do for a living."
Curry sidled up next to him, a curiously amused grin on his face, considering the circumstances. "You ain't scared to go in a sheriff's office, are ya?"
Heyes straightened and turned to Curry, their faces inches apart. He spoke in all dignity, raising his chin to look down on Curry. "Scared, little cousin? 'Cautious' is the word."
"Uh-huh. C'mon."
"What do you expect to find out in there we don't already know?"
"Newer information than your month old from Harry. C'mon."
Heyes turned back to the wagon. "Maybe I should get a start on the supplies for Jenny while you talk to the sheriff."
A plop of Curry's right boot heel was the response as he turned around to lean his back against the wagon, his shoulder leaning into Heyes. Curry removed his hat and slapped it against his thigh.
"Never thought I'd see the day my big cousin was too... cautious... to do a simple, everyday thing." The hat was replaced and Curry folded his arms across his chest, shaking his head in mock dismay.
"Now, wait a minute here!" Heyes's arm pointed back across the street, his voice indignant. "You're implyin' I won't go in there..."
"So, you're comin'." The grin widened.
Heyes growled, reset his hat, slapped the sideboard and growled again. "C'mon!"
They crossed the street in wide strides and on reaching the office, Curry's hand pressed on Heyes's back, pushing him through the door.
"After you, big cousin!"
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
Sheriff T. Jeff Carr welcomed the sight of two young men clamoring through his door, giving him opportunity to be done with Grady Willis and his toothless, squawking hen of a mother. "One more time, Willis, one more and you'll leave your gun with me when you come to town. Got that? Learn to handle your liquor like a man. Now out, the both of you."
Carr stood behind his desk watching the odd couple leaving and the two men entering. The first, a dark haired man holding his hat before the lower half of his face, brown eyes, slim build, Remington in holster slung low and tied down, mid-twenties. The other, dark blond and wavy haired with one wide-open blue eye, the other swollen shut, bruised face, obvious rib injuries, thin build, Colt in holster slung low and tied down, twenty years. Look like two cowhands came to town for a poker game and a fight and found both.
"Something I can do for you, Mister..."
"Curry. Jeddie... um, Jedediah." His offered hand was declined by the sheriff, who looked to the dark haired man with his hat now held at his side.
"Curry, Eoin. Nice to meet you, Sheriff Carr." Heyes's offered hand was also declined.
"Brothers?"
"Ah, I'm his uncle, actually. My family is rather large and I'm on the tail end. We're almost the same age." Keep him busy, Jeddie, while I check out the wanted posters on the wall.
"Your business with me?"
Curry straightened as well as he could and took a step forward. "I'm here about the North Plains Land Office, Sheriff. Two years ago I bought a piece of land from them, got a loan, too, and I'm here for my refund but they're gone."
"Refund?"
"Yes, sir. Me an' three others in Little Wolf Gorge, our lawyer says Midwest, that's T. Paulson, Attorney-at-law, has the legal right to our land and they are supposed to give us, um, through our land speculator, our money back, that's North Plains Land Office for me. But when we drove by just now, me an' my uncle, the building's boarded up and..."
"North Plains Land Office in Cheyenne was a fraudulent business. Had no affiliation with the head office in Saint Paul. Had counterfeit books, counterfeit land certificates, counterfeit loan applications, the whole gambit. Took people's money in exchange for worthless pieces of paper. Head office has no legal obligation to anyone taken in by the dummy operation so you have no recourse to them."
Wanted. Jim Santana. Two thousand dollars. Impressive, boss!
"How does someone get an entire counterfeit office?"
"That's one line of investigation being handled by Saint Paul law enforcement. They figure whoever ran the operation here had an accomplice in the head office. One main suspect. He's been missing from the head office for eight months. No leads yet on where he headed."
"I dealt with a man named Chesterfield here. Short, stocky, bald on top, smelled of cheap pipe tobacco. That sound like their man?"
"Checked out this Chesterfield and not the same description as the inside man in Saint Paul. He was tall, a couple inches taller than either of you, slim, distinguished, a banker's demeanor. He started work for Saint Paul in Seventy-four. They had no reason to suspect him. At first. Then things started happening that seemed to point to him. Just when he was to be questioned, he vamoosed."
"Any leads on Chesterfield's whereabouts?"
"None. You said Little Wolf Gorge? That's Sheriff..."
"Nash. His deputy Griggs." Curry knew it was a test of his honesty.
Heyes entered the conversation having thoroughly checked out the wanted posters, mixed emotions on not seeing his name on the board.
"We appreciate you looking into this, Sheriff. My nephew Jedidiah's entire savings of three years went to North Plains. It just ain't right."
"No, it isn't. I wish I had better news for you, but that's where it sits. Understand, now, this is an on-going investigation. I have every intention of seeing this through to the end."
Four boots shuffled on the wooden floor. "Well, thanks, Sheriff. We'll check back." Curry replaced his hat and gave the sheriff his pointer finger salute for non-military law enforcement.
"If I get anything new, where can I reach you?"
Heyes answered that one.
"Oh, we're just visiting here, but you can leave word with T. Paulson, Attorney-at-law in Little Wolf Gorge."
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
He started spending time in the corner of Blacky's, uninterested in much happening around him, the bar maids trying their best to cheer him with their sweet smiles, arms around his neck, but the wavy haired head shook, the blue eye said "No thanks" and he withdrew again, the ladies grateful to at least see the pout. It pained Heyes to see his cousin so despondent.
"He's hurtin', poor boy." Jenny shuffled the cards at her Blackjack table. "If I could pick him up and hold him until it doesn't hurt anymore, I would." She sighed heavily. "A mother's wish. You get nowhere with him?"
Heyes raised his eyes from the card table and shook his head. "He lost more than land, Jenny. He lost his dream."
There was more, but he needn't say it to Jenny. Curry was blaming himself, and no one was harder on Curry than Curry. Heyes knew that he was Curry's role model, his idol since they were children and he knew his cousin felt a deep inferiority right now, almost a worthlessness. He needed to know how valuable he is, how needed his is, and what kind of man he is... That's it!
Dark brown eyes gleamed across the table from Jenny. She gathered up the cards and leaned toward Heyes. "Well, go to it!"
Heyes gave her a surprised look, then winked. "Have Harry fix up a plate for him, please?"
Heyes set his beer mug down noisily, plopped next to Curry as if nothing was different that afternoon and sighed loudly, stretching out his legs beneath the table. "Looks to be another busy night, hm?" No response from Curry.
Heyes slumped into his chair and into his jacket, hat pushed back on his head, right arm on the table almost touching Curry's left hand that encircled a beer mug. "You still reelin' from the ribs? Thought you'd join me an' Jenny for a game?"
The beer mug was rotated.
"Listen, Jedidiah. I know you got a setback. I know how big a dream the horse ranch was an' what it meant to you, for us, but you got to know this ain't your fault."
"Why do you say that?"
"'Cause its true! An' I think you know it but the hurt is keepin' you from admittin' it. Right?"
"No. Why do you say it like that, Jedidiah?"
"That's your name." Heyes was smiling with chin inside the jacket collar, wondering what Curry was getting at.
"My name's Jedediah. You always say 'Jedidiah'. Think I'm the only one who notices, but I do. Why?"
It was still there, the out-going smile, but in a split second it changed, now holding memories of long ago. Dark brown eyes lowered to the table then back to Curry. "Told you. It's your name."
He knows somethin' I don't.
Several seconds passed before Curry leaned into his cousin's shoulder and blue eyes looked directly into brown. "Hannie, as long as I remember, it's Jedediah. I can see, in my head, my name on the Valparaiso slate, 'Jedediah Curry'."
"Yeah, you're right about that, cousin. But they changed it."
"Changed it! Valparaiso? How does a boys home change a given name? An' why?"
"Well, it's like this." Heyes looked at the tabletop, long ago images coming to mind. "We walk through the door. They ask what our names are. I tell 'em. They say, 'These are your names now'. It's written in the book." He looked at Curry. "An' from then on, our names are changed."
"'Our' names?" Curry looked with incredulity. "What was Hannibal before he was 'Hannibal'? John... Dave... Fred?" The grin was back and Heyes returned it.
"He was Hannibal Michael O'Hayes."
"They took out the Irish? Why?" Curry suddenly remembered the signs in the Philadelphia store windows, NINA. "Oh."
Chin tucked into his jacket collar, Heyes sighed and gave a short nod.
"O'Hayes. You said that different, too. Not an 'e', but with an 'a'?" Heyes nodded.
"Hannie, what's my name?" Heyes met his look.
"Your name is Jedidiah Daniel O'Curry." A pause as Curry let the sound of his name spoken by his cousin's deeper voice carry him back to a time of safety and love, a place of belonging.
"Why you tellin' me this now?"
"You asked!" Heyes said with a chuckle and gulped his beer with a grin.
"I mean, seems like it was a secret you just let me in on."
"Not at all, Jeddie, not at all. See, at first it was just about survival, go along with what I was told to do, told what I had to accept. An' I did, for both of us. Remember, I was a kid, too!"
He shrugged. "An' after a time, it became our way of thinkin' about ourselves, our new selves, the two orphans at Valparaiso. See, our real life was gone forever so the best thing to do was go along with them in charge. But you were pretty young then, you didn't remember like I did."
"Your place in the world isn't always your choosing."
Curry nodded. "I can see that." He looked at his elder cousin with fondness. Heyes nudged his shoulder into Curry's.
The two heads so close in conversation their hat brims overlapped were a welcomed sight to Jenny from across the gambling hall.
"Now, or for the last six years or so, it's a matter of coverin' tracks. Not somethin' we want to make public again." The pointer finger lifted from Heyes's beer mug.
"Like not lettin' in on we're cousins all these years. People don't need to know us too much. So we're friends."
"Mm-hm. An' that's true, though!"
"'Best friends! An' why the law has no picture of Hannibal Heyes for a wanted poster. Coverin' tracks."
"All the tracks."
"I see two hungry boys just waiting for some of Harry's fine cooking!" Jenny walked around the table to put her arms around the necks of the Boys while Harry set two steaming plates of buffalo steak and potato supper before them.
"Ah, Harry! How did you know? Thanks, friend!" Curry picked up fork and knife and began digging in. "Hey! I'll spell you at the bar soon as I finish." Harry nodded with a smile.
Heyes grinned up at Jenny and gave her a wink. Leaning down to his ear, Jenny whispered, "Whatever you said, Hannibal, you worked a wonder! So good to see his smiling face again!" She squeezed his neck.
"Can't figure it out, Jenny." He shrugged. "Whatever I thought to say, he took it down another road. Musta been where he needed to go."
The meal finished, Curry went to work behind the bar while Heyes walked the crowded floor, eyes open for signs of cheating among the gamblers and Jenny's staff as well, there being a few recently hired employees he wanted to vet. The sashaying bar maids brushing against him didn't escape his scrutiny either.
The gambling hall was bursting that night keeping Curry busy filling mugs and glasses, the bar maids pushing drinks on the customers just to get another chance to catch his eye, walking away disappointed they hadn't made an impact, his blue eye set on the work at hand. But Curry noticed. He had a dinner date with the brunette set for Friday when Harry returned and relieved him.
He had just leaned into the bar enjoying a refreshing beer after serving them to customers for two hours when Heyes sauntered up, dark brown eyes twinkling, dimples on full display, and a smug smile lighting his face. He set his mug on the bar next to Curry's.
A slight stomp of the left boot heal as Curry faced his cousin with elbow on the bar to view him better with his one open eye. "What's that about?"
"Hm? What?"
"That self-congratulatin' smirk you're sportin'."
"Oh, that." Heyes held the smirk while taking a gulp and wiping the back of his hand across his mouth, then gave his cousin the innocent face. That brought out Curry's skeptical face, eyes narrowed and head tilted.
"Yeah, that cat-got-the-mouse look. What 're you up to?"
"Just thinkin' of Friday night, that's all."
"Arranged an evening of romance for yourself, did ya?" Curry glanced over Heyes's shoulder at the sea of heads bobbing about the room. "Who?"
"The one in yellow. Genevieve."
"Friday night? Me too! Francine. There's an open hop at Recreation Hall, but thinkin' of the oyster bar at Dyer's Hotel. Wanna go double?"
"Sure! Oyster bar sounds great! We can start there and then the hop, if the girls would like." Heyes slapped Curry on the shoulder. "We'll ask Jenny for the cab."
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************
Curry walked happily up the rise overlooking his home and turned to wave to his ma in the doorway and his da in the field but they weren't there. His home wasn't there. He spun to his left to run to Uncle Mike's but that was gone and so were they, nothing but prairie grass and sky in every direction. He wrapped his arms around his chest and fell to his haunches, shaking. Who am I?
A playful voice called his name and he saw his cousin's face and he dove into Hannie's chest out of sheer joy and threw his arms around his neck, looking up into the dancing brown eyes with love. Hannie threw back his head and laughed, "You're tiched!" and he spun them around and around until they fell onto the the grass, laughing. "C'mon, Jeddie, the meadow's got flowers!" He stood and Hannie was gone, Hannie was always too fast for him.
A cold wind struck his back and he turned to face it and there, far off and very low to the horizon, the blackest clouds he'd ever seen, growling at the earth, stabbing it with bolts of lightning, rumbling like a thousand wild horses on stampede and it filled his ears and shook the earth beneath his feet.
Hannie's voice came again, faint and fading down the hill. "C'mon, Jeddie! We got time to play before it gets here!"
He turned his back to the storm and raced after Hannie.
************************HH*KC*JS*TJ************************