Chapter 8
It was mid-afternoon before Jarrod got a response from his secretary in San Francisco. He had visited the old courthouse where he worked so often and talked with the people there he knew, had lunch at a small café near the courthouse that he used to frequent (but found only the owner was someone he remembered), and even gotten a haircut at the barber shop across the street from his old office where the son of Slim, the barber who used to cut his hair here, cut it now. By the time the wire came from his secretary telling him she'd take care of the information he sent in the wire and he need not come back to the office until the following Monday – five days away – he was ready to go back to the ranch.
When he rode into the stable yard, he found Nick, Heath, Carl and Eugene with all their kids (except the baby) in the stable yard. Even Victoria was there, although none of the wives were. Two of Gene's boys were up on horses riding around the corral, Nick training five-year-old Jonathan and Heath and Gene together coaching three-year-old David. Jarrod smiled, turning his horse over to the stable man, and joined Victoria at the outside of the corral. That was when he noticed that all the rest of Nick's, Gene's and Heath's kids were around other parts of the corral – except for Gene Jr. He was missing.
For a moment, Jarrod wondered where he was, but then he quickly remembered what Nick had told him that morning. "Where's Gene Jr.?" he asked Victoria, expecting the answer he got.
"He had his riding lessons and then said he was going to the library," Victoria said.
Jarrod chuckled a little. That would be Gene's oldest son – just as it might have been his own. Both he and Gene were lovers of books and Gene clearly passed it on. Jarrod turned and went into the house.
The women were in the living room, working on sewing projects that looked mostly like darning men's socks. "You're home!" Nancy noticed.
"Until Sunday," Jarrod said. "I have to be in my office by Monday morning."
He went straight into the library after that, and found Gene Jr. at the desk, looking at a book. Gene Jr. heard Jarrod come in and jumped a little. Jarrod noticed the book he was reading. Quickly, Gene Jr. said, "I was just wondering what it looked like inside."
"It's okay," Jarrod said and sat on the edge of the desk, looking at the book. "I left all these old law books here when I moved to San Francisco, and I'll bet nobody's opened one since I left. 'Corpus Juris.' Do you know what that means?"
"No," Gene Jr. said. "But I know what some of the words in here mean."
"Corpus Juris is Latin. It means 'body of law.' What you're reading talks about how the law applies to certain things – this part – oh, you picked a tough one. This one talks about the law involved in making contracts. Do you know what contracts are?"
"Written agreements between people about something," Gene Jr. said. "My father told me when I saw him reading a contract."
"What was the contract for?"
"When he bought us a house near the hospital and his office," Gene Jr. said. "I didn't understand much else though."
"Well, sometimes you don't understand parts of contracts unless a lawyer reads them to you," Jarrod said. "Look at this paragraph here," he said and pointed. "Look at the first sentence and tell me the first word you don't know."
Gene Jr. peered hard, then pointed. "This one – S-U-P-P-L-E-M-E-N-T."
"You know the letters. How do you think it's pronounced?"
Gene Jr. struggled. "Soo-pull-ment."
"Pretty close," Jarrod said. "Supp-leh-ment. Do you know what that word means?"
"Not exactly."
"It means something added to something else. In this sentence it's talking about another paragraph added to the main paragraphs in a contract."
"Oh."
The way Gene Jr. said it told Jarrod he really didn't understand that very well at all. "Tell you what," Jarrod said. "Let me get into this drawer over here." He pulled open one of the desk drawers. "I think I have an old actual contract in here – one with blank parts in it because I used it as the basis of actual contracts. Do you know what a basis is?"
"Yes," Gene Jr. said. "Like the basement of a house – sort of."
"You have a basement on your house in Baltimore?"
"Under it. The main part of the house sits on it."
Jarrod pulled out the contract form he was looking for. "Well, you're right, it's kind of the same thing. This is what I used this for – the basis that I built actual contracts on."
Jarrod spent a long time talking to Gene Jr. and explaining things in terms as easy to understand as he could think of. He was surprised when Gene Jr. lasted more than half an hour listening to him, learning new words and new meanings, but after 35 minutes of so he could tell Gene Jr. was tiring.
At that point, Jarrod said, "Tell you what. That's enough new words for now. Why don't we go back outside and you show me what your father and Uncle Nick and Uncle Heath and Uncle Carl taught you about riding?"
Gene Jr. smiled, perking up. "Uncle Nick says I'm pretty good at it."
"It didn't scare you?"
"No."
"Well, let's get some fresh air and you show me."
Gene got up and Jarrod ushered him out of the room with a hand on his back. Neither of them noticed that the women in the living room glanced up to watch them go. Audra smiled. The way Gene Jr. opened the front door and Jarrod reached over it to hold it open for him, then gave him a light guiding hand on the back – she remembered that move from when she was a child and Jarrod would guide her around safely.
Gene's wife Emily said, "It looks like my son has picked out his favorite uncle."
When they got to the corral, the other boys were dismounting, and Nick and Heath had hold of the horses they had been riding. Gene saw his son approaching and called, "Do you want to take another shot, Gene?"
"Yeah," Gene Jr. said and started to climb over the fence.
Gene went over with him and helped him mount up, then guided the horse around a bit until he saw his son had good control of the reins. He let go quietly and let Gene Jr. do the guiding, but he stayed close, walking along in case he needed to grab hold of the lead again.
Jarrod watched with a soft smile, and a growing sense of yes, I want this too. The feeling had a bit of a change though. It wasn't just a longing that made him feel empty because he thought he had lost his chance when Beth was killed. In the bottom of that emptiness – like the basement of a house – there was a sense of yes, I can have this. It's not too late.
XXXXXX
"Uncle Jarrod read me a contract today," Gene Jr. announced as the family gathered for dinner.
All the adults perked up with raised eyebrows, especially Jarrod. They were seated at the main table while the children gathered around three smaller tables set up in the room.
"He read you a contract?" Nick said. "And you stayed awake?"
"He did," Jarrod said. "He learned a few new words too."
"Like 'supplement' and 'whereas,'" Gene Jr. said. "I even know what they mean."
Gene was shaking his head with a laugh. "I'm not even sure I ever really understood what 'whereas' meant."
"It's kind of like what 'since' means," Gene Jr. said.
"Then why don't they just say 'since'?" Victoria asked.
"A very logical question that even I don't know the answer to," Jarrod said.
"If you didn't use words like 'whereas,' you couldn't charge all that money for drawing up contracts," Nick offered.
"Do lawyers make more money than doctors, Dad?" Nick's oldest asked.
"Let's leave off the money discussion at the dinner table," Nancy quickly intervened. "It'll give the adults indigestion."
"Even I know what that means," Nick's oldest replied.
"Your mother is right," Gene said. "The dinner table is not the place to discuss money. Why don't you fellas tell everyone how you liked riding today?"
A bubble of voices sorted themselves out and everyone who learned to ride today – and some who already knew how – talked about how much fun it was. "We're all going to go for a short ride together tomorrow," Nick said. "Not far," he assured the mothers at the table, "and not fast. Just an easy ride."
Gene Jr. unexpectedly asked, "Are you coming with us, Uncle Jarrod?"
Jarrod smiled. It was surprisingly nice to hear his nephew ask, and to call him Uncle Jarrod in front of everyone else. "Yes, I'll be coming with you," Jarrod said. "I haven't gone for a leisurely ride in a long time."
"Leisurely," Gene Jr. echoed. "That means nice and easy."
"That's what it means," Jarrod said with a laugh, blue eyes twinkling as he looked at his nephew.