Winter's Refuge
Chapter One Hundred Ninety-One
HEYES
Russell's visit surprised me. I like to be prepared. I need to be prepared. At least I did one thing right, I made a second copy of the plans. The next day, I spread them out on our kitchen table and went over each detail with Vince and Juan. Vince remembered each change or modification that Russell had suggested, and we discussed why we think he felt the way he did. He's a bigtime busy contractor now, even working in Bridgeport and cities a lot bigger than Three Birds. We decided that he was thinking about limiting his time here and maximizing his profit. Some of the materials he had suggested were inferior to what we wanted. They were probably also easier to get…but we were willing to pay for the quality we wanted. And the disagreement over the requirements for Rocky's room had made me uncomfortable. I told him what we wanted more than once. He had no need to know anything about Rocky.
"Problem is, I don't know any other contractors," I said aloud.
"You can send a telegram to Mr. Curry in Bridgeport. He'll be there Sunday afternoon. Maybe he can ask around there…or pick up a newspaper. Contractors do take out ads in newspapers now," Vince said. His finger was tracing the line of the new hall of the main room. "I can't see why he suggested this part of the house only be one story. That's your choice, well, yours and Mr. Curry's, not his." I heard the indignation in his voice and remembered that he considered Phoenix his home.
And the germ of an idea started forming in my mind, but I'll let it germinate and talk to the Kid about it when he gets home.
We were interrupted by the sound of young feet stomping down the stairs. "No, I want to keep it," yelled Joy to Martha and Michael behind her.
"No, that's not how it works," explained her older brother calmly.
She stomped her way to me. "Uncle Heyes, tell them I can keep it if I want to," she demanded.
"And just what is it that you want to keep, sweetie?" I asked. Opening her little fist, I saw a tooth, her first baby tooth, with a white thread tied around it.
"Fis," she lisped, without her front tooth.
I picked up the tooth. "It looks like it's broken, and why is there a thread around it?" I asked, looking from Michael to Martha.
"Michael's friend Carl said he pulled his little brother's tooth out when it was loose by tying a thread around it and the other end around a doorknob and slamming the door," Martha explained, unable to look at me.
"It worked," Joy said, taking the piece of tooth from me. "And I want to keep it."
"Where's the other piece?" I asked, this time putting my eyes on Michael. I have to be careful. My outlaw stare comes back easier now but these are our kids.
He shrugged his shoulders. "We looked for it but…" His voice trailed off as he moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with his twin.
"Joy Christina, open your mouth," I ordered. And there it was, the other piece of tooth in her gum where the whole tooth had been. "Come over here," I told her.
At the sink I washed my hands and thought about how I was going to do this. I'd pulled a couple of the Kid's loose baby teeth and one for his little sister. But that was a long time ago…in another life that I sometimes doubt was real. Picking up Joy, I put her on the kitchen counter. From the top shelf, I took down the bottle of whiskey.
"You going to get her drunk?" Martha exclaimed.
"No, just going to rub some on her gum around that tooth." They watched in amazement as I was giving their little sister the forbidden alcohol. As soon as I rubbed it on, I grabbed what was left of the wobbly tooth and pulled. It came out the first time. "You're a brave girl, Joy," I told her, as I hugged her and stood her back on her feet.
"Want that piece, too," she demanded. I put it gently into her open palm with the first part.
"Well, you can't keep either one. You have to put it under your pillow tonight so the tooth fairy will come and leave you money," Martha told her in a tone that only a know-it-all older sister uses.
"But she'll take it, and I want to keep it," Joy told her right back. "I don't care about money."
I heard Auntie laugh from the main room where she was darning a sack of socks and eavesdropping. Reaching for her cane, she leaned heaving on one armrest and stood up from the deep but comfortable chair. "You handled that well, Heyes," she said through her laughter. From her kitchen cabinet she took out a small flat jar and gave it to Joy. "If you want to keep it, that's your choice. No one else's. It's your tooth. You can keep it here."
"Can I be the one to write to Miss Chrissy about this?" asked Vince.
"About what?" I asked.
"The saga of Joy's first loose tooth. I ain't got many interesting things to write her about," he said seriously.
"Uncle Heyes, make her put it under her pillow tonight," Martha whined. She can seem so adult and responsible sometimes and then turn around and act like the ten-year-old she is.
"It's Joy's choice," I said firmly. "Would you like to see where your new bedroom will be?"
ASJ*ASJ
That afternoon, I took the house plans and studied them in my office. Vince was right. Russell had not listened to me when I showed him the plans. The changes Mr. Russell wanted was to use cheaper materials and meet his time constraints and not our desires. I wrote out a telegram to the Kid, asking Vince to ride into Three Birds and send it. "And check with Auntie to see if there is anything she needs at the mercantile. I was glad that the Kid would be home tomorrow night. A lot of the vision for this rebuild comes from him.
With Chrissy gone, and Angie too busy with four kids, Josiah, Diane Frances, Catherine and Alexander, with runny noses, all the correspondence for our breeding operation fell on me. She keeps a nice, neat log of each letter and, of course, she maintains the breeding calendar. We've expanded our stables and our breeding corrals so now we can take in six horses every three weeks instead of three. Still, we have more requests than spaces available. Juan asked about expanding more, but me and the Kid talked, and this is the perfect capacity for now.
We prioritize repeat business and that's seventy five percent of the mares that come here. This year we have one three-year-old mare, Becky's Darling, who was bred here. Her ma was Becky's Baby from the Box Hickory Ranch, one of our very first visiting mares. Calvin Yankoff, Senior and Junior, bring their mares each year. From the letters, it looks like Junior is bringing them alone.
The last twenty five percent of the mares we don't know the ranch or the owners. This ain't unusual because we get mares from all over the west now. But these are the ones that need checking out. Chrissy doesn't want any 'bad men', as she says, near her or our kids. I'll telegraph their names, ranches, and anything else I know about them to Lom Trevors. He uses his connections to check them out.
But today the house plans and the breeding correspondence don't hold my mind. Without the Kid here, I feel the need to walk the property near the houses and down Curry Road. And while I was walking, I made a mental list of things I want to talk to the Kid about, including 1) Russell and the house rebuild. 2) Auntie seems more frail every day. I know Aiden checks her out. He said she's healthy for a seventy-year-old woman. 3) Building a small bunkhouse. Vince is our only hand right now, but in breeding season we always add two or three more and the room over the barn is gone, thanks to the tornado. 4) And I have some plans for that wild land between here and Solteria. And that will necessitate more hands. 5) Preacher's last letter had four candidates to live in the cabin by the prison and he wanted us to make the choice. I didn't add it to my list, but I want to hear about this handsome painter living next door to Chrissy and Aiden. And make sure the jealousy I saw in the Kid isn't leading to depression.
JED 'KID' CURRY
I hated leavin' Chrissy and Ruth Ann in Denver but was anxious to get home to the rest of my family. I got a cryptic telegram from Heyes in Bridgeport that asked me to find out about contractors people used there and bring home a copy of the newspaper. I was curious, but my mind kept focusin' on the look on Roberto's face as he watched her paint. He loves my wife.
HEYES
The Kid was greeted like a king when he returned to Phoenix. He greeted everyone and then spent some time with each of his children. He's a remarkable loving pa, just like his pa. I wish he believed how good he is. I could tell from the look he gave me when he entered the kitchen that he wanted to talk. But it had to wait until after dinner when he had admired Joy's first lost tooth and tried every other tooth in her mouth to see if any others were loose. You could just see the new adult tooth breaking through her gum. And Diane Frances wanted him to look up her nose and make sure there were no more bugs up there. At dinner, he's usually quietly listening to the rest of us. Today he told us about Chrissy and Ruth Ann and Denver…but he didn't really mention the handsome Roberto Malone, except to talk about Chrissy's painting teacher.
Later in my office, I got the bottle of whiskey down from the shelf and made sure I had two clean glasses…and waited. It didn't take long. The Kid didn't knock, just came in and sat down. I poured him a glass of whiskey. He emptied it quickly and put his hand over the top of the glass so I wouldn't fill it again.
"Those the plans you showed Russell?" he asked, looking at them spread on my desk. "Here's Mike's newspaper. Asked at the lumber yard there about contractors. Got a couple of names they recommend. And he also said that Russell Construction charges a lot and cuts corners. I heard you say you met with him."
I nodded. "I had some concerns with the changes he suggested, and he just wasn't listening to what we wanted. Any ads for contractors that the lumber yard recommended in the newspaper? I asked, watching the Kid. His mind wasn't on this.
"Two. Russell coming back tomorrow?" he asked. He was looking at the whiskey glass but instead put the bottle back on the shelf.
"Yeah. Can you tell him we are looking for another contractor?" I asked.
He gave me that half smile. "Think that's somethin' for the Operations Manager to handle. But I'll be there to back you up, if you want," he answered.
"I'd like you there."
He sat there silently thinking for a few minutes and I let him have his silence.
"He loves Chrissy," he told me, and I didn't have to ask who he was.
"You sure? How does Chrissy feel?" I asked. I have to be careful here. I can see that this is something that can let the Kid's depression come back. I refuse to let that happen again.
"I'm sure he loves her. Not sure if Chrissy knows. She says she loves me, and we had a good time together. I'm hopin' she just thinks of him as a friend, but..." Then he told me about finding them in the kitchen, heads together over the pot of stew.
"She loves you, Kid. I know she does," I said.
"If she wants to live in the city, Heyes, I'm goin' to make that happen. She's made so many friends when she's out walkin'." I could hear the sadness in his voice. "She also told me she was glad to be part of my dream here."
"There you go, Kid. She'll forget this Roberto when she comes home."
"I hope so."
ASJ*ASJ
We didn't get letters for almost a week…and the Kid worried every minute of every day we didn't hear from Chrissy and Aiden. Finally, we got a letter from Chrissy, but it was on the short side and left us to try and fill in what happened. The Kid read it at dinner that night.
JED 'KID' CURRY
"My dear family,
I love and miss you and can't wait until I'm home surrounded by the family I love.
Vince, your Saga of Joy's Tooth story made me laugh out loud, just when I needed to. Thank you, Heyes, for handling it so well. And Martha, it's Joy's tooth; she may keep it if she wants.
Had lunch at the school with Ruth Ann Tuesday and the big news is I signed her 'no' and she listened to me and stopped. Miss Ellen said that's good progress. They would like to keep her three extra days at the end of her month for evaluation. Aiden said it would be beneficial for her, so I agreed.
The school hosted a charity auction, and Roberto donated a beautiful painting to be raffled off. It was one of his recent pictures of two men sitting at a table playing cards in the park. It went for a very high price, higher than expected. He was very pleased and so were the school administrators.
I will not be taking art lessons from Roberto anymore and he won't be making us dinner either. Aiden bought me a sketchbook and books on drawing and painting, and I am content with those.
Clementine Hale is coming for lunch tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it. She has so many stories of Jed and Heyes when they were younger.
I am feeling well, and Doctor Arden says I'm healthy.
All my thoughts and love,
Chrissy Curry (Ma)"
For Jed's eyes only: I don't really want to be away from you for three extra days. I know you were planning on coming for a visit and then riding home with us. If you want, you can delay your coming for three days and still do that. But I wish you would rather come sooner and spend a day or two with me. My love, I miss and need you.
HEYES
"That's it?" asked Auntie. "Why did her lessons stop?"
"That's all it says," the Kid answered.
I know the letter worried him and when it came earlier today, we looked at the calendar and found some days he can visit her soon.
"We'll just have to wait for another letter. Michael, Martha, Mrs. Kolmand says you are both excelling at mathematics and suggested a summer school in Bridgeport you might be interested in."
I admired how the Kid changed the subject with something that was bound to lead to a lively discussion.