Chapter 10
BS
Jake opened the corral gate, swinging it wide allowing the cattle out into the large back forty acre field to graze for the day. He was surprised when Mr. McKenzie called him the day before and told him that he had his job back. McKenzie never did say why – and Jake never asked. He was just grateful for the opportunity to go back to work without losing much pay.
At least Sarah was keeping out of his way. He could feel her glare at him from across the field as she sat on the back deck of the McKenzie porch with her feet up. He was just brushing down her horse Cornbread when Mr. McKenzie walked into the barn.
“Jake,” he said. “I’d like you to take Sarah’s things out of her room and put them in the truck for me please. She’s going to be heading home today to Rexburg.”
“Oh.” Jake put the curry brush down on the side of the stall and patted Cornbread on the neck. “Yes Sir, Mr. McKenzie. I’ll do ‘er right away. Did you want I should drive her to Rexburg too?”
“No.” Mr. McKenzie smiled slightly. “I’ll save you the agony of making that there trip. I’ll take her myself. Her bags are upstairs just outside her room. She’s almost ready to go.”
“Okay.” Jake smiled. “We’ll get right on it.” He brushed off both hands on his jeans and took off his gloves. He went in the house through the back kitchen door and climbed the stairs quietly, looking up above him. Sarah’s door was closed and five suitcases sat neatly out in the hallway. He took three of them, carried them downstairs and was just loading the back of the pickup truck when Sarah shoved him aside.
“Get out of the way loser,” she said and got into the truck.
“Wait. I ain’t got all your suitcases yet.”
“I ain’t going noplace but the damned post office to change my address. So, don’t worry. I’ll be back.” She slammed the door and started the engine. She glared at him. “Ain’t you proud now?”
“Proud of what?”
“You sent your stupid, ugly, smelly girl friend over here so that Uncle Fred would give you back your worthless, stinky, low-paid, shit-shoveling job again. Congratulations.”
“I didn’t send her over. I heard tell that she bought some cows from your uncle but I didn’t –”
“The hell you didn’t. I heard them talking in the living room. She was so pathetic, just begging Uncle Fred to give you back your job with those buttons nearly popping off that tight shirt she always wears!” Sarah flipped him off and peeled out angrily.
He went back in the barn to finish combing down the horses when Brent stepped in from the far side door.
“Hey, Brent,” Jake said. “What you doing here?”
“Hey Jake.” Brent beckoned him over and whispered loudly. “I need you to do me a real quick favor.”
“Yeah, sure buddy. What is it?”
“Well – Mara,” He jerked his thumb behind him. “She’s out in the car, but she done told me that she wants you to shovel up a bucket full of fresh bullshit for her right away.”
“What? She wants a pail of shit?”
“Yup, she said you got to do it in a big hurry too and that it’s got to be the freshest and stinkiest pile you can put in the bucket.”
Jake wrinkled his brow. “What’s she want with an actual goldurned bucket of shit for?”
“I asked her the same thing.”
“And?”
“She told me not to ask.”
***
James Westman, the postmaster in Harwood Idaho was having a busy day. Not only were the normal letters and packages at an unusually high volume, but it seemed as if everybody in town thought now was the perfect day to visit the post office. Westman didn’t mind. He did his job efficiently with a normally sunny disposition which is why he was a much beloved fixture in the town community. Finally, there was a break and he looked up at the old antique pendulum regulator clock which kept faithful time in the old post office for the last hundred years. It was noon and the clock chimed twelve times. Whistling gaily, he walked around the desk and turned the small cardboard sign around from “Open,” to “Out To Lunch.”
Before he could lock the door, Sarah Harding pushed her way in.
“Oh, I’m sorry Miss,” Westman said. “I was just about to go out for lunch.”
“Well, cain’t you wait? I’m leaving town for good this afternoon and got to fill out a change of address.”
“Oh.” He looked at his watch and then up at the clock on the wall. “Very well,” he sighed and walked back behind the desk. He took out two forms and a yellow change of address card. “Fill these out please.”
Sarah looked down at the forms. “I got to fill all this out? What for? Cain’t I just fill out this here little card?” She picked it up and showed it to him. “The last time, that was all I had to do.”
“Oh yes it used to be all that was required.” Westman smiled. “But the main Post Office in Boise just handed down some new regulations so now –”
“Alright, alright. I don’t care. Just give ‘em to me.” She snapped her fingers. “The sooner I get out of this nasty little burg, the better.”
Westman busied himself with tidying up the small post office and watching Sarah fill out the forms at the counter. The sooner she got done, the sooner he could go eat. He didn’t have a very big breakfast that morning and he was hungry. It was ten minutes after noon when he stopped and stood by the desk smiling patiently with his hands folded. His stomach growled. Sarah looked up at him and frowned.
“Don’t you got nothing better to do than stand there and watch me? It’s creepy.”
“Well, I can check to see if what you’ve done so far is okay.”
“Here, here, here.” She shoved the completed forms across the desk. “I’m done. I’m done.”
Westman picked up the forms and lifted his chin, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “Well, let me see.” He scanned the forms momentarily but then frowned. “Oh, dear, dear, dear me.”
“What? What’s the matter?”
“I gave you the wrong form.”
“What?”
“I gave you form 3122, not 3122a.” He clucked his tongue and gave her another sheet of paper.
Sarah gasped. “You stupid little –”
“Can you come back after lunch for me?” He looked up at the clock again. “My doctor told me I have to eat on time or –”
“Gimme that!” Sarah snatched it out of his hand. “Go eat old man! I’ll probably still be here filling out this worthless bureaucratic bullshit when you get back!”
“Well, I can’t leave you here alone until –”
“Yes you can – out, out, out!” Sarah pulled Westman’s arm, and literally shoved him out of the door slamming it behind him.
“Well – my goodness.” He looked at his watch and was about to go back in again to insist that Sarah wait outside, but then thought better of it and walked off to his favorite restaurant at the end of the street.
Upon returning, he took out his keys as was his habit to unlock the door, but then remembered he didn’t lock the door when he left. He looked in the window, wondering if that rude girl was still in there and was surprised to see her sitting in a chair, bound and gagged with duct tape over her mouth. She looked up at him through the window with wide eyes and shook her head vigorously. She struggled with the ropes tying her to the chair and rocked back and forth.
“Oh, my goodness!” Westman grabbed the doorknob and turned it. Sarah screamed under the duct tape and shook her head.
“I’m coming! I’m coming!” He opened the door and a huge pail of bullshit poured out of a bucket suspended by a rope just above Sarah’s head.
Chapter 11
Lady Godiver
Jake couldn’t stop thinking about Jessie. No matter what he did or thought, thoughts of her eventually crowded out everything else. If he saw a car like hers, he thought about her car sitting in his ditch the night she got drunk. If he heard the song that was playing when they kissed on the dance floor he thought of how good and right it felt. When he saw a wildflower out in the range – he wondered if Jessie would like it. Even when he thought about that bucket of bullshit that wound up on Sarah’s head he couldn’t help wonder how much Jessie played a part in that. He laughed to himself as he sat in the living room. Sarah deserved every last drop of that stuff – whoever did do it. The town rumor mill had lots of suspects, but Jessie and Mara were at the top of everyone’s list.
Jake still had Jessie’s hat from the night she slapped him. There it sat on the kitchen counter. She hadn’t called or come for it – and he didn’t have the courage to bring it to her himself – not after the way he acted the other night. Unlike Jessie, he remembered every single thing he said and did when drunk. He stood up and picked up her hat and turned it over and over in his hand. There was still the faintest whiff of perfume in it. He brought it up to his nose and smelled it’s sweet, delicate odor.
He put the hat back down on the counter and thought again about the cows she bought from Mr. McKenzie. Of course they were Jake’s cattle now, even though she still had both them and the money. Jake sighed. Without enough money to buy the land, it wouldn’t matter now who had them because he wouldn’t have any place to put them anyway. He looked at the calendar. There were only 28 days left before he had to come up with the rest of the $150,000. But now, he had $8,000 less than he had before. He looked at the small savings account bankbook and it showed only $15,510.12 left. He had to win big at the Boise Stampede Rodeo next week, or he wouldn’t be anywhere near having enough money to buy the forty acres. The purse for winning the bull-riding contest at the Boise Stampede this year was $117,000. He threw the bankbook down on the counter and looked at Jessie’s hat again. Suddenly it didn’t matter if he had the land or not. Without Jessica Upton in his life nothing else mattered. Nothing else mattered at all.
***
Jessie stood by the corral in the neighbor’s back yard, brooding. She lay her arms on top of the split rail fencing and lay her chin down on her hands looking at the cow as the calf nursed on her udder. The bull grazed in the next fenced in field behind the neighbor’s house. It was a peaceful scene, but Jessie felt no peace about it. They were great cows for starting a ranch with. The only problem was there wasn’t a ranch to put them on.
She was depressed. She didn’t want any ranch. She didn’t want any cattle either. She wanted Jake. She wanted him so bad it was hard to breath sometimes. Without him everything else was worthless. Why she fell so hard for him after just one kiss she didn’t know. She kissed many men before in lots of different circumstances, but none of them felt like that. Jake felt right. She thought of it now and her eyes filled with tears. Why did he send back her money? He needed the money to buy his land.
The hot afternoon sun beat down on the top of her head and she looked up at it and frowned. Her head was hot. She reached up and smoothed her long straight black hair down tying it back behind her head into a long ponytail. She needed her hat. Jake had it. Mara said that he was holding it on the porch waiting for her after she slapped him. She thought of going over there to get it. It would give her an excuse to talk to him but then hung her head. He didn’t want her around. He didn’t want her money. He didn’t want her. He even said so when he was leaving with Mara and Brent and she asked where he was going, and he said: “Anywhere you ain’t.”
Jessie lay her forehead on her hands and cried. She thought that she’d already run out of tears for Jake Kendall, but here now as she wept, she knew that would never happen. Without him, she’d cry forever.
***
“Hey Jake,” Mara said over the phone. “What you doing?”
“Oh, nothing Mara. I just got home from work and I’m really tired. I think I’m just going to take a long shower and go straight to bed.”
“To bed? Jake – it’s only 5:00 PM!”
“I know. I know. I’m just tired is all.”
“Well, why don’t you come over to The Stirrup tonight with me and Brent. We’ll buy you supper.”
“No, that’s okay. I’m beholdin’ to both you and Brent for that, but I’m just real tired.”
“Jessie was here last night you know.”
“Oh, she were? Ain’t no shortage of men to dance with her I reckon.”
“She didn’t though. She just sat there at the table with me and Brent and kept watching the door. All she had to drink was a cherry coke all evening long. Lots of men come by and asked her to dance, but she refused them all. She finally got up and left. I think she was waiting for you.”
Jake was silent.
“I really hate to see the both of you just moping around about the other. It ain’t right.”
“Really? You think she’s feeling bad because of what happened?”
“I know she is. She loves you Jake. A blind man could see it a mile away. Why don’t you come out for a while. Me and Brent be mighty glad to see you.”
“Jessie’s there – ain’t she?”
“Yup, and just as miserable without you as you are without her.”
“Alright,” Jake said after a long pause. “I’ll be there in about an hour.”
“An hour?”
“Yeah. There’s someplace I got to stop at first, but it won’t take long and I’ll be over there directly.”
***
Jessie danced in the middle of the dance floor with whoever would dance with her that night while Brent and Mara sat at the table. She kept watching the front door, waiting for Jake to show up. Mara said that he would be there in about an hour – and that was about an hour and a half ago. Maybe he changed his mind. Maybe he decided he didn’t want to be in the same room with her anymore ever again. She was so nervous that her hands shook.
“What’s the matter, honey?” Her current dance partner Hank asked. “Ain’t I a good enough dancer for you?”
“Oh, no – that ain’t it,” Jessie said. “I was just waiting on someone is all.”
“Who? Jake Kendall?”
“Who? Him?” Jessie laughed. “Oh, no, no, no, someone else.”
“Oh? Why cain’t you see, baby?” He grinned. “It’s me you been waiting for your whole goldurned life.”
Jessie rolled her eyes. Hank was handsome enough and he was a good dancer, but he wasn’t quite the catch he thought he was. He had a reputation and every young woman within a twenty mile radius – married or otherwise – knew it.
She glanced over to where Mara and Brent sat and her heart skipped a beat. There was Jake sitting next to them. She smiled broadly at Hank.
“Why, Hank, honey. I sure enough don’t know what you mean.”
“Aw now, Jessie – everyone knows old Hank here’s the best kisser in these here parts.”
“Really?” Jessie smiled seductively. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jake walking toward them. Rapidly she reached up around Hank’s neck and kissed him. She turned and looked for Jake, but couldn’t see him at first.
“Jessica Upton?” Jake said from down below. He was kneeling on one knee and had a small blue jewelry container open with a sparkling diamond and gold wedding ring. “I love you with all my heart. Would you marry me?”
“What?” Jessie laughed, her left arm still around Hank’s neck. “You think I’d ever marry you? I’d rather marry a goldurned mule. You cain’t come in here just like that Jake Kendall and ask me to marry you right out of the goldurned blue!”
The bar room suddenly went deathly silent and every eye in the place was trained on them.
“Yeah,” Hank said smirking. “She ain’t going to marry you, so why don’t you just mosey on out of here, rodeo clown. You ain’t wanted.”
Jake glared at them for a moment, still holding the ring up. Jessie’s heart began beating a million miles an hour and her mouth dropped open as she finally realized what was happening. Her arm was still around Hank’s neck. She swallowed hard and was about to say something when Jake dropped his head and looked down at the floor. No one in The Dirty Stirrup Bar moved. Finally Jake closed up the wedding ring case and put it back into his shirt pocket. He stood up and without even a glance at Jessie turned and kicked a chair out of his way. He stormed out of the bar and pulled open the door to his pickup truck in rage.
Mara ran up to Jessie. “Do you know how much he paid for that ring? He gave up any chance of ever buying any land to buy that ring for you – for you – and you just threw him away!”
“Jake! Wait!” Jessie ran out of the bar and waved her arms. “Don’t go!”
Hank and the rest of the bar followed her out onto the wide wooden porch and laughed.
“You best go catch him, Jess.” Mara looked at her and pointed. “He ain’t one you can do that to. You know that. Go get him back girl – before he goes off somewheres – and you lose him forever.”
Stones and gravel flew out from underneath Jake’s rear tires as he fishtailed out of the parking lot into the night. The engine roared as his tires squealed out on to the pavement.
Jessie ran to the other side of the building where the line of horses stood tethered to a hitching post. Rapidly she untied Thunder’s reins and jumped up into his saddle.
“Hyah!” She shouted and kicked Thunder’s sides. Thunder neighed loudly and leaped forward, galloping through the darkened parking lot. Jessie whipped the reins back and forth rising up in the saddle and Thunder jumped the three-rail fence easily at the far end. Jessie pulled the reins to the left after Jake’s speeding pickup truck and Thunder’s hooves cut into the pavement sending faint sparks up behind them.
Jake tromped his foot down on the accelerator at the bottom of the hill and rounded the bend near Rocking Horse lake slowing down only to make the turns. He shook his head. Why was he such a fool to ask Jessie to marry him for? She was just too untamed – too wild to ever want to settle down with him. Now, not only would he lose the option to buy the land, but he’d lose his $15,000 earnest money too. All of that because he was stupid enough to think Jessie would ever want to marry him.
In a shower of gravel, dust and dirt, Thunder jumped down from the hillside along the road and stopped in the middle. Jessie pulled up on the reins and jumped off onto the pavement. She stopped in the center of the road and put her hand out in front like a traffic cop.
Jake stomped on the brake and screeched to a halt only inches from Jessie’s outstretched hand in the headlights. He jumped out of the truck and threw his hands back.
“What are you doing?”
Jessie ran around the truck’s open door and threw herself at Jake, kissing him again and again in the dark.
“I’m sorry Jake! I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry. Don’t go. Don’t go! I didn’t mean it – none of it!”
“Jessie! Are you loco? I could have killed you!”
“I’d rather you’d kill me smack dead in the road right now and run me over a hundred times than to live without you. Yes – I want to marry you Jake Kendall! Please! I want to marry you more than anything else in this here world!”
“Jessie – I –” He kissed her back. “I –”
“I love you Jake! I swear I do! Forgive me. I love you. I love you! My mouth is like a snorting mustang running away with me sometimes. I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t help it. I won’t never say nothing like that ever again – never, never, never. I promise!” She kissed him over and over. “Don’t leave me!”
“You’ll marry me then?”
Jessie reached up and dug through his shirt pocket.
“Gimme that goldurned ring!” She took out the wedding ring container, opened it up and threw down the box. She put the ring on her finger.
“But, you just told me in front of half the town that you’d rather marry a mule than me.”
“You want me to strip down buck-naked and ride through the middle of town like Lady Godiver, or something – wearing nothing but your ring? ‘Cause I’ll do ‘er.” She started to unbutton her checked shirt. “I swear I will!”
“No.” Jake pulled up her wrist gently and hugged her. “Don’t do that,” he said and kissed her passionately beneath a thousand stars in the deep dark Idaho night. “That’s for the honeymoon night.”
Leave a Reply