Ronald Crowe II Yesterday · Edited . A MAN BORN WITH NO SHAME page 2 Now me & his grandpa pushed cattle across near every stretch of dirt south & far past the north of the Rio Grand. Worked shoulder to shoulder together, while mixing sweat for many of my youthful years. Struck out the door of my folks home when I was no more than 15. Same for Bob McFarland the first day we met & took to working for a cattle company out of North Dakota. Probably was the most blessed event in my life was meeting up with Bob McFarland & in the same kind of hat I think he took it took it as such as well. Here we was fresh out the gate in a world that neither of us knew very little about. Just a couple of naïve fellers with nothing but dreams & empty pockets of hopes wishing to fill them full. Pete stopped speaking long enough to watch the reporter dust away at his clothing. Then licked at the end of his pencil with a despising look on his face & pushed at his wire rimmed glasses. Then back to scratch at his open pad again. It was if Pete himself was nowhere to be found in his own cabin. What in Gods name was he doing? Why was he speaking to this character? The way the guys neck craned from his lanky frame & the more Pete looked at him the more he saw worms & buzzards cross breeding in his mind. What a useless waste of flesh, time, & air was his only thought at the moment. Then he saw Bob McFarlands face from the past. The one that had no wrinkles. A smile that was truly genuine on top of shoulders that could hold their weight if called upon. He missed that man. That truly close friend hed known. He missed him like the crops missed the rain & rite then he really knew was dog tired. So with all that & just after the reporter cleared his throat, as if to prod him on into spilling it he spoke again, Bob & me was fortunate back then. Me mostly more than him. We had each other when we had nothing at all but them big eyed wants. With his he made out better than me, but not for nothing mind you. Hed took all that he had earned & bought him a stretch of land a 100 miles north- east from here. Asked me in joining in with him, but I had my doubt on us a making it. So I kept on pushing for that crew we had worked for so long back then. I knew where the chuck wagons tracks laid with them. But I did give Bob a few of my saved up dollars, & my heart was with him, but my feet was not ready to get stepping in the same direction as he. Hard for a man to give up on a pair of boots if hes got them broke in rite. Mr. Fairbanks again I feel I must retort I am not here to take a walk down memory lain with you, The reporter never looked up at Pete. Only down at his pad as he spoke, I am here to gather all the information I can about one, Cledas McFarland & that is all. He wanted to reach across the table & slap the living piss out of that boy. Watch his glasses go flying across the room as he put his boot in his butt all the way to the door. Telling him, you know nothing & aint gonna get nothing, with every kick. But as he was before this worm pricked buzzard had found him in the first place, he was exhausted, so he didnt. Pete just said, Nothing worth telling goes on a short trot. Nor does a true tale begin without all of it being said with only a few words. Cledas came from something. He left his story behind with a beginning & a reason. As I was saying Bod McFarland was my friend & always will be. Hated loosing him, but one thing I knew for sure he was what he was. Honest, hardworking, & someone to believe in. What he believed in was the honest things in life. He knew what a man put into something he got back. Took that 400 acres worked him out a few head of cattle & kept on working them. I dont reckon that he slept much the first 5 years of him breaking out on his own. And I rightly know from his misses he didnt eat much after he & she met 2 years into him owning his own stretch. She told me, with a smile that only a patient woman like his misses could keep to. Their honeymoon consisted of a kiss at the alter. A I love you darling that evening, but their are heads of beef that have got to feed us on into many more seasons with just one more kiss from his lips as he headed out the door that same evening to make watch over the herd. Bob was a wise feller as he was broad. He covered a piece of ground with a lot of weight. That 400 acres I said was near a little over a 100 miles from here finally stretched on out clearing near 50 miles from my backdoor out yonder before it was all said & done. He got his own brand placed in the trade books & named his ranch after it. The Double X Snake. Bob wasnt no fool short of a cracker in the soup. That wasnt a brand that any cattle rustler could just mark over to alter for a black-marketed cattle sale. Pete quickly snatched the pad & pencil from the report causing him to yelp, Hey! What are you doing? That is mine! Have you went mad, sir? Respect. That is a new one in your arsenal of conversation. Aint it hoss, Pete replied as he drew out two Xs side by side & then a sideways S through them both, Figured you might want to lay eyes on the brand that made up the history on the man you are asking about. With effort of Petes arthritic, bulging knuckles, & callused fingers the pencil with pad slid across the kitchen table. The air in the room went cold & silent for a moment before Pete locked eyes with the reporter & said, I also got tired of you not looking up at me. Bob McFarland was as wise as he was honest. He knew what other folks just overlooked or are to busy to understand. Best to look in a mans eyes & search if a man is telling the straight of it before just letting your ears take in anything for nothing. The reporter cocked his head & flickered his eyes down at what Pete had sketched on the pad. Wrote something really fast under it & then back at Pete. It was as if inside the reporters head a ball of information that was worth saving had rolled into his ear. Rattled around a few times & finally found a hole it was able to rest in. Pete smiled & took in a deep breath. But it slowly began to decline as he spoke, Now I aint never had much worth speaking over. What you see is what you get. A deed to some ground that aint much good. A roof with a few things under it. Never had me no family. Either I had me no time or nothing to offer with worth to get a woman on board with interest to take to what I had to offer. What I lacked Bob McFarland had plenty of. He wasnt a stingy friend but not one to belittle me for my lack. Hed saved my bacon more than once, but never called me out for it nor expected nothing in return. He cherished all that he had, but the thing he loved most was his family & there wasnt a visit that he didnt tell me of them with pride. Him & his sweat Margret had them four children together. Two boys & two girls. His oldest son Jr. had him the same. It was Cledas that was born to be the last of the brood & it was he out of all of Bobs grandchildren that Bob took the most shine to. Bob raised his sons to be just as solid as he. The waters ran the same shores all the way down the branch. Bod had explained how all of the men in his family tree was built solid like himself. Said that all the way back from his Irish grandpa that been a dirt farmer, it didnt matter what filly that any of them men decided to hitch their wagon to the men bore was never small framed. He said that Cledas was even more an exception to the rule. Said that babe took to eating beef as soon as he could drool & no teeth for the chew. Reckon that suited his ma just fine seeing that he almost killed her at birth. You could only imagine what hed done to her tender breast if it werent for the beef. Never did lay a shadow on Cledas till much on in his life. I didnt never get out to Bobs ranch much. He always had to come out & visit me. I think he knew I was struggling all the time to just keep alive. Met Bob the 3rd first though, Cledas older brother, when he was 13 or so. Bob brought him out here to sit a spell. I saw then that all of those boys was strapping. So I was truly taken back when Bob came out here alone one day & smiled like his shoulders might come out of socket & told me a tale of Cledas with extreme joy & pride. Said thaall them McFarlands had went to a town gathering one 4th a July. Bob the 3rd was 16 of year back then. Being as such he did as some fellers do. Somehow he got into a fist to cuffs with one of the local teenagers his age. Said he saw Cledas just sitting there on a fence post as the blows were being traded. He didnt know if it was because Cledas was only 11 or that he was scared or just overtaken back by what was going on. He did nothing. That was until it was all over & done with. When there laid Bob the 3rd, face first on the ground, & that other boy was laughing & jeering at his older brother for spite. As blood trickled down his jaw into the puddle of mud forming there Cledas left that post. Like a hawk coming off a tall pine. Bob exact words were, it was like somebody stuck a lite match to a well fueled lantern wick as soon as Cledas boot heels touched soil. In an instant he had that other young buck by the collar & turned him on his heels shouting, Its my turn, happy boy! Knuckles went & crushed bones. Dust then covered that teenagers backside in a hurry. Cledas said only one last statement after he licked that fool & as he helped Bob the 3rd to his feet, I will not fight my brothers battles, but Ill be danged if I wont deal swiftly with his or any of my families enemies.
Posted on: Sun, 17 Nov 2013 22:28:03 +0000
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