Funny thing, said Billy, is I was fixin to quit about the time she took sick. I was ready to move on. After she died I had a lot less reason to stay on but I stayed anyways.
I guess maybe you figured Mac needed you.
Horseshit.
How old was she?
I dont know. Late thirties. Forty maybe. You'd never of knowed it though.
You think he's gettin over it?
Mac?
Yeah.
No. You dont get over a woman like that. He aint gettin over nothin. He never will.
He sat and put his hat on and adjusted it. You ready, cousin?
Yeah.
He rose stiffly and reached down and got his lunchpail and he swiped at the seat of his trousers with one hand and then bent and got his jacket. He looked at John Grady.
There was a old waddy told me one time he never knowed a woman raised on indoor plumbin to ever turn out worth a damn. She come up the hard way. Old man Johnson was never nothin but a cowboy and you know what that pays. Mac met her at a church supper in Las Cruces when she was seventeen years old and that was all she wrote. He aint goin to be gettin over it. Not now, not soon, not never.
It was dark when they got back. Billy rolled up the window of the truck and sat looking toward the house. I'm a woreout sumbuck, he said.
You want to just leave the gear in the truck?
Let's bring in the comealong. It might rain. Might. And that box of staples. They'll rust up.
I'll get em.
He got the stuff from the bed of the truck. The lights came on in the barn bay. Billy was standing there shaking his hand up and down.
Ever time I reach for that son of a bitch I get shocked.
It's the nails in them boots.
Then why dont it shock my feet?
I dont know.
He hung the comealong on a nail and set the box of staples on a framing crossbrace just inside the door. The horses whinnied from their stalls.
He went on down the barn bay and at the last stall pounded the flat of his hand against the stall door. There was an instant explosion against the boards on the other side. Dust drifted in the light. He looked back at Billy and grinned. Egg it on, said Billy. He'll put a foot through that son of a bitch.
JOAQUeN STEPPED BACK with both hands atop the board he was leaning on and lowered his head as if he'd seen something in the corral too awful to watch. But he was only stepping back to spit and he did so in his slow and contemplative way and then stepped forward and looked through the boards again. Caballo, he said. The shadow of the trotting horse passed across the boards and across his face and passed on. He shook his head.
They walked on down to where some two by twelves were nailed and braced along the top of the corral and climbed up and sat with their bootheels wedged in the board below and smoked and watched John Grady work the colt.
What does he want with that owlheaded son of a bitch anyway?
Billy shook his head. Maybe it's like Mac says. Ever man winds up with the horse that suits him.
What is that thing he's got on its head?
It's called a cavesson halter.
What's wrong with a plain hackamore?
You'd have to ask the cowboy.
Troy leaned and spat. He looked at Joaquin. QuZ piensas? he said.
Joaquin shrugged. He watched the horse circle the corral at the end of the longeline.
That horse has been broke with a bit, Troy said.
Yeah.
I guess he aims to break it and start over.
Well, Billy said, I got a suspicion that whatever it is he aims to do he'll most likely get it done.
They watched the horse circle.
He aint trainin it for the circus is he?
No. We had the circus yesterday evenin when he forked up on it.
How many times did he get thowed?
Four.
How many times did he get back up on it?
You know how many times.
Is he supposed to be some sort of specialist in spoiled horses?
Let's go, Billy said. He's liable to walk that son of a bitch all afternoon.
They went on toward the house.
Ask Joaquin yonder, Billy said.
Ask me what?
If the cowboy knows horses.
The cowboy says he dont know nothin.
I know it.
He claims he just likes it and works hard at it.
What do you think? said Billy.
Joaquin shook his head.
Joaquin thinks his methods is unorthodox.
So does Mac.
Joaquin didnt answer till they reached the gate. Then he stopped and looked back at the corral. Finally he said that it didnt make much difference if you liked horses or not if they didnt like you. He said the best trainers he ever knew, horses couldnt stay away from them. He said horses would follow Billy S++nchez to the outhouse and stand there and wait for him.
WHEN HE GOT BACK from town John Grady was not in the barn and when he walked up to the house to get his supper he was not there either. Troy was sitting at the table picking his teeth. He sat down with his plate and reached for the salt and pepper. Where's everbody at? he said.
Oren just left. JC's gone out with his girl. John Grady I reckon is laid up in the bed.
No he aint.
Well maybe he's gone off somewheres to think things over.
What happened?
That horse fell backwards on him. Like to broke his foot.
Is he all right?
I reckon. They carried him in to the doctor, him cussin and carryin on. Doctor wrapped it up and give him a pair of crutches and told him to stay off of it.
He's on crutches?
Yep. Supposed to be.
All this happened this afternoon?
Yep. It was lively as you could ever wish for here for a while. Joaquin come and got Oren and he went down there and told him to come on and he wouldnt do it. Oren said he thought he was goin to have to whip him. Hobblin around after the damned horse wantin to get up on it again. Finally got him to take his boot off. Oren said another two minutes and they'd of had to cut it off of him.
Billy nodded his head and bit thoughtfully into a biscuit.
He was ready to fight Oren?
Yep.
Billy chewed. He shook his head.
How bad is his foot?
He's sprained his ankle.
What did Mac say?
Nothin. He's the one carried him in to the doctor's.
I guess he cant do no wrong where Mac's concerned.
You got that right.
Billy shook his head again. He reached for the salsa. I miss ever show that comes to town, he said. I guess this might whittle down his reputation as a pure D peeler some though, mightnt it?
I dont know if it will or not. Joaqu'n says he stood in one stirrup and rode the son of a bitch down like a tree.
What for?
I dont know. I reckon he just dont like to quit a horse.
HEOD BEEN ASLEEP maybe an hour when the commotion in the dark of the barn bay woke him. He lay listening a minute and then he rose and reached for the cord and pulled on the overhead light and put on his hat and stepped to the door and pushed back the curtain and looked out. The horse hove past a foot from his face and went hammering down the bay and turned and stood breathing and stamping in the dark.
Damn, he said. Bud?
John Grady went limping past.
What the hell are you doin?
He hobbled on out of the lightfall. Billy stepped into the bay. You are a goddamned idjit, aint you? What in the hell is wrong with you?
The horse began to run again. He heard it coming and knew it was coming but he'd no more than just got back inside the doorframe before it exploded into the space of light from the single bulb in his cubicle, running with its mouth open and its eyes like eggs in its head.
Goddamn it, he said. He got his pants off of the iron footrail of his cot and pulled them on and squared his hat and stepped out again.
The horse had started down the bay again. He flattened himself against the stall door next to his bunkroom. The horse went by as if the barn were afire and slammed up against the door at the end of the bay and turned and stood shrieking.