Chapter 3 #3
“So Dad’s going to try and win the bull riding tonight, so we can afford rent. And maybe he can get another job where they’ll
be nicer to him.”
She was watching the boy’s father. He didn’t look good at all.
“Dad fixed us a nice lunch before we drove over here. We only eat one meal a day. I get fed at school, but Dad goes without.
I cook when he feels real bad, though, if we have stuff I can cook.” He leaned forward. “He’s just the best dad in the whole
world. I wish I was big. I’d make sure he never had to work so hard. I’d take care of him.”
Josie’s heart ached for the child. “You don’t have any other family at all?”
He shook his head. “Dad was an only child. So was my mama. Dad said maybe we were lucky, because families fight a lot. But
I wouldn’t care. It would be nice if there was somebody who could help Dad. But there isn’t.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said, and meant it.
“There’s people worse off than us,” he said, smiling. “Dad says God tests us in this life, so we just have to take one day
at a time and trust that He’ll see us through the hard times.”
“Your dad’s right,” she replied. “Who are you?” she asked with a smile.
He grinned. “I’m Jeremiah James. Dad calls me JJ,” he added. “Who are you?”
“I’m Josie. It’s nice to meet you, JJ,” she said warmly.
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” he replied.
“Where do you live?”
“Here in Percell, now. We’ve lived all over.
Anywhere Dad could get a job,” he said. He made a face.
“It’s a sad sort of apartment. Actually, it’s in the good part of a burned-down motel, but it’s a roof over our heads.
” He looked worried. “I just hope that Dad can win. I don’t want him to have to live in our truck.
Dad can’t hardly afford gas for it, and the mechanic said he can’t fix it if it breaks down again.
” He shook his head. “There’s no money for that anyway.
Dad spent his last ten to get me this jacket at the Goodwill store.
” He indicated it. “He said I have to stay well, and cold weather’s coming. ”
She could have cried for the little boy. Even though her childhood had been rough, there had always been enough to eat, and
clothes to wear. For all that, the boy’s attitude was so sweet . . .
They were getting the bulls ready, while the last of the bull-dodging competition played out to wild cheers and applause.
Josie was watching it halfheartedly when the little boy next to her made a sound. “Dad!” he exclaimed.
She looked toward the stalls where the bulls would be placed. The man next to John Everett was suddenly on the ground, John
bending over him with his cell phone in his hand.
“Come on,” Josie told the boy, following him down the bleachers to the bull chutes.
“Dad!” the child wailed, running to him.
Josie caught him back and held him, kneeling down. “It’s okay, JJ,” she said softly. “Let them work. Just let them work, okay?”
she said, calming him.
John was talking to a 911 operator. He spared Josie a glance, taking in at once her hold on the child and her worried expression.
She was a conundrum, he thought, and was angry that he was pleased to see her here. He hadn’t the time to wonder why she was here.
The sound of an ambulance siren pierced the noise of the competition. The ambulance pulled up and two EMTs got out, approaching
the patient.
“What’s wrong with my dad?” the boy asked plaintively.
One of the EMTs glanced at him and smiled reassuringly. “It’s going to be okay,” she said softly. “Just let us work.”
He nodded, fighting tears.
John, watching, looked over the boy’s head at Josie. He made the slightest movement with his head. Josie made an answering
one.
“Okay, let’s load him up,” one of the medics said quickly. He gave a ten code that nobody among the civilians except Josie
seemed to know. Her face went pale and she hugged the boy tighter. John, who also knew the ten codes, was surprised at her
reaction.
His eyes went to the boy, who was visibly terrified.
“I want to go with my dad!” the child wailed.
Josie looked at John.
“We’ll all go. Does he have anybody with him?” he asked Josie.
“Do you?” she asked the child gently.
“There’s just me and Dad,” he choked, shivering. “We don’t got any family. Just us. Is my dad going to be okay?” he asked
Josie plaintively.
She ground her teeth together. “They’ll do all they can,” she said.
“Are they taking Dad to the hospital? Will they let me ride in the ambulance with him?”
“You’re coming with us,” Josie said softly, looking at John, who nodded.
“Thanks, Josie,” the boy told her.
She smiled gently. “That’s JJ,” she told the tall man herding them toward a ranch pickup truck.
“Nice to . . . to meet you,” the boy said haltingly.
“Nice manners,” Josie said, smiling at him.
“My mom used to say that manners are what separates us from animals,” he told her. “We lost her when I was just little.”
He was still little, for his age. Josie ached for him. “I lost my mom a year ago,” she told him quietly. “I know what it’s
like.”
John, listening, was surprised at her compassion for the child. It didn’t fit with the tough image she was projecting.
John opened the door and lifted the boy to the middle of the front seat.
“The law says . . .” Josie began.
“Come on,” he muttered. “What does it matter right now? Get in.”
He put her on the outside and closed the door. He pulled out onto the highway.
“Where are they taking him?” Josie asked. She had her seat belt on, and an arm around the boy. Where he was sitting, even
if they struck something, he wouldn’t be hit by the airbag.
“Percell,” he said stiffly.
She understood what he meant. If it had been a treatable trauma, Fort Worth was the logical destination. John glanced at the
young boy, so full of hope that the medics could save his father. So hopelessly uninformed. John wanted to soften the blow,
but he couldn’t think of a way to do it. Josie just sat with her arm around the child, looking tormented. What an odd thing
for a coldhearted prospective rustler to do, he was thinking.
They herded the boy into the hospital. Josie held him back while John went to make inquiries.
Josie looked down at the child, who was wearing patched old clothes, which were meticulously clean. His father obviously loved
him very much. She held back tears.
John hesitated at the counter. He looked as if he was being tortured. Josie glanced at him. Their expressions matched.
He walked toward the boy. He drew them both toward the seats. He knelt down in front of JJ. “This is going to be rough,” he
said quietly. “There are things in life, hard things, that people have to face.”
JJ looked into John’s sympathetic pale blue eyes.
He moved forward and put a small hand on John’s shoulder.
It almost brought the big man to tears when he added, “My daddy’s already gone, isn’t he, mister?
” he asked in a soft, tear-laced voice, his little body stiff and straight, his face pained but resolute.
John bit his lip and swallowed hard. He looked away while he searched for words.
Josie knelt on the other side of JJ. “You know, don’t you?” she asked gently.
He looked at her. “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Daddy said he knew his heart was bad, but he had to do this rodeo. You see, they
raised our rent again and he didn’t have any money . . .” His voice broke.
Josie gathered him close and hugged him and hugged him, rocking him while she felt the tears on her shoulder, felt the shudders.
There were tears in her eyes, too, falling down her freckled cheeks.
John was fighting his own emotions. The father had risked his life to save their home, which would now be lost anyway, like
his life. And the boy had no relatives.
No family. He’d go into custody, into some foster home, or several foster homes . . .
“No,” he ground out. “Hell, no.”
Josie looked up, her face wet. “We can’t let that happen,” she said through a voice that sounded choked.
He knew without asking what she meant. After a minute, he nodded. “Let me talk to the desk.” He moved away.
Josie was still rocking the boy.
“They’ll put me in some foster home, won’t they, Josie?” he asked, resigned. “A boy at school named Diego was living in a
foster home. He said there were ten of them, and sometimes he got beaten up . . .”
“That is not going to happen to you,” she said firmly, holding him by the shoulders. “Not in a million years.” Not if I have to adopt you myself, she added silently, and meant it.
She glanced at John, who’d moved closer to the lady at the desk.
“Just a sec,” she said, standing up. She pulled out her phone and called Raines. “I’ve got something to do,” she said, and
hoped he’d think she had an opportunity.
“With him?” Raines asked excitedly.
“Yes.”
“Go ahead. Call me in the morning,” he added on a sick chuckle and hung up. She hung up, too, and then took the boy’s hand.
“Let’s sit down for a minute,” she said.
“Okay.”
She turned to him, her arm firmly around him. “And no, you are not going into a foster home,” she added.
His dark brown eyes looked up trustingly into hers. He managed a shaky smile. “Thanks,” he said.
“You poor kid,” she ground out, and hugged him close.
John came back in a few minutes. “Okay, I’ve talked to the relevant people,” he said. “I’m taking you home with me.”
The boy looked uneasy, his eyes going to Josie, who’d already assumed a larger place in his small life.
“She’s coming, too,” John said, his eyes daring Josie to argue.
“Of course I am,” she told the boy, and smiled at him. “Everything is going to be all right.”
“Let’s go,” John said.
“But, my dad,” JJ protested.
“He’s coming to Big Spur, too,” John told him. “We have a . . .”
“There’s a nice Methodist Church there,” Josie interrupted with a warning glance at John. “Funeral home” was too harsh right
now.
John realized that, belatedly. “You’ll like Big Spur.”
“Okay, then,” JJ said. “Thanks, mister.”
“I’m John,” he replied, smiling.
“Okay. John. And she’s Josie,” the boy added, looking up at Josie with melting eyes.
At that point, she’d have barbecued Raines for him.
Heather was waiting at the front door with Cole. Apparently, John had also called them.
They got out of the truck. The boy hesitated.
“These are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet,” Josie told him gently. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. Okay?”
He was holding her hand tightly. “Okay.”
They walked up onto the porch.
“This is Jeremiah, called JJ,” John introduced. “He’s had a hard night.”
JJ pushed his lips together hard, and his eyes grew wet.
“I’m Cole,” the big man said, kneeling in front of him and smiling. “That’s Heather. You’re welcome to stay with us.”
Tears rolled down the boy’s cheeks. Cole pulled him close and hugged him. “None of that,” he chided softly. “Heather and I
raised two boys of our own.” He pulled back, smiling. “Do you like horses?”
JJ wiped at the tears. “I like horses a lot. We used to have horses, but Dad had to sell them on account of we couldn’t feed
them anymore.”
“We have cattle, too. Lots of them.”
JJ was perking up.
“And you can have a room of your own. It’s safe here.”
“Don’t tell him about the snake,” Heather said under her breath as she knelt and introduced herself, smiling.
“You look like a picture of an angel I saw in a book,” he said, fascinated.
“She is an angel,” Cole agreed, smiling at his wife.
“What about a snake?” JJ asked.
“You had to say that . . .” Cole shook his head.
“It’s okay,” Heather jumped in. “The cage is padlocked. And it’s in John’s room.”
“What about a snake?” JJ persisted.
“He has a pet rattlesnake,” Josie said with a sigh. “It minds him.”
“Wow!” JJ exclaimed, looking at John with new eyes. “Can I see him? Does he bite?”
“You can see him after supper,” Heather promised.
“And no, he doesn’t bite,” John added, glaring at the other adults.
“Yet,” Josie murmured.
“The cage is escape-proof,” John emphasized.
“So was Charlie’s cage,” Heather said under her breath.
“Snake bigots,” John grumbled at them.
Josie choked back a laugh.
JJ was watching them all and smiling shyly.
Cole and Heather exchanged a long look. Then they nodded. John beamed. Unless he missed his guess, he was about to gain a
sibling. Josie also saw the byplay. As they walked inside, she smiled from ear to ear.
“How did the two of you meet?” Heather asked Josie, indicating JJ.
“We were sitting together up in the stands,” Josie said, smiling at the boy. “He told me about his dad and what a great bull
rider he was . . .” She groaned. “I’m sorry, JJ,” she said gently.
“It’s okay,” he told her. “Dad was a great bull rider. He took real good care of me.” He swallowed hard and tucked back into
beef and potatoes. “Ma’am, this is really good food!”
Mercedes stuck her head in the door. “Mil gracias!” she called in Spanish.
“De nada,” JJ replied, smiling. “La comida es muy sabrosa!”
“Hablas espanol!” Mercedes exclaimed.
“Si, un poquito,” he replied. “Esta familia es muy buena. Estas personas son muy simpaticas.”
“Es la verdad,” she replied with a smile. “Bienvenidos. Estas segura aqui.”
“Solamente esta noche. Tengo que salir manana,” he added.
“Esa no es la verdad,” Cole said quietly. “Puedes quedar aqui para siempre, si lo quieres.”
JJ caught his breath. “Es la verdad?” he asked.
“Es la verdad,” Heather added with a warm smile. “No tenemos algunas ninos aqui. Todos nuestros hijos son adultos. Nos gusta
tener uno hijo mas,” she added with a hopeful smile.
JJ looked around the table. “Me gusta,” he said softly. “Muchas gracias.”
The adults all smiled.
Josie looked from one to the other. She was fluent in Spanish, but it suited her role to pretend she wasn’t. She managed to
look confused.
“We offered him a position,” Heather told her with a grin. “He said he would have to leave tomorrow, but we told him that’s
not true. We have an opening for a third son, and he can stay forever if he wants. He said yes.” She smiled from ear to ear
and fought tears.
“But you don’t know me,” JJ said.
“That’s what you think,” Josie said and smiled tenderly. “You’re a good kid.”
“Believe her,” John said, swallowing coffee. “She sure knows the bad kind.” He looked pointedly at Josie.
“John!” Heather and Josie said together.
Everybody broke up. Except John, of course.