Cowboy
Our basket pickings were getting slimmer, but Halley didn’t mind the oatmeal and toast. Time sure flies by when there’s a baby around.
We spent so much time just checking on him.
He ate round the clock, and what goes in, must come out.
We were running out of diapers, so I’d started making some out of the hand towels.
Halley said she read it was good just to let him go bare every once in a while, to air out.
“Can I go outside?” She asked after she laid the baby down for an afternoon nap.
“Why, sure.” I mean, we were hiding out and all, but I wasn’t going to dare tell a girl who’d been locked up so long, she couldn’t go get some fresh air.
Halley ran out on to the porch and spun around with her arms out like a child. After taking a deep breath in and grinning real big, she practically jumped into the yard, picked up some dirt and crumbled it in her hands. Then she smelled it.
I inhaled, wondering what smelled so nice and sat on the porch swing, taking her in.
I’ve been with a lot of women. All of them more worried about stupid shit than happiness.
Halley craved what most of us took for granted.
Her current state represented the simple life I’d always wanted, but I didn’t know how long it’d last. Sure, right now, it was just us and her baby.
How would she be when she was back around others?
Pretty soon, I’d take her to Scar and be off to Louisiana.
Taking her with me was out of the question.
Scar would blow a fuse. Even if I got permission to come back to Tucson permanently, I’d have business in Shreveport to tie up. Bones would go ballistic.
I wondered if Haley would take up to another man while I was gone.
“When are we leaving for Arizona, again?” She asked like she knew my thoughts.
“Our two weeks are up in four more days. That’s if you don’t want to head on out today.”
She stopped rolling in the sand. “No, I don’t want to leave today. I like it here. I want to stay forever.”
“Can’t do that. I wish…”
“Why not? It’s my birthday, and I get a wish.”
“Today’s your birthday, for real?”
“Yes, I’m twenty.”
“Well, do you have any other wishes?”
“I want to sleep outside tonight.”
“Okay,” I said slowly, thinking of how to make it happen. “After the baby goes to sleep, we’ll keep the window opened and you can sleep on this porch swing.” I’d stay with her of course. I’d have to stay up all night.
“Have I thanked you? I’ve always wanted a Cowboy to come, take me away.”
“Yes, you have.” Multiple times, I thought but wouldn’t dare say.
She ran over to the porch. “And I want Apple Pie from Big Mike’s Pies.”
Halley had been so animated, I couldn’t deny her.
She promised to stay inside while I drove to find her pie.
Big Mike's, you couldn’t miss it. It was just where she said it was, located right in the middle of Julian’s main street.
I also picked up some steaks and fixins at the local Piggly Wiggly.
Walking the aisle, I found a plush unicorn that reminded me of her.
Then I picked up a card, thinking if she’d been a prisoner her whole life she probably never had a proper birthday.
It took me way too long to find one with the right words.
I settled on one that said something about new beginnings.
Then I decided I’d have to wrap the stuffed animal.
Who didn’t want something to unwrap on their birthday?
When I left the store, I also had balloons, candles for the pie, sparklers for when it got dark and of course, some diapers and baby wipes.
When I made it back, I used the grill for the first time since we’d been here.
We ate at the picnic table with the baby getting fresh air too.
I made a big deal of putting candles in her pie and singing Happy Birthday.
I even filmed her blowing out the candles at her request. When she opened her gift, you’d think I’d given her a diamond, she was so thrilled.
It was truly a perfect day. We finished it by drinking some Champaign.
I couldn’t believe Halley hadn’t ever had a drop of alcohol before. I started drinking too young.
Eventually, the baby tuckered out for the night.
Halley got him situated inside. I laid down a blanket and sat on the swing, laying a pillow in my lap.
I directed Halley to lie on the swing, to lie her head down on me.
I was also right beside the window and could see her baby who was sound asleep.
She still hadn’t named him. Maybe she was waiting until we got to Arizona.
I could tell she cared for the child. She took good care of him.
He made her happy. The little darling was so cute, I couldn’t help to smile at his gurgles myself.
Halley and I talked half the night, about nothing until she asked about Arizona again.
“I’m not sure I want to be around bikers anymore.”
“I’m a biker. You’ve seen my cut.”
“You’re different. You’re sweet.”
She fell asleep. Determined to stay up, I just watched her breathe in and out.
She wasn’t scared of me. She trusted me enough to fall asleep and watch her and the baby.
Hours passed with me at total peace. Then I spent an hour thinking about how different Halley was from Anarchy.
Different in every way. Anarchy was one tough bitch.
She’d never sleep with her head in my lap unless she was passed out drunk.
She’d never tell me I was sweet. She’d never find pleasure in the simple things Halley did.
That was something Halley and I had in common, for now. I was enjoying getting to know her.
As I thought of what the next few days could bring, I heard a rustling.
My mind went to animals creeping around, and I thought I might have to cut our night short and take Halley inside.
My mind was made for me when I saw a flash of light, a flashlight.
I picked up Halley and got her inside. With my gun out, I guarded the door.
Although nothing came of it, I didn’t sleep.
I packed up the baby bag and our few belongings.
In the morning, I told Halley what had happened, that we had to leave. We ate quick, packed some food and left the keys inside the cabin as instructed for check out.
In the car, Halley hunched against the door scared. She cradled the baby. “Who do you think it was?”
“Not sure, but I’m not taking any chances.” We’d be taking the long way to Arizona. It’d take a couple of days, and I’d have to stop somewhere to sleep. We didn’t have a car seat. She’d been really worried about that, too.
She commented, “I’m a bad mom, already.”
I decided to take her mind off it and continue letting her get to know me.
“Never knew my mama, well that’s a fib I tell. I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone, alright?”
“Okay…”
I had her attention. “I’m a lost boy.”
“You mean like Peter Pan?”
“Nah, I wish I was joking. I had five mamas and one pa.”
“Say what?”
“My pa had five wives.”
“Oh, I see. Mormons?”
“But not all Mormons are polygamists, I hear, but my kind sure were. Never knew which of his wives was my birth mother.”
“So, it’s like you didn’t have a mother?”
“No. They were all mothers to me. Wonderful mothers.”
“Were? What happened?”
“What always happens when men want more than one woman. There’s too many men. Even potential men. My Pa threw me and some of my brothers out as soon as I was eight years old.”
“Some of your brothers. How many did you have?”
“I was the fifth of ten boys, eleventh of twenty-five kids. All five of us older boys woke up one morning not knowing it’d be the last time we saw our family.
The last time for a long time, we’d have a warm bed or a hot meal.
We did what we were told, as always. We were good boys, happy, too.
They loaded us on a bus with other boys from our community, telling us we were going to go work a job.
Nothing unusual to ship us boys out to raise a barn or two.
I’d have never dreamed… They dropped us off a state over like we were stray dogs.
The worst part was, it was days until we realized what had happened.
They’d told us to wait, and we waited. Just like dogs. ”
“That’s plum awful.”
“Sounds pretty bad, but it was probably the best thing to have happened to me. See, I didn’t know back then what I know now. I didn’t know my family didn’t treat me good, what freedom was. Never would’ve known if I’d been allowed to stay. I’d have been just like my father.”
“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t like having a bunch of wives, all taking a turn.”
I laughed. “I’ve had trouble finding one woman I’d want to settle down with.”
“Where are your brothers now?”
“Who knows. Real quick they scattered, all but one. The oldest, see I was the youngest, so he took care of me. He was seventeen but looked as if he was way older, like a grown man from all the hard work we did. He hooked up with a woman one night and left me with her. Said he’d be back, but he never came back.
She sort of claimed me after that. Told people I was her son.
She was good to me. I had a couple of meals and a bed, so I didn’t deny her relation.
Soon she hooked up with a man who rode with the Asphalt Gods’ MC, married him, and she never told him any different.
Wasn’t long before she hit the road, leaving me at the club with Edgar the Noose, my Stepdad by all accounts.
By that time, I was old enough to want to stay, to earn a patch someday.
The club didn’t kick me to the wind like my own family had.
Noose called me his boy, and I wouldn’t dare correct him and risk being thrown out. ”
“We kind of have that in common. Not knowing our family. Except I wasn’t so lucky with the gang I ended up with.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You rescued me…”