THE SWEET LIFE

CHAPTER SIX

The following days brought a lot of hub bub. They made several trips into town to get seed for their pasture as well as all the seeds and seedlings for their garden and got it all planted according to the Farmer's Almanac they managed to find a copy of at the nursery. They planted potatoes, tomatoes, corn, squash, onions, peppers, carrots, three different kinds of beans and assorted other vegetables. They also decided to put in a melon patch and planted; watermelon, cantelope, and honey dew.
Another trip into town and they came back with six apple trees, three pear trees and several different kinds of berry bushes.

The day before they were to leave for Riverton to get Ennis's horses, they got their electricity hooked up. The cost was must less than Ennis had budgeted for and after a $300 dollar deposit, the rest was set to be spread out over their first years electrical bills. The pole was set up close to their well head with available outlets ready for use. They made a run into town and came back with a heavy duty extension cord that reached the distance to their campsite. They now had electricity.

They talked about a refrigerator all the way to Riverton. Jack saying they needed to get a new one and Ennis wanting to look for a used one first. Jack was wanting to go ahead and get a freezer too so when their vegetables ripened they could freeze some for winter.

They arrived in Riverton at lunch time and decided to go ahead and have lunch before picking up the horses. They sat in the small restaurant and ate their burgers when a small voice interrupted them with a harsh whisper.

"Ennis Del Mar; you got some nerve showin your face 'round here! What're you doin here in Riverton after just takin off like that without tellin no one?" Alma approached their table.

"Eatin my lunch." Ennis answered and took another bite of his burger though his appetite had suddenly diminished.

She snuck a quick glance over at Jack and he smiled at her. "Howdy, Alma. How're you doin?"

She ignored him and turned back to Ennis. "You ain't stayin here in town; not with HIM are you?" She hissed under her breath.

"Alma, where I stay and who I stay with is none of your God dammed business. Now if you don't mind; you're interruptin our lunch."

"Oh! You are so hateful! I'm glad the girls aren't here to see you carryin on with this … with HIM! You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

"Alma …" Ennis leaned over closer to her and spoke real low, "Fuck off! My boyfriend and me are talkin."

"Oooohhhhhh" she wheeled around and fled from the restaurant almost knocking over a waitress on the way.

They took their time and finished their lunch then had apple pie after. No one paid them any mind; even the waitress stood chewing her gum and fiddling with her nails while she waited for them to finish. No one even noticed Alma's little scene or if they did, they didn't care about it.

They picked up the horses and headed back. "I won't have no reason to come back to Riverton ever again." Ennis said once they were on the road.

"Oh I don't know; I kinda enjoyed the floor show at that restaurant." Jack grinned.

"Well, what would you have done if Lureen walked in on us?" Ennis challenged.

"She'd a probably sat down and had lunch with us."

"You shittin me?" Ennis stared at him.

"Yeah. In the first place, Lureen wouldn't be caught dead in a little mom and pop place like that restaurant. She's more the country club type."

"No kiddin? How'd you ever get hooked up with a gal like that?"

"She was into rodeoers back then."

"Not no more?"

"Nope. She's all into runnin the business and lunchin with her friends at the club. I never was into any of that shit. I went with her when I had to but I was always glad to get out of there.

"I still can't believe she let you go with all that money and no trouble at all."

"First of all, most of that money I earned myself; the rest of it I got from the sale of our house. We moved into L.D.'s place once he passed. And Lureen ain't nothin like Alma at all. All she wanted was for me to agree to let her tell folks the divorce was her idea and she said she'd get right on it. By the way; we need to check our PO box next time we're in town. I may already be a free man."

"You ain't exactly 'free' no more, Jack," Ennis reminded him.

"Bein tied up with you is the best thing that ever happened to me and as to the money, it's more than I ever dreamed of havin at one time but it ain't a drop in the bucket compared to what she got from her old man and her Grandma left her a pile too."

"She know what you're doin with the money?"

"What I do ain't nobody's business." Jack said.

"You told me that once before a long time ago. I didn't believe it then. I believe it now."

Jack said nothing; just reached over and squeezed Ennis's arm.


They improvised a canvas shelter among the trees for the horses temporarily and staked them out there for the time being.

They were in town at the lumber yard loading wood in the back of their horse trailer when Ennis said, "Uh oh. Here comes trouble."

Jack looked up to see Red heading in their direction; his two buddies hanging back leaning against their pickup.

Ennis braced himself for another go-round and stood waiting. Red walked up to him, head down, "I was hopin I'd run into you again." He spoke softly and kept looking around. "Look, about the other day at the auction …"

"What about it?" Ennis asked, hands on hips, ready for whatever was to come.

"I was drunk; you took me down with one punch. That ain't never happened before."

"You had it comin."

Red looked back at his friends then back to Ennis. "I did for a fact. I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. I ain't usually like that. My girl, Bitsy, dumped me night before the auction. I started drinkin and just kept on. It ain't no excuse, I know that. I ain't got nothin against the two of you. Honest. Hell, my uncle is gay and he's the nicest, bravest guy I know. He lost part of his leg over in Nam and still works his folk's place. He's a good man. I just wanted to tell you I was sorry. I acted like an ass. I don't remember much of it but my brothers there told me." He nodded towards the two waiting back at the pickup. "No hard feelins then?" He held out his hand to Ennis.

"OK. We'll let it go this time," Ennis shook his hand.

"There won't be no next time, I promise you that." He reached over to Jack and Jack shook his hand as well. "Hey, I heard you bought the old Chambers place. That's one beautiful spread."

"We just bought a small part of it."

"That's what I heard; the part south of the road. You got the best part. You got the woods and the creek."

"Uh huh."

"It ain't got no house on it though. You gonna build?"

"Haven't decided yet."

"You decide to build you give me a call. Me and my brothers'll be over to help. Shorty there ain't very strong but Mort there is almost as strong as me and everyone says I'm strong as a bull." He gave his brothers a whistle and they came over. "This here's shorty and this one is Mort. Gimmie a piece of paper," he said the last to his brothers.

"Ain't got none but our list." Mort said.

"Well gimmie that." He pulled out a pencil and wrote something down on the bottom and tore it off and handed it to Ennis. "You give us a call you need us. We'll come. We owe you after what we done to your gate and all."

"What you done," Shorty corrected him.

"Shut up. You shoulda kept me outta trouble so it's as much your fault as mine. Anyway, we busted the man's gate. We owe him." Then back to Ennis he said.
"Did you manage to get that gate straightened out?"

"Wasn't worth straightening out. We got a new one; a stronger one."

"Yeah, that fancy-assed gate wouldn't a kept a little old lady out. You want me to pay for it? I can give you a little each month if you want."

"No need. It needed replacin anyway."

"OK then. You get to buildin or need any muscle you call that number. Ya hear?" Red said as they started back across the parking lot.

"That was nice of him. You believe it?" Jack asked as they loaded the last of the boards into the trailer.

"Guess I do for now. He apologized and offered to make it right. A man can't do more than that."

Jack grinned as they got in the truck and headed home.


The next several months were filled with activity of every kind imaginable to them. A trip to their post office box found it stuffed. A large brown envelope from Lureen took up most of the space. On opening it after they got home, the first thing two pieces of paper fell out and fluttered to the floor. Ennis picked them up while Jack was looking over the divorce papers. He took dug out a pen and signed them without even reading them when Ennis said, "You'd better have a look at these." and handed them to Jack.

"$500,000!" Jack stared at the check and looked up at Ennis in shock.

"What's the note say?" Ennis prodded him to open the paper that had Jack's name written on it in lovely script. He imagined it to be a message from Lureen so didn't look at it though it was just a piece of paper folded over and not in an envelope of its own.

Jack flipped it open and read:

"Dear Jack,
Here's your papers. All you got to do is sign them and send them back. You know, I miss you already and it ain't been but a couple of weeks.
I decided to follow your lead and change my life as well. I'm putting the business up for sale and I've decided to do some traveling. It's what I've always enjoyed most so I'm going to do it since Bobby is off at school.
I'm enclosing a settlement check that I hope you will accept. I wanted to let you know that I appreciated the fact you let me tell everyone the divorce was my idea. You know, if you had taken me to court you would have made many times that much. I know the money never did mean that much to you but I figured you might need it for whatever your plans might be.
Jack, I know we never had no great romance between us but you were always there for me; more a best friend than anything else and I miss that a lot. I hope we can still be friends for Bobby's sake. He asks about you every time he calls. I hope you will make some time to come and visit him after you get settled.
I guess that's it. I just wanted to thank you for the way you handled all of this and to tell you if you ever need anything, anything at all, you just call me. I'll be there for you like you was there for me when I got pregnant. You didn't have to marry me but you did. I won't never forget that. I mean it, Jack. You need anything at all, money or whatever, you can count on me.
Be happy Jack,
Lureen"

He handed the letter over to Ennis and stuffed the divorce papers into the return envelope and licked it shut.

"Wow," Ennis said after a quick read and handed him back the note.

"She's a good woman, Ennis, and she was right; we were good friends. I didn't never love her – not the way I love you, but she was always good to me."

"I'm glad, Jack." Ennis said and he meant it. "I'm glad that all those years you was with someone who cared about you."

"You ain't mad at me? I mean, for still carin about her some?"

"Nope. Shit, Jack. Look how easy she made everythin for you. My divorce was a lot of screamin and yellin and cryin and name callin. I couldn't wait to see the last of Alma. She always made me feel like nothin I ever did was good enough. It made me feel like shit. I'm glad to know that your wife was good to you and that you didn't have to go through all that crap."

Jack grabbed him up in a bear hug and they stood there holding each other giving thanks silently that they were together and the worst was behind them.

The money put a whole new perspective on things. They thought of all the different ways they could use it and after several days discussions, decided to first of all, pay off the ranch. That gave them both a feeling of relief. The next was a house and a barn.

After a visit to a local contractor's office they had a double armful of plans to look over and spent another week deciding. The barn was easy enough to choose and they did that in just a few days. The house was more difficult. They finally decided on a 2,000 square foot place; three bedrooms, living room, kitchen, laundry room and two bathrooms. It had a nice country style to it with a large wrap around porch and looked like it would fit in with their site best of all. It was larger than Ennis had figured on but smaller than what Jack figured on so it was the perfect compromise.

For months there were workers all over the place; two crews; one working on the barn and another working on the house. They did the best they could to stay out of the way while at the same time, keeping an eye on things and tending to their place.

Their garden was thriving and Ennis finally agreed to the purchase of a new freezer to sit beside their new refrigerator which they managed to stick in one corner of their tent. It was quite crowded now but they didn't spend all that much time in the tent anyway. They were too busy with the running of the place.

Before the first snow fell, they were in their new home. A few trips into Sears and they got the furniture they needed. Ennis commenting that he'd never been in such a fine house before and Jack commenting that he liked the 'no decorating' aspect of their place and saying that Lureen always over decorated and every room and every wall had stuff all over it. His exact words on the subject were that "you couldn't spit in any room without hitting some fancy froo froo piece a shit." Ennis just laughed and told him he shouldn't be spitting in the house anyway. Jack commented that if he never saw another piece of purple velvet or pink silk again he could die happy.

A trip to the Big Horns in November brought them an elk and several fishing trips, where they actually fished, brought the need for another freezer; the first freezer being full of frozen fruits and vegetables from their garden. And a couple weeks of work filled their firewood racks on the side porch with enough to last the winter.

They spent long snowy nights in front of their fire place, going over auction houses reports and deciding where they wanted to go in the spring to start their herd. They studied items from the different seed catalogues and farm publications on what grew best in their area and what was best for the animals and they planned accordingly. Outside they had snow ball fights, made 'anatomically correct' snowmen and wrestled to the ground after Jack bit off Ennis's snowman's snow penis. That was followed by hot chocolate in front of the fire and more horsing around. Another time they made snow angels and Ennis fearing they looked too feminine found a branch, broke off a piece about six inches long and stuck it in his angels mouth claiming it was a cigar. Jack said if he wanted it to look more like a male he should put the twig much lower on the angel's body. A handful of snow down the back of Jack's neck as he moved the twig to his preferred location was followed by a tackle of fleeing Ennis, and a roll in the snow. And if any self-respecting angels were in the neighborhood, they were sure to be covering their eyes.

Spring brought another flurry of activities with more planting, cross fencing, and trips to the auctions where they chose the best animals that Ennis could find. On one buying trip to Cheyenne they ran into Mr. Cole, Ennis's old boss and were happy to find that he was doing well and that his son was turning into a fine ranch manager, filling in Ennis's old spot.