Beneath the Tombstone (The Tombstone Series) (27 page)

“Just
uh-couple uh-hundred acres,” Tyler replied. “But it’s not mine. It all belongs
to Rye.”

Jason’s
head bobbed back. “Rye?” he asked like he found that hard to believe. “How’d he
afford a place like this?”

Tyler
pulled the gate closed as he replied, “His father left him a large sum of
money.”

“Wow,
that’s cool,” Jason said, very impressed. “His father must’ve been a good man.”

“He
was,” Tyler replied in a voice that was void of all emotion. Turning away, he
trotted off back towards the holding pen.

At
noon they stopped for lunch. Susan warmed up leftovers that the two horsemen
had fixed for supper the evening before. After eating, Jason helped put all the
horses they’d worked that morning back into their stalls.

As
Jason was putting up the last horse, he saw Tyler putting a halter on one a few
stalls down. Without breaking his eyes away from his task, the tall horseman
spoke. “We’ve got a few two year olds left, and we’re going to work them in the
round pen; we won’t need you for that.” When Tyler went to lead the horse from
the stall, it refused to follow. “Somebody don’t
wanna
go to work today,” he chuckled as he walked around to the side of the horse and
pulled, forcing it to move its feet. After breaking the horse’s frozen stance,
it followed him as he lead it in a complete circle. As he headed towards the
gate once more, the horse followed him out with no more trouble.

“Anyways,”
he said, pausing for a moment by Jason, “we can handle this. What I want you to
do is run the loop once then do it again with those big rocks, just like yesterday.”

“Yes
sir,” Jason replied without hesitation as he headed up to his shed to change
clothes and shoes. “Consider in done.”

Several
hours later it was. Exhausted from the two trips, the last one made clutching
the stones, Jason trudged up the hill to his shack and plopped down on the
floor of the porch and leaned against one of the brace post. Several minutes
later, Tyler came trotting up on one of the work horses, dragging two
mattresses behind him by a rope.

Jason
was about as bug-eyed as the poor horse, who obviously was not overly confident
that the big bouncy thing following wasn’t trying to eat him. “Camping out?”
Jason asked, like he wondered if dragging mattresses around was a normal thing
that all real cowboys did.

“Crash
pads,” Tyler explained in a lively voice. “Those cliffs are no more than
fifteen feet up, so there’s no need to bother with ropes. We’ll just put these
at the bottom in case you fall.”

A
worried look came to Jason’s face. “Is that normal procedure?” he asked,
perplexed and more than a little concerned.

“Yep,”
Tyler replied with a proud smile. “Nobody uses ropes for bouldering.”

“They
use mattresses?” Jason asked, unable to believe it.

“Well
no,” Tyler admitted, looking a bit defeated. “Most people use real crash pads.”

“Real
crash pads?” Jason asked, his concern growing. “You don’t have any
real
crash pads?”

“Nope,”
Tyler responded, seeming like that fact really bothered him… but then a thought
seemed to brighten him back up. “But I have
two
mattresses,” he stressed
as he held up two fingers. “Might work even better.”

Seeming
not to notice Jason’s look of sheer terror, the tall cowboy asked, “You know
any stretches?”

“Yeah,”
Jason responded, having barely acknowledged the question. He was still back at
the last curve ball Tyler had thrown him, wondering if the mattresses would
save him.

“Do ‘
em
,” Tyler instructed. “Stretch every chance you get but
‘specially after workouts. Aside from strength, flexibility is the most
important asset to a rock climber.” With that, he bounced off down the path on
his frightened steed with the two mattress-demons following close behind. Jason
began his stretches as he watched Tyler depart.

Several
minutes passed by before the tall horseman reappeared. Trotting by Jason, he
said, “Head down there. I’ll be right behind you.”

A
little while later found Jason sitting on the mattresses that had been piled on
top of each other and placed against one of the cliffs. Soon, Tyler came
walking down the trail towards him. Honestly, Jason was surprised. He thought
there was some cowboy rule against walking except for in cases of extreme
emergency. But what was more startling than that was the fact that his hat,
button-down cowboy shirt, and boots were gone. Instead, he wore a T-shirt and
climbing shoes with his denim jeans. Of course, Jason realized it would be hard
to climb in a button-down shirt and boots, but he was still shocked,
nonetheless.

He
rose to his feet as Tyler walked right by, without saying a word, straight up
to a cliff that didn’t have the mattresses under it and climbed to the top like
it was no big deal. He then walked over to the cliff that had the mattresses
positioned below… and leapt off. He hit rump-first, bounced off the mattresses
and landed cat-like on the ground.

“Your
turn,” Tyler said with a laugh as he turned and saw the astonished look on
Jason’s face. Jason walked across the top of mattresses and, as he put his
hands on the cold, hard rock wall, the tall horseman said, “Just a second ago
you saw me use what is called
dynamic motion to get to the top.
Dynamic motion is when you use the forward momentum of an object to help it
along. I kept my body weight moving upward. Don’t try that yet.”

He paused for a moment before going on. “
We’ll begin with what is called the static technique,”
he explained. “Always try to maintain three points of contact as you’re going
for the next hold. In other words, if you’re locked into the side of the
cliff,” he said as he raised his arms, positioning them like he was climbing a
pretend rock, “and your next hold is up and to the right, you want both feet
and your left hand in some sort of a hold before you let go with your right
hand to reach for it.” He was silent for a moment then added, “No desperate
moves now, you hear? I want to see slow, deliberate, well thought out climbing…
now go for it.”

Jason
did. “You’re doing good,” Tyler encouraged after Jason became stalled halfway
up the face of the cliff. “Do you see that next hold up and to your left?
Remember what I told you? Three points of contact – nice and easy.”

Jason
obeyed.
Right foot solid – Left foot solid – Right hand solid…
and then
he went for it. As he reached up with his left hand, the added strain was too
much for his right. Slipping, he felt himself fall before landing in a heap on
the mattresses. Sprawled out, he bounced few times then lay there for a moment.
It seemed that the two mattresses combined did actually make a pretty good
crash pad.

“Good,”
Tyler said calmly. “Now try it again,” he ordered, and so Jason did… again… and
again… and again, falling every time.

That
night at the supper table was special with Ken and Susan there. She had fixed a
wonderful meal and insisted that one of the men needed to bless it. Jason and
Tyler just looked at one another uncomfortably before the tall cowboy turned to
Susan and admitted, “I
ain’t
done that in a while,
ma’am.”

Susan
just smiled sweetly and said, “Well, it’s just like riding a bike. God’s
hotline is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”

There
were a few moments of awkward silence before Tyler bowed his head. “Dear Lord…
It’s been a while. Um, thanks for the food and, uh… Amen.”

“Amen,”
they all chimed in, Ken especially loud.

The
supper smelled wonderful, and everyone began talking in a lively chatter as
they dug-in… everyone, that is, except Tyler. He silently rose for his place at
the table and wiped his eyes with his shirt sleeve as he walked outside. After
a moment of looking at the door with concerned filled eyes, Susan also rose and
followed, leaving Jason sitting with Rye and Ken in awkward silence.

“I
have to go to the bathroom,” Ken spoke loudly after a moment, making Jason jump.

“You
know where it is right?” Rye asked kindly.

“Yes
sir,” the boy replied but made no move to get up.

“Go
ahead,” Jason directed.

“Thanks,”
Ken said with a smile as he pushed his chair back and headed to the bathroom,
leaving the two slightly amused men behind.

When
the boy disappeared around the corner, Jason looked at Rye. “What was that
about?” he asked as he nodded towards the door.

Rye
ran his fingers through his hair as he looked over at the door. “Tyler and me,
we’re from South Texas, and back a few years ago he, um, well he went through
some really hard times.” The conversation seemed to be making the young cowboy
a bit uneasy. “He made some mistakes – one really big one.” He shook his head
as he went on, “And now he doesn’t seem to be able to let himself off the hook.”

The
young horseman gazed silently at the door for a moment before turning to Jason
as he added, “To make things worse, when the opportunity came for him to redeem
himself, redeem himself is exactly what he did… but it cost him someone very
close.”

“Who?”
Jason asked, completely absorbed in the young man’s words.

“Kate…
his fiancé,” Rye responded quietly. “One of these days, he’s
gonna
have to let her go. She left him when he needed her
the most. She tried to make it right,” he sighed, “but you can’t take back the
past.”

He
turned away from Jason to the door and gazed thoughtfully at it for a moment.
When the young cowboy turned back, he looked deep into Jason’s eyes as he said,
“No matter how wild things get, you never bail-out on those you love. Turns out
Tyler had a very good reason for his crazy actions.”

For
every answer Jason got, two more questions were born, but Ken returned at that
time and sat down to eat, stopping any further questions from being asked.

“So
how’s that little girl friend of yours doing?” Jason asked, giving the boy a
sly grin.

“Not
too good,” his nephew replied quietly. “She said her daddy
dudn’t
wanna
play with her much no more.”

“I’m
sorry to hear that,” Jason replied solemnly. “Do you have any good news?”

“I
made it to second base,” Ken said with a little grin.

Rye
cocked an eyebrow. “A little young for second base, aren’t you?” he declared.

“He
plays baseball,” Jason explained quickly, afraid that Rye was about to give Ken
the sex-talk.

“Oh,”
Rye said with a hint of embarrassment in his voice. “Good sport.”

“Well,
good job on second base,” Jason said as raised his hand and gave the boy a fist
bump.

After
setting silent for a moment, thinking about what Ken had said about the girl,
knowing how it felt to have a parent removed from the life of a child, Jason
asked kindly, “So how’s your friend handling the deal with her dad?”

“Not
too
bad,” the boy replied. “He did get them a dog. I think that really helped.”

Jason
nodded his head in agreement. There was nothing like a good dog to comfort a
broken heart. And, of course, that led him to think about Dixie. She had been
an awesome dog, but Jason knew it was time to let her go. He had to let
everything go. His love for Dixie. His hate for Denton. If he was to get to the
sunny side of the Tombstone and save Misty, he would be forced to leave all of
his past buried there.

About
that time, Tyler and Susan returned to the table like nothing had happened. A
short time later, Tyler got up from the table and groaned. “Boy, that was
good,” he sighed. “I’m stuffed.”

Susan
turned from washing dishes and smiled. “Glad you enjoyed it,” she said in a
happy voice.

“Well,”
Tyler said, looking around at the others, “
y’all
want
to help Susan do the dishes or head to the living room with me?”

“I’ve
washed enough dishes to last me a life time,” Rye said with a laugh and,
judging by the look on Ken’s face, he was going to follow the “other” cowboys
wherever they went.

The
three of them headed towards the living room, but Jason hung back. “I’ll be
right there,” he assured the guys.

After
they disappeared, he turned to Susan. “What happened outside?” he asked.
“What’s the deal with Tyler?”

Jason
saw a look of happiness come over her face. “He was once a follower of Christ!”
she exclaimed like it was the happiest news ever… then her face brightened even
more as she added, “And he’s thinking about coming to church sometime! Isn’t
God awesome?” she asked in awe.

“Yeah…
totally,” Jason replied, his lack of enthusiasm evident. “Um, what was it about
praying that got to him?”

“Prayer
is a strong thing,” Susan explained and, judging by the sound of her voice, she
left no room for argument. “When I found him outside, he was in tears,” she
went on. “Remember what happened this morning… that thing with his past? He
told me everything. You were right when you said that good people make
mistakes,” she said then went back to washing dishes like she was finished
talking.