Depression by cmsix

Chapter 16

When we got back to my house, to pick up George's fifty-six, I decided to back the reefer into the garage and drop the trailer. It wouldn't hurt a damned thing to have it inside and I wasn't short of space. Of course, Meka was ever so glad for me to hold Tutsie while she took her turn with the hand crank. George smiled so wide about it I was afraid he'd break his face.

Meka and I boarded the tractor then and we left, with George trailing us. As we neared his house, Meka decided she could use a sip or two of Coke so we pulled in and parked.

George and I agreed we could hold some coffee too and into the house we went.

"Have you finally got done with Jerry?" Ethel asked.

"Near 'bout. He had the new truck done just right, we just gotta bring it over here first so John can move his and Meka's things to it before we take the other tractor to Jerry," George said.

"Move what things?" Ethel asked.

"I just need to move the few clothes from one truck to the other, and then I'll take the sheets off the old bunk and make up the new one, in case we have to go somewhere while Jerry is working on the truck we've been using," I said.

I knew right away that I'd said something wrong, and then it came to me. Ethel, and Wanda too, were swelled up like I was a contract worker trying to scab in on their union job. I knew there was no way out of this mess except take the tongue lashing I was probably about to get.

"You just do your truck drivin' part and bring the new one over to park right by the first one. Me and Wanda'll take care of the moving to make sure you don't get in over your head," Ethel said, and I considered myself lucky to get off so easy.

I know damned well that Meka couldn't have understood any of what Ethel and I had been talking about. She didn't have any trouble with understanding the tone though. When I looked at her she even gave her head a sharp nod, as if to say, " I guess she told you."

I guess she had at that. I tried to keep a meek and chastised look on my face and I think I did a good job. I didn't give a rat's ass if Ethel and Wanda made me let them make up the bunk. Please, Mrs Ethel, please don't throw me in the briar patch.

George and I tried to leave like our tails were between our legs, but I had the feeling that he was having a hard time keeping from laughing too. Meka strutted out behind us with Tutsie in her arms; she didn't even fuss about having to ride in George's airseatless pickup. Of course that could have been because she was plenty high enough to see out from sitting in my lap.

Jerry had a new bright idea when we got back to pick up the other tractor. He wanted me to hook the log trailer and fold the pole to make sure everything fit right.

"I got it as close as I could, but we won't know for sure until you load it. Might have to slide the fifth wheel forward or back a notch or two," he said.

I didn't see where it would hurt anything so I backed the truck toward the trailer. He had it hanging from a regular rack that he'd built, instead of from a tree, and I was just as glad.

When you hook a pole trailer that's hung from a tree, you have to be careful and not hit it hard enough to break the limb off. Just for safety's sake I had Meka take Tutsie and go stand with George, about a hundred feet away.

Everything went fine when I hooked the trailer and I got onto the back to connect the brake lines and the pigtail. When I did I noticed Jerry removing a big two-inch diameter pin from the main hinge, where the pole connects to the front bunk.

"What's that Jerry?" I asked.

"It's something that goofball X bullwhacker of Granderson's came up with. He must have seen it on another trailer somewhere, because there wasn't enough left between his ears to think of it on his own," he said.

"Maybe so, but what's it for?"

"It locks the front hinge when you want to unhook the trailer. You don't have to worry about the damned stakes falling over and bustin' your head," he said.

"I'll be damned, that'll be handy."

"It will for you for sure. Just keep it greased so you can get the pin in or out when you need to, and take it out as soon as you're done with it. If you try to load the trailer with it in there you'll tear up the hinge in a heartbeat," he said, and I could see that he was right.

We were set, so I pulled forward until the trailer had straightened out behind me, and then backed up and yanked down on the trolly valve to lock the trailer's brakes. The pole jumped up in the middle and in a few seconds the trailer's wheels were off the ground. I kept backing until they settled against the trailer ride's bumper and then stopped and set the tractor's brake.

"Worked just like it's supposed to," I said, to Jerry, when I got out.

"That's what people hire good welders for," he said, smiling.

George, Meka, and Tutsie came back over and Meka was still wide eyed over the trailer's antics. She watched fascinated while I hooked the winch line to the pole, near the middle hinge, and let the winch pull it down into its cradle. After that I slung the tie chain over the pole and bound it all down tight, letting off the winch line's tension as the last step. Then I realized that I hadn't intended to take the trailer with me.

"You gonna go ahead and take it with ya?" Jerry asked.

"I hadn't intended to, but I bound it down without thinking. Old habits die hard I guess. We'll just have to find a tree over at George's place to hang it in," I said.

"Well ya can, but you don't really have to. That's another thing that big pin is good for. You can go ahead and drop the fifth wheel down on an old tire and the pin will keep the stakes from giving you grief. They'll stand up straight," he said.

"I guess it'd be all right, but we don't have a loader to help hook the trailer again," I said.

"It would be better with a loader, for sure, but with that cover plate over the end of the frame rails, you can use the winch to lift the fifth wheel and bunk high enough so's you can back right on under it," he said.

I'd never seen anyone do that before, but when I looked it over I thought he had something there. Hell, I'd give it a try if I ever wanted to haul logs again, hell of a big if though.

I thought I'd finally confused the new garage doors when we went back to park the truck. The door in front of the reefer trailer started up and I guess that whatever worked them couldn't tell the difference between a normal tractor and one with its pole trailer loaded on its back.

Shame on me, and what the fuck is going on; both those thoughts flashed through my mind. The reefer trailer was gone. How did that happen?

When I looked more closely, I could see that there were two eight inch by five foot pipe stands sticking straight up, exactly where they'd need to be for me to hang a pole trailer off them, they seemed to be set into the concrete floor.

I finally decided that there must be some kind of elevator arrangement for the garage too, one to take the trailers somewhere else for storage, as in, put them in the basement somehow.

I was beginning to feel like I was a mouse in a maze, trying to find my way out, or was it in? Except new turns kept springing up and there was cheese for me everywhere. At least I had sense enough to know that someone wanted me to unhook the pole trailer and put it in this new rack.

"Daddy, what?" Meka asked when I drove into the back parking lot and hopped the curb, driving out into the pasture a little way.

"I have to unload the trailer?" I said, and she didn't understand of course.

"I'll show you," I said, and that satisfied her.

I did a show and tell for it, even though I knew she couldn't understand the tell part. She liked watching the trailer come off nearly as much as she liked seeing it loaded though, so everything was fine.

When I backed into the open bay, I lined the front bunk up with the poles that had appeared and we got out. Chains were already hanging from the big pipe stands and I disconnected my brake lines and pigtail and barely remembered to put the big pin back in the hinge.

After hooking the chains to the bunk, I popped the fifth wheel. Meka, Tutsie, and I got back in the truck, and I pulled out leaving the trailer hanging. The door started down as soon as we were out.

"What we now, Daddy?" Meka asked.

"Let's go see George and Ethel," I said, and Meka smiled.

Meka, Tutsie, and I were good to go now, and we got in our truck and shut the left door.

She was happy, since we were still truck riding, and she played with her air seat a little, just for drill I guess. Maybe she was making sure the one in this new truck worked as well as the other one. Suddenly I noticed her looking at the dash, right near the middle. She demonstrated her new command of English then.

"Where CB?" she asked.

I might have known she wouldn't miss anything.

"We have to go get it," I said.

"Good, we go Clay's. See Janice too?" she asked.

"Yes, we have to get our other trailer," I said.

"Good. Janice meet Tutsie, Clay too, maybe," she said, and then grinned.

"We go Clay's in morning?" she asked.

"I guess we can if you want to," I said.

"I want. Tutsie want too," she said.

Well, that was that.

Ethel, Wanda, Geneva, and Carolyn swarmed us when we pulled up beside the other tractor. They already had it stripped, with our things in boxes. I could see that they had a completely different set of sheets and coverlet for the bunk, new pillows too.

"T'other truck's done empty. No need fer you two to tarry, George is already gone and probably waitin' to bring you back," Ethel said when we got out.

"Ok, then, we we'll be back in a few minutes."

"You and George don't have to waste no time hidin'. We'll be done here in a few minutes and there's no chance you'll have to work, so come on back," Ethel said, and then the four of them laughed, even Meka was grinning and I'm not sure Tutsie wasn't.

George was waiting for us and Jerry took over the truck as soon as we unassed it. We piled into George's fifty-six and headed for my place.

"How'd you get rid of that pole trailer so fast," George asked.

"You might get to see when we're back to my garage," I said.

"What do ya mean, I might?"

"Just wait til we get there and I'll try to explain what I know about it," I said.

I knew I was being a little mysterious for George's taste, but damn. I still wasn't sure I didn't make it up.

No matter what Ethel had said, we went to my garage and as we pulled up the mystery door opened. The pole trailer was gone too.

"Hey, what happened to the reefer trailer?" George asked.

"You're behind times, George. The reefer was gone when we got back with the pole trailer," I said.

"Well where did you put the pole trailer, now that you mention it. I don't see it anywhere. Is it out in the pasture?" he asked.

"Nope. My guess is it's with the reefer."

"Humor an old man, how 'bout it. Give me a hint," he said.

"There's an elevator under the garage too, or that's my best guess anyway. When Meka, Tutsie, and I got back with the pole trailer, the reefer was gone and there was a stand here to hang the pole trailer on. That's where we left it," I said.

George was still scratching his head and I thought I'd be scratching my ass in a minute. Then Meka spoke up.

"Daddy, look," she said.

George and I both did. Meka was pointing to the inner wall of the garage, right beside where the door opened. There, glowing like our handprints had been near the other doors, were line drawings of the pole trailer and the reefer trailer. She put her hand on the reefer and an alarm type sound came from somewhere.

It must have been because George and I were standing in the part of the floor that wanted to move. We went to stand by Meka and sure enough, the floor started sinking.

Of course we looked into the open shaft that was appearing before out eyes as the floor sunk away. When we did we could see the reefer trailer off to the side of the shaft, probably fifty or more feet below the floor.

When the empty floor slot got down to that level, it started moving sideways and the reefer started moving sideways too, right into the space the empty section had just occupied.

"That's the damnedest thing I eve saw," George said.

"It gets my vote too."

Meka just smiled wide, no doubt proud of herself for finding the controls. I was proud of her too. We kept our eyes glued to the reefer though, until it was back where I'd first left it.

To me it was too much to even be amazed about. I don't guess it was any more surprising than anything else, but it was bigger. There wasn't a damned thing I could do about it either way anyway. What the hell, the way George had been buying trailers, we'd need the space.

"Looks to me like you got more room below than I thought. I can remember being down there in the basement and I didn't see anything like that. Besides, that looked a lot deeper than the basement seemed," he said.

"You know as much about it as I do," I said.

"Supper time," Meka said, and damned if she wasn't right.

George went on in his fifty-six. Meka, Tutsie, and I took the Hum-V pickup and followed. I dawdled to let George take the brunt of any grief over us being gone too long.

Everything was merry when we got there though. Supper wasn't quite ready but most everyone was already sitting around the table. Doctor Jorge was telling them that he felt much better already, after only a few hours on his diet. He even looked a little thinner but that wasn't possible.

I really felt sorry for Doctor Jorge when the peach cobbler and ice cream came out, after we'd finished with the roast beef and such. He and Tutsie were the only ones that didn't eat much peach cobbler and Jorge was the icecreamless one on his own. Ethel did have some kind of low calorie sherbet for him, but I just knew it wasn't the same.

Tutsie got a chance at the peach cobbler, but I think Meka had stuffed him with roast beef. He did lick up all his ice cream, but all he did with the cobbler was lick around on the syrupy part, and he didn't even clean that up. Meka even turned down the offer of a mug coffee. She'd made a pig or herself too on the roast beef.

I got the two of them to the house and in bed, making sure they both made trips to their respective places to take care of business. Meka could barely make it to her bed after she was done. I tucked them in, gave Meka a kiss on the forehead and poor Tutsie was already asleep before he could give me a goodnight lick. I felt I could probably get by.

The thing was, I wasn't sleepy, at all. I didn't even undress, just went back to the armory to poke around some more.

I didn't find anything new and exciting but I did get a better handle on what I already had. One thing that I'd noticed but hadn't paid much attention to before was the web belts.

I know you're probably thinking a web belt is a web belt; I did too. They didn't think that way. The belts looked pretty normal until I picked one up and put it around my waist.

The first thing I noticed was no adjustments for size, but it wasn't needed. When I put one on it seemed to adjust itself to me. Sorta like elastic, but not exactly. It just seemed to get itself to the correct size and stop. Hell, it was a lot better than the one I had.

I put a standard holster on it for a Glock, over my right hip. Then put on a holster for the Diamondback in the cross draw position. I liked it so well I decided I'd start using it instead of the one I had.

Fiddling around, I found a couple of pouches for extra rounds for the Glock and a few of those speed loader pouches for the Diamondback, with speed loaders and ammunition already in them. I took the whole thing up to my bedroom with me, along with a pair of the new night vision goggles. I even got a pair of the goggles for Meka.

Funny, but I felt sleepy now and I showered and went to bed.

Meka and Tutsie roused me a little after midnight. It was time for Tutsie's late night stroll, no doubt. I at least put on some pants this time and pulled on my boots, without socks. Just as we were walking out of my bedroom I remembered the goggles.

Hoping Tutsie could hold it; I showed them to Meka and then put a pair on her. As expected, they fit her fine. I was proud of myself and even strapped the new web belt around my waist before we left.

Meka took Tutsie well out from the door and the little fart wandered even further tonight, sniffing and really just fucking off, to my way of thinking. We hadn't been following him and suddenly Meka grabbed at my hand.

"Daddy!" she shrieked, pointing toward Tutsie.

I'll be damned if there wasn't a coyote heading right for the little fart. I didn't have time to think, just yanked out the Diamondback, thumbed back the hammer to track, and then fired.

I know it was a lucky shot but it did the trick. In the lightweight Diamondback's frame the 357 Magnum round kicked back like a mule. I was right on the money though and the bullet knocked the coyote ass over teakettle. It didn't even wiggle after it hit the ground.

Meka took off for Tutsie as soon as I fired; he was whimpering and whining, until she picked him up. I'm sure that poor Tutsie wasn't even aware of the danger from the coyote; he was probably just terrified from the report of the Diamondback. I saw that everything was fine and went to check out the coyote.

No wonder he didn't move after he was hit. My snap shot had taken him right in the chest and gone the length of his body, through him. He two assholes now and the new one wasn't leaking shit, blood was pouring out of it. I decided that any company we had from now on was just going to have to watch its step. Tutsie would be doing his business a lot closer to the house after this.

There was no sense in trying to get him to go now either. He was scared shitless, shivering to beat the band. We went back into the house and Meka sat down on a couch and held him in her lap, trying to sooth his nerves. I had to go find my cell phone because I could hear it going off from out here.

"What you shootin' down there, John?" George asked, after I said hello.

"We were taking Tutsie out for a bathroom break and a coyote got after him. We'd better send it to a vet to have it checked for rabies. They don't usually come up this close to people when they're in their right mind," I said.

"You're right 'bout that, I'll call the vet in the morning."

"Good, but right now you'd better get back to sleep. If anyone needs their beauty rest, it's you," I said.

"Look who's talking," he said, and hung up.

Meka left Tutsie with me and went to her bathroom. I could tell that she was over the fright from the number of flushes. I guess some toys just stay fun.

She was happy and smiling when she got back and Tutsie was feeling better now too. We went outside again and he was still a little skittish. He did his jobs in record time and he didn't stray far.

Of course it was everyone in my bed for the rest of the night and Tutsie didn't stint me on the face licking this time.

When we got to Ethel's house the next morning, Doctor Jorge had already had his Wheaties, or whatever, and left for his walk. He was probably trying to avoid the temptations of Ethel's breakfast feast.

Meka gave Tutsie some cut up waffle this morning, to go along with his bacon, sausage, and sunny-side-ups. I noticed that she packed in even more than she usually did herself. Maybe she was gearing up for the trip ahead.

She needn't have worried since we had plenty of traveling food packed and ready for our trip. George asked me what I'd done with the coyote and I told him where I'd left it, which happened to be right where it had died. He said the vet would be over in a while to pick it up and send it off for testing.

After putting the even bigger ice chest into the truck's sleeper, we said our goodbyes and loaded up for the trip. It was pretty uneventful this time, since there was no radio for Little Queenie to use spreading her good cheer. From the sound of it, she was spending most of her time teaching Tutsie the Caddo language.

I don't know who was happiest when we got to the trailer place. Meka was tickled to see Janice again and Janice seemed thrilled to see her and to meet Tutsie.

I was thrilled to see Janice too, mostly because I was seeing more of her this time. Her blouse this morning was not nearly as modest as the one she'd had on last time. I could see plenty of cleavage in fact.

Her skirt was a lot shorter too and it let me know that her legs just had to be some of the best I'd ever seen. When she bent over to let Tutsie give her face a lick, I saw titties for days and my jeans started getting tighter in front for some reason.

I tried to get hold of myself. There was no sense in getting worked up over how good Janice looked, she wasn't a day over twenty-one and that was way to be young to be interested in an old fart like me.

There wasn't much hope for me though, since, James, the suede show operator from last time, had left the company and Janice would be dealing with us today. She took us out to look the trailers over to make sure they'd suit Ethel, or Mrs Ethel as Janice called her.

I got another surprise when we got to the other reefer and bullrack George had bought. The reefer was the same as the other one and all the wheels matched the ones on our tractors, but the bullrack had been polished, all over. I had a hard time believing it.

"What's the deal with the bullrack, how did it get polished all over?" I asked.

"Mrs Ethel asked us to get it taken care of for her. She said that she didn't really like the dull look the other one had," Janice said, and I could tell she was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

"If that's what she wants, who am I to argue. It looks good but it must have been a whale of a job for the polish man," I said.

"Polish men," Janice said, "it took four of them a week. Even the top has been done."

"I guess I'd better take the bullrack back first then, so I can get it out of the weather," I said.

"You have a building to park the trailers in? I got the idea that they didn't even use them much," Janice said, frankly amazed.

"You might not believe it, but we even park our pole trailers inside," I said.

"Pole trailers?" she asked.

"You must have seen one before, the kind for hauling logs," I said.

"Oh," she said, no doubt she didn't believe that we kept them inside.

"I think I'll take the reefer this time anyway, I'll just try to get back out for the bullrack before it rains. We've still got a few hundred miles to go west and the extra mileage would probably kill the shine as much or more than sitting here would. If she intends to keep them this way all the time she'll have to hire a man full time to do it anyway," I said.

We went back into the office since I had to sign for the trailer. It was already paid for and I guess my signature was just to confirm that I'd hauled it off. I was very glad that we had to do this after it was over, since Janice had to sit down and dig around for the papers and lecherous old me got another good look at her cleavage and even a near panty shot from her short dress.

It was over too soon though. Meka, Tutsie, and I got in the truck and got those big wheels rolling. Next stop, Clay's little radio shop.

When we got there Clay wasn't around but I'd called not long after we started this morning and the installation buy was ready for us. Meka, Tutsie and I stayed in the sleeper while he worked and we made roast beef sandwiches until we couldn't hold any more. Tutsie was in hog heaven, and we even managed a short nap.

When the guy was done, we all took a bathroom break and then headed home. Our trip was uneventful, except for Meka's radio conversations, which were understandably shot. We even got back to George's house in time for supper.

Since I wasn't tired at all, we all decided that Meka and Tutsie should sleep at George and Ethel's house that night and I could see about getting rid of some more varmints. Joe Bob, Jasper, and Jeffry could use the exercise and it probably wouldn't hurt me either. I wasn't just making excuses to try my new goggles; I promise I wasn't.

I really wanted to use one of the new 270s tonight but I hadn't moved the day/night scope to one yet. What the hell, I'd have time to do that and sight it in too, since I had the indoor range. I took the Mauser down to the new armory and was about to take the scope off it when the lights went out on me. They came back in about ten seconds but I wondered what in the hell could have caused that.

I bent to my job again and the lights went off again and then came back after ten or so seconds. It dawned on me that they weren't going off accidentally, They were making them go off. With a wild leap of intuition, I grabbed one of the 270s out of the rack and put it to my shoulder, looking through the scope.

The lights went off again and I thought I understood the message They'd been trying to give me. I could see as well through the scope as I could through the goggles they'd sent. There was no need to take the scope off the Mauser because the ones on the rifles I'd been given were better by far. It made me wonder about the rig for the camera then and I started poking around in the cabinets, looking for something that might fit on the Nikon.

They hadn't been as chintzy as that. I found a brand new camera that looked suspiciously like the Nikons but not exactly. There was only one lens with it but it was long like my zoom lenses. When I had it unpacked from it's box, I put it up to my eye and the lights went down again. Of course it looked perfect, and when I twisted the adjusting band it zoomed, of course.

This would make my life a lot simpler. I could ride Job Bob with the goggles on, and only hang the camera around my neck, instead of two different sets of night vision binoculars. I made sure I was taking the 270 that I'd already sighted in and left with it, some ammunition, and my new camera.

Joe Bob, Little Missy, Jasper, and Jeffry all nickered lowly when I walked into the barn. I'd been feeding them regularly but I got the feeling that they figured we'd be going for a ride and were happy about that. I got them all dressed for the trip, but when I looked at Little Missy before we left I could see that she wanted to go to. What the hell, I put a halter on her and tied her behind Jeffry, who'd been the last in line.

I knew it was too early to be starting out, but I did anyway. I was anxious to give the goggles, and all the new things, a test. I was right too, about it being too early. We rode around in the dark for nearly three hours before I caught a hint of motion probably five hundred yards off. One thing the new goggles didn't have was magnification.

I took the 270 out of the Mauser's saddle scabbard that I'd pressed into service, and put it to my shoulder, turning the band for maximum magnification before I did.

Whoa, it was a lot more powerful than my other riflescope, too powerful really. I could nearly count the whiskers on the coyote I saw, but I was waving the thing all over the place. I got down and hoped that Joe Bob would stand ground tied for at least a little bit.

Waling about fifty feet from the horses I lay down in the tall grass and looked again, adjusting the scope's magnification downward this time, until I had a good and fairly steady sight picture. I guess the coyote had smelled me or seen me or heard me or something, because it was sitting on its haunches and looking right toward where I was. It probably knew it was safe at this distance.

In a few seconds I taught him how wrong he was, but it was the last thing he'd ever learn. I got up and went back to Joe Bob, sliding the 270 into the scabbard and mounting up. I didn't see anything else on the way.

I'd hit the coyote in the neck and it was just as well. The shot had broken his neck and also cut an artery. He'd bled out before I even got to him. I tied him to Jeffry's packsaddle and only Little Missy objected this time. She snorted when she smelled him.

When I was riding again I cursed myself for not trying to take a picture first. I just hadn't thought of it. About an hour later I did get a picture of an owl, in a tree. It's hooting had clued me in time to get the shot. I wasn't out here to kill owls though, so the picture was all I shot.

We flushed another coyote about thirty minutes after the owl. I didn't have time to even unlimber the 270 but I'd been close to it before it ran and I yanked out the Diamondback and gave it a try. It was probably stupid of me to do it, but there was no real harm done - none to me, the horses, the mules, or the coyote. I didn't hit within ten feet of it.

That was enough for me though and I rode back to the barn, giving the stock a scoop of whole oats each for their trouble. I left the coyote near the barn's magic front doors and went on into the house, showered and hit the sheets.

Damned if I didn't dream of Janice that night and I'm probably lucky that I didn't wake up with a mess on my sheets. She'd been being a very naughty young receptionist.