My Indian

A/N: Thanks for the lovely reviews!
KD...hope you like my lil explanation! ;-)



Three

I wandered back into the house with a sore ass. Been a while since I was last in the saddle and I could feel the bruising up to my coccyx. Amongst other things of course.

I looked like a bandy-legged toddler and Bella must've thought the same as she watched me, sweet sympathy for the city-boy flooding her eyes.

"How's your first day, sweetie?"

"Good," I swallowed, trying to sit down carefully.

All in all, it'd been good. Rex had run me through hoops to find out my ability and I was impressed at myself for all I could remember from my years of helping out. My final test had been the mucking out, although there were strict instructions to leave that wild mare alone.

He’d watched me closely, that Native man and I tried to watch him too. I knew exactly what they meant with his skin and his eyes, but he wasn’t all Indian. ‘Specially with a name like Rex.

Bella snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Heard a rumour,” she said, pulling a shirt from the laundry and preparing to iron it. “That Rex let you in with Pride. That true?”

One of those long dark eyebrows was raised as she waited for me to answer.

“Yeah. Let me in, see what I could make of her. Managed to get the saddle on her for bout two minutes, tha’s all. Why?”

She whistled and grinned, “Rex don’t let anyone touch that horse. Franklin tried to settle her down when she got brought in, but ended up makin’ her worse. Only ever seen Rex look after her, try and tame her. She’s like the wind, that one.”

I sat staring at her face a lil’ confused.

“Babe, don’t look like that!” she laughed. “I’m just stunned is all. I mean I know he’s been working hard to get her to soften up but I didn’t think he’d gotten that far with her. Anyway, that’s enough of stable talk, you got fresh towels in your room now, and I put some spare sheets in too. Don’t worry bout laundry, that’s my business,” She nodded to the pile of shirts. “So you just bring it down when you need to and I’ll sort it out, ‘kay?”

“Thanks,” I said, bowing my head.

“Oh sweetie, you need a hat, can’t go round that place with a Texas sun on your head.”

She vanished for a few minutes, although I could still hear her rustling about. I tried to think about what she said, about the horse, but in the end I just accepted that he’d been working on the girl and was making progress, wanted to see how she was doing rather than testing me.

“Here.”

Bella handed me a crisp, clean, grey cowboy hat. Looked like it had come straight out the box. There’s one thing to be said about us southerners…we know how to make a damned fine hat.

“Hope it’ll fit ya. Bought it for Lyle some time ago but he ain’t gettin’ his head in the damned thing.”

I took the felt and placed in top of my blond head, hoping to God it’d fit. She was right; the heat on the back of my neck had been something else. I’d be red in the morning.

Fit like a charm.

“There now,” she said, tucking her hands in her pockets. “You’re a real Rancher now, Zack.”

I grinned up at her, “Then why does my ass hurt like all Hell?”
**
I had plenty of questions asked of me at the dinner table that night. As a jug of molasses was passed from hand to hand everyone wanted to know about Pride. I didn’t know what to say, merely shrugging my shoulders and saying, “She’s a fine horse” or “I guess I’m just lucky.” Wilkes looked at me a little sideways.

“You know, I’ve been wantin’ Rex to let me take a look at her for months now. Wonder what you got about yourself, boy.”

“Aw, leave it out, Wilkes,” Bella laughed out. “The poor kid just wants to eat. Pride ain’t as much of a free spirit as she used to be.”

“You kiddin?” Lyle said, pouring on his black syrup. “She almost had Rex on his ass the other night. Heard him cussing the stars for hours!”

“Well, I don’t know,” I said, my voice timid amongst the family. “I mean, if I’d stayed in any longer she’d have had me.”
There was a small silence. They didn’t believe me. And from their talk I almost didn’t believe it myself. I’d been trusted with a wild horse by a man who trusted no one with the beast.

“Enough now,” Bella said, smiling beautifully. “Eat up, big day tomorrow.”

Again the talk turned to business.

**

I went to go clear up with Bella, but she slapped my hand away, “You go on and get. I can handle this.”

Wilkes’s wife, Ann-Marie came in at that point, carrying a toddler on her back. She gave me a gentle smile and began helping with the dishes. I left the ladies to it.

Some of the men went upstairs to their beds, the voices a grumble of the early start they’d have to make yet again. I thought of following them, my aching muscles and tired eyes yearning for a place to rest and unwind. However, I had other ideas.

I knew I’d probably get a harsh word or something like for heading out and talking to the foreman (particularly given his distaste of conversation) but I wanted to talk to him.

He had Pride out in one of the enclosed fields. She was running free, her body feeling the breeze.

I could just about tell in the dark that he had a cigarette lit, his hat pushed back on his head. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to say to the man, I just knew I wanted to say something.

“Thank you for letting me get close to her today,” I said, my voice a little louder than I’d expected.

Rex turned on me, startled. He recovered, his face turning dark again. He locked people out with that face, it was easy to see. I couldn’t tell if it was apathy or just indifference, but it was unusual to me. I was used to the brash city types that once you showed interest, they wouldn’t stop talking.

“Ain’t nothin’ special,” he said, inhaling his smoke.

“Ain’t what I heard. The others say you don’t let anyone go near her. Wilkes said – ”

“Wilkes is a coward. She’d eat him as soon as get a sniff of him.”

I watched him for a minute. He’d barely flinched as he spoke, the words just tumbling out of his mouth.

“Well, even so. Thanks. Guess I needed to prove my worth somehow.”

Silence was my reply.

“I don’t mean to pry,” I said, taking a step closer. “But the others said you had some Native blood in you. What tribe you come from? Some of my friends come from Shawnee stock and they always talk about it.”

He turned to me then, and those dark eyes looked at me, hard and intense. His tongue flicked out, wetting his lips before he turned back to the horse’s merry dance.

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “Like I said, didn’t mean to pry. G’night Rex.”

I started to walk away.

“I ain’t all Indian,” he said. “My mom’s Apache, Chiricahua – Geronimo’s tribe. Family came from Arizona. My daddy on the other hand’s from an Irish settlin’ family. I got most of my looks from mom, but some things – they’re all pa’s.”

He pushed his hat off and ran fingers through that soft, curled hair. The hat was returned and so was the silence.

“Thanks,” I said, leaving the foreman and his horse.