Chapter 17

Craig leaned up against the top rail of the corral with one boot-clad foot resting on the bottom rail. He was watching the mare they were trying to breed move around the corral.

He said, “Have you ever talked to the guy about his life back in Los Angeles?”

“No,” Donny answered. “Frankly, I’m not interested.”

Craig frowned while thinking about some of the things that Pepper had told him. “Do you know what the high point of his day was?”

“No,” Donny answered. He looked over at Craig realizing that something was really bothering the man. Deciding that it would be best to let him talk it out, he asked, “What was it?”

“Every morning on his way to work, he would stop at a coffee shop and pay four dollars for a cup of coffee. That was the high point of his day,” Craig said.

“Getting overcharged for a cup of coffee was the high point of his day?” Donny asked incredulously.

Craig said, “I swear listening to him talk about getting his morning coffee was like listening to Hank tell his story about getting that twelve point buck. He described the parking lot, the layout of the store, the people who were usually there in the morning, and how he ordered the coffee. He talked about taking the first sip of coffee and how good it tasted. Then that was it. He would get into his car, and go to work.”

“I enjoy my first cup of coffee in the morning,” Donny said.

He thought about how he liked drinking his coffee while looking out at the mountains in the distance.

“Is that the high point of your day?” Craig asked.

“No. It’s just the start of the day,” Donny answered.

Craig said, “He was telling me that he was afraid of half of the customers that came into his store. It seems that most of his clientele were drug addicts, drunks, or gang members. His store has been robbed over a dozen times.”

“Of course it has. He never did anything to stop it,” Donny said scornfully.

He didn’t think much of anyone who let others rob them.

“He doesn’t know how to stop it. The guy has never been in a fight in his entire life. They didn’t approve of such things in his school,” Craig said.

Donny laughed and said, “They didn’t approve of them in our school. That didn’t stop us from going out back, on occasion. My cousin Jack and I fought almost every week.”

“You don’t understand. He was never left alone to be a boy. There was always an adult around that would break up something like that. He’s totally defenseless,” Craig said shaking his head. He gave a bitter laugh, he continued, “I asked him to show me how he would throw a punch. The way he flailed about was like a first grader. I made like I was going to take swing at him and he dropped to the ground and curled into a ball. It was pathetic.”

“So he’s a coward,” Donny said.

“I don’t think he’s coward. I mean, he goes into that store every day, despite being afraid of his customers. That isn’t exactly being cowardly,” Craig said.

Donny said, “I don’t know what to think about that.”

“He knows the first time he stands up to someone that he’s going to get killed. Do you know that he’s been hit only a few times in his life? Once by Rose, once by Vincent, once by John, and twice by you! Rose and Vincent just gave him little taps up side the head without really meaning to hurt him. That switching you gave him was the first time anyone punished him with a whipping,” Craig said.

“So?”

Craig said, “It’s his imagination. He doesn’t know that if he gets hit it will hurt, but he’ll get over it. He imagines that pain is going to last for the rest of his life.”

Donny looked over at Craig and asked, “Are you saying that we need to kick his ass every night to toughen him up?”

“I’m not saying that,” Craig said. “I just think he can’t help being what he is. He just doesn’t know any better.”

“Maybe he’ll learn something out here,” Donny said. He looked over at Craig and could see that the guy was really bothered by this, so he asked, “Are you getting soft on the guy?”

Craig understood what motivated the question, but he didn’t like it.

He said, “I laughed as hard as anyone about him thinking he was digging a practice hole. Hell, I started the joke. Then I realized that I was laughing at him because he was ignorant and that was kind of mean. He really thought that digging a practice hole made sense. To him, it was no different than your daddy teaching you how to use a saw, by having you cut up a piece of scrap wood.”

“That’s pitiful,” Donny said. He looked over in the direction of the barn wondering how anyone could grow up that ignorant. He snorted and added, “Even a kid five years old wouldn’t fall for that.”

“It is pitiful. That’s what I’ve been saying,” Craig said. “He doesn’t know how to use a hammer, a screwdriver, or wrench. He’s never repaired anything, or built anything. He doesn’t own a single thing that wasn’t made in a factory. He can’t replace a light switch, or even change the oil in his car.

“Fixing something, to him, was making a telephone call to get someone to come fix it for him. He’s totally helpless. He really doesn’t know how to do anything. He was telling me that he even has a service that will come out and change a flat tire, if he has one.

“He can’t cook. Half of the meals he eats are frozen foods that he cooks in a microwave. It either comes out of a box, the freezer, or a can. He has never barbecued anything on a grill. A real meal, to him, is something he gets at restaurant or a diner.

“He wasn’t playing dumb that afternoon in the garden. He really doesn’t know one plant from another. He’s never had a garden. He’s never cut the grass. He had never seen a snake. God knows what he’s going to do if he ever sees a bear.

“The guy has never been out of the city. The first time he’s ever slept on the ground, was when you were bringing him here. He has never gone fishing. Hunting? The only animals he’s ever seen were penned up in a zoo.”

Donny shook his head in disbelief, and said, “No one can be that ignorant.”

“Do you want to know what’s really scary?” Craig said.

“What?” Donny asked.

“He’s not alone. The guy thinks he has led a normal life, because everyone he knows grew up the same way he did.”

“No wonder Los Angeles is screwed up, if he’s representative of the people there,” Donny said.

He had wondered about some of the things coming out of Washington, that he had watched on the news. It seemed to him that people had lost all common sense. This explained a lot.

“Digging that hole was his first real physical job,” Craig said. “I’m glad you had him do it.”

“If he hadn’t tried to kill me, we’d a dug that hole with the backhoe. It would have taken an hour rather than the whole damned day,” Donny said. “I can’t afford to have you standing around like that until Sonny gets back.”

Craig said, “We had to pour him into his bed last night, and feed him Ibuprofen this morning, so he could even move. He’s so stiff that it’s going to take him all day to muck out the barn. Pushing him to do more than that, today, would kill him.”

“I was going to send him out to the pasture to work on the bridge with Sam and Carl. I figured that he would help them build it,” Donny said. He was putting in a bridge over the creek to make a shortcut to the place he was going to lease. It would be a lot of work, but it would save a lot of time and money over the long run.

“Trying to manhandle a posthole digger would kill him,” Craig said. “I wouldn’t trust him with a chainsaw. He’s liable to cut his foot off.”

“We’ll send him out there tomorrow anyway. He can help carry the lumber,” Donny said. He shook his head and said, “What a miserable waste of a human being. I’m surprised we don’t have to wipe his ass for him.”

“It was your idea to bring him out here,” Craig said.

Donny said, “What could we do? He was going to get somebody killed, sooner or later. It was just a matter of time.”

“You’re probably right,” Craig said.

Donny said, “We thought it was stupidity. It’s just like that mentally retarded Sanders boy. Do you remember how he used to wander off? Everyone in the area would have to drop what they were doing and track him down. We gave him the job of taking care of the chickens over at Joe’s place. We pay him twice what the work is worth, and we treat him with respect. He can’t hurt anyone doing that job, and he earns a living. He’s happy.”

“I’ll never forget when he realized that all of those chickens were his responsibility. He grew a foot taller, that day,” Craig said.

“Yeah. They are the best cared for chickens in the whole county,” Donny said. “You can’t cure stupid, but you can keep it out of trouble.”

“That’s true,” Craig said.

“We didn’t realize Pepper was that ignorant,” Donny said.

Craig asked, “I’ve got to ask this ... why did you decide to bring him here?”

“When we were discussing what to do about Pepper, we were really at a loss at what would be the best thing for everyone involved. We all agreed that he was a danger to everyone around him. I can only imagine what Sonny must have felt like when he pulled that trigger, and the pistol went ‘click’.”

“I can guarantee that Pepper knows what that feels like now,” Craig said with a smile.

“Dan was so mad at Pepper about him not letting Sonny know the gun wouldn’t work that he wanted to kill him outright. I think he would have killed him if Sonny had died. I do know that if Uncle Dan had run into Pepper the night when Sonny was attacked in the hospital, that Pepper would not have lived to see morning,” Donny said.