Chapter 22

Pepper used the shovel to lift the horse manure off the bed of straw. He had it down to an art form after so much practice. The vet was supposed to come later that afternoon to check the mares, and to take the blood samples necessary to see if they were pregnant. After that, they would be returning the horses outdoors. The job of mucking out the stables would be significantly reduced.

A noise from behind drew his attention. He turned to look, and saw Dan standing at the doorway of the stall. The last time he had seen Dan, was when the man was stuffing him in the back of the sedan for the drive out here.

Fully expecting an uncomfortable conversation, he said, “Hello.”

“Hello, Pepper,” Dan said. He looked down at Pepper’s ankle and said, “That wasn’t my idea.”

“I know,” Pepper said. “Mrs. Daniels came up with it.”

“I’ll ask Craig to remove it,” Dan said.

“Thanks,” Pepper said.

He noticed that Dan looked a couple years older than the last time he had seen him. His hair was a little grayer. There were a few more wrinkles around his eyes. His eyes looked tired.

Pepper asked, “How’s Sonny?”

“He’s recovering,” Dan said.

“I was worried about him,” Pepper said.

Seeing the expression that flashed over Dan’s face, he added, “I’m serious about that. I worry about him.”

“Okay,” Dan said.

He knew that Pepper had good reason to worry about Sonny’s health, and it wasn’t out of concern for Sonny. His chances of returning to LA depended upon Sonny recovering.

“I don’t imagine he’ll be able to travel when he gets out of the hospital,” Pepper said.

“That’s right,” Dan said.

Pepper licked his lips nervously, and then said, “He can use my apartment. It isn’t much, but it does have all of the comforts of home.”

“I’ll let him know that,” Dan said surprised by the offer.

“I don’t know what kind of shape it will be in after sitting there for so long,” Pepper said.

He imagined that the entire place would be covered in dust. The food in the refrigerator would have turned bad, and that would make the entire place smell horrible.

Dan said, “Sonny stopped by and took care of it occasionally. He threw away the perishables, took care of the mail, and made sure the bills were paid.”

“That was nice of him,” Pepper said.

It was good to know that he wouldn’t be returning to a disaster at the apartment. With Sonny in the hospital, the odds were good that the place would have gotten a little dusty.

“A management company is running the store,” Dan said.

“I know. I signed the papers,” Pepper said.

“You’ve got two new employees. We had to replace you and Sonny in the work schedule,” Dan said. “Sonny interviewed them. He said that they were pretty good people.”

“Ah,” Pepper said.

He had been caught up in his own set of problems and hadn’t worried too much about staffing at the store. That was one of the things he was going to have to do when he returned to Los Angeles. Thinking about it now, he realized that there were a lot of things waiting there for him that required his attention.

He said, “I hadn’t thought about the need to hire more people.”

Dan said, “You can probably take a vacation after Sonny gets home. It seems to me like your business is doing fine and you can afford to take a little time off, after all of this is over.”

“I didn’t think of taking a vacation,” Pepper said.

He noticed the implicit suggestion that he was going to be staying there until Sonny returned. He prayed that nothing else would happen to Sonny.

“You can if you want,” Dan said. “On your way home you can stop and see some of the sights that you missed on your way here. There’s some of the most beautiful countryside in the world between here and Los Angeles. You have to stop at the Grand Canyon at least.”

“I might do that,” Pepper said. “I’ve never given much thought to touring around the country. It just didn’t seem necessary since I felt that everything I wanted or needed was in Los Angeles. I always felt that I could look at a picture or watch television and see the sights.”

“Do you still feel that way?” Dan asked.

“No. Some things need to be experienced to be fully appreciated,” Pepper said.

“Would you mind listening to a little advice?” Dan asked.

“I wouldn’t mind,” Pepper answered.

“Sell your store and move out of Los Angeles. Find a nice medium-sized town in which to open a new store and then move there. Los Angeles is going to burn one of these days and you don’t want to be there when it does,” Dan said.

“Why do you say that?” Pepper asked.

He knew that these country folks didn’t think too highly of big cities, but Dan was suggesting a bit more than the fact that he disliked it. He was making a prediction of a dark future for the city and the people who lived there.

“The criminals are in charge, there, and they know it. They are getting worse in the sense that the crimes are becoming more violent and more brazen. Sonny was sitting within a hundred yards of a police station when he was shot, in a drive-by shooting. The police can’t stop them. Actually, it would be more correct to say that the police aren’t allowed to stop them,” Dan said.

Pepper shrugged his shoulders and said, “For a long time the LAPD had the reputation as the meanest cops in the country. We’ve had riots because of the actions the police took. Maybe they have over-corrected the problem and become too soft, but they’ll toughen up after a while.”

“I think it runs deeper than that,” Dan said.

There was an intrinsic weakness within the good people of the city. They didn’t have the will to do what was required to protect themselves and the people around them. The situation would get worse before people would demand harsher actions to be taken. He feared that there wouldn’t be people left that knew how to defend themselves by that time.

Dan sighed and said, “It runs a whole lot deeper than that.”

Thinking it wasn’t worth arguing about, Pepper said, “You might be right.”

“I hear that you like fishing,” Dan said changing the subject a little.

“Yes,” Pepper said.

One of his fondest memories of staying there had been standing in the stream with the fly rod and pulling in that little trout. The idea that a fish would actually try to eat a fluff of feathers tied to a hook was incredible to him.

He added, “I’m not very good at it.”

“All it takes is practice,” Dan said with a smile. “Maybe we can go fishing before Sonny gets back. I think there is some spare gear around here.”

“That would be nice,” Pepper said surprised by the invitation.

“I better let you get back to work,” Dan said.

Pepper studied Dan for a moment.

The man looked tired.

There was a haunted look to his face that spoke of having done something horrific.

He knew a little about what the man had done in Los Angeles.

It dawned on him that his actions were weighing heavily upon him. One of those actions had been kidnapping him and sending him to Montana. He thought about his conversations with Carl.

Pepper said, “I forgive you.”

“Thanks,” Dan said softly.

Dan gave Pepper a curt nod of his head and left.

Pepper stood there for a second thinking about the discussion. In his first conversation with Dan, the man had spoken with an air of certainty about right and wrong. Everything was black or white. It seemed to him that that certainty had been robbed from Dan, and all he could see were shades of gray.

He softly said to himself, “You’ve been changed by Los Angeles, Dan Daniels. I do not know if that’s a good thing or not.”

Pepper had almost finished mucking out the stall when Craig stopped by. Craig held up the key to the lock on the manacle and said, “Let’s get that bar and chain off of you.”

“That would be nice,” Pepper said.

He lifted his pant leg to give access to the lock. The quicker it was removed, the better, he thought.

Craig looked over at Pepper’s ankle on which the manacle was attached. Pepper had a sock wrapped around the metal piece.

Curious, he asked, “Why do you have a sock wrapped around it?”

“It was rubbing my skin raw,” Pepper answered.

“You should have said something,” Craig said while removing the sock. He looked at the red raw skin around the ankle. Frowning, he said, “This doesn’t look good.”

“That’s okay,” Pepper said.

Craig removed the lock. He examined Pepper’s ankle a little more carefully. Pepper was lucky that it hadn’t gotten infected.

He said, “Come on over to the medical area. We’ve got some ‘bag’ balm that will fix that right up.”

“Bag balm?” Pepper asked wondering if he heard correctly.

“We use it on any cuts and scrapes that the horses or cattle get,” Craig said.

He was pretty sure that Pepper wouldn’t like to know what was being referred to by the word ‘bag’ in the name of the balm he would be using. Some folks didn’t like the idea of medicine that was used on a cow’s udders being used to treat them.

“I’m not horse or a cow,” Pepper said.

That whole thing about having to go to veterinarians for treatment seemed to be more than a threat, but a real possibility. He couldn’t imagine the kind of medical care that the people in the area received. It appeared that everyone out there knew more than a little about first aid and treating minor injuries.

Craig laughed and said, “Out here the distinctions can get a little blurred when it comes to medicating someone. To tell the truth, we use some stuff on animals that’s a thousand times better than what you can buy for people at a pharmacy.”

Pepper followed Craig into the medical area. He had never been in that room of the barn before. He noticed that they had a refrigerator, shelves with medicines, and medical instruments. It looked a lot like a doctor’s office.

He asked, “What’s the refrigerator for?”

“That’s for some of the medicines that need to be stored in a refrigerator. We also keep a beer or two in there for when the vet comes by,” Craig answered.

He pulled a small metal bowl down from one of the shelves. He filled it with a little water from the tap after letting the water run for a little bit.

“I thought you would take the animal to the vet,” Pepper said.

He may not have had a pet, but he did know that you took it to the vet to get shots and treatment when it was ill. Vets, like doctors, didn’t make house calls in Los Angeles. He wondered if the doctor out here actually made house calls.