"What?" "That you're changing his name to John?" "I'm not changing his name to John, he's still gonna be called Coty, and yes he knows.  He LIKED the idea." "But it WAS YOUR idea...wasn't it." "SO!" "So did you maybe pressure him a little?" "NO I didn't pressure him.  Now give it back before you get grubby little fingerprints all over it," he said taking it from his hand. "Get off his back Chet," Mike warned. "Yeah Chet, I think it's great!" Marco said emphatically. "I already SAID it's great," Cap said to no one in particular. "Let's see," Roy said reaching for the letter.  "Looks good, congratulations." Johnny smiled taking it back and looking forward to having the boy's name changed at the school.  No more report cards or reading awards that said 'Coty McConneley' instead of 'Coty Gage'.                         ~/~/~/~/~ Chris turned off the television and slumped into a kitchen chair to watch his mother cut up some carrots.  The morning after his birthday party, Chris had bubbled on for hours about how much fun he'd ended up having.  But from that same afternoon on, he'd been pouting ever since. "Nothing on TV?" Joanne asked. "No," Chris moaned picking up one of the carrots to play with. "You could play with your sister." "Please, I'm ten now you know." "I know." "He forgot," Chris mumbled unhappily. "Who forgot?" "Johnny." "What did he forget," Joanne asked though she already knew the answer. "About me working out there this summer." "Chris," Joanne started after putting the carrots down, "things are very different now since Johnny told you that, right?" "Yeah.  He's got his OWN son now." "Yes he does.  But I don't think that's the only reason Johnny hasn't asked you to come work out there this summer." "I know!  He forgot!" "No...he...Johnny's not one to forget.  He's probably hoping YOU forgot." "Why?!" "Johnny...I know it's hard to understand because it seems like grown ups have all the money in the world, but that's just not the case.  Absolutely everything costs money, and a lot of it.  That's why we're always after you and your sister to turn off the lights when you're not using them, and to keep the refrigerator door closed, and to not run the water all day.  Johnny has a ranch and now he has a little boy.  I honestly think he just doesn't have enough money to pay you with anymore." "He doesn't have to PAY me!" "What?" "I don't care if he pays me!  I just wanna go out there.  I figured if I worked for him, I could get to ride the horses all the time, instead of having to beg you all the time to take us out there.  If I got a job there, I could ride my bike and go whenever I want!" "You're not interested in money." "No!  I want HORSEBACK riding lessons again!" "You were getting horseback riding lessons back then!" "I KNOW.  But only when you SAID!  I didn't know he was suppose to PAY me." "But you said last year you wanted to get a job." "Cause Johnny was saying he might need a ranch hand." "This this whole thing was YOUR idea, not Johnny's." "Well I thought it was, and I thought he liked it, but now..." "Well Chris, if you still want to be a ranch hand, you should probably go to the Ranch you like and try to work out some sort of trade!" "Huh." "If you want a job Chris, go ask for one.  You can't expect Ranch owners to just hand you one on a silver platter, now can you?  You don't think any other ranch hands get their jobs that way, do you?" "No." "So show up at the Ranch, and see if there's any work for you to do.  That's how the real ranch hands do it!" "Johnny's gonna think I'm weird." "Don't be ridiculous.  I'm sure Johnny will know exactly what you're doing."                          ~/~/~/~/~ Johnny fumed as he put one of his horses through its paces.  An hour earlier he'd picked Coty up from school and found him with a swelling lip. "Gidup!" Johnny shouted getting the horse to change directions.  He regretted letting Mike talk him out of selling the horse.  At the moment he wondered if he shouldn't sell them all and try sending Coty to private school, but a voice in his head told him it probably wouldn't be any different. A cloud of dust moved down his long driveway toward the house.  Johnny squinted trying to see what it was since it was far too small to be a car.  As the dust settled, Johnny could see Chris looking into the house from astride his bicycle.  Johnny narrowed his eyes, surprised since never before had the boy come out to the ranch alone. "Everything okay Chris?" Johnny asked loudly, letting the horse go and opening the gate to walk toward him. Chris dropped his eyes to his handle bars and raised them again as Johnny grew closer.  Behind him, he could make out Coty sitting on the fence with a washcloth pressed to his lip. "I said is everything okay?" Johnny asked again. "Yes Sir." "Sir?!" "I was wonderin if...maybe there was any work out here that needed doin'." "Doin'?" Johnny laughed. "Yeah, any sort of ranch hand work." 'Oh no,' Johnny thought to himself.  "Well uh...there's plenty of work actually but...I really couldn't afford to pay you much." "Oh I'm not after money.  Actually I was hopin' to get some riding lessons maybe.  Maybe a few potatoes here and there?" Johnny tried hard not to break into a fit of giggles.  "Well uh...how many ridin' lesson's do you think you'd need to muck out some stables and keep the horses fed twice a day." "Oh maybe four of five." "Five!  Well I...I have business in town overnight now and again, so uh...some of them lessons might have to take place more than one in a day, would that be all right?" "Yep, that would be fine." "Does your mo...do you have any references I could call?" "References?" "Yeah, say any blond-haired ladies in town that might vouch for what kind of a worker you are?" "Oh yeah, I got one of them." "Well how bout you jot down her name and number and I'll see what she has to say about cha.  I can't go hiring just anybody to work out here you know." "Not a problem, you got some paper?" "Step inside." Chris grinned as they walked into the house.  It had been a hundred times easier that he'd thought.  In the backdoor way, he saw Johnny's replica staring at him.  Chris smiled, but the boy only frowned. "Tell you what Chris, why don't you go get started while I call this number," Johnny said taking it from him though he'd had it memorized for years. "Yes Sir!" Chris agreed happily heading out to the barn past Coty. "Oh Chris?" "Yeah?" That there is my son, John Coty Gage.  He's half owner of this ranch, so you treat him with respect just like you would me, understand. Chris nodded.  There were always rancher's sons.  "Yes Sir I will," his answered, his enthusiasm not the slightest bit diminished. "Sir," Johnny muttered, "hope he gets over THAT quick." Out in the barn, Chris felt himself being watched.  Standing in the doorway, Coty watched him with his arms folded.  The kittens surrounded the other boys feet, howling for food.  Chris reached up to grab their feed pan and bring down their bag of food. "I feed the Cats," Coty told him taking the bag. "Yes Sir," Chris agreed moving to feed the horses. "Don't call me Sir." "Okay." "Hey Coty?  Where did you go?" Johnny shouted out of the house. "He's starting to feed the horses now Dad!" Coty shouted back. "No!  Chris?" "Yeah?!" "Muck out a stable or something!  It's too early to feed them!" "Yes Sir!" Chris shouted back.  Coty watched as he picked up a shovel and started to clean out the dirty hay. "You can have THAT job," Coty muttered under his breath and he moved away. "Sissy," Chris giggled quietly. "What did you just call him?!" Johnny asked standing the doorway. "I didn't--" "You call that respect?!" "I was just joking!" "Were you joking when you threw rocks at him too?!" "I'm sorry for that!" "Can you do one thing Chris?  Can you just tell me why?!  Why do you kids...hate him so much?  What did he do?!" "Nothing!" "Then WHY DO YOU ALL PICK ON HIM!" "I don't anymore!" "You just DID!" "I didn't mean to!  I was just kidding cause he didn't like the smell of the hay!  I didn't mean ta--" "But what about the other times?!" "I don't knooowww!" "There must be SOME reason you kids single him out." "His clothes maybe!" "His clothes?!" Johnny asked skeptically. "You always make him wear dress pants." "He's got jeans on right now!" "To school!" "Those are just slacks Chris, they're not dress pants." "They LOOK like dress pants!  Everybody else wears jeans!" "Jeans?" "Yeah.  And no kid would be caught dead wearing penny loafers, no boy anyway.  Everybody else wears sneakers!" "When I was a kid.  Those kind of shoes were strictly for gym class.  You weren't allowed to wear them outside or they wouldn't let you on the gym room floor." "But that's all anybody wears now.  You have one pair for gym and another for everyday." "You're telling me you kids beat him up over clothes?!" "No.  Not only!  He just looks kinda like a geek." "A geek.  What on earth is a geek?" "I don't know.  Somebody that nobody likes!" "Because of clothes." "And his hair." "What's wrong with his hair?!" "Nothing except he's always got oil in it." "That's to keep it combed while he's at school Chris, so he doesn't--" "But nobody DOES that!" "Doesn't your mom care what you look like when you go to school?" "Yeah.  She still won't let me wear a t-shirt even though most of the other kids wear them.  But she let's us wear jeans and sneakers, you know she does.  You've seen us before school!" "I know I have but...I never really noticed that much.  It's can't be just about clothes." "Well he was also in smart reading." "So, being smart in reading is bad?" "It is when Travis is in dumb reading.  Besides, all the other kids in there are geeks!" "WHAT MAKES THEM GEEKS?!" "I don't know!  I don't think they are anymore!  Honest!" "All right...all right.  I'm sorry I yelled.  Just...don't do that anymore, not even in joking.  You've lost the privilege of trying to joke with him that way by what you did before.  Understand?  I'm not holding a grudge, just don't do it anymore." "I won't.  I'm sorry." "You didn't say it to me." "I'm sorry Coty." "All right...well, see what you can do in here and I'll go make some lunch.  I don't know about you but Coty and I haven't eaten yet." "Yes Sir." "Chris, you don't have to call me Sir.  And uh...after lunch we'll see about getting you your first new riding lesson." "Okay," Chris agreed bravely. Coty trailed his father into the house and Chris slumped down in the stall to cry.                         ~/~/~/~/~ "Dig your knees in Chris," Johnny ordered as the horse carried the boy around him at the end of a rope. "I am." "No, you're...whoa," he called stopping the horse.  "Your knees Chris," he told him pushing his left knee toward the horse.  "You're digging in with your feet." "That kinda hurts Uncle Johnny." "I know.  But it will stop once your legs get limbered up again.  It's my fault, I let you go too long between lessons." Chris looked over at Coty riding his dirtbike on the hill.  "You got kinda busy." "Yeah.  Yeah I did.  You ready?" "Yeah." "You okay?  You know I'm sorry right?  I really didn't mean to yell at you like that.  It's just that you were there and now these other kids are...but that's but your fault and I'm sorry.  Okay?" "Okay." "All right.  Up!" he called getting the horse to trot again. The days passed and Chris found himself liking the Ranch more and more.  Any day that Johnny was off, he'd ride his bike out early in the morning and Johnny would take him home later that night.  Being out there so much, he couldn't help notice the occasional skinned elbow or slightly bruised eye on his uncle's son.  He knew Johnny no longer blamed him, but he felt guilty about every new mark just the same. Chris started to put his horse away after another riding lesson.  He watched the boy at the top of the hill getting out his frustration by repeatedly jumping his bike on a small ramp Johnny had put up for him.  The way he rode it looked exhausting, but he could go on for hours.  Chris watched as the bike went higher in the air than he had ever seen it go, slip sideways, and disappear down in the tall grass with its rider. "UNCLE JOHNNY!" he screamed as loud as he could.  "UNCLE JOHNNY!" Johnny raced out of the house, a dish towel still in his hand.  "What is it?!" "Coty just fell!" "Where?!" "Up there!" he shouted pointing. Johnny dropped the towel and ran up the hill, Chris following at his heals.  At the top they found Coty pinned by his bike, and trying to spit dirt out of his mouth. "You okay?!" Johnny asked taking the bike off of him. "Yeah," he puffed. "Get the wind knocked out of ya?" "Yeah," he puffed again. "All right, just give it a few minutes till you catch your breath," Johnny told him rubbing his back. Chris watched the boy struggle to breath until it finally relaxed to normal. "Okay, you ready?" Johnny asked after giving him a solid once over. "Yeah," Coty agreed. "All right, ride it in," Johnny told him starting it himself. Coty's arms were shaky as he took the bike and did as he was told.  Chris couldn't believe his uncle did what he just did.  If he'd taken a fall like that, the last thing he'd want to do would be to get back on the bike. "He's tough Chris, don't worry about it," Johnny said as if he could read Chris's mind. "But--" "When a horse throws you, what to you do?" "Get right back on?" "That's right.  Except Coty isn't that keen on the horses yet.  For all I know he may never be but...the point is he needed to get back on...see?" "Yeah." "Uncle Johnny?" Chris ventured to ask once he'd gathered up the courage, "I work for Coty too, right?" "Yeah, I guess so.  Like I told you, it's just as much his ranch as it is mine." "Well...I was thinkin...maybe I should...I'm bigger than he is and...well I was thinking maybe on the days you're working, I should be out here working too, so Coty doesn't have to do everything by himself." "He doesn't muck the stables Chris.  All he has to do is keep everything fed and let the horses into the pasture.  They come in by themselves for him so he doesn't even have to herd them.  Why they do that for him I don't know since half the time they ignore me!" "Horses are smart." "Yeah they are, and they never give him any problems." "Still, I was thinking maybe...what I could do while you're working...is on the days you do...maybe I could meet up with Coty at the school and then come out here with him to feed the horses and stuff." "Meet him at school?" "Yeah, you know, be there when he gets out and then--" "Beth's been taking him home." "I know, but she's late sometimes, right?  I'd never be late." "She's not late on purpose you know, it's just that her job--" "I know, but since I work for him too..." "Then how would you get home?" "Well...ranch hands live on the ranch usually right, so maybe I could just stay over night." "That means you'd be spending even less time at home though you know, I don't know if your mother would--" "We could ask." "Coty's fine out here by himself.  He doesn't get into trouble and I don't have to worry about him.  If I say don't do something he just plain doesn't do it.  He doesn't even ask why." "I won't get into trouble Uncle Johnny." "Yeah, what's the first thing you're gonna do with that dirtbike of his when there isn't an adult around?" "I wouldn't touch it cause it's his and he's the owner." "What if you asked him and he gave you permission?" "HE'S not even allowed to ride it when you're not home." "That's not what I asked you." "I wouldn't touch it Uncle Johnny, honest." "What about the horses?" "I'd take really good care of them." "What about riding them?" "Not unless you're here." "What about just for a minute, just into the barn from the pasture." "If it's not allowed, I won't do it." "Do you think it would be allowed?" "No." "If you want to stay overnight so bad, let's start by your doing it while I'm off.  You might not even like it out here like that and then you'd be calling your mom in the middle of the night to come get you.  And she's gonna hafta give you permission first too." "But what about Coty after school?" "Are you really concerned about that?" Johnny asked a little surprised. "Yeah," Chris admitted shyly. "Well...let me think about that for a while."                         ~/~/~/~/~ A few days later, having gotten permission to stay overnight like a real ranch hand, Chris road his bike down the long dusty driveway.  It had been harder to steer with his sleeping bag strapped to his handle bars than he'd of liked to admit, and he was glad he had finally made it.  As it was, he was so thirsty he felt he could drink an entire well dry.  A few feet in front of the biggest front window, placed strategically to catch the breeze, laid Coty's cot.  On top of it, Coty laid face down, undressed save for a pair of shorts.  Chris frowned a large round bruise on his back, and quickly looked away as the guilt washed up into his ears.  Looking again, he could see Coty was asleep, so as quietly as he could, he set down his sleeping bag and tiptoed out the back.  In one of the stables, Johnny was angrily shoveling out the dirty straw to replace it with clean. "I'm here now Uncle Johnny, I'll do that." "What?!" Johnny asked, startled out of his thoughts. "I'm here now." "Oh.  Well...you been in the house?" "Yeah, just for a--" "Well stay out of there today, okay?  Coty needs to get some rest." "Yes Sir.  He was sleeping when I went in there and I was careful not to wake him up." "He was still asleep?" "Yeah." "Good...good...well...all right, go ahead and...clean out the stables," Johnny said somewhat reluctantly handing over the shovel. While Chris worked, Johnny stood staring off into space.  The look on his face made Chris work as quietly as he could. Johnny told him they'd wait until things cooled off before he gave him a riding lesson and went into the house.  Chris kept working, determined to act like a real ranch hand. A few hours later Johnny returned jingling his keys in his hand.  "Chris?" "Yeah?" Chris asked putting the finishing touches on his work. "I have to run into town for a minute.  Coty's still asleep so stay outta there." "I know." "Well, if you have to use the bathroom at all go ahead, but be quiet about it and stay out of the living room." "I will." "All right, well...you finished already?" "Yes Sir." "Huh...well...take a break then or...what did you bring to sleep on tonight?" "My sleeping bag." "That's it?" "Yeah, I can sleep on the floor." "I don't have another camp cot," Johnny said more to himself while scratching his chin. "That's okay, the floor is fine." "Well...how would you like to sleep on a bed like a real ranch hand would use." "Really!?" "Yeah really.  Let me look in the house for a minute." Several minutes later Johnny returned with a number of burlap bags, a very large needle, and some twine. "Here you go," Johnny said grinning widely.  Chris looked at him at if he'd lost his mind making Johnny laugh.  "No you're not sleeping on the sacks, now watch.  This is a darning needle.  You take the twine like this...see?  And once you've got it threaded, what you do is take the bags...see...and sew them together like this.  Got it?" "And then what?" Chris said very skeptically. "Well then you leave an opening here...about this big...and you pull the whole thing inside out through that opening so the stitches are on the inside.  Then what we'll do is stuff it full of clean hay, and then you sew it shut.  Make the stitches neat though, or all the hay will just start coming out the sides." "Isn't a girl suppose to do the sewing?" Johnny giggled till he lost his breath.  "No Chris, real ranch hands make their own beds out of anything they can get their hands on, trust me." "And this is going to be better than just sleeping on the floor?" "Oh yeah...trust me will ya?" Chris took the sacks and looked at the needle.  "I've never sewed nothing before." "Well just do it like I showed you and it'll come out find.  It's not like it has to be pretty or anything.  But be careful not to pull the twine to tight of leave it to loose, okay?" "How do I know if I--" "Just make sure it's taunt and keep going.  I've got to get to the store.  Man it's hot out here," he added wiping the sweat from his brow." "It sure is," Chris agreed. "All right...you can do this on the porch where it's cooler, but be quiet about it and don't swing on the swing.  Coty's right inside the window." "I know." "And get yourself some water." "Can I get a pop?" "Chris...I don't have any pop." "That's okay.  Real ranch hands drink water anyway, right?" Johnny tried to smile but didn't answer as he left for his old Land Rover. Up on the porch, Shawnao did no more than look at the boy before laying his head back down.  Chris checked the dogs water dish to make sure it was still full before creeping in to get a glass of water and bring it with him out on to the porch. Chris stared hard at his hands, trying to get them to sew the stitches as evenly as his uncle had.  The first ones he thought looked pretty pathetic, but as he kept at it, they started to look better until by the end, he was quite pleased with the way they looked.  Examining the entire end result, he found himself wishing he could do the whole thing over. "Nooo," came a soft cry from inside the window. Chris sat still, wondering if he had accidentally said anything to himself out loud. "Leave....mmm...'lone!" Chris looked down the driveway for the Land Rover to reappear but found it still empty.  "Come on Coty, wake up," he whispered quietly. The air grew quiet again until Chris was sure he was sleeping peacefully once more.  His certainty faded when Coty rolled to his side to try and push away some invisible thing in front of him, and let out a sound of frustration and fear. Chris slipped in through the window, wondering if he should try and shake him.  "Come on Coty, just wake up," Chris pleaded under his breath. Again the boy thrashed in his sleep. "Coty," Chris said more loudly. "What are you doing!" Johnny hissed standing in the doorway with his arms full. "He's dreaming!" Chris whispered loudly back. Johnny set the bags down and walked over to the cot. "Coty wake up," he said calmly. "NO!" "Come on...it's all right...it's just me...it's all right..." Coty blinked into his fathers face and wrapped his arms around the man's neck.  Closing his eyes again,  rested his head against Johnny's shoulder. "Chris, could you take the groceries into the kitchen and bring a glass of water?" Chris nodded and picked up the bags.  He couldn't help peek into them to see what Johnny had bought.  His groceries didn't look like his mom' at all.  Nothing but some milk, bread, eggs, potatoes and a few other things of no interest to a kid.  He found himself feeling glad he WASN'T Johnny's son. "Chris?  The water?" Johnny called when it seemed to be taking him too long. Chris quickly set the bags down and turned on the tap. "Our of the fridge Chris, that way you won't have to wait so long for it to get cold." Chris opened the refrigerator door and discovered the orange juice pitcher contained water.  He poured a glass and brought it to the living room. "Thanks," Johnny said trying to push Coty away from him a little.  "Come on tiger, you're getting awfully sweaty here.  Drink some." Coty sleepily drank from the glass and then laid back down and closed his eyes. "What happened?" Chris asked unable to miss seeing a dark bruise underneath Coty's right eye. "I don't know," Johnny admitted as he smoothed the sweaty hair back off his son's forehead. "Is he okay?" "Yeah but...he hasn't been sleeping very good lately.  I don't know...I think maybe I'll just keep him home tomorrow.  I'm off and..." "It's just math anyway.  I could teach it to him!" "You could huh," Johnny smiled, again surprised by the change he saw in Chris.  The boy was definitely maturing. "I'm GOOD at math.  I got another award at the end of the year!" "Yeah I know, your dad showed me.  I've been meaning to congratulate you on that." "Coty got another reading award." "I know, it's on the fridge." "Oh yeah," Chris agreed as he remembered seeing it just a few minutes before. "How's your bed coming?" "I don't know," Chris told him now feeling uncertain he'd done it right. "Well let's go take a look at it and let him sleep, okay?" "Okay." "Well that's pretty good!" Johnny told him holding it up. "It didn't start off so good though," Chris said still displeased with the end result. "You won't even know the difference," he promised.  Johnny pulled the sewn bag inside out and motioned for Chris to follow him out to the barn.  "All right," Johnny said handing Chris the bag and starting to climb the ladder to the loft, "I'm gonna throw down some hay and you start stuffing it in there, okay?" "Okay." The moment Johnny stepped on to the loft, the loft gave way under his feet, sending him and the ladder crashing to the floor.  Chris jumped safely out of the way into an empty stall and waited for the dust to settle while he tried to catch his breath. "Johnny?" he called not seeing anything moving around him.  "Johnny?"  All the hay from the loft now lay in the bottom part of the barn, covering most of the floor.  Chris pushed some of it out of his way as he tried to get out of the stall.  The loft now hung down at an angle by it's rear bracings alone.  It had come to rest on the top of one of the stalls, which had stopped it from coming down completely.  Moving some more hay, Chris uncovered part of the ladder, and underneath it, one of Johnny's legs. "Uncle Johnny?" he called again as he tried to unbury him. The man coughed out some dust and pulled some of the hay off of his head.  He tried to push himself up with his elbows to get his face out of the dirt. "Are you okay?" Chris asked. "Yeaaah," he wheezed much in the same way Coty had when he'd fallen off his dirtbike. "Johnny?" "Okaaayyy," he wheezed again. "Uncle Johnny you're bleeding." "Okaay." "You're bleeding a lot!" Chris told him as the blood started to form a pool on the floor. "Where?" he asked as he tried to roll over to take a look.  "Oh man," he groaned.  Chris...I don't feel so good," he puffed as his eyelids fluttered and his eyes rolled back in his head. "Da-ad?!" Coty called on his way into the barn having been awoken by the crash.  "DAD!" Chris froze, not being able to think of what to do. "What happened?!" "The loft fell!" "Well get that OFF of him!" Coty ordered pulling at the ladder.  The moment the pressure came off the man's leg, blood began to spurt across the floor and Coty froze wide eyed. "WHAT DO WE DO?!" Chris screamed. "THE BUTTON!" "WHAT?" "THE BUTTON UNDER THE SKIN!  WE HAVE TO PUSH ON IT!" Coty shouted back, dropping to his knees.  He ignored the blood that sprayed across his face, and began pushing on his father's leg beneath the open gash.  Still the blood kept coming.  "WHERE IS IT?" he cried. "I think it's higher!" Chris said vaguely realizing what Coty was talking about from boy scouts. "Between the heart and the cut!" Coty cursed himself as he repositioned to push on his fathers leg above the knee.  He arms shook violently under the heavy pressure he was trying to apply.  Fearful tears streaked down his face as the blood stopped spurting. "Now what?" "A turkey net!" "HUH?!" "A turney thingy...I DON'T KNOOOWWW!  I need a shoelace!" Chris looked and Coty's bare feet and Johnny's cowboy boots and dropped to the ground to pull off his sneaker. "HURRY!" "I'm HURRYING!" he shouted as he struggled to pull the lace out through the holes. "And a pencil!  You're suppose to use a pencil!" Chris raced for the house to get a pencil, his one stockinged foot flopping loosely in the dirt.  The moment he got in the house he grabbed the phone.  He couldn't remember the number to the fire department, so he dialed the number of Station 51.  After much screaming, he managed to convince the Captain on duty that the call wasn't a practical joke and that his uncle needed help in a hurry. onto the last part