While Cookie wasn't the problem Del feared he'd be, there was someone even happier than Potee about the new arrangement on the Lazy R. There would be no more days standing in his stall. Thunder danced and pranced as Potee guided his horse up beside Pardo and Topper as they rode toward the range on most mornings. Even juicy apples can't compare with his new found freedom.

Pardo couldn't keep Potee beside him all the time. He did have a job, and it came before all other considerations. The Lazy R fed them and he'd make certain the ranch prospered if he had anything to do with it. Pardo put Potee through his paces for the last year, while he trained the pots and pans man to be a cowboy.

Potee knew the moves a cowboy needed to make, and Pardo told him, "Practice, practice, practice, but try not to get tangled in your rope if you can avoid it."

Other cowboys rode with Potee a couple of days a week, usually after Pardo went to hold Del's hand, trying to get through the latest snag. These bumps in the road seemed to creep up on Del on a regular basis. Pardo took it in stride, offering his best advice. It's what Pardo had been doing for years, and it was easy.

"Is that all, Boss. If you want to spread the trucks over two days, it will spread out the work, which won't hurt the men's feelings, but spread it out over two days, when we could get it done in one long day, and you don't need to feed them but twice. Extending it one day means two more meals you've got to take out to them if you want them to keep working. I'd do it in one day. Saves time. If I don't get back, we might end up taking three days to load those trucks, Boss."

"Go! Go! One day. That's what I was thinking. I'll ride out tomorrow. You go ahead."

All the cowboys knew Potee from the chow hall and he served them food while they were out on roundup. He was handy with a hot plate of food, and that loomed large in a cowboy's mind. Gobbling food in the five minutes you had before you needed to be back with the herd was standard.

The sight of Potee riding herd became the normal way of things. He was just another cowboy when there was work to be done. Cowboys didn't have a lot of time to worry over who belonged where. They knew where they belonged, and if some cows got separated from the main herd and wandered into the brambles next to the main pasture, Potee might be one of the cowboys sent to get them out of the briar patch and back where they belonged.

Some cowboys might remember Potee from the chow hall. Most would recognize him, but he was riding herd and dressed like a cowboy. No matter what he once was, he was a cowboy now.

Pardo watched, listened, gave Potee his head, and he couldn't wait to get him in his arms at night. That was if they got back to their rooms over the chow hall. Potee got to go in more often than Pardo got to go during roundups, and when the weather turned bad.

Pardo was responsible to see everything got done on time, no matter what the weather was. The hour riding out in the morning and an hour back in at night, was more time than he wanted to be away from the herd in peak periods when the days never ended. His cowboys were out there, and he'd be making the rounds to check on each one during the night.

It was the cowboy way and both Pardo and Potee were cowboys. Potee knew what he signed up for, and if he got to be with his man each evening, he was happy. If he didn't get to be with Pardo, or even see him, it meant he was too busy to look for his man.

Thunder's instincts were good. If Potee had any doubts about what he was doing, his horse had no hesitation in his moves. At first reluctant, Potee learned to let his horse make the moves his own way. The results were usually what Potee was trying to do.

Cookie still gave Potee treats for Thunder, and Thunder felt like the king of the range after doing a day's work and getting to munch on glorious carrots at night. He'd never give up the oats he got when he was in his stall, but carrots were very good.

Potee finally arrived where he was going all along. He had no destination in mind when he walked along the highway outside the Lazy R years before. Whatever was at the end of the road he was on was where he was going. If there was food, a job, a reason to stay, he'd stay a while, but he had no plan to stay anywhere.

Pardo interrupted his vagabond daze. Potee attracted men more than once while he had his thumb out. It's part of why he hitchhiked to where he wanted to go. When he didn't get where he started out going, he usually took time out to spend time with a guy who picked him up and had some rude ideas about what he'd like to do with him.

He would admit, being picked up by a guy on a horse, wasn't on his mind, but he rose up out of the grass beside the road, and he looked quite interesting to Potee. Was this what a cowboy looked like? It took time to find a way into Pardo's bed, but that's where he was heading all along. How he knew he'd end up there, he couldn't say. His instincts told him which men could be had and which couldn't.

He wanted to be just like Pardo. He wasn't like any guy he'd been with. Pardo seemed to care about something other than getting what Potee had in his pants. Potee needed to make the first move, because it wasn't the first thing on Pardo's mind. Most men did him and couldn't wait to get him off their mind. Pardo never did anything, and once he was with Potee, he couldn't keep him off his mind.

Being a cowboy was often on Potee's mind. Once he became one, he didn't want to be a good cowboy. He wanted to be the best cowboy on the Lazy R. Except for that damn rope, he did things as well as any cowboy. He'd been tangled in his rope more than once.

"Looks like you done lassoed yourself, Cowboy," Pardo said, amused by Potee's lack of skills with a rope.

Pardo knew, one day Potee would grab his rope, toss it over a cow's head, and he'd forget he once couldn't do it. Many cowboys had difficulty doing one aspect of cowboying or another. Being a cowboy meant mastering many skills. Once you mastered them all, you were an artist. Once you figured out all the moves, which took about ten years, you always knew what to do at any given time and in any weather.

Cowboys were special and few mastered the art for life. You went down that trail until your back got too tight and your wind got too short, which meant improvising in order to hold back the hands of time. With the winter wind cutting through you, ice hanging off your cowboy hat, you finally reach the end of the cowboy trail.

"I can't go down this road no longer, Pardo. Point me at the old cowboy's home."

In his thirties, Pardo still rode tall in the saddle. He made any move he needed to make. Time was passing, but Pardo ignored the signs. He'd found bliss and he loved his life. He also owned a fair piece of the Lazy R. One year when the prices were down and the bills piled up, Pardo told Del to take whatever he had on the books and pay everyone off. They'd make a fresh start next year.

When Del called Pardo into his office one afternoon, his lawyer took papers out of his fine leather briefcase and set them down in front of Pardo.

"Sign here. Here. Here. Initial here. Sign at the bottom below Mr Champions signature."

"I ain't selling my house to you am I? Cause I ain't got no house," Pardo joked.

"You're now twenty-five percent owner of the Lazy R," Del told him.

Pardo was speechless.

When he did reach the end of the trail, Pardo figured Del would let him keep living over the chow hall and maybe he'd take over after Tumbleweed left or died. Pardo didn't know anything but cowboying, but he was in his early thirties and his entire life was still in front of him.

Pardo knew which cowboys to trust. He watched. He listened. He worked along side his men. Pardo did everything his cowboys did. He did jobs he wouldn't ask his cowboys to do.

After getting himself tangled up in his rope one more time, Pardo rode over to offer Potee some moral support.

"Like this," Pardo said, grabbing his rope off his saddle to toss it over the steer's head. "Nothing to it."

"Why can't I do that? I do exactly what you do and I end up like this," Potee said, looking at too much rope hanging off him.

"You're trying too hard, Cowboy. Practice when you have time. You'll catch on. You do look right handsome sitting up there."

"You just want my body. I know how you cowboys are," Potee said.

"You better not know how any cowboys are but this cowboy," Pardo protested.

Potee laughed. He couldn't see any other cowboy but his.

Potee's first roundup was unremarkable. Except for some cows going a stray and needing some extra rounding up, it was a good piece of work.

Del rode out a few times and he watched the kid singling out cows from the herd.

The kid was OK but Thunder was a thing of beauty. He responded to Potee like they were one.

At the end of the day, Pardo and Potee took their horses to the stable and went through the empty kitchen, grabbing a sandwich or something sweet, before going up to what was now two rooms. Once Rowdy left. Del gave the extra room to Pardo. He made it into a television room. He bought a huge TV and two overstuffed recliners that proved to be easy on the ass after a day in the saddle.

The two of them didn't get quite as much sleep as they needed, but there were other considerations and the belief, you couldn't eat just one.

Potee didn't know how many he could eat, but Pardo would do, because the one he had was the one the kid cowboy had been looking for, even before he thought about being a cowboy.

Pardo had never known bliss. His lovers were hit and miss. He took it where he could get it, and he couldn't get it very often. He considered giving up his search for love, but one day love came walking down the highway that ran along side the Lazy R. It was a boy who introduced him to bliss. How they got here from there, neither of them could be sure, but they were here, and neither of them wanted to be anywhere else, no matter how hard it was herding cows all day. There were always new things to try, even after they'd tried everything once. Cowboys were an inventive bunch, and Potee was more inventive than most. When he'd come up with a new wrinkle on an old way of doing it, he was fast to introduce it so Pardo could enjoy it as much as he did.

Pardo might have thought Potee's love making got a little far a foot at times, but what the hell, you only lived once. You may as well try everything. When you lived with a guy like Potee, you learned to improvise.

The boys enjoyed these interludes but they took their tour of duty overnight. They did it on the same night, but the other cowboys knew they were doing the same work as everyone else.

Pardo spent most days with Potee riding beside him, but on dome days he sent Potee out with one of the other cowboys. He made sure his man got to work with all the cowboys. There would be times when Pardo would be busy elsewhere, and Potee would need to be able to work with anyone.

Roundup finished on time and the cows going to market were shipped on Friday. Once they got the cows in the pens, it was a matter of getting them to walk on to the trucks. They could load a truck an hour and they had the twelve trucks loaded before dinner time. It didn't matter they were eating dinner at ten that night. Most cowboys would have the day off tomorrow.

Potee took his lasso up to the rooms above the kitchen, and while he watched television, he used the rope to lasso the chairs, the table, two lamps he broke and would need to replace. He also roped a host of other unsuspecting household items.

He was successful in roping the stereo console with combination AM/FM radio record player. He wouldn't need to replace that, because he was fast enough to stop it before it hit the floor.

Pardo had gone to town for Del, leaving Potee to practice with his rope. He sat in his recliner in his underwear and socks, waiting to find something else to rope. He'd kept on his white cowboy hat to make him feel more like a cowboy while he practiced roping.

He heard Pardo's boots on the stairs and he began twirling his rope over his head. As soon as the door opened, and Pardo stepped inside, the lasso went around him and Potee pulled Pardo toward him.

"Come along Li'l Doggie, come along," Potee sang, pulling on the end of the rope.

"In spite of how I look, I ain't no cow," Pardo said as he moved swiftly over to Potee.

"Well look a here what I done caught. Bring them lips down here, Cowboy. I aims to do some kissing on those luscious wonders."

Potee laughed as he finished giving Pardo his hello kiss.

"Do I taste a Gus's pineapple milkshake on those sweet lips, Cowboy?"

"Can't pass Gus's without stopping. I'd a brung you one, but the milkshake would have been a pineapple slush by now, and let's face it, smelling a Gus burger and those fries all the way back here. Well, I'd a eaten the second burger and fries, I'd have heartburn, and you still wouldn't get any."

"I guess that makes sense to you. I'll accept it on good faith. I'd sure you tried."

"Speaking of trying, did you try to make this mess, or did it just happen?" Pardo asked.

"I was practicing. I guess it got a little out of hand."

"If I knew you were wrecking the place, I might have passed on Gus's."

"You said practice. I been practicing."

"We've made quite a mess, haven't we?" Pardo said. "I'll know better than to leave the kid home alone from now on. You managed to do all this by yourself, or did you run a herd of cows through here? Looks like a stampede hit this room."

"I take my lassoing seriously. I think I'm getting the hang on it. Oh, and I brought you a piece of cherry pie. I know how you love Cookie's cherry pie."

"Cherry pie?"

"Had to do something nice to make up for my lack of roping skills. I can lasso a chair fine, but they don't move that much, and how many chairs you seen out on the prairie? Steers move every time you reach for your lasso. I think they read my mind. 'He's about to go for his lasso.'"

"That's the trick. Have your lasso ready when you ease up on a steer you want to lasso. Don't give him a chance to skedaddle," Pardo said.

"Skedaddle? That's an official cowboy word?"

"No, it's an official Pardo kind of word. I did finish tenth grade, you know," Pardo said.

"You're kidding. You didn't finish high school and you know the word skedaddle?"

"I bet I know words you ain't even heard yet," Pardo said.

"I bet. Why not finish school?"

"No future in it. I was working where I wanted to work. School takes time. How far did we get in school?" Pardo asked.

"Same. Tenth grade. I decided to try my hand at hitchhiking. Then, I ended up here with you."

"You got to say that's quite a coincidence. Me ending up here. You ending up here."

"You brought me up here."

"I did, didn't I," Pardo said.

They kissed for a while and that didn't help Pardo's memory.

"Yes, well, when I said practice, I didn't think I needed to say outside. Maybe practice on cows. They move faster than lamps move," Pardo said, picking up what was now a three piece lamp. "I might need to spank you, Cowboy."

"Now we're talking. Boxers on or boxers off?"

"You are a mess," Pardo said, leaning to kiss Potee one more time. "I do love you. At times like this, I don't know why I love you, but I'm crazy about you."

"And besides, there are plenty of lamps where those came from. You ain't going to find no one like me just walking along the road, you know?"

"No, I suspect not."

*****

The ranch went back to normal once roundup was done. Pardo rotated cowboys to give them time off after two weeks of intense activity. He stayed out on the range with a small crew that rode herd and kept an eye out for trouble. Help was an hour away at the main ranch, but things were usually calm after five or six hundred cows were sent to market.

Potee rode out the second night and he stayed over night. Cookie gave him a basket full of fried chicken with his best cold dishes on the side. The food put a smile on the faces of the hungry cowboys, who just built a fire to fix the beans they were about to eat with the cornbread they brought.

Del was happy about the check he got for the cows and he gave every cowboy a bonus on the party at his house Christmas Eve. Del had a shindig on Christmas Eve every year. There was a side of beef with all of Cookies specialties. The booze flowed freely before and after dinner.

Once everyone was well fed and half lit, Del handed out the bonus checks. He sat the day before Christmas Eve with Pardo, and as they went down the list of cowboys, Pardo rated them.

"Good man. He's okay. Does no more than sit in the saddle. He's useless."

Del loved playing Santa, and his best cowboys got a nice piece of change. Pardo was never there on Christmas Eve. He wasn't afraid to face the men he rated for Del, he left no doubt in a cowboy's mind where he stood. He didn't play favorites and he didn't lie to make someone feel good. A cowboy had to figure out how to make himself feel good. It wasn't Pardo's job.

Christmas Even was nice for the cowboys and that's how Del intended it to be.

Pardo and Potee volunteered to ride herd overnight on Christmas Eve. They wanted to be together, and it was way more fun to be together alone. The cowboys could bring their girlfriends or wives on Christmas Eve. It was the one day a year women might outnumber the men on the Lazy R. Pardo wanted his men to have the entire night off without interruption.

Pardo could ask no more than to be with the man he loved, and Potee wanted to be where ever Pardo was. While life on the ranch came to a complete stop on Christmas Eve, Pardo was busy making sure he wouldn't need the services of any of his cowboys for one night, which didn't mean that Pardo and Potee didn't dismount and stand kissing under a billion stars at midnight.

Neither of them was religious, but both appreciated the enormity of the universe, and it's grandeur. They walked hand in hand beneath the heavens above, with Topper and Thunder walking behind them, as they breathed in the crisp fresh air. It was one of their favorite nights, because they could be alone together in the place they wanted to be.

*****

Nothing much changes on a cattle ranch. Cowboys come. Cowboys go. Life on a ranch runs through its cycles. When a man like Rowdy leaves, a man like Pardo takes his place. Life on the ranch keeps moving forward, rain or shine, snow or sleet, in the hard heat of summer and the deep freeze winter was bound to bring to the cows and the cowboys who tended them.

The ranch moves at the speed of a cowboy on horseback.

One morning, after receiving a report on a dead cow half eaten in one of the pastures, Del sent Pardo out with Potee to investigate.

It could have been coyotes. It could have been wolves or a bear. Mostly wild animals stayed clear of cattle ranches and cowboys with their Winchester rifles. Once in a while, out of hunger or perhaps madness, wild things follow their instincts to where meals come a little too easy.

The problem for a predator, when food is easy to find, it can end up being a deadly meal. A few cowboys always come equipped with a 30/30 next to their right leg. At calving time, when mama is at her weakest, the sounds and smells draw predators in. That's when cowboys go hunting most often.

As far as the coyotes were concerned, Thunder smelled the ground and sniffed the air near the dead cow. Potee let his horse have his head. He'd seen Thunder pick up the trail of a predator before. He associated the dead animal with the guilty party.

"Take me to him, Boy. Good boy, Thunder."

Potee had his 30/30 ready to fire as Thunder slowed to a stop near some brush and a mound of earth. He held his hand up to stop Pardo, who eased his Winchester out of its resting place. When the coyotes smelled danger, they scattered. Potee was ten feet away and he couldn't miss. The ones he wasn't fast enough to shoot, Pardo shot.

Pardo eased Topper up beside Thunder.

"You think we got them all?" Pardo asked.

"No movement. If there are any more, they'll be long gone by dark. They know there's no future he hanging around here," Potee said.

"I'll put out extra sentries tonight. If they don't have any trouble, these are probably the culprits," Pardo surmised.

"I'd agree. Maybe keep sentries on a couple of nights to be sure," Potee said.

"We'll take these back. Del will want to see what we got," Pardo said.

"Thunder led me right here from the dead cow. He's smelled predators out before."

"Good shooting, Partner. How many shots did you fire?"

"Four," he said, collecting the four he shot.

Pardo picked up the two he shot, and they turned their horses toward home.

Pardo was known as 'Dead Eye' by Rowdy. He'd taught Potee how to shoot. He learned to shoot with Pardo's 30/30, and once Pardo saw that he was going to be a crack shot, he drove him into Laramie where he bought Potee his first rifle. He liked the 30/30 lever action and that's what he got.

There was no shortage of 30/30 rifles on the Lazy R. Some cowboys carried theirs hooked to the saddle and resting in front of their right leg, where it was easy to get to it. Neither Pardo nor Potee were in the habit of carrying a rifle. It was too easy to grab the rifle when you faced uncertainty that really didn't call for the use of firearms.

Del was looking out of his office window when he saw Pardo and Potee on the trail coming back from the range land where his cattle grazed. He was outside as the boys closed in on the house.

Potee cut the string on the four coyotes he carried and Pardo dropped two more at Del's feet.

"How many cows did I lose?" Del said, looking up from the dead coyotes.

"Just the one. Near the fence on the northwest pasture. They weren't but a mile away. Potee saw their trail. We caught them by surprise."

"Thunder smelled them. Took me right to them. Didn't you, Boy," Potee said.

He wanted to give credit where credit was due.

"Damn horse is almost human, you ask me," Del said, touching Thunder's flank.

"Smart horse," Potee said. "Smelled them right off."

"Did you shoot from the saddle, or did you climb off to fire?" Del asked.

"Shot from Thunder's back. It's how I got four. He was steady as a rock?" Potee said. "Weren't you, Boy."

Potee stroked Thunder's neck as he took the compliment with pride.

"You shot from the saddle before?" Del asked in a search for information.

"No, I don't think so. I've fired the rifle beside him twice. I climbed off to make sure my shot was steady, but he didn't shy away. That's why I figured I could shoot from his back this time."

"I think that damn horse loves you," Del said. "Pardo, what's the score on my cows?"

"Might have been the coyotes, Boss. I'll put two extra men out tonight in that pasture. We'll see if anything turns up. We could have gotten the culprits, but can't be positive. If the cow was sick, maybe they'd figure to take an easy kill. Hard to say, Del. First cow we've lost in two years, isn't it?"

"Two years ago we lost two cows. Wolves, Rowdy shot a wolf. Didn't lose any more. Let me know what you find. Ride out tomorrow to take a look see. I'll be over at the corral in the afternoon. Gunner's coming to ride some mustangs for me. I've sold four for riding horses. You two, go back out early tomorrow. See if the extra sentries catch wind of anything tonight."


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