Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 26981 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26981 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
I used to follow my old man to town in a pair of old pants that were held up by rope because they were too big around the middle, with my ankles showing because they were too short in the legs. An old ratty shirt with the sleeves gnawed off by a hound dog and an old straw hat that was more straw than hat.
Some folks use to say that the old man used to be a right good looking feller in his younger days. How my daddy used to get to hooting and hollering, and raising hell.
That was before the cares of the world beat him down and he just about gave up on life, except for his wife and son. Folks used to whisper that I was shaping up to be just like ‘im.
I didn’t talk much, not then and not now, so folks got to minding our business. Once they’d even got the county to send a social worker out to our place.
In the end them folks couldn’t figure how the old man was such an abuser since there was never a scratch on me and I looked up to him something fierce.
Sure he’d taken me outta school to help out, but I’d taken myself down to the schooling place and signed me up for homeschooling. The busybodies in town didn’t know that. Then again there was a lot they didn’t know.
My daddy, he wasn’t much for talking either. He spoke in spit, grunts and ‘git it boy.’ That last was to a mean old dog he had around the place that he’d sic on anything with two feet and a heartbeat.
He used to sic ‘im on me too. That dog would run my poor ass up a tree every time, until I turned him to my side. I’d feed him scraps when daddy wasn’t looking and after that there was no more fun for the old man.
Then one day the old bull up and kicked daddy in the balls. He probably decided there was only room for one stud on the farm and he was it. The two of them sure did have an ornery relationship.
So now daddy from that day was always just fair to middling and I was the one left to keep the place up. It was back breaking work to be sure, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I got to enjoy the outdoors as much as I like, and do as I please even down to swimming bare assed naked down by the creek.
2
T-Bone
Now how we come by all this money. The Rileys, that’s our last name, were land rich and dirt poor for as long as anyone could remember. Old Silas, my daddy, had inherited the land from his daddy and his daddy from his and so on and so forth going back a couple hundred years.
There wasn’t never much of nothing good coming from it, until that day I went to walking to get away from daddy’s misery. I’d just turned eighteen and my days were spent taking care of the animals and him. Scared that I was gonna lose him just like I’d lost mama and be all-alone.
I didn’t mind being alone so much it’s what I was used to. But if daddy died then I wouldn’t have nobody on this earth, nary a soul. I hadn’t given it much thought until now and that’s what got me to walking the land lost in my own head.
I could go into town and make me a few friends I guess. There was always somebody trying to talk to me wherever I went. But I wasn’t too fond of city ways and wasn’t much interested in them coming out here neither.
So there I was walking the land and thinking about what was to become of me. I was throwing a stick for that old dog to catch not really paying too much mind when it happened. The stick landed in the brush somewheres and that poor dog got to whining something awful until I went and got it out.
That’s when I found it. Texas gold. The darkest purest oil anyone had seen in these parts in some time. I knew what it was right then and there but it didn’t mean much to me. Like all the men of my family before me, I was very content with my life as it was.
Not that money wouldn’t be nice. But it wasn’t as good as having daddy back on his feet and healthy.
Well, the money started coming in after that, and anyone who thought they could get over on me had another think coming. I was smarter than most folks gave me credit for.
I’d taken to that schooling well enough on my own and knew what was what. No accountants and lawyers for me. I figured the old timers didn’t need one and neither did I.