Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) (3 page)

He arrived at the farm with parcels in hand hoping the water was on. He placed his cleaning supplies and his sandwiches on the cabinet and reached over to turn on the faucet. Happy to have water, he went to the bathroom to turn on the hot water tank.

By the time the appliances and furniture arrived in the afternoon, he had scrubbed the floor and cabinets. Then he borrowed Art’s pickup and brought out his bed and dresser. Now he could move his clothes in from the car. Finally he felt like he could call it home.

CHAPTER THREE

During the day he worked on repairing the fences. Most of them needed replaced but for now, until he could sell his first round of yearlings, it would have to be good enough. He had four hundred and seventy five acres. It would take him a while to repair all of the perimeter fences even longer to do without a pickup.

Danny spent the next two weeks repairing the remainder of the perimeter fence. Now he could think about buying some calves to put in the hay barn. If he could get good Herford stock, he would sell the steers and keep the rest of them to start his herd. A little at a time is better than nothing he decided.

Next he put his mind to cleaning out the old dairy barn. He decided to add a lean to shed to the outside of the dairy barn in the old holding pen where the dairy cows stayed before and after they were milked. He would buy some piglets to raise there.

He had placed an old piece of plywood in the bottom of his trunk to protect the floor of the trunk but the car wasn’t made for this kind of treatment. It was time to find out from Art if the man still
had his pickup for sale.

When Danny walked into Art’s Garage, Art sat in the front office filling out some paperwork.  “Hi, Uncle Art, I came to see about that pickup.”

“Sure, Danny, I have it sitting outside. I planned to bring it by after work. I’m glad you came,” he said as he led Danny back out the door, “you just saved me the trip.”

By Art’s pickup sat a 1966 shiny black Ford F100.
Someone must have loved this pickup
Danny thought. The interior was navy blue with the same color of vinyl seat cover. On each side of the pickup someone had detailed it with a red stripe and the letters FORD on the tail gate also were painted red.

Danny whistled, “That’s a beauty.”

Danny drove the Ford pickup for a test drive then followed Art in his car to the man’s house who owned the pickup. Danny could see a white 1965 Chevy 2 and a Red convertible 1966 Chevelle Super Sport sitting beside the driveway.

W
hen they drove up to his house, a man who looked to be in his late sixties stepped out the door. He quickly popped a ball cap on his bald head causing the tuffs of gray hair above his ears to stand straight out. His overalls showed black stains of previous work and his old blue faded chambray shirt had holes in the elbows. He spit to the side of the sidewalk and nodded a greeting.

Art walked up and shook his hand, and said, “Harry, this is my son, Danny
Ray. Danny, this is Harry Reed.” Motioning to the pickup, Art said, “He liked the pickup.”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded at Danny and shook his hand, “It’s a good pickup. I checked it out myself. I wouldn’t sell it if I couldn’t vouch for it.”

Danny sobered his face and frowned slightly and asked, “What do you want for that old work pickup?”

The Harry winked at Art and gave Danny a price.

“I don’t know if I can pay that much, I wonder if you might be willing to make a trade,” Danny countered.

“What do you have?”

“See that car over there?” Danny pointed to his car.

The Harry walked around Danny’s car looking at the paint scratches that Danny got on it while he was mending the fences. He opened the door to see the
interior. He started the car, listened to the motor which to Danny’s ear purred like a kitten. He checked the odometer and other gauges and closed the door.

“Well, what do you think?” Danny said hopefully.

When Harry gave a price, it was right in line with what Danny had hoped. Danny sighed in relief and wrote the man a check for the difference. Both the old man and Danny shook hands. The deal was done. He had been worried how he could buy the pickup without trading in his car, but now his plans had worked and he had a snazzy ‘new’ used pickup. By making the trade, Danny didn’t have to pay as much as he thought he would. It turned out to be a win/win deal.

As they were leaving,
Art asked Danny, “Are you coming over for supper tonight? You know your mom would be mighty disappointed if you didn’t.”

“Sure, Uncle Art
,” he replied opening the door to his new pickup. “I’d rather eat Mom’s cooking any day than mine. I’m living mostly on sandwiches at my house. If I came in town and didn’t stop by to say hi, she’d be on my case.”
Besides
Danny thought
I can show off my new pickup
.

Art drove toward the house, with a smile on his face. Danny had become the son he never had. The use of the name Uncle Art stuck. After Laura and he had married, he gave Danny the option of calling him something else but Danny had told him that since he was Aaron’s uncle and he had called him that ever since he had known him. The name seemed to fit. Aaron had grown up as close as two boys could have without being brothers. When Art and Laura planned to marry, the boys had asked if they could be cousins now. Permission was granted so officially Art became his uncle and his step-dad.

Art told him at the time that if he preferred Uncle Art, it was fine with him. He was just happy to be in the boy’s life. He had been married before but his wife had never conceived. They found out later that she had uterine cancer and he lost her soon after. He always wanted children so he moved to Pryor when he completed his twenty year stint in the Navy. He wanted to be near his nephew Aaron and his sister Mary and her husband Harold Roberts. Their son Aaron happened to be Danny’s best friend.

In fact, Aaron was the one who introduced Art to Laura at a Halloween school function. Art remembered how cute Laura looked in her little boy costume. She might have pulled it off if she hadn’t had a blond ponytail hanging out the back of her ball cap. Then of course, with her looks it would be hard to think of her as a boy on second glance.

When Art and Danny pulled into the driveway, Laura already had supper prepared and was placing it on the table. A big bowl of spaghetti rested on the table with thick spaghetti sauce poured over it. Shredded parmesan cheese filled a bowl ready to sprinkle over the plate. A large salad dotted with ripe olives and pepperoncini peppers on the side. A loaf of French bread sliced and liberally spread with warm butter and garlic smelled wonderful as she pulled it out of the warmer.

“Hi, Mom,” Danny called out as he entered the living room door. “How did you know I was coming? I know you made this for me.”

Laura grinned at him, knowing it was one of his favorite meals.

“Let me guess? You have acquired ESP,” Danny teased.

“Wrong. A little birdie told me,” she smiled.

“It was Fred. Wasn’t it?” Art guessed.

Laura agreed. “You’re right. Thank goodness, somebody thought to give me a heads up.”

“Mom, you need to see my new pickup!” Danny exclaimed.

“Too late,” Laura quipped back, “I’ve already seen it.”

“I might let you drive it,” Danny tempted wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

“Later, I’ll take you up on that,” Laura returned laughing.

CHAPTER FOUR

Reliev
ed that the fences and the leanto for the pigs were completed, Danny stretched out on the bed for a good night’s rest. In the morning he intended to drive to the sale barn in Vinita to see what they had.

Danny planned to be at the sale barn early but when the phone rang, he glanced at the clock. When he saw a big nine and two zeros, he knew he had messed up. “Oh, Rats!” he muttered.

The phone rang again as he threw his legs over the side of the bed. It rang again. “I’m coming. I’m coming” he yelled at the phone.

“Hello.”

“Don’t tell me that you are still sleeping,” a familiar voice teased.

“Guilty. I planned to get up early but apparently I over slept.”

“No kidding!” Aaron exclaimed. “I took my last test for the semester yesterday. I’m free!”

Danny laughed. “I know how you feel.
I’m glad you’re home. If you’re not too busy, could you go to the sale barn with me today?”

“Funny,” Aaron said. “I just knew that if I called you would have something you needed for me to do.”

“Well, Cousin, I don’t mean to take you away from the family if you need to visit,” Danny stated apologetically.

Aaron chuckled
, “I visited with them for hours last night. Whatever you need me to do, Cousin. I’m the man.”

“Alright!
I’ll be by to get you in my new pickup in a few minutes.”

“New pickup?”
Aaron asked.

“Wait until you see it!
”

At the sale barn they went to the top bleachers. The sale had been going on for a
while already. Danny had hoped to look at the livestock before the sale started but unfortunately time didn’t work in his favor. He saw some beautiful Hereford go through but he was mainly interested in calves. A lot of Holstein calves went through, but Danny wanted beef stock. Some Limousine went through but they were too expensive for him right now.

Danny sat on the hard bench leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasp together anxiously watching every set of cattle that was driven through.

“Why do you want Hereford’s?” Aaron asked.

Raising up and slapping his cap on his knee, he grinned, “I thought you’d never ask.
“Hereford is a breed of cattle that was bred in England in the early eighteenth century. Hereford cattle didn’t catch on in the United States until Henry Clay made the first import of two heifers and a bull in 1817. He didn’t keep his breed pure and soon they had bred so much with the other cattle that the blood line just blended into the rest of the herd. In 1844, T. L. Miller won a metal for the first prize herd at the New York fair. Since that time the Hereford breed has been a sought after brand as one of the United States best meat producers.”

Aaron leaned back and examined his cousin, “So you learned something in that there school, I guess.” He
said tongue in cheek. “I didn’t know I asked for a history lesson.”

Danny laughed and slapped at Aaron’s hand, “Cut it out, you silly goose.”

Most of the buyers were moving out. They had filled their demands and mostly just small time farmers like Danny were left. He hoped to buy at least forty head of calves but he suspected he would need to return to buy all he wanted.

He stood up and walked down the aisle to leave. Aaron followed him when they heard the announcer say, “Hey, we’ve got a deal for you today. We have a truck that just arrived due to an accident down the road. He has twenty head of Hereford calves in his truck, if anybody is interested.

Danny immediately raised his hand and walked toward the auctioneer. No one bid against him because the large buyers had already left. He bought them sight unseen, but the announcer said that they were in good shape. The cattle truck wasn’t the one involved in the accident.

When Danny reached the truck and looked his calves over, he felt very pleased
. The calves looked exactly the age and size that he had in mind and he made a deal with the driver to deliver them to his farm.

Feeling happy, Danny let out a whoop when he reached his pickup. “
Cuz, I am no longer a farmer, I just became a rancher. Whooee!”

On the way home leading the cattle truck, Aaron asked, “What happened to that girl you dat
ed? What’s her name? Lisa or something like that.”

The smile left Danny’s face. Lisa was the last person he wanted to think about. The same dull pain hit his chest. “Lisa and I broke up. She wanted bigger fish to fry
, I guess.”

Aaron contritely stated, “I sorry, Danny. I would never
mentioned it if I had known.”

Danny shook his head, “You had no way of knowing. At least now it’s out. It’s painful.”

“What about you? Do you have good news with your girl, Carey?”

“I don’t know. We’ve always enjoyed being together. We have a lot of fun. Mostly, I think the nearer we get to graduation, the more it seems that the thing
we have in common is our accounting major. We’ve been good study companions. You wouldn’t believe how much we have helped each other.”

“Actually, I think I do. Remember how we used to study algebra, geometry, and Trig together?” Danny asked.

Aaron shrugged with a laugh, “I guess you got me there.”

“Have you heard from Bobby lately?” Danny wondered.

“Last I heard he married some sweet girl from Topeka, Kansas while he was in college. He’s coaching now in the high school where she grew up.”