Wyoming Nights (13 page)

Darlene was curious. “How old will you be?”

“I will be 33,” she said with pride as she glanced at her new teeth.

Down the hall Jamar yelled, “33?  I could have sworn you were 63!”

The new Cassandra reacted pretty much like the old, dirty one. “And you are still acting like a skinny box headed child!”

Jamar changed his tune when Cassandra walked down the hall in a borrowed dress that fit her like it was made for her body.  The bra was a couple of sizes too small, but she had a narrow back which made her assets sit up high. Assets which caught Jamar’s attention and held on to it undividedly throughout dinner. Darlene popped him several times to make him stop staring.

The only other distraction was Roscoe who constantly tapped on the back door with a rock until his master gave him food.

“I guess I will need to bake a cake for your birthday tomorrow,” Darlene said gently.

“I get cake, with candles too?”

“If I can find some candles you sure can,” she told her.

“This is going to be the best birthday ever!”

D
aniel climbed the side of the rock face and looked down in the ravine. Sheila D. was barking profusely as he looked over the ledge to see the missing hikers huddled up together for warmth. The ledge was narrow and one wrong turn and off the side of the hill they would tumble to their death.

He spoke softly to not startle them, “Hey down there, I have been looking for you all night.”

The man and woman moved slowly.  Both were covered in scratches, bruises and a few contusions, but overall they looked nothing more than tired, scared and hungry.

“Thank God you found us, we haven’t had any water since Thursday night, and we are starving,” the man yelled out.

“Mr. Graymont,” Daniel said. “I will have you and your wife up and out of there in a jiffy.”

Two whistles from his mouth, Sheila D. dragged his backpack over allowing him to grab his rope, tie it off and make a harness to drag them upwards.  The mountain pine beetles had done a great deal of damage to many of the trees, so locating one that was sturdy enough to hoist the weight of a full grown man wasn’t so easy.  The first pull, the limb gave way resulting in a solid Mrs. Graymont landing flat on her ass.  Daniel tied off the rope again this time to a stump and used his body as the counterweight to pull up the solid mass of the man’s wife.

It took both he and Mrs. Graymont to pull her husband up from the ledge.  Daniel looked at the nearly dehydrated and exhausted couple.  He didn’t need to hear any excuses, he simply wanted to get home to his wife. Water bottles were handed to the couple as he urged them to make tracks down the peak.  With any luck he could have them back to the ranger station and could be home by 2:00.

I am seriously missing my wife.

As he drove the couple back to his ranger station, he passed out crusty bread and the jar of jam Darlene had made with Jamar.  She added her own seasonings and a special ingredient that she had refused to share with the young man.  It must have been mighty tasty or the Graymont's were really hungry.

“This jam is amazing, where did you get it?” Mrs. Graymont asked.

“My wife made it,” Daniel said.  His chest filled with pride at saying
my wife
.  Someone he needed to call as soon as possible.

“I want this recipe,” Mrs. Graymont said.

“I’m going to give her a contract so we can put this on the shelf in every one of our food stores,” Mr. Graymont said as he opened the second jar.

Daniel didn’t care where he put the jar of jam, he simply wanted to get home to her beautiful face. The moment he entered into cell phone range he called home. He longed to hear that sweet voice that answered in the third ring.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hey baby, how is everything?”

“Oh Daniel, I was so worried.  Are you okay, did you locate the hikers?”

“They are safe and sound and so am I,” he told his wife.

“Are you headed home?”

“Not quite.  Paperwork; they have to be checked out, equipment put away and Sheila D. and I will be home hopefully no later than 3:00,” he said.

“I missed you last night,” she said softly, out of earshot of her house guests.

“Hopefully, after Labor Day, we won’t have as many of these incidences,” he told her.

“Just get home to me okay?”

“On my way as soon as I can get there.” He paused, “I love you. See you in a few.”

“I love you too,” she said as she hung up the phone.

Daniel could not stop grinning. This time when he told her he loved her, she’d said it back.
She loves me back
. He looked over at the Graymont’s.  “Okay, guys, let’s get you squared away and home, so I can do the same.”

B
y the time Darlene made it to the kitchen, Jack was making eggs, Cassandra was eyeballing him like a salivating dog, Jamar was having an argument with the back of her head and Roscoe the Raccoon was laid back in Sheila D’s bed like a boss. Jack must have arrived this morning. She smiled at the full house of people. 
How my life has changed
.

“Is that raccoon eating a piece of ham?” she asked with a furrowed brow. As if he understood her, Roscoe held up his chunk of ham showing the meat like he was saying good morning.

“Morning Darlene,” all three of them said in unison.

“Morning children,” she said back with a smile.  Jack handed her a freshly brewed cup of coffee as the sound of more tires pulled into the graveled back yard caught all of their attention.  It was only 9 am, there was no way her husband was home this soon.

Jack, quick to point out the obvious, peered out the window. “It is two black people.”

Both she and Jamar looked at him dumbfounded as if he didn’t seem to notice they too were black. However, those two black people in her driveway were her brother Roosevelt and Krysten, who climbed out the car with attitude on her face and a messiness coming out her lips.

“Gurl!  Are you having a sexy sleepover and where is your husband?” she said as she stepped into the back door.

Roosevelt stood on the back porch, seemingly rooted to his spot not moving as his eyes scanned over the backdrop of his sister’s new home.  It was far lovelier than she had let on. The mountains were gorgeous, the sound of the river was relaxing and the back porch was calling for him to take a seat, have a beer and talk some trash.

I could live here
.

Darlene addressed her friend first, “Good morning Krys, what are you doing here?”

“Gurl, I was trying to explain to your brother about this backyard and he said he needed to see it for himself.  He had me on a red eye and here we are.  Surprise!”

“Come on in, Jack, we have two more for breakfast,” she said.

“No problem, hot cakes coming up,” as he poured more batter onto the hot grill. Krysten poured herself a cup of coffee as she took in all the small touches in the cabin.  Her friend had put her stamp on the space and made it feel homey, like a couple who shared a life lived in it.  What was throwing her off were the extra people; especially the muscle bound sexy cook.

“Where is Daniel, who is that cooking, who is this little skinny dude and hold up...” she looked at Cassandra. “...Is that raccoon girl with a new do, a set of teeth and de-funkified?”

Cassandra stood up. “There you go again with all your fancy talk.  It’s good to see you too.” She grabbed her cell phone which had started to ring and headed out the back door.  “Come on Roscoe, let’s step outside.”

Jamar introduced himself as well as Jack.  Well, Jack kind of grunted, but it was close enough.  Krysten was never one to pass up a meal, took a seat as Jack served her breakfast. Darlene in turn joined her brother on the back porch. She handed him a cup of Jamar’s fancy coffee.

“Good morning, Rosie,” she said.

“This is breath taking,” he said.

“I wake up to it every morning.”

“You can actually walk over to that river and catch fish!  Just like he said.”

“Would you like a pole?”

He turned to look at her. “I wasn’t sure about you marrying this guy and after that crazy ass wedding, I had more doubts. I had to come out to check and I see... you look amazing...this scenery...the fresh air...my God!”

“Here drink this, come inside, meet our friends, have some breakfast,” she said to him.

He took a drink of coffee and was shocked. “This is really good,” he said to her as he followed her inside the cabin that also took his breath.  He examined her craft room, her first attempts at a quilt, the jams she made before he sat down and enjoyed the company in the room.

Nearly a half hour had passed before anyone missed Cassandra. Roscoe was knocking on the back door with a rock again which completely tripped out Roosevelt. It freaked him out even more when Darlene asked the raccoon what he wanted. The raccoon made a sound.

Jamar bent down closer to Roscoe at the backdoor asking, “What’s wrong boy?  Did Timmy fall down the well?”

Roosevelt started to laugh when it looked like the raccoon gave Jamar his middle raccoon finger. The off handed comment garnered a couple of giggles from the people in the room.  Everyone but Darlene. The raccoon was pointing out something no one else had noticed.  Cassandra wasn’t in the house.

“Where is Cassandra?” She asked as everyone stood.

“Was that the woman who walked out and around the house on her cell phone?”

“Yes, did you see her?”

“She walked around side of the house,” Roosevelt told her.

Darlene walked out to the front porch, just in time to see her husband pulling up but another unknown vehicle was parked in the front yard by the guest bathrooms.

“Are those public bathrooms in your front yard?” Roosevelt asked.

What had Darlene’s focus was the car and the two heads inside it. It caught Daniel’s attention as well, especially with the car rocking from side to side and a woman’s whimpers coming from inside of the vehicle. Daniel jumped out of his truck with his weapon drawn. Roosevelt came down the front steps with a large piece of wood he grabbed off the front porch. Roosevelt went around to the driver’s side of the vehicle. Three taps on the passenger window from Daniel, “Hey in there!”

The car stop moving.

Daniel tapped again.  “I need to see some hands, and some faces right now,” he said with authority in his voice.  Roosevelt was waiting on the driver’s side in case anything went awry.

The window rolled down with Cassandra poking her head out the window. “Hey there park ranger!”

“Cassandra?” he asked confused by her new look.

“Yeah, it’s me. I got one eyebrow and some new teeth,” she grinned at him.

“That’s great, but what are you doing in my front yard in this vehicle with...” he looked inside to see an odd looking rat faced man trying to hide his face in Cassandra’s arm pit.  She moved against him again and the poor man, whimpered, twitched, and gripped on to her tight. “Shit Hell,” the man said as it was obvious he had finished the love making session he and Cassandra was having in his car.

Daniel was furious, he brought his weapon upwards, “Cassandra who is this man?”

“Whoa, Daniel!  This is Dr. Tommy Fischer.  He is the vet over in Laramie.  He came to take me on a date for my burfday,” she said happily.

It did not matter to Daniel.  All he saw was a man who was taking advantage of a lonely woman. It came out in his voice when he said, “Get yourselves together and step out of that car right now!”

Less than a minute later, Dr. Fischer stepped out the car, red faced, embarrassed and uncertain if Daniel was going to shoot him.  He started trying to explain, “Honest, I came to over to pick her up to take her to dinner in Laramie...but she came out looking so fine, that I was just gonna kiss her...and then one thing led to another and before I knew it...”

Daniel moved closer to tower over the man. “Please tell me you are not standing before me as a grown ass man, telling me it
just happened
!”

“No...no, what I am saying is, I had a whole romantic evening planned in Laramie for us, but man, she was looking so fine, I am sorry...I didn’t mean...,” Tommy tried to say.

The anger in Daniel’s voice was evident when he spoke. “What is pissing me off is that you had the nerve to do this in my front yard, in your car like Cassandra is some five dollar trail tramp that you can take advantage of... it’s not that kind of party Dr. Fischer.”

The scared little man held up his hands. “Cassie and I know each other from veterinary school. I have always had a thing for her...but then she...well, you know, and when she called me...said she wanted to go out...I hurried up and got here...I meant no disrespect.”

“Well, I feel disrespected and so should you young lady!” he said with a stern tone. “You deserve so much better than conducting yourself like this!”

Everyone stood on the porch watching him as he lit into her. It bothered him that cleaned up she was rather attractive and men would be noticing. Men who would take advantage of her kind heart and desire for affection.

“Look up on that porch Dr. Fischer.  Cassandra has a family that cares about her, and if anything were to happen to her, you will have to deal with all of us, do you understand me?”  He told the man.

Dr. Fischer looked up at the porch at the two black women, the burly white man, and the thin black man who was shaking his head no and mouthing, “Not me...you can have her.”

Daniel holstered his weapon and looked at his brother-in-law. “What....,” he said as he looked at his front porch finally noticing Krysten, Jamar, Jack and Roscoe watching. Sheila D. growled low at Roscoe who threw a rock at the dog.

Daniel ignored it as he turned his attention back to the lovebirds, “You two get inside and get cleaned up, and before you take her anywhere Dr. Fischer, I want to know a little more about you.”

The little man nodded as Cassandra slipped her hand into his. “I’m sorry.  I didn’t think he was gonna be home so soon or get that mad at me getting some loving...”

Tommy squeezed her hand real tight. “It’s good to know you have a family out here that looks after you....and that dress is so pretty on you. I’m sorry if I got carried away and disrespected you.”