DRENA HILLS
“Some stories are true that never
happened.”
- Elie Weisel
(MISSING SCENE FROM THE EPISODE ‘RETURN
TO DEVIL’S HOLE)
“You know what’s been keeping you alive all these years Heyes?” Kid Curry said his annoyance evident in his voice.
His partner, Hannibal Heyes, looked down from his horse and smiled. It was early and the morning air was cold and damp. There was no reason for his cousin to see him off, he could have been tucked in a warm bed. But he had doggedly rose with him and followed him down to watch him saddle his horse.
They had spent the good part of a day and night ‘discussing’ Heyes’s decision to take the job that would require him to return to Devil’s Hole, but even though Kid had agreed to Heyes’s reasoning in the end it didn’t mean he liked it or still didn’t hold out hope of being asked to go along.
“Here,” Heyes said suddenly holding out something. “Money she paid me. Why don’t you hang on to it until I get back, won’t need it where I’m going.”
Kid stared at his outstretched hand and the wad of bills Heyes was offering him like it was a live snake.
“Go on, take it,” Heyes smiled understanding his reluctance and what taking it inferred.
Kid finally lifted his hand and Heyes shoved the money into it.
And flashing him a grateful smile for his concern, Heyes turned his horse away.
Kid watched him squinting into the early morning sun until he had long disappeared from sight. Then with a disgusted sigh he pushed the money into his pocket and considered his options.
Sunday morning in Laramie was not the liveliest of places. Up the street the church doors were opening up for the service in an hour.
It was too early for a drink, but the saloon held the appeal of not being his room, which he was no longer forced to share, so he headed towards it.
He was not surprised to find patrons even at the early hour. Most looked like they had been there all night and were slumped over a glass trying to stare the last one down to acquire the courage needed to step into the sunlight and face home.
Not sensing any trouble Kid stepped up to the bar.
“What can I get you?” the bartender said bored looking up from his paper.
“Coffee,” Kid said.
The man nodded and filled a cup, which Kid took over to a back corner table chosen for its view of the entire room.
Sipping his coffee he pondered what to do next to get him through the day. He sighed again, day nothing, he would settle for something to keep his attention for the next hour.
Both poker players and women would not put an appearance in till later and while normally a day with nothing to do with money in his pocket would have appealed to him these were not normal circumstances. This was waiting and he didn’t do waiting well, especially when he was worried.
He went over his partner’s assignment and tried to foresee what problems he might run into, as if his tackling them might in some way help him. This would be Heyes’s first time back to the Hole since they had made their run for amnesty. There was no telling the kind of reception he would receive from Wheat and the boys.
That Heyes could take care of himself, Kid had no doubts. But he would be outnumbered with no one watching his back and there could be bad feelings over the amnesty deal. Not to mention he was bringing a woman in. No matter how much the gang respected and liked their former leader, those circumstances were just asking for a confrontation.
Frustrated Kid set his coffee down and gazed out the window. If he was honest what was really bothering him was that Heyes might not need him. Ruefully he remembered what he had said to him at the stable and shook his head at his conceit. More likely the other way around he sighed and remembered…
**********************************
It was their first winter at the home. He had always been susceptible to colds and when influenza had nearly taken him when he was 5 his family had always made it a point to keep him bundled up and well fed.
But the Home had not offered that option despite Heyes’s best attempts to make sure his cousin had more than his share of their food and blankets. The cough had started one late February morning and a week later downed him.
“What do you mean there is nothing you can do for him, you’re a doctor aren’t you?” Hannibal Heyes just 13 had yelled as he had chased the man out of the small storage room where his cousin lay lost in a fever sleep.
“Young man he has pneumonia, there is nothing I can do,” the doctor said impatient. This was his tenth call that winter morning and one he knew he would never see payment for. The small, undernourished blond boy would probably succumb to the cold before the night was out.
“People get better from pneumonia,” Heyes went on to say with stubborn perseverance his fists clenched.
“Yes sometimes they do,” he looked at the boy and was suddenly touched at his concern. “Keep giving him fluids, try and get him to eat, and keep him warm, I’ll check back tomorrow,” he was amazed to find himself promising.
Given a course of action Heyes was revitalized. “Yes sir I will!”
Shaking his head sadly the man left wondering if he should bother to even keep his promise, the child wouldn’t last the night.
**************************
“I need some soup for Jed.”
The headmaster stared at the determined young man before him. Hannibal Heyes in less than a year had managed to become the bane of his existence. No matter what he tried or how much he punished the boy, he refused to be broken. In fact it almost seemed that he thrived on the struggle between them.
“Hannibal it is the dead of winter, The entire country is starving thanks to this insufferable war, what makes you think I have extra scraps to give your cousin?
“I need more blankets too”
“Is there anything else?” the man asked incredulously.
“Charles,” the woman spoke softly and it was then Heyes had realized the man had not been alone.
He turned and swallowed. Never had he seen a woman so elegantly beautiful in his entire life. Her rich wool cape was edged in ermine as was her bonnet and muff. The dress beneath was satin, a deep forest green that accentuated the dark black ringlets that hung about her face.
Her eyes were kind and her smile sweet, but Hannibal Heyes had begun to stop trusting people and was learning to use them. All he saw was opportunity.
“Oh ma’am,” he said willing his eyes to fill with tears as he gazed up at her. “It’s my little cousin ma’am, only family I have. I just need some soup, another blanket, the doctor says I can make him well if I take good care of him, please ma’am, can you help me?”
She would not be the first woman to succumb to his charms nor the last.
“Oh Charles…” the woman said to the man looking up stricken at the pain in the boy’s eyes.
“Mary do not start, I cannot…”
“Well I can, what is your name young man?”
“Hannibal , Hannibal Heyes.”
“Well Hannibal I shall have my man bring you some soup and blankets for your cousin.”
He flashed her a smile that made her blink at how quickly it aged him and turned her thoughts from thinking of him as a child.
“You are a kind and fine lady, ma’am,” he said and taking her hand he kissed it just like he had read the hero did in that French book he had stolen from the cook’s drawer.
By the time the woman left he had secured hot bricks, oranges and all the food needed to tempt Kid back to health.
His cousin had brushed how aside when he asked later, but little by little he had learned the truth from the other boys who had come to speak of his cousin with a kind of jealous awe.
But it had been more than securing the items he needed, it had been waking up thirsty to find his cousin curled up at the end of the bed cold and tired, but always there that had meant the most to him. It was as if Hannibal Heyes defied death to come for him while he was on watch.
Frustrated Kid downed his coffee and decided he needed some target practice to let off some of the tension building up inside him.
“It was him, I know’d it.”
Kid casually looked up to watch the three men taking a table two away from him.
He had never seen them before, but he knew their kind wanted, hard and spoiling for trouble. They had seen plenty of them leading the gang and most often turned them away as being too hot headed to work as a team.
They hadn’t given him a second look, but some instinct in him kept him in his chair listening.
“He was younger then, but I swear that was him riding in as we left,” the older of the three men said. He pulled off his hat and rubbed a graying prison crew cut. He probably had ten years on Kid, but incarceration made it look more like twenty.
“So why you think he’s riding into the Hole?’ the second man asked, his voice hinting of the deep south and carried himself with a military bearing the war had carved into a lot of men.
“Maybe he heard Big Jim was running things again and decided he needed to re-establish his control,” the third man said with a cultured eastern voice that didn’t match the way his gun was tied to his hip.
“Well whatever it is Jim ain’t gonna like him wandering in right before a job,” Southerner said pouring another drink. “He’ll have handled him by the time we get back with the supplies.”
“It’s me that’s gonna do the handling, he talked Jim out of taking me the last time we met, that’s why I got sent up, doing a job on my own. I owe Hannibal Heyes a little thank you for that vacation.”
“Let it go,” the easterner said.
“No, I don’t think so. Let’s get these supplies bought and then me and Mr. Heyes is gonna have this out.”
“Ain’t you worried about his partner?” the southerner said. “You heard those stories they tell about him and the Kid. They shadow each other, you really wanna take both of them on?”
For a moment a flash of doubt passed over the man’s face, but then he kicked back another shot of whiskey and it was gone. “Never met the Kid, and from what we seen as we were riding out he was alone except for the woman.”
“What you think that was all about?” the southerner whistled. “Only Heyes would have the balls to bring a woman in.”
“I don’t know and I don’t care. I just mean to kill him.”
*****************************
Oddly finding out the three men meant to kill his cousin made Kid better. He now had a concrete problem to deal with and he rose from the table and left the saloon without giving them a backwards glance.
His first thought had been to get word to Heyes, or even go himself. But he finally dismissed that idea realizing it was more his need to check on his cousin than it being the best choice.
Big Jim Santana back running the gang. Kid felt a momentary twinge of something he had no name for but was part apprehension, jealousy and if he was honest distrust.
He and Big Jim had never seen eye to eye and the fact that Heyes had thought the sun and moon rose in the man hadn’t helped. Heyes had all ready been established in the gang when Kid had arrived and cast an odd cog in the workings.
Jim had resented his cousin’s loyalty being to him first and Kid had resented the closeness the two men shared that he could never be part of.
He had never talked to Heyes about it and he doubted he had ever noticed the strain between the two men. With Santana out of prison he would be looking for his right hand man to return. It had been a rough few months trying for amnesty, would his partner be tempted?
Dismissing the thought as not being part of the problem here and now he finalized his plan as he walked down the street. The best thing he could do for Heyes was to keep the three men away from him until he got back and Kid could get him out of there.
And the best place he knew to do that to a man was jail.
Of course he was more familiar with getting out of them than in, but it didn’t represent too big a problem. And as he set his plans in motion he smiled remembering…
*******************************
“Heyes you cannot stay here,” Kid hissed through the cell window to the outside where his partner stood stubbornly in the shadows talking to him. “They are just waiting for you to make an attempt to break me out and then we’ll both be heading for prison.”
“Not if the attempt works,” Heyes said stubbornly.
“Heyes they have twenty men taking me out tomorrow and even with the gang you’d have a blood bath that might get us both killed anyway. It’s how it worked out, just get yourself safe.”
“I ain’t leaving without you.”
Kid banged his head against the bars in frustration, “Heyes you are the most stubborn, pig headed…”
“Tomorrow be ready, when you least expect it… I’ll think of something….”
“So Curry looks like your partner decided his own hide was more important than trying to save yours,” the sheriff grinned next morning and spit out a wad of tobacco.
He was on his horse and surrounded by men enjoying watching his hands being tied behind his back.
“And don’t get your hopes up that he’ll save you on the trail, I got a nice wide open path down the old river bed, I’ll be able to see anyone coming for miles.”
Kid sighed, he had been afraid they would take that route. The new dam had left a trail in flat open country except for one section past a sheer cliff of stone too high and dipped for a man to attempt an ambush from.
No not even Heyes’s genius could save him this time.
The lasso pulled him off his horse just as the water hit.
Kid had seen flash floods before, but usually there was warning from a storm, but this completely took riders and horses by surprise rushing them off their feet and along the river bed while he was quickly pulled up the cliff wall.
It was said later only Hannibal Heyes would think of blowing a dam to save his partner and then lift him right out of harms way as the water reclaimed its former track and scattered the men and horses.
And the stunt had only made his cousin more of a legend than before when the farmers, who had fought the railroad who financed the dam and flooded their lands, suddenly had their land back. The railroad suddenly back to square one and eventually abandoned the idea as too costly to repair.
*********************************
Yea Heyes sure had some imagination. And then to prove he wasn’t that lacking himself, Kid Curry did something that would have even surprised his partner, he went to church.
He sat in the middle giving the impression of eagerness to worship, but not wishing to force himself on the congregation. He quickly made points leaping up to help the organist with the passing out of hymnals when it turned out her regular helper was late. He then smiled and good morning brother every man who entered and managed to look shy and a little lost to every woman he glanced at and then dropped his eyes in respect.
He sang loud, but pleasantly and amen-ed often.
He finished it up by being first to the door as the Pastor went to shake hands and explaining in a loud voice how much a poor sinner like himself appreciated hearing the good word in a strange town and it was what kept a lonely cowboy on the straight and narrow.
So sincere was he that he could have gotten engaged or adopted by the time he hit the bottom step if he had wanted.
Instead he moved in on his quarry.
“Excuse me,” Kid said politely removing his hat to a group of sober looking, sturdy, farmers helping their women into their wagons. “I realize this is none of my concern and I only thought to speak up because of my concern for the ladies.”
He instantly had the men’s attention. Not to mention the women’s.
“What is it young fella?” the oldest man asked and he was pleased everyone had gathered around.
“Well I don’t want to frighten the ladies, perhaps we could speak somewhere alone?” Kid said even managing to blush that he had caused such a fuss.
“What is it boy?” an old matriarch said coming forward. “You can speak straight.”
“Well ma’am those three fellas loading up that wagon down yonder, well they were on the same cattle drive I was and well I confess I was sort of shunned by them, what with my not wanting to take part in their drinking and gambling.”
“That was wise thing son,” the preacher said proud of him and someone let out a Praise the Lord.
“Well I didn’t think to have anything more to do with them when they got into town, but then I heard them discussing…” he paused just long enough to have everyone lean in. “The fair ladies of your community, sir their talk was the vilest most evil form of speech I ever heard and it sickened me. And I might have thought it was just talk, but as I was sitting in church, well it was like divine inspiration hit me and I realized I had heard them asking around where certain farms were, where the prettiest ladies lived,” he paused and smiled making every woman feel for certain he guessed they had meant her when they said prettiest. ”And then I heard them laugh saying men would be in the fields all day this time of year…”
Kid left them to fill in blanks and suddenly men were pulling off coats and telling their women to wait in the church.
And so that was why the three outlaws were suddenly surrounded by 20 very angry men and before they knew it beaten and dragged off to jail where they sheriff promptly locked them up and said they should be grateful of it.
Kid then spent the afternoon fending off ‘just one more piece of peach pie’ and job offers at the impromptu church social he was made the hero of.
*****************************************
“That all you need?” Kid said as he took the locket.
“Yea, this will do it.”
“Everything okay up there?” Kid said quietly.
Heyes avoided his eyes, now was not the time to tell him about Big Jim.
“Yea its fine.”
Kid nodded, “Okay then, guess you gotta be going.”
“Yea.”
Relieved he had gotten away without having to explain…yet, Heyes hurried out to his horse. He had mounted and turned it to the west when he groaned and rolled his eyes and dismounting hurried back inside and up the steps to their room.
“Kid?”
Kid looked up from the bed where he was studying a quickly drawn map.
“Yea?”
“What are you doing?” Heyes said suddenly distracted.
“Nothing,” Kid said folding the map. “You forget something?”
“Is everything all right?” Heyes asked.
“Yup. Why’d you come back again?”
Heyes sighed suddenly uncomfortable, “Something I forgot to tell you, Big Jim is back.”
Kid nodded, “Must make things a bit more interesting.”
Heyes stared at him, “You knew?”
“Yea.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“Figured you wanted me to know you’d tell me.”
“Look I just didn’t want you to worry, it’s fine, I should be back day after next.”
“I’ll be waiting.”
Confused Heyes walked out the door and tried to pull his mind back on the job at hand. Then turning back he opened the door again.
“Kid?”
“Yea?”
His partner was checking his gun.
“You wanna come back with me?”
Kid looked up, a small smile played at his lips, “Not unless you need me.”
“No, not really, I mean its nothing I can’t handle.”
“Then I reckon I’ll stay here if it’s all the same.”
“Sure?”
“Yea.”
Completely confused now Heyes finally made it back to his horse, but his partner was on his mind the whole way back.
**********************************
Kid woke early and glanced out the window as he washed and dressed. Sunny day, fit in well with his plans. Heyes’s being delayed had forced his hand and resigned he set about making ready for the confrontation coming.
Picking up the note he had written he added the money Heyes had given him to the envelope left it with the desk clerk with instructions to give it to his cousin should he not return. He planned to, but he had a practical Kansas streak running through him that demanded he consider the alternatives.
Breakfast finished he saddled his horse. Sheriff had said they would be releasing them at 10:00. They would be sore, angry and mean. Not the best way to face a man, but he’d had worse.
The very first time for example…
******************************
He had been 15 and entering a saloon still made him look over his shoulder for his father to come haul him out. They had completed their first cattle drive and gone off with the rest of the drovers to find women and hard liquor though both he and Heyes confessed to each other later they would have preferred a bed and bath and 12 hours of darkness if they had been given a choice.
Heyes had found the poker game and then he had been pulled into one. He looked too young, he knew that, knew his wining would upset the older men, but it wasn’t his fault playing with Heyes gave a man an edge. He had won two big hands and had been green horn stupid about rubbing it in to the older men. It was then the man across from him called him a cheat.
On both sides of him chairs skidded back. He stared at the man incredulously. He was demanding he draw.
He felt Heyes rather than saw him. He had moved directly behind him backing him up, but also putting himself in the line of fire should Kid miss or a bullet go astray.
The only way he could keep the man from maybe killing Heyes was to get to his gun first.
The man moved for his holster and suddenly Kid was holding his gun. It had never happened that fast before, not when he practiced not even when he hunted game, it was as if the deadliness of the situation had given him the finishing edge to all those years of practice.
He heard everyone gasp in awe and the man look at him horrified. The stranger’s hand had not even reached his gun.
“Think you better move along before Mr. Curry decides he don’t feel like staying generous,” his trail boss was suddenly saying and pushing the man out the door.
Then everyone was talking and clapping him on the back and offering to buy him drinks and telling him ole Dirk Reynolds had that coming and how’d he get so fast.
When he finally broke free he found his cousin and he let Heyes lead him out to the alley where he was violently sick. He never had been sure if it had been the fear of his dying or that he might have had to kill the man.
“Come on Jed that rot gut whiskey will kill a man,” Heyes had pretended was the cause and helping him up and to their room where he had fell on his bed feeling hollow and sick.
“Here, drink this,” he is cousin had said handing him a glass of water and a wet cloth to wash his face.
“Heyes I could have killed him.”
“You didn’t,” Heyes said simply but Kid had noticed when he set the glass down his hand was shaking. “Let’s get some sleep.”
Neither one said a word until they were undressed and lying in their beds, the only light the moon eavesdropping through the curtains.
“I thought you were dead,” Heyes said finally. “But you never flinched, you never showed a sign of being afraid, Kid how’d you get that fast?”
Kid thought, “Don’t know, just knew you were behind me and we’d both be dead if I didn’t get to my gun first.”
“I was scared, I wasn’t sure how to back you up.”
“That why you stood behind me?”
Heyes rolled over and looked across at him, “No, I wanted to make sure I could get off a clean shot to kill him if he hurt you.”.
“Then they’d of hanged you.”
“Hadn’t thought of that,” he lied and then smiled “Good thing you drew first!”
Kid laughed, “Yea guess it was.”
“Got you a reputation now, “
“It was one fight Heyes”
“Maybe. But if it ain’t? I’ll always be behind ya Jed.”
“Then I guess I’ll always have to draw first.”
**********************************
“That’s far enough boys,” Kid said calmly pulling his horse in front of the wagon.
The wagon and the two men on horseback stopped and warily sized him up.
“What you want mister?” the older one said. “We had enough trouble with this town we just want free of it.”
“I got no problem with that as long as you head in the opposite direction.”
“We what!” the southerner said excited.
“You got any idea who we are and where were headed?” the easterner said smugly.
“Yup, that’s why I can’t let you go by.”
The three men looked at each other and laughed at his arrogance.
“You ready to back that up?”
Kid leaned forward in his saddle comfortable and relaxed. He had picked a curve in the road where the light favored him. He was ready, Heyes was behind him.
The southerner went for his gun and Kid’s exploded in his hand. He took the man off his horse and moved across to the man in the wagon and finally the easterner.
When the smoke cleared four men still lived, but three weren’t so sure they wanted too.
*****************************
“You think they’re gonna work out?” Kid said two days later as he and Heyes watched the private coach pull out with Big Jim Santana aboard.
“Maybe, I’ll tell you this Kid though, Big Jim’s met his match there,” Heyes laughed relieved it was over.
He had returned to find his cousin amiably whittling on the hotel porch looking rested and pleased with himself. He wasn’t sure why, but for the moment he was just grateful for it.
“Mr. Jones?” the sheriff said hurrying over.
Heyes tensed over so slightly, only enough so Kid picked it up.
“Sheriff?” Kid smiled and Heyes found himself frowning at his partner’s relaxed reaction.
“Doc finally released those three so were gonna lock them up till the trial, I just want to thank you again for what you did. I feel real bad them trying to ambush you on the trail for you warning us about them.”
“Sheriff it was my pleasure.”
“Well if your ever back in Laramie, you remember you got friends here. Gentlemen.”
Heyes had been listening in amazement, but then he froze as he caught sight of the three men being helped into the jail, one on a stretcher.
He recognized the face instantly and looked sharply up at his friend, who merely ignored his reaction and began walking back towards their horses.
“Kid that was….” Heyes stopped, a lot starting to make sense. “But you never met him…how did you…
“Long story,” Kid said reaching his horse and untying it.
“And you are going to tell it to me right?” his partner said not about to let it go as Kid swung up into his saddle.
“Nope, you worry enough as it is.”
Heyes stood for a moment his mind working through all the possibilities and when he finally discerned the truth his expression was grateful and horrified.
He untied his horse and mounted allowing the town to fall into the distance before he finally found something to say.
“You are what’s been keeping me alive all these years aren’t you?” he said exhaling and shaking his head. “Thank you.”
“Actually Heyes thank you,” Kid said with a smile that showed both his relief and contentment. “I’ve been giving it some thought and you know? I got a ways to catch up.”