Pal Garrett came home at eleven p.m. He was with his half brother Luke, and best friends Morgan Jackson and Paco Lopez.
Tears freckled his face, he didn’t wipe them.
His wife, Marge, surprised he had returned so early, as card games usually lasted to sun up, entered the kitchen. Behind her were their twins, Jahn and Billy who were fifteen. Luke’s wife was trembling. She knew something was wrong.
Pal explained how he’d played cards with two guys, Vin White and Seth Thompson, and had lost. Lost the house.
While Marge made the expected sounds, Jahn, in his low soft voice, asked for the address of the two men,. His father gave them to him.
“Y’all stay here, we’ll be back shortly.”
Jahn and Billy walked into the house, collected Dave and Lenny Lucas who were in their room The Lucas boys had been adopted when their parents were lynched.
The sounds of the cars departing seemed louder than normal. No one mentioned that none of the drivers had a licence. No one spoke of what they knew was going to happen. Jackie made coffee. The only sounds in the kitchen were matches scratching as cigarettes were lit or the movement of the coffee cups.
Marge sat near her husband, but didn’t touch him. Jackie washed dishes that didn’t need to be washed.
At thirty two, Pal was more a boy than his sons. Semi-educated, a gambler, usually relying on his Daddy, Big Bill. But Bill was in jail, again. Serving a sentence for manslaughter. Pal was 'the man' of the family. A job he couldn't fill.
It wasn’t an hour later when the cars returned. Along with Jahn, Billy, Dave and Lenny were J.P. Jackson and Pete Lopez.
Softly Jahn said to his father; “Tomorrow you go to that lawyer, and put the house and everything you own in my name and Billy’s name and appoint Mom as Trustee until we are eighteen.”
Jahn paused until his father met his blue eyes and nodded.
“Anyone asks, the game ended early and you were up a few bucks. Nothing special.”
Again a pause, insuring his father understood, before turning to his friends; “J.P, Pete, go home with your Fathers.”
There was a shuffling, chairs pushed in, a door opened and closed. Jahn walked out of the room, followed by Billy, Dave and Lenny.
Marge sat with her husband a moment, then to the back porch. Jackie followed but didn’t speak.
Jackie had a son, Teddy. He was a year older than Jahn, but out of the loop. Her daughter, Maria, was friendly with Marge’s younger daughter Ricky. Jahn spoke to Maria as a cousin. He ignored Teddy completely.
Jahn's circle contained his gang called The Rebels, made up of himself, Billy, Dave, Lenny, Dennis, Mike and Rick Mulutz, and Jimmy Waldron. He linked with the Coyotes, a gang run by J.P. Jackson, containing twenty five members.
All members of the circle, outside of the Mulutz boys and Jimmy, were sons of Pal’s friends. Pal’s friends were the sons of friends of his father, Big Bill.
Most of the wives of Pal's friends were sisters of his friends, only a few were outsiders who had been brought into the circle and understood the rules.
Garrett, Texas was a closed community, with its own rules.
The heater at Vin White’s house, exploded, killing him and his family. Seth Thompson died when his car went over a precipice. He didn’t have a wife or kids.
In the morning, Pal Garrett went to a lawyer, did as he had been told, then came home and went along the property with Luke to do fence mending.
No one spoke about that night, nor were asked.
Pal continued to play cards, but only with his friends, that is, the fathers of the boys who belonged to the Coyotes.
Jahn and his crew continued to attend Ennis High School, play on the football or basketball team.
Shortly after the incident, Aunt Jackie's niece, Jody O'Shan, arrived. She went to stay at the O'Shan mansion across the pasture.
She pinched Jahn’s interest.
Aunt Jackie, the wife of his 'uncle' Luke, had been in Jahn's life since birth. Jahn had seen Jody once before, when he was ten and she was nine. Jeanne O'Shan was divorcing her husband and had come with her daughter to Texas. Jahn recalled that Jody had been taller than he was.
Jody and her mother had lived at the O'Shan house about a month, then gone wherever. Cousin Jody had made no impression on him.
Now Jody reappears. And this Jody was tiny. He’d judge her height now about five feet, five feet one. Considering that he had been four feet eleven, when they first met, she should be at least five five today.
There were other discrepanies, but it was how she moved that flagged him, though he didn’t know why. However, the base logic was that no one leaves a fourteen year old girl alone in a big mansion of a house.
For about month Jahn gave her an eye corner study. Then, one night, just past sundown, he rode over. He saw the light in the attic. He entered the house, mounted the stairs. When he opened the door to the attic, she was not in the bed, where he’d first glanced, but standing opposite with a gun in her hand.
He liked the way she held the gun.
“Think we should talk,” Jahn said.
She didn’t give the usual answers, such as ‘about what’ or ‘I have nothing to say’, she stood as she had, the gun pointed at his chest, her eyes in his, and was silent.
Jahn had always been the silent one. To stand in silence was not uncomfortable.
He knew it was not the money that brought her to the O’Shan mansion, and that she was too young to work for any agency or have an agenda. She was a girl from somewhere who had nowhere to be so was here. Whether she’d killed Jody and taken her papers or they swapped identities, was not central to Jahn’s consideration.
Standing there, looking at her, he saw something he liked, someone he could felt he could trust. The only decision was, could she trust him?
For the past month, this Jody had attended Ennis High, she knew who he was. Whether she heard facts or the fictions, it didn’t matter. He was who and what he portrayed. And everyone at the school deferred to him.
He didn’t stroll around demanding obeisance, he came to school, did his work, played hard on the football field, and went home. He never had arguments with anyone, never raised his voice, never did anything to cause trouble.
His men were under his control and did what he told them without pause. He didn’t give many orders, just a few, said softly.
Unlike most of the school which had its racist element, Jahn’s gang was integrated. No one made a slur, even under their breath, for Jahn could fight and was very strong. If he hit a man in the face, he broke a jaw. And everyone at Ennis knew it. For Jahn’s reputation was born in first grade, and continued through his life.
So this ‘Jody’ knew who and what he was. This ‘Jody’ had a choice, watch him turn and walk away and lose whatever benefit connection to him and his circle would endow, or speak.
She never broke eye contact and he had an odd sense she was reading his mind.
Then, she lowered the gun.
“I wanted to leave, Jody wanted to stay.”
Her voice, as his, was low and soft. It was a voice that only emitted what was necessary.
He understood her remark as the admission of having been schooled in who was who and what was what, meaning she wasn’t flying blind when she arrived in Garrett, Texas. That no one but him suspected her was proof.
“One day you’ll tell me your biography. Right now, how good are you with a gun?”
“As good as you...”
Her word pushed him a bit, for he was that good.
“You can ride?” he asked.
“Never did before.”
“Meet you, about six am, and test your skills. I’ll teach you to ride on the way.”
She nodded, and he made a two finger salute and went down the stairs, out of the house, mounted his horse, rode home.
'Jody' was ready when he arrived that morning. He told her how to mount. He didn't come down to help her, he sat on his horse and spoke. It took her two tries. He held the reins, told her how to sit. Leading the horse, staying at a walk, they reached the road, then across to vacant land.
Once across, he gave her the reins, told her how to hold them, how to control the horse with them, and they kept going for about a mile.
He had packed the saddle bags of both horses with tin cans, When they reached a useful point, he halted, dismounted, as did she. He tied the horses, emptied the saddle bags, set the targets. He put a good distance between them.
"Can you hit them?" he asked.
She hit five cans with five bullets. He didn't say anything, just looked at her and nodded.
She made a small smile, just a lifting of the sides of her mouth. Although he’d age her between fourteen and sixteen, there was this fragrance that she’d not had an easy life, and held a number of secrets. How old she really was would be one of them.
The Shooting expedition over, they mounted and rode back, he giving her points on how to sit on a trot.
What he liked about her was that she listened, she did what he said, and where she needed to modify she did so. Without talking.
Jahn hated blah blah. He liked answers or questions. He tuned out fillers and adjectives on most occasions. His gang and the Coyotes kept their conversations away from him. His girl friend, Dyan, could babble, and never noticed he wasn’t listening to her. As she had a beautiful voice it was hearing an instrumental piece on a violin, so her chatter didn’t bother him.
As he’d known Dyan all his life, as she knew him and everything about him, there were no questions.
Pal and Luke and their friends had gotten their money through robberies, burglaries, and other crimes so their kids grew up being taught not to ask questions. They behaved as upper middle class High School students, who claimed their fathers were ‘ranchers’. But they knew not to questions where the money came from. Now that it had been invested in land and oil, they had a cover. But not all the money came from oil. And the kids knew it without demanding particulars.
Violent crime was low, almost non-existent as people who liked trouble were found dead.. There never were clues or suspects, or reason for investigation as many deaths appeared to be accidents.
The Sheriff, Val Smith, had been one of Pal’s guys in early days and having a clean record, completing High School without getting anyone pregnant, and entering law enforcement on graduation, never pushed an investigation when it might turn up something that could, even peripherally, touch on his friends.
Riding back with ‘Jody’ who learned fast, Jahn had a feeling he’d just met his most useful friend. He had a feeling she could, if necessary, put a bullet in a man’s head as easy as in a tin can,and think about it just as much.
He might be jumping ahead, but didn’t think so.
They reached the O’Shan mansion.
“You like riding?”
“Oh yes...”
“Meet you here tomorrow same time...”
She nodded, dismounted, gave him the reins, then turned to pet the horse. After a moment she walked to the house. He waited until she had gone inside then rode to his home, the Elegy Ranch.
He thought about her for the rest of the day and looked forward to the next. This was not usual in Jahn Garrett’s world.
When Pal was six years old, his father, Big Bill, went to prison. It was two months after Luke had run away from home and had come to live with them. With Bill gone, with no family, the boys went to live with the Lucases; Rosa and Jess, and their son Rufus.
The Lucases were one of the few African-Americans in the area. Jess was part of Bill’s gang. Rufus born two days after Pal.
For many years Big Bill's basic plan was that Jess would go to a town as a pitiful shuffler looking for a day’s work. He’d get jobs cleaning bars or houses, and do his surveillance. When he left town, Jess would tell Bill and his gang of the soft spots.
Bill and his people would commit the crimes. Jess was never connected. When Bill was in one town, Jess was in another.
This went on for years until Bill was caught. Someone had seen a very tall man and Bill was the tallest most people had ever seen. He was Six Eight and broad. And with no one else fitting the description, and he being a stranger, conviction was easy. Bill was sentenced to five years. For the five years Bill was in Prison, Pal and Luke grew with the Lucases. Then Bill came out.
Most of the money he and his men had stolen, plus that given to Jess, was buried. Just enough was taken each day to get by. The easiest way to get caught was to flash cash, to have 5c yesterday and $5.00 today.
Having been gone for five years, arrested in another town, using another name, the cover story was that Bill had been working on an oil rig, and the money was his pay. He dug up his take and used it to buy a big rambling house that had been foreclosed by the bank. This was during the Depression, when many properties were foreclosed and sold for pennies on the dollar.
The house he bought was at the foot of the hill where the Lucases lived. He moved in with his son and Luke, who adopted the name Garrett.
The boys made friends with the sons and daughters of Bill's friends, and they lived in a rarefied atmosphere.
When Luke was sixteen he met Jackie. She was not part of the Circle, but someone who arrived with her sister, Jeanne, and lived in the house across the pasture. Jackie easily slipped into the circle. She spoke and dressed and acted as did the others, as Luke, she became one of them.
Where Jeanne was looking for a rich man, and found Mi O'Shan, Jackie fell in love with the scruffy Luke.
When Jackie became pregnant, Luke married her. Shortly after, Pal married Marge, a cousin of one of his friends.
Rufus had married Pearl and already had two sons, Leonard and David.
When Jahn was about four, he and Billy and their little sister, Ricky were hustled from bed, into a car. Dave and Lenny were already within. Jahn didn’t know then, learned later, in bits, that Rufus and Pearl had been lynched, and Pal and his people had tracked down the killers and disposed of them.
Why Pal ran and the others did not was never explained.
Pal and Luke and their families, including the Lucas boys, stayed in Mexico for almost four years, then returned to Texas when Jahn was eight. He and Billy were put into first grade. Some kid said something and Jahn hit him so hard and so fast that he fell off the chair. Jahn turned back to his book while the kid howled. When the teacher asked what happened, other kids said that the howling boy had fallen off the chair.
This was standard in Jahn’s world. Not simply that people would cover for him, but that he acted so fast and so clandestinely that the kids who said 'fell’ truly believed it. They never saw Jahn hit him, and Jahn never acted as if he had.
Jahn and his brother learned fast, were moved into second, and then third grade. As class mates were the sons and daughters of his father’s friends, and loyalty was their foundation there was never moments of question or dislocation.
As Bill's men were a 'brotherhood', so were Pal's and so were Jahn's.
Jahn eased Jody into his circle. He set up an encounter on the shooting range, and led the admiration for her prowess. As his people always followed his lead, the ‘like’ switch was thrown and she was included when they went to the usual hangout.
What amazed Jahn was that for the first in his life, someone could read him, and knew how to bounce the words back and forth, knew what came next. By the end of the day it was as if she’d always been there.
Some of the guys, his own and the Coyotes, liked her. Jody kept it platonic, avoided all cute talk. She never danced.
A few months later, after Jody was cemented in place, they had that Me 101 talk. He learned where she came from, why she was as she was. And that she wasn’t white. Whatever possibilities might have existed in his mind ended there.
Jody O'Shan was a member of the circle. She was invited to everything, went everywhere with them. She was considered quiet and shy, average in appearance, save being the shortest. Her long chestnut hair was usually pulled back in a pony tail, she wore very little makeup as did they all. She played on the volleyball team and was pretty good.
There was nothing in her appearance, her actions, her speech, to signify she was not one of them, born and grown in Garrett, Texas.
During the intervenint three years, Jahn noticed how she could disappear into a crowd. Because Jahn was intrigued by her, because he really looked at her, he saw that she was rather attractive. Her eyes were large, slightly Oriental. She held her face in an expressionless mode. Where many drew attention to themselves, with sound and movement, she worked at being unseen.
When they went to the Bob B Q, the usual hangout, his eyes had to search for her, and the way she moved, so silently, so unobtrusively, if one looked away for a moment, she was gone.
Despite this, Jahn followed his path of dating then marrying Dyan after High School graduation. They moved into a section of the house Bill had bought.
Over the years, many wings had been put on to the house. That for Luke and his family, that for Pal and his, and another wing when Jahn married.
It was not long after Jahn and his wife took up residence in their own section that things got a little tight in Texas. Sheriff Val told Jahn that anti-gang action was about to happen. Val admitted that he was mostly out of the loop as the Feds considered local law enforcement unreliable, but things had occured in Austin which got the eyes on Texas.
Jahn knew what he was being told. He called a meeting at the Bob-B-Q. Some of Coyottes would travel out of state, some would stay. Nothing that identified them as a ‘gang’ should be observed.
As Jody O’Shan’s late father owned a mansion in Ireland, it was decided the Rebels, save for Jimmy Waldron, would do a little traveling.
Jody left Texas first. She phoned after a week, giving them the location, how to travel in batches, and what to do when they arrived.
None of the Rebels had ever traveled by plane. They had to get passports.
First Dave and Dennis, who flew to New York City, boarded Air Lingus and arrived in Dublin. They took a taxi to a Holiday Inn. They went in with their bags, to the restaurant, ate, then took a bus. They got off and walked to the O'Shan mansion.
While they had been eating, Billy, Rick and Mike were boarding an Aeroflot.
Jahn and Lenny caught Pan Am a few hours later, arrived in Ireland after dark, spent the night in the hotel, then took the bus to the mansion.
There were cars in the garage and Dennis, being an amateur mechanic, had got them operational.
Their first stop was a petrol station, where the tanks were filled, the oil checked, then went to a shop where they could buy food. It was decided to put all the spoilables in one car, have that go back to the house, then return and take half the unspoilables.
Jody didn’t eat meat and didn’t want pork in her house, so they shored up with beef and chicken.
Once the car was packed, Dennis and Dave took it home. They returned shortly after the others emerged with enough food to last a normal family a month but should be gone in five days, considering their appetites.
The shopping completed, they drove to Dublin. They found a place to eat, then went to do the tourist thing, Jody in the front of one car with Jahn driving, Lenny and Rick in the back, Billy drove the other with Mike, and Dave and Dennis in the back.
All of the Rebels, save Jimmy were over six feet tall. Sitting in the back seat it was fortunate these were high end vehicles with space for legs. Rick and Lenny kept up an almost constant commentary. Jody checked the time, turned on the radio. Jahn gave her an eye corner...”News” she explained.
They drove around Dublin, not really interested. Although the Mulutz boys were new editions to the Garrett circle they picked up fast and didn't do the ohhs and ahhs.
The foundation was loyalty. The creed was staying below the radar. The tenets were doing what had to be done, not talking about it, and following instructions immediately.
Big Bill had created the pattern, it went to his son, to his grandson. The point was to survive.
Bill had stolen to survive. He fought and killed to live. He didn’t have a goal beyond survival. Anyone who linked with him became part of him.
Bill got a girl pregnant, and she stuck with him until the baby was three months old, then left. Rosa, Jesse’s wife looked after the baby until he was old enough to feed himself, dress himself. That was Bill’s only child, called Pal.
Pal went to school and met Luke who was in similar condition and the two boys hung together, along with those of Bill’s gang.
Pal formed his own gang, on the rules of his father. Unlike Bill, Pal had humor and was followed because he was Bill’s son, not because he was a leader.
Jahn was a leader.
They had ridden around Dublin and night had fallen. They were not far from the docks. That is when Jody stiffened, chin pointed. Ahead they saw a young man running towards them, two behind him. The man in front had nothing, the two behind had guns.
Jahn hadn’t seen a gun since he reached Ireland.
“Save him...” Jody said.
The man being chased turned left, to run down a side road. Those behind stopped, fired at the running man, he fell as Jahn drove the car into the shooters, sending them flying.
“Get the man, get the guns...” Jahn ordered.
Lenny and Rick jumped out, Jody went into the back seat.
The man was put into the back seat, Rick and Lenny pushed into the front as Jahn drove off.
“Handkerchiefs?” Jody asked and the men passed them back.
No one said anything as Jahn raced them to the O’Shan mansion.
The man they had rescued seemed to be in his late teens, early twenties. He was slender, had a bad complexion. His hair was very black, thick and longish, his eyes were almost black. Although alert, he said nothing. He didn’t cry out.
As they arrived at the O’Shan mansion, Jody took charge.
“Put him on the table, Lenny, and keep pressure on the wound. Rick, light an open candle...” Jody shouted as she ran up the stairs. Jahn nodded, so they did as told.
The man had been shot in the back, just at waist level and to the left side.
Billy and the others came as Jody was racing down the steps. The explanation Jahn was giving stopped mid word as Jody ordered, “Hold this in the flame... use your shirt beneath your fingers...” as she handed Rick an eye brow tweezer, and tossed band aids on the table, along with dental floss and a needle; “Billy, thread it,” she called and went into the side bathroom to wash her hands.
She was out quickly, to the man who lay on the table. He was awake, just looking with his black eyes.