BARON RANGE

1
ANSON BARON WOULD never forget the night the big storm hit that part of Texas where the lands of the Box B lay. The storm seemed to sum up all the turmoil he felt inside, and the rage he felt toward his father. And it was the night that Mickey Bone left the ranch, stealing away in the darkness without even telling Anson's father, Martin, that he was leaving, or why he was leaving. At that time, no one knew why Mickey had picked up and lit a shuck for Mexico. No one except the Argentine, Juanito Salazar, and he never told anyone the real reason. He just told Anson that Bone wanted to find his own people and become an Indian again, a Lipan Apache.
But Bone's leaving like that left a bitter taste in Anson's mouth, and it would be many months before he would know the whole truth of that night and why Mickey had abandoned him. Anson had wanted to ride away with him and become an Apache himself. He had wanted to leave the wrath of his father and never set eyes on him again.
It was at one of those times during those hard days on theBox B that Anson Baron thought about killing his father, Martin. He was at that age when a father's harsh words cut deep and at a time when Anson was self-conscious. His muscles were filling out and the urges he had first experienced three or four years ago were stronger now. These urges were both masculine and confusing, and when his father humiliated him in front of the vaqueros or the Argentine, Juanito Salazar, the anger rose up in Anson with a searing heat that surged through his brain like wildfire.
But after Mickey rode away, Anson had left Juanito's casita and gone to the big house where his parents, Caroline and Martin, lived, the house on the hill called La Loma de Sombra, Shadow Hill. Even though he did not want to see his father that night, he had no place else to go. Juanito had told him to go home, and he knew there must be some reason for the Argentine to say that.
He heard his parents arguing as the rain fell, clattering on the roof with a maddening din. It seemed to the boy that his folks argued a lot. He knew his mother, Caroline, was unhappy. He thought it might be because she was with child, which was confusing enough at his age. He thought his mother was too old to have another child. After all, he was nearly seventeen and had gotten used to being an only child.
The argument broke off, and Anson heard his father's footsteps pound on the hardwood flooring. He thought he heard his mother crying, but he could not be sure because the sound of the rain on the roof drowned out all but the loudest sounds. He looked out the window of his room and saw how dark it was and wondered about Mickey Bone riding through all that rain and hoped he had sense enough to seek shelter, which of course he would because Mickey was an Apache and knew how to live on the land in all kinds of weather. He felt a loneliness that seemed strange to him, felt that a part of his life had been taken away and things would never be the same again.
Then he heard distant thunder and the house seemed oddly silent all of a sudden.
Copyright © 1998 by Jory Sherman