My father nodded.
"Where's his mammy?"
My father looked at him, then picked me up.
I fit real good in the crook of his arm.
His voice was emotionless.
"She died a few months back."
The man stared up at us.
"That's what I heard."
My father stared back at him for a moment.
I could feel the muscles in his arm tighten under my behind. Then before I could catch my breath, I was flying through the air over the porch rail.
The man caught me with one arm and rolled me in close to him as he went down on one knee to absorb the impact.
The breath whooshed out of me and before I could begin to cry, my father spoke again. A faint smile crossed his lips.
"Teach him how to ride," he said.
He picked up his paper and went into the house without a backward glance.
Still holding me with one hand, the man called Nevada began to rise again.
I looked down.
The gun in his other hand was like a live black snake, pointed at my father.
While I was looking, the gun disappeared back in the holster.
I looked up into Nevada 's face.
His face broke into a warm, gentle smile.
He set me down on the ground carefully.
"Well, Junior," he said. "You heard your pappy.
Come on."
I looked up at the house but my father had already gone inside.
I didn't know it then but that was the last time my father ever held me in his arms.
From that time on, it was almost as if I were Nevada 's boy.
I had one foot over the side of the cockpit by the time Nevada came up.
He squinted up at me.
"You been pretty busy."
I dropped to the ground beside him and looked down at him.
Somehow I never could get used to that. Me being six two like my father and Nevada still the same five nine.
"Pretty busy," I admitted.
Nevada stretched and looked into the rear cockpit.
"Neat," he said. "How d'ja get it?"
I smiled. "I won it in a crap game."
He looked at me questioningly.
"Don't worry," I added quickly. "I let him win five hundred dollars afterward."
He nodded, satisfied.
That, too, was one of the things Nevada taught me.
Never walk away from the table after you win a man's horse without letting him win back at least one stake for tomorrow.
It didn't diminish your winnings by much and at least the sucker walked away feeling he'd won something.
I reached into the rear cockpit and pulled out some chocks.
I tossed one to Nevada and walked around and set mine under a wheel.
Nevada did the same on the other side.
"Your pappy ain't gonna like it.
You messed up production for the day."
I straightened up. "I don't guess it will matter much." I walked around the prop toward him.
"How'd he hear about it so soon?"
Nevada 's lips broke into the familiar mirthless smile.
"You took the girl to the hospital. They sent for her folks.