It was almost dusk, and I could see lanterns beginning to glow inside my daddy’s house. Though it was growing late, I continued to sit in the damp, and I didn’t stir until Mitchell happened upon me. He gave me a nod and I returned it; then he sat on a stump a few feet from me without a word. Mitchell had gone away some while ago, as he had said he would, but then had come back. I’d heard his mama had sent his brother Jasper to get him, and for whatever reason, Mitchell had returned. “How you doin’?” he asked, breaking the silence.
I shrugged.
Mitchell didn’t say anything, and we sat there in silence looking out over my daddy’s land together. After a while I said, “One day I’ll have a place like this.”
Mitchell turned toward me. “What you mean, ‘like this’? Figured you t’ be here.”
“No,” I said. “No, I won’t be here, not here on my daddy’s land. One day I’ll have land of my own. I’ve got to have something all my own.”
Cassie and her family stayed on for several days, and I stayed with them, but when they left, my daddy sent me back to Macon. Then, when summer came and school was out, he sent for me again. He said we were heading to East Texas to buy some horses at a horse fair. My daddy had been doing a considerable amount of reading concerning horses coming out of Texas. What with all the wild horses of the West, the Appaloosas and the mustangs, he had heard that horses of some of the greatest speeds were there, and my daddy being the horseman he was, wanted horses of the greatest speed.
Hammond and George were both on their own by now. Hammond was clerking in a law firm in Atlanta, and George was out west somewhere serving in the Army. That left only Robert and me to go on the trip. I was an obvious choice to go because of how I could ride and handle the horses. My daddy decided to take Robert simply because Robert was his son. Everybody knew he would be of no real help with the horses, so it was certainly expected that others would go along as well to help out. Willie Thomas would come along. I figured, though, my daddy would need one more hand, and I asked him if Mitchell could go with us. “He’s right good with horses now,” I said. “He’s gentle with them, and they trust him.”
“As I recall,” said my daddy, “it was Mitchell who near to crippled Ghost Wind.”
“That was a long time ago. Mitchell’s learned a lot about horses since then.”
My daddy thought on that. “I suppose,” he agreed. “How old is that boy now?”
“He just turned sixteen first part of the year.”
“Sixteen and he can’t ride, can he?”
“That’s because you don’t let him.”
My daddy gave a nod, as if he were considering the matter. “All right, Paul,” he said. “I’ll keep an eye on Mitchell, and I’ll let you know.”
At this time, though Mitchell had befriended me more than once in his way over the years, I still did not consider Mitchell a close friend. He was more of an ally than anything else. Seeing that Robert and I were no longer close, I figured I had no real friends. But I also figured Mitchell needed somebody to speak up for him, the same way Mitchell must have figured I needed somebody to speak up for me on the day we buried my mama. As I’d told my daddy, Mitchell was good with horses. He couldn’t sit a horse well, but he could care for them well, and he was reliable. I didn’t figure I was taking much of a risk in talking to my daddy about him. Only thing that might get both Mitchell and me into trouble with my daddy down the road was Mitchell’s temper, so I warned Mitchell my daddy was going to be watching him.
“So?” questioned Mitchell.
“You want to go to East Texas?” I asked.
Mitchell, as was his way, shrugged in answer. “Makes no difference t’ me.”
“If it makes no difference,” I said, “then just go ahead and mess up and end up not going. You figure you want to go, though, then you treat those horses like you always do, and you keep your temper, even around your daddy.” Mitchell didn’t say anything. He just gave me a look and walked away, but I knew I’d gotten to him.
During the next few days Mitchell did himself and me proud. There was never any question that he’d treat the horses right, but he also held on to his temper. Even when his daddy cursed him and threatened him with his whip, Mitchell kept his silence and my daddy saw. My daddy saw everything, and on the day we set out with the horses to board the train, Mitchell was with us.
When we arrived in East Texas, we found folks from all over the South and the neighboring states at the horse fair. Folks who just plain loved horses and folks who loved the horse racing business had come. First day we got settled, my daddy chose to take a look at the horses available and to show off our horses too. Same day a man from Missouri proposed a wager against one of my daddy’s horses, and my daddy took it.