Six Months Later in late July
It was late morning when Lyle stood with his right boot propped up on the horizontal rail of the galvanized pipe corral fence watching Amanda and Benny riding a pair of Mr. Stockett's quarter-horse mares. Lyle was so proud of Benny, sitting confidently in the saddle atop a sorrel shaded mount named Ginger. Benny had come a long way in just a few months and loved wearing the palm leaf cowboy hat that Mr. Stockett had given to him to match the one Lyle was wearing at that moment. Strangely enough, Benny had grown even closer to Lyle since Maricruz told Benny that Rick was his father. Maricruz and Lyle had expected tears and doors slamming, but pretty much all he said about it was, "Okay. I like Rick alright, but Lyle's really my dad." Lyle did not take that job lightly, but took it as a privilege, a calling even. It had made it much easier on Benny that Rick acknowledged his biological contribution to Benny's existence and his emotional care for him, but that Rick didn't expect anything from Benny in return.
Lyle could tell that Amanda was still a little unsure of herself in the saddle but she too was growing in her riding skill and ease, mostly thanks to the horse she was riding, the soft and sweet buckskin tinted horse named Shasta. Shasta always took it easy on Amanda, trotting gently in wide circles around the ring. Just a few months earlier, no matter what he said, Lyle couldn't convince Amanda to go anywhere near a horse. But then her therapist over in Pueblo, the one Jacqueline Wallace had recommended, encouraged Amanda to take the risk. Now Lyle and Maricruz had to argue with her to get her back in the house, but Lyle could understand this better than Maricruz. Lyle was the same way. He loved his family and life in general these days but there's still no place he'd rather be than on a horse, working cattle or riding fence. Amanda had opened up so much and that was thanks to Shasta more than to anyone else. Although she may have still been a little uneasy in the mount, Lyle could see it on her face that when she was in the saddle she was happy for once in her life, especially now that she had her own pair of Justin boots that Fernando and Veronica had bought her for her seventeenth birthday the month before.
Thanks to the help of Father Carl, Chief Schmidt, and even Albert Singleton, the courts allowed for Lyle and Maricruz, once they were married, to serve as Amanda's foster parents until her eighteenth birthday when she could decide for herself where she would live. Lyle and Maricruz, of course, hoped she would choose to stay with them for several more years, knowing that she never had an actual childhood. It took them quite a while to figure out what to do about the fact that Amanda hadn't been to school since the eighth grade. There wasn't anything they could do for her through the schools in Rocky Ford, so they had enrolled her in a night school through the community college in Pueblo, driving her over three evenings every week.
As Lyle watched the kids ride, he fiddled with his purple "9 Months Sober" coin Rick had presented to him at the AA meeting a few nights before. Those months without Rick at the meetings as he was healing up and without Rick being able to fulfill his role as a sponsor had been tough for Lyle, but he'd made it through one day at a time with the help of an old cowboy named Monty who filled in during Rick's absence. Lyle thought less about drinking each day but inevitably he still thought about it at least a few times a day. Instead of going out to the bars with the other ranch hands he'd come home and spend the evening either helping Benny with his homework or taking his turn driving Amanda over to Pueblo. No matter where he was, though, each evening he'd make sure to drink a few cups of decaf coffee just to give him something to sip on and to have in his hand. Although it was never easy, staying sober was more possible with the joy and structure of family life.
It was amazing to everyone, Lyle and Maricruz included, how quickly they'd gelled together as a family, especially with all the trauma and change that had happened in the past six months. Father Carl told them it was probably not in spite of but because of all the stress that they grew so close so quickly. Not only was there all the abuse in Amanda's past and all that they went through that snowy night and the next day, but there was also Benny finding out about Rick and the fact that they all moved out to a brand new double-wide that Mr. Stockett gave to Lyle when he promoted him to ranch boss after he proved he was staying sober.
Their new house was a great place to be their first house together after getting married. Knowing how important family was to Maricruz, Lyle had decided to propose to her at a big family dinner one Sunday after Mass, which Lyle had started to attend some of the time because Maricruz told him that if he was going to be a father he needed to set the right example for Benny and Amanda not just the other six days of the week but on Sundays too. Although much of it was still foreign to Lyle and probably always would be, he was so thankful to Father Carl for all he'd done for them that he didn't mind sitting through the homilies. Not only had Father Carl called in every favor he had saved up with Chief Schmidt to keep Lyle, Maricruz, and Amanda out of jail, but he even went to the bishop to get permission to do the wedding for Maricruz and Lyle even though Lyle wasn't a Catholic and wasn't interested in becoming one. It did help their case that Lyle was a baptized and confirmed Methodist, although he hadn't spent much time in the pew for close to twenty years. It's not that Lyle had no spiritual side, though. A man doesn't spend that much time with horses and seeing as many sunrises and sunsets as he had over the years without knowing intuitively that there was someone or something bigger behind all that beauty. Plus, AA had genuinely come to serve as his spiritual community and the twelve steps had become his rule of life.
Lyle and Maricruz's wedding was bigger than Lyle thought it would be. Maricruz's family could practically fill the church by themselves, but Lyle even had some folks show up. The Stockett family came, as did most of the ranch hands from the Crazy Snake and a handful of people from the AA community in Pueblo. Rick was the best man and Jacqueline was one of the bridesmaids, which brought tears to Father Carl's eyes. "Sometimes I feel like I'm just preaching impossible pie in the sky ideas," he admitted during the wedding homily, "but you all prove that living out the gospel is possible." During premarital counseling, after Father Carl heard the full story involving Maricruz, Benny, Lyle, Rick, and Jacqueline, Father Carl called it the single most powerful example of forgiveness and reconciliation he'd ever heard.
That late morning out at their new place, while Lyle watched Amanda and Benny riding horses, Maricruz was still in town, tying up some loose ends at the restaurant before they could leave on their trip that evening. Ever since they moved the restaurant into a newer, larger building after the shooting, Maricruz had been spending more and more time in the office instead of waiting tables. Before she would come home to help pack the car she also planned to stop off for a quick workout at Frontier Justice Fitness, Umberto's gym that he'd opened where the restaurant had been. Although people aren't too keen on eating lunch and dinner in the room where a child rapist was shot to death, nobody seemed to have the same problem when it came to doing bench presses or pull ups in the same space. Also, once Maricruz and Benny moved out of the apartment upstairs, Umberto talked Fernando into letting him covert the living room into an aerobics room and putting tanning beds in the bedrooms. Three months in, Umberto was losing quite a bit of money each month but Maricruz was confident that with her help he could make it work.
Lyle climbed into the corral to help the kids dismount. As he was helping Benny down, he heard the sound of tires on gravel and turned to see Rick driving up the lane toward the house in the Wallaces' burgundy Dodge Caravan with Jacqueline following him in their white Honda Accord. Lyle unbuckled Ginger's saddle, sliding it off and then balancing it on the top rail of the fence, and then did the same for Shasta after he'd helped Amanda down. He and the kids walked over to greet Rick and Jacqueline, shaking hands and hugging. Jacqueline asked the kids to take her over to see the horses.
Lyle looked the minivan over, shook his head, and sighed. "Quite a machine you've got here," he joked with Rick.
"Hey," Rick joked back, "it sure beats driving to Oklahoma in Maricruz's little clown car or that feed truck you've been driving around."
"Seriously, though, Rick, although I'm going to lose any credibility I ever had as a cowboy for driving this thing, I can't tell you how much we appreciate it. You really sure it's okay? I mean, Pawhuska is a long way from here."
"We're happy to do it, Lyle," Rick said, patting Lyle on the back. "I'm so happy for you and all the great things that have happened in your life this year, that I'm just thankful to be a part of it. As soon as you told me you were taking the whole family to visit your little girl I knew I had to loan you the van. Driving this you'll have room for Savannah to ride with you when you take her places."
"That'll be great," Lyle said. "I just hope everything goes good. Clarissa is being really cool giving me this week with Savannah. Hopefully after this she'll be able to come see us here."
"I'd love to meet her someday. In the meantime, we've go you gassed up and ready to go tomorrow."
"Actually," Lyle said, "this damn heat made us decide to go ahead and take off tonight so it'll be cooler and the kids can sleep through most of the drive. I'll catch a nap here in a little while after Maricruz gets back from work and the gym. Then we'll load up after supper and hit the road."
Lyle and Rick talked more about the trip and Rick showed him where the insurance verification was and how to work the windshield wipers and headlights. Then they went over strategies for Lyle to stay sober while he was on the trip. Rick even handed him a sheet from a small yellow notepad that had a list of AA meetings in Pawhuska each day that Lyle would be there just in case. Jacqueline and the kids came back over from the horse corral, and after they all talked for a few more minutes Rick and Jacqueline drove off in her Honda.
Lyle released the horses back out into the pasture, and then after a while Maricruz came home, they had their lunch, packed their bags, and Lyle took a nap so he could drive through the night. After an easy supper of fish sticks, macaroni and cheese, and green beans, they loaded the minivan, and began the eight and a half hour drive, starting out on the gravel and dirt roads for several miles before they made it to Highway 50. Lyle was behind the wheel, Maricruz in the passenger seat, and Benny and Amanda in the captain’s chairs in the middle row. As they headed east on Highway 50, Lyle glanced over at Maricruz, who had won the fight over which radio station they would listen to—he wanted the country station out of Trinidad but she wanted Top 40. She was now singing along with Paula Abdul on “Opposites Attract,” and Lyle thought about how thankful he was that this was really true, even though he couldn't stand the song. After the song was finally over he turned the dial over to a country song, smiling at Maricruz when she groaned as Charlie Rich's "The Most Beautiful Girl" played through the minivan speakers.
"This one goes out as a long distance dedication to the lady in the passenger seat," Lyle said in a terrible Casey Kasem voice.
Maricruz just shook her head and laughed as "ughs" echoed from the backseat.
"Are you serious, Lyle?" Amanda asked, exasperated. "There's got to be some Def Leppard or Warrant or something better on the radio. Anything's better than this! Back me up on this, Benny."
Benny just laughed as he went back to playing the new Gameboy his grandparents had bought him for the trip with the understanding that it was an early birthday present.
As the song played on, as any husband and father would, Lyle enjoyed making his wife and the kids suffer through the sappy classic country song. He looked ahead toward the endless miles of blacktop highway bordered by the seemingly infinite high plains on each side and the vast and gradually darkening sky above. He couldn't help but think about how much his life had changed and be thankful for it. He glanced into the rearview mirror at the descending sun behind them and checked it again every few minutes, tracking it's downward progress, knowing they'd meet it again in the morning. Finally, he was lucky enough to check the mirror at the moment when it dipped completely beneath the horizon far behind them, finally resting somewhere west of Rocky Ford.
It was amazing to everyone, Lyle and Maricruz included, how quickly they'd gelled together as a family, especially with all the trauma and change that had happened in the past six months. Father Carl told them it was probably not in spite of but because of all the stress that they grew so close so quickly. Not only was there all the abuse in Amanda's past and all that they went through that snowy night and the next day, but there was also Benny finding out about Rick and the fact that they all moved out to a brand new double-wide that Mr. Stockett gave to Lyle when he promoted him to ranch boss after he proved he was staying sober.
Their new house was a great place to be their first house together after getting married. Knowing how important family was to Maricruz, Lyle had decided to propose to her at a big family dinner one Sunday after Mass, which Lyle had started to attend some of the time because Maricruz told him that if he was going to be a father he needed to set the right example for Benny and Amanda not just the other six days of the week but on Sundays too. Although much of it was still foreign to Lyle and probably always would be, he was so thankful to Father Carl for all he'd done for them that he didn't mind sitting through the homilies. Not only had Father Carl called in every favor he had saved up with Chief Schmidt to keep Lyle, Maricruz, and Amanda out of jail, but he even went to the bishop to get permission to do the wedding for Maricruz and Lyle even though Lyle wasn't a Catholic and wasn't interested in becoming one. It did help their case that Lyle was a baptized and confirmed Methodist, although he hadn't spent much time in the pew for close to twenty years. It's not that Lyle had no spiritual side, though. A man doesn't spend that much time with horses and seeing as many sunrises and sunsets as he had over the years without knowing intuitively that there was someone or something bigger behind all that beauty. Plus, AA had genuinely come to serve as his spiritual community and the twelve steps had become his rule of life.
Lyle and Maricruz's wedding was bigger than Lyle thought it would be. Maricruz's family could practically fill the church by themselves, but Lyle even had some folks show up. The Stockett family came, as did most of the ranch hands from the Crazy Snake and a handful of people from the AA community in Pueblo. Rick was the best man and Jacqueline was one of the bridesmaids, which brought tears to Father Carl's eyes. "Sometimes I feel like I'm just preaching impossible pie in the sky ideas," he admitted during the wedding homily, "but you all prove that living out the gospel is possible." During premarital counseling, after Father Carl heard the full story involving Maricruz, Benny, Lyle, Rick, and Jacqueline, Father Carl called it the single most powerful example of forgiveness and reconciliation he'd ever heard.
That late morning out at their new place, while Lyle watched Amanda and Benny riding horses, Maricruz was still in town, tying up some loose ends at the restaurant before they could leave on their trip that evening. Ever since they moved the restaurant into a newer, larger building after the shooting, Maricruz had been spending more and more time in the office instead of waiting tables. Before she would come home to help pack the car she also planned to stop off for a quick workout at Frontier Justice Fitness, Umberto's gym that he'd opened where the restaurant had been. Although people aren't too keen on eating lunch and dinner in the room where a child rapist was shot to death, nobody seemed to have the same problem when it came to doing bench presses or pull ups in the same space. Also, once Maricruz and Benny moved out of the apartment upstairs, Umberto talked Fernando into letting him covert the living room into an aerobics room and putting tanning beds in the bedrooms. Three months in, Umberto was losing quite a bit of money each month but Maricruz was confident that with her help he could make it work.
Lyle climbed into the corral to help the kids dismount. As he was helping Benny down, he heard the sound of tires on gravel and turned to see Rick driving up the lane toward the house in the Wallaces' burgundy Dodge Caravan with Jacqueline following him in their white Honda Accord. Lyle unbuckled Ginger's saddle, sliding it off and then balancing it on the top rail of the fence, and then did the same for Shasta after he'd helped Amanda down. He and the kids walked over to greet Rick and Jacqueline, shaking hands and hugging. Jacqueline asked the kids to take her over to see the horses.
Lyle looked the minivan over, shook his head, and sighed. "Quite a machine you've got here," he joked with Rick.
"Hey," Rick joked back, "it sure beats driving to Oklahoma in Maricruz's little clown car or that feed truck you've been driving around."
"Seriously, though, Rick, although I'm going to lose any credibility I ever had as a cowboy for driving this thing, I can't tell you how much we appreciate it. You really sure it's okay? I mean, Pawhuska is a long way from here."
"We're happy to do it, Lyle," Rick said, patting Lyle on the back. "I'm so happy for you and all the great things that have happened in your life this year, that I'm just thankful to be a part of it. As soon as you told me you were taking the whole family to visit your little girl I knew I had to loan you the van. Driving this you'll have room for Savannah to ride with you when you take her places."
"That'll be great," Lyle said. "I just hope everything goes good. Clarissa is being really cool giving me this week with Savannah. Hopefully after this she'll be able to come see us here."
"I'd love to meet her someday. In the meantime, we've go you gassed up and ready to go tomorrow."
"Actually," Lyle said, "this damn heat made us decide to go ahead and take off tonight so it'll be cooler and the kids can sleep through most of the drive. I'll catch a nap here in a little while after Maricruz gets back from work and the gym. Then we'll load up after supper and hit the road."
Lyle and Rick talked more about the trip and Rick showed him where the insurance verification was and how to work the windshield wipers and headlights. Then they went over strategies for Lyle to stay sober while he was on the trip. Rick even handed him a sheet from a small yellow notepad that had a list of AA meetings in Pawhuska each day that Lyle would be there just in case. Jacqueline and the kids came back over from the horse corral, and after they all talked for a few more minutes Rick and Jacqueline drove off in her Honda.
Lyle released the horses back out into the pasture, and then after a while Maricruz came home, they had their lunch, packed their bags, and Lyle took a nap so he could drive through the night. After an easy supper of fish sticks, macaroni and cheese, and green beans, they loaded the minivan, and began the eight and a half hour drive, starting out on the gravel and dirt roads for several miles before they made it to Highway 50. Lyle was behind the wheel, Maricruz in the passenger seat, and Benny and Amanda in the captain’s chairs in the middle row. As they headed east on Highway 50, Lyle glanced over at Maricruz, who had won the fight over which radio station they would listen to—he wanted the country station out of Trinidad but she wanted Top 40. She was now singing along with Paula Abdul on “Opposites Attract,” and Lyle thought about how thankful he was that this was really true, even though he couldn't stand the song. After the song was finally over he turned the dial over to a country song, smiling at Maricruz when she groaned as Charlie Rich's "The Most Beautiful Girl" played through the minivan speakers.
"This one goes out as a long distance dedication to the lady in the passenger seat," Lyle said in a terrible Casey Kasem voice.
Maricruz just shook her head and laughed as "ughs" echoed from the backseat.
"Are you serious, Lyle?" Amanda asked, exasperated. "There's got to be some Def Leppard or Warrant or something better on the radio. Anything's better than this! Back me up on this, Benny."
Benny just laughed as he went back to playing the new Gameboy his grandparents had bought him for the trip with the understanding that it was an early birthday present.
As the song played on, as any husband and father would, Lyle enjoyed making his wife and the kids suffer through the sappy classic country song. He looked ahead toward the endless miles of blacktop highway bordered by the seemingly infinite high plains on each side and the vast and gradually darkening sky above. He couldn't help but think about how much his life had changed and be thankful for it. He glanced into the rearview mirror at the descending sun behind them and checked it again every few minutes, tracking it's downward progress, knowing they'd meet it again in the morning. Finally, he was lucky enough to check the mirror at the moment when it dipped completely beneath the horizon far behind them, finally resting somewhere west of Rocky Ford.
