Lean on Pete (8 page)

Del and Harry came out at the same time. Del had a cup of coffee and Harry was carrying a paper sack.

“You’re up?” Del said.

“They’re beating on the trailer.”

“It’s alright,” he said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Is it okay if I go into Wendy’s and get something to eat?”

“I ain’t gonna wait long.”

“Okay,” I said and ran inside. When I got back they were waiting on the side of the road. Harry was leaned against the passenger side door and he looked asleep. I knocked on the glass and he looked over. He opened the door and got out so I could get back in.

“I bought you guys some fries,” I said and handed Harry the bag. He took it and Del put the truck in first. He turned on the radio and Harry started eating.

“You want any, Del?” Harry asked.

“No,” Del said. “And you shouldn’t either.”

I opened up my sack. I had two cheeseburgers, a jumbo fry, and a large Coke.

“Why do you eat so goddamn much?” Del said when I was done.

“I’m trying to gain weight,” I told him.

“Why the fuck would you do that?” Harry asked.

“I play football.”

“Where?”

“I played in Spokane. I was on the freshman team there. We won eight games in a row.”

“What position?” Harry asked.

“Safety,” I told him. “But I can play cornerback or wide receiver. I’m too little to play anything else and I’m waiting to lift weights until I’m done growing but I haven’t grown in six months and I’m almost as tall as my dad so I’ll start lifting when I start my new school.”

“You’re probably too young, but Spokane had a great track called Playfair,” Harry said.

“I hated Playfair,” Del said.

“You hate every track I ever mention,” Harry said.

“That ain’t true. I liked Longacres.”

“I’ve never mentioned that one and you know why.”

Del shook his head and took the chew off the dash, looked over at Harry, and put in a dip.

“So why’d you move down to Portland?” Harry said, ignoring him.

“My dad wanted to work here.”

“What kind of work does he do?”

“He works for a trucking company, Willig Freight Lines.”

“I always wanted to play football,” Harry said, “but I was too small. I was barely five-four when I graduated from high school. I weighed about a hundred and three pounds. Hell, I couldn’t grow a moustache until I was thirty.”

“It didn’t stop you from betting,” Del said and let out a laugh.

“I can do that, sure,” Harry said.

“Not too well, either.”

“I ain’t seen you quit and you’re worse than me.”

“Maybe,” Del said.

“I used to be a runner, though. In high school before I started riding I ran the mile. I did alright too.”

“I go running every day,” I told him.

“I never really liked it,” Harry admitted.

“You’ve never liked anything but drinking and watching TV.”

“Del, I ain’t talking to you,” Harry said. “I’m talking to the kid. I was tired of talking to you twenty minutes after I met you ten years ago.”

“That’s a good one,” Del said.

“I just tell it the way I see it.”

“Well I’m trying to concentrate on driving, so keep it down,” Del said, and then he turned up the radio and hunched over the wheel. Harry knocked me on the ribs and I looked at him and he smiled and shook his head, then he leaned back against the door and the window glass and fell asleep.

When we parked the truck and trailer we were at a ranch near Pasco, Washington. There was a house and a huge white barn and a couple other outbuildings. Del got out and went up to the house and knocked on the door and went inside. Harry and I opened the trailer, got the two horses out, and led them into the barn and to a couple empty stalls. There was a black and white dog walking around. He came up to me wagging his tail, and I pet him for a while.

Harry went out to the truck and got his duffel, then came back in and changed his clothes across from me and the dog. He was in his underwear when I looked up at him. Even though he was thin and bony he had a small gut. There was a scar on his left leg that ran from six inches above his knee to a few inches below it. There were two scars on his shoulders, and when he turned around I could see a long scar running down his back.

“Do any of the scars hurt?” I asked him.

“They all do a bit, but my knee’s the worst and I didn’t even hurt that one riding. I did it when I wrecked my car.”

“You wrecked your car?”

“I fell asleep and went off the side of the road and ran into a tree.”

“And you didn’t get hurt except your knee?”

He nodded. “The worst part was that they took my license away. I like having a car.”

The dog pulled on my pant leg with his teeth.

“You’ve got a friend,” Harry said.

“I’ve never had a dog,” I told him. “But I’d like one.”

“They’re a pain in the ass, but I like them too,” he said as he put on a T-shirt and a padded vest. He put on jockey pants and boots too, then a long-sleeve Western shirt. He went over to a sack and took a beer from it and sat down across from me.

“So what do you like about football?”

“I like that you can hit people,” I told him.

“I always thought I’d like that part of it.”

“Plus you’re a part of a team. Everyone helps everyone else. And if you do, if you do act like a team, then you win, and if you don’t, you lose.”

“What the hell are you doing hanging out with Del?”

“I’m only fifteen,” I said. “I tried applying for a real job but no one would hire me.”

“Don’t let him bully you and watch out. He’s tight, he’ll rip you off.”

I nodded.

“And don’t listen to half of what he says.”

“Alright,” I said.

“Does he still lecture on and on about the
Daily Racing Form
?”

“He tests me on it sometimes.”

“I’ve never met a guy who hates the Beyer number as much as he does,” Harry said. “You can learn from Del, but watch out, alright?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” he said.

“I heard somebody at the track say Del runs his horses into the ground. Will he do that to Lean on Pete?”

“Is Pete the black one Del brought?”

I nodded.

“If Del’s broke he has the tendency to run his every week or every other week, but Pete’s probably alright ’cause the season hasn’t even started yet and I don’t think Del did the fair circuit this year. Plus he’s a quarter horse so he’s got that going for him, and he’s probably been laid off all winter. Once it gets going, who knows. Del runs them sore, that’s for sure. A lot of guys do. But listen, don’t get attached to a horse. They ain’t like that dog over there. If they can’t run they ain’t worth a shit to anyone.”

We sat there for a while longer and then the dog went over to Harry and sat on his lap and tried to lick him in the face. Harry laughed and pet him for a while, then asked me to call the dog back and I did.

Del came into the barn and told me to clean out the trailer and handed me the keys. I moved the truck behind the barn, in a clearing, and cleaned it and from where I was I could see a saddled horse tied to the side of a red horse trailer and six Mexican men standing near a round pen. There were three horses in it. They were talking in Mexican so I couldn’t understand anything they said.

A car pulled up and a kid got out. He didn’t look much older than me and he was small and skinny and wearing jockey boots and carrying a helmet and a whip. He went over to a guy who looked like the main boss and started talking to him. Then another guy went into the round pen, took out a horse, put a bridle on him, then a racing saddle, and they led him out onto the dirt road.

It wasn’t much after that I saw Del and Harry coming out leading Broken Blue. Del and one of the Mexicans began talking and Harry held on to Blue until two men came on horseback. Del gave Harry a leg up, and I saw another guy help up the Mexican kid. Del handed the lead rope to one of the men on horseback and they headed down a long dirt road away from the house.

Del and I leaned against a fence near the finish line to watch the race. The starting gate was nothing but two-by-fours, and it was old. There was no finish-line camera, and Del said that his horses had to lead by a full head to win. If they didn’t, it was the same thing as a loss.

He let out a long sigh when the horses left the gate. It seemed close for a time but as they neared the finish you could see Broken Blue was trailing by half a length. Harry was whipping the horse and yelling at him but it was no use.

“He’s always been a fucking pig,” Del said and spit on the ground.

He looked over at me, and you could tell he was upset.

“What are you doing?”

“Watching the race,” I told him.

“I told you not to leave Lean on Pete alone.”

“You didn’t tell me that.”

“You don’t know how to listen,” he said, looking at me.

“I know you didn’t tell me that.”

“Just get back there. Who knows what these motherfuckers will do.”

I turned around and went back to the barn and stood by Pete.

He looked at me and moved closer against the gate. I just stood there scratching him and talking to him. His dark eyes stared off and every once in a while he’d yawn or shake his head up and down. I told him that he was the fastest horse there today and the fastest horse in the whole state. I told him to be careful and not to get hurt, and that he should win ’cause then everyone would be nice to him and Del wouldn’t be such an asshole on the ride back. Then Harry came in trailed by Del and Broken Blue. Blue was put in an empty stall and the saddle and bridle were taken off.

Del looked at me. “Hose him down, but that’s it. Stay close. When this race is over we’re getting the hell out of here, okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

They pulled Lean on Pete out of his stall, put the bridle on, and saddled him. Del put a handful of tablets underneath Pete’s tongue, then tied it down. He cinched up the saddle one more time.

“You’re a crazy fucker,” Harry said quietly to Del.

“We’ll be alright if you’re not too drunk.”

“I ain’t drunk,” Harry said.

Del shook his head and they led Pete to where the two horsemen were. Del gave the lead rope to one of them and helped Harry up. The same Mexican kid hopped on another horse and they were both led down the dirt road track. Del walked over to the men. He spoke to a man in a gray cowboy hat, then took his wallet out and handed a wad of money to an old man who was standing next to him. The man in the gray cowboy hat did the same and the old man counted the money.

I walked down the fence line near the midway point of the straight track when I saw them break out of the gate. It was neck and neck for the first bit, then suddenly Lean on Pete took off. He exploded with speed and by the time he passed me he was nearly a full length ahead and when the race finished I knew he had won by even more than that. I stood there for a bit, then went back to the barn.

Ten minutes later Harry came in.

“It’s time for us to get going,” he said. He was out of breath and looked worried.

“Give me the truck keys, then get Blue and meet me at the trailer.” I gave him the keys to the truck and he grabbed his gear and left.

I brought the horse out and took him to the truck. Lean on Pete was tied to the side of the trailer and was wound up and more nervous than I’d ever seen him. He pulled at the lead rope and it made the trailer rattle. He couldn’t stand still. Del was down the way arguing with one of the Mexicans. They were pointing to the dirt track where two men wearing cowboy hats were walking around looking at the ground.

Harry untied Pete and pulled hard on his lead rope, trying to get his attention. Then he walked Pete back and forth in the driveway and when Pete had settled down enough he came to me and handed me the lead rope.

“Don’t lose him, alright?” I took the rope and held it as tight as I could while Harry opened the trailer door, but when the door slammed against the side of the trailer Pete got uneasy again and began circling me in panic. I didn’t know what to do, and Harry had to come and help. He took the rope from me and settled Pete down and we loaded Pete and did the same with Blue, then shut the door behind them and got in the truck and waited for Del.

“What’s going on?” I asked him.

Harry sat back on the truck’s bench seat and rubbed his face with his hands and let out a long sigh.

“They think we’ve cheated.”

“How could you cheat?”

“There’s a lot of ways to cheat.”

“Did you?”

Harry let out another sigh.

“What are those two guys looking for out there?”

“A buzzer,” Harry said and looked out the window.

The trailer began to rock and shake.

“Don’t worry. It’s probably just Pete. He’s scared shitless right now. It ain’t right to load him just after a race like that but Del’s got a point. We probably need to get the fuck out of here.”

I looked outside the cab to see Del still talking to the man in the gray cowboy hat. They both were staring off into the distance at the men doing the search. Del kicked at the ground with his boot. I counted the other men. There were seven.

“Are they gonna find it?”

“The buzzer?”

“Yeah.”

“Not where they’re looking,” Harry said and laughed. He reached down to the floor and took a beer from the sack and opened it. He pulled his baseball cap down low and acted like he was asleep and would only move when he took a drink of beer. I kept looking at Del but he kept talking to the guy and, even at that distance, you could tell they weren’t getting along. The trailer would fall silent, then all of the sudden there would be loud bangs.

It must have been a half-hour before Del got in the truck and started it and we drove out of there. He was sweating pretty heavy and he had both hands on the wheel. The cast on his arm looked worse. It was thick with dirt and it was cracking around his hand. He used that arm to shift the truck and after he’d got us up to fifty and on the main road he hit the steering wheel with his other hand.

“Goddamn,” he said. “That Rodriguez is one untrusting son of a bitch.”