by dcat
Disclaimer: The characters and situations of the TV program
"Big Valley" are the creations of Four Star/Republic Pictures and
have been used without permission. No
copyright infringement is intended by the author. The ideas expressed in this story are copyrighted to the author.
“Just bug off, will ya?” Nick shouted to the
little blonde boy that followed right on his heels.
No matter what anyone tried to do to help Nick
adjust to having a new brother, he was not having any part of it. He avoided him, was rude to him and just
would go off in another direction if he saw Heath approaching.
Victoria and Tom wanted Nick to learn how to
adjust to things for himself, but with each passing day it was getting harder
and harder to just let it go without intervening. The strange thing was that as much as it bothered them, it didn’t
seem to faze 7-year-old Heath in the least.
He continued day after day to try to find himself in the good graces of
the 12 year old, soon to be full-fledged cowboy he was becoming to idolize.
“Can I come with ya Nick?” Heath asked
following him into the barn.
“Pleeeeeeeeaaasssseeee,” he nearly begged.
“I said NO.
A thousand, million times I said no, do you understand English at all,
twerp?”
“I promise I won’t get in the way, I’ll do
whatever you tell me, I promise,” he begged.
He grabbed the horse’s blanket off the stall fence before Nick could and
handed it to Nick who was about to get his horse ready to ride. Heath went to grab the saddle and as he did,
Nick walked over and began to pick it off the fence himself. Heath backed away and as he did Nick started
to grab the saddle out of his reach, he slipped and fell, the saddle came tumbling
over on top of him. Heath started to
giggle at Nick’s misfortune.
“You think that’s funny?” Nick said, picking
himself off the ground and brushing off the dirt and straw from off his
clothes.
Heath’s face turned serious right away. He already knew the difference between the
annoyed Nick and the mad Nick. Even
though it was a fine line, when Nick crossed over it, look out.
“I asked you a question boy?”
“Nah, I don’t think it’s funny now Nick,” he
said.
“Then why did you laugh?”
“It was funny when it happened,” Heath
explained.
Nick couldn’t understand how a 7-year-old
could torment with words like this kid did.
He picked up the saddle and threw it over the horse. As he began to tighten all the straps down,
Heath started in on him again.
“Can’t I go too? I did all my chores already and it’s ok with, with” he wanted to
use the word father, but his fear of what Nick would say or do stopped him.
“It’s ok with who?” Nick teased him. He knew exactly what Heath wanted to say.
“It’s ok with the family,” Heath answered.
“The family doesn’t run this ranch, my Father
does.”
Just then, Tom came walking into the
barn. “You’re right Nick, I do. Take him with you today,” he started. “Come here Heath, let’s saddle up Sequoia
for ya.”
Heath ran out of the stall that Nick and Coco
were in sporting a grin and dashed over to where Tom was heading. “Can I help saddle him up?”
“You bet you can, every cowboy has to know how
to do that,” Tom said.
Nick’s attention was piqued. He walked out of the stall and over toward
where the two of them were headed. “You
didn’t let me ride Sequoia till I was 9.”
Tom turned and saw Nick standing there. “He’s a lot gentler now son, you know that,
and anyway, that was over 3 years ago.
Horses mellow with age.”
Nick bit his lip and went back to Coco.
“Ok Heath, where do we start?” Tom asked him.
“With a blanket?”
“That’s right, go grab yourself one.” He grinned as Heath ran over and found a
blanket and started up on the process of saddling up a horse. In the meantime, Nick pulled Coco out of the
stall and into the outside coral.
When Tom and Heath had Sequoia ready, Tom
lifted him up onto the horse and out into the coral he went. Tom walked right behind.
“Nick, make sure he gets on this horse before
you take off, and stick together you two,” Tom called out after them as they
rode off.
As soon as they were out of view, Nick rode
ahead of Heath. He hated the thought
that he had to take him along. Heath
caught up to him and said, “Hey Nick, I think your cinch isn’t tight.”
“It’s fine and just when did you think you
could tell me how to saddle up my horse, seeing as how my father had to saddle
yours up.”
“I did it, he just helped make sure I did it
right, he even said so. I think your
cinch is loose, you should get off and check it before you fall off.”
“Just shut your yap and leave me alone, it’s
bad enough I have to take you along, but don’t tell me how to saddle my
horse.” As Nick kicked Coco to a faster
trot, sure enough the cinch wasn’t tight and he and the saddle both came
tumbling off the horse. Heath pulled up
and waited. As much as he wanted to
laugh, he held it in.
“Do you want me to give you a hand Nick?”
“No, I don’t want you to give me a hand. Just sit there and wait, don’t move a
muscle.” Nick picked up the saddle and
started in on saddling up again. Heath
sat atop Sequoia and waited in silence.
This time he tightened down the cinch good and tight. He scooted himself up on the horse and the
two of them were off again.
Once they were both riding again, Heath asked
him. “What are we gonna do at the line
shack Nick?”
“Anything that Jim wants us to do. He lives up there most of the time and he
knows exactly what needs to be done.
He’s probably got a list of stuff for us to tend to. You should just stay out of our way. You’re nothing but trouble. You’re too little to do anything anyway.”
“No I ain’t too little, I’ll do whatever you
want me to do Nick. Promise. I won’t cause no trouble, I just wanna help
out, like you.”
“Well we'll just see when we get there, now
lets get moving.” He started riding
hard. Heath tried to keep up, but the
faster he went, he bounced up and down so hard in the saddle, he thought he
might fall off, so he held up. Nick
kept riding fast and he grinned thinking he was finally leaving the kid in the
dust. When he turned back to see how
far behind he was, he forgot that he was coming up to a grove of trees and some
low hanging branches, and BAM, he got smacked in the head and again, he went
tumbling to the ground.
Heath caught up to him in a few minutes, just
as Nick was sitting up and rubbing the side of his neck and head. He’d gotten the wind knocked out of him.
Heath quickly slid off Sequoia and ran over to
Nick, sitting in the high grass. “Gosh
Nick, are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m ok, leave me alone,” he pushed
Heath aside as he started to stand up and Heath went to help him.
“That was quite a wallop you got,” Heath said.
“Didn’t your father ever tell you not to turn
back like that when you’re riding so fast?”
Nick glared at him and picked up his hat and
brushed it along side his pants without saying a word. “Let’s go, come on, I have to give you a
leg up now.”
They mounted up and rode up the line shack in
silence.
“Howdy Jim,” Nick called out, as they both
dismounted. Jim Hayes walked over to
the boys.
“Look at that, two cowboys to help today,
don’t that beat all.”
“I’m Heath,” the blonde said holding out his
hand.
“Pleased to meet ya Heath, I’m Jim.”
“Boy howdy Jim, this is sure a nice looking
cabin you got,” Heath said, looking over the tiny one room shack like it was a
mansion. Jim grinned at him.
Nick acted disinterested.
“I’m glad you think so Heath, but it needs a
new coat of whitewash on the outside, how’d you like to get started with that?”
Jim said.
“You bet I would,” Heath smiled.
“You ever paint anything before twerp?” Nick
asked him.
Heath shook his head no.
“That’s ok, we’ll start you out nice and
easy,” Jim said, pointing out the brushes and the whitewash. “Nick how ‘bout you take the ladder and
Heath can take the low boards.”
“Sure Jim, I can do that just fine,” Nick
boasted, gathering up his brush and whitewash.
“Come over here Heath, I’ll show you what to
do,” Jim took Heath over to the boards and got him started as well.
The boys were working opposite sides of the
house. Slowly they began to converge
toward the middle and Nick was running low on whitewash. As he started to climb down the ladder,
Heath slid over his pan of whitewash, unbeknownst to Nick. Another accident was about to happen. Nick stepped directly into the pan of
whitewash, all but ruining his boots.
He immediately grabbed hold of Heath by his
collar and came close to letting him have it with a fist. He opted for scaring him, which he
accomplished even without grabbing him.
“What’s the big idea twerp? You
ruined these boots, now you’re gonna buy me new ones,” he shouted at Heath.
“It, it, it was just an accident Nick, I
didn’t know you were coming down off the ladder. I’m sorry. I’ll buy you
new ones, I promise, if I have to save for a hundred years to buy them.”
“You did it on purpose, I know you did,” Nick
still shouted.
Heath’s eyes were wide open and filled with
fear for what Nick was gonna do to him.
Just then, Jim came around the corner. “Hey there boys, what’s all the yelling
about?” He spotted Nick’s boots. “Nick, go on down to the creek, your boots
ain’t ruined, just rinse ‘em off.”
Nick let go of Heath and gave him a bit of a
push away.
“Heath, go on and finish up now,” Jim said and
Heath did as he was told.
Jim walked down to the creek and decided to
see how Nick was doing. “You alright
Nick?”
“Yeah, I’m just fine,” he said, with annoyance
in his voice.
“Them boots coming clean?”
“Yeah,” he sloshed them in the water.
“See, everything’s ok then.”
“Nothin’s been ok since he got here Jim,” Nick
turned and told him straight, referring to Heath.
“Why’s that Nick?”
“Every time I’m around him something goes
wrong for me, he’s like jinxing me.”
Jim laughed.
“That’s nonsense. He’s just a
little boy with a huge case of big brother worship.”
“I don’t think so, and he’s not like any kid I
ever knew.”
“Tell ya what, I’ll finish the whitewash and
you can nail down some loose shingles up on the roof, whatta say?”
“As long as you keep the twerp away,” Nick said.
“No, I’m not gonna promise you that Nick. You gotta learn to work together. Some day you’ll learn how important it is to
count on a brother. It’s the strongest
bond there is. I had a little brother
once, and now he’s gone. I wish I could
do right by him today. See Nick, you
gotta understand it now, before it’s too late, before he’s gone.”
Nick didn’t answer him.
“Understand Nick?” Jim asked again.
Nick reluctantly nodded.
“Alright then, finish cleaning them off, use
your hands to loosen it off, then come up and see me, I’ll get you started.”
As Jim headed back, Heath was heading for the
creek. One of his boots now had
whitewash on it too.
“What happened there cowboy?” Jim asked.
“I stepped in it too, now Nick’ll see I’m just
as clumsy as he is,” Heath explained.
Jim chuckled.
“Alright, go wash up, then I got another project for you two.”
Heath ran down and spotted Nick.
“Now what?” Nick asked, just preparing to come
out of the water.
Heath got serious and watched Nick closely.
“What?
What are you looking at?”
“There’s a bumblebee on your shirt,” Heath
said in all earnestness.
Nick looked at his shirt and sure enough,
there was a bumblebee. He tried to swat
it away, and started to climb out of the water, but as he did, he stepped on a
wet rock and slipped into the creek. He
was wet from head to toe. He stood up
quickly and shook off the water.
“It’s gone now,” Heath said, stepping in to
the water himself to wash off the paint off his boot.
Nick glared at him again. “Thanks, thanks a bunch.” And he walked off in a huff.
“Your welcome Nick,” Heath said with a grin.
Next up was the roof. Nick was hammering away when Heath came back
from the stream. Jim had finished the
painting and had started to chop some firewood. He told Heath to start stacking it along side the house. Things were going along fairly smoothly.
After about a half hour of time passed, Jarrod
came riding up and Heath spotted him and shouted his name, breaking the
silence. As he shouted ‘Jarrod,’ Nick
hammered his thumb and let out a yelp of pain up on the roof.
“Dang blast that twerp kid, jinx,” he murmured
under his breath. He put his throbbing
thumb in his mouth.
“Hiya, Heath,” Jarrod called back to him,
dismounting, and reaching down to pick up the 7-year-old blonde up into his
arms and up onto to his shoulders for a ride.
The two of them had perfected the smooth move in just a week’s
time. “Hi Jim, and hiya Nick,” Jarrod
called walking over to Jim with Heath held way up high.
“Hi Jarrod,” Jim shook his hand. Nick merely nodded and went back to work.
“Looks like the three of you are getting a lot
done?” Jarrod said, looking up to Heath.
“We are,” Heath said with a grin. “We whitewashed and now I’m stacking wood
while Nick is fixing the roof.”
“Well, Mother sent up some lunch, that’s why I
came up. Are you boys hungry yet?” Jarrod asked.
“I am, I could eat a horse,” Heath exclaimed.
Nick started to come down from the ladder when
he heard Jarrod mention food.
“No horse today, my boy, but lots of Silas’
fried chicken, how’s that sound?” Jarrod said, walking over and grabbing the
bag of food off his horse.
“Sounds good,” Heath said, sliding off his
shoulders and onto the ground.
Lunch went peacefully, no jinxes or accidents
of any kind. After they finished
eating, Jarrod suggested that Nick and Heath go off and take a break, while Jim
and Jarrod finished up their lunch and talked.
Nick tried to put up a fight, but he agreed to take Heath along. They dashed off for the woods.
“Is it working Jim?” Jarrod asked. “That’s why Father sent me up, just to make
sure one of them didn’t kill the other?” He said with a chuckle.
Jim laughed.
“So the jinx thing is true?”
“Well, Nick’s been having a lot of accidents
lately, it’s kind of unusual. It’s not
a Heath jinx though. How have they been
toward each other?”
“Nick’s been keeping his distance and Heath
tries to get closer. I tried to explain
to him how important brothers are, but Nick, he don’t want to hear it.”
“That’s what we were afraid of,” Jarrod
said. “We’ll have to try another
approach.”
Off in the woods, Nick ran ahead, trying to
shake off his shadow of Heath, but it was no use, Heath was able to keep up
with him on foot. The two of them came
up to a cave.
“Go in there and see what’s in there,” Nick
told him, pushing him in.
Heath was apprehensive at first.
“You said this morning you’d do whatever I
told you to do and I’m telling you to go in that cave.”
“Ooohhhkay Nick,” Heath slowly stepped inside
and went in farther and farther.
Nick stood at the entrance and shouted. “That’s far enough, now come back here.”
“Hang on a minute,” Heath shouted, “I found
something,” he called out.
“What? What is it? Bring it here.”
Heath came running out of the cave. “Nick, Nick, look at this,” Heath carried a
revolver.
Nick was shocked, “Gimme that,” he said,
swiping it out of Heath’s small hand.
“You know better than to pick up guns.
It might be loaded.” Nick
started to look it over.
“Is it?
Is it loaded Nick?” Heath asked.
Nick looked at the wide-eyed Heath and just
above his head on the rocks above the cave was a rattlesnake, ready to pounce
on little Heath. Nick took the gun and
aimed it, and shot the snake dead to right.
Heath stood like a stone, he thought when Nick
pointed the gun, he was going to shoot him.
He turned to see the snake lying in a heap, just behind him.
“Yeah, it was loaded,” Nick said. “Good thing otherwise you’d be dead.”
Heath dashed towards Nick and swallowed him up
in a mammoth hug. “Nick, you saved my life.”
Nick didn’t want to be bothered. “I just don’t like snakes.”
“No, you really saved my life, brothers do
that stuff.”
“I saved my own life, you’re such a jinx, only
you would find a loaded gun and then have a rattlesnake show up. What a twerp you’re turning out to be.” Nick pried himself out of the hug.
Just then Jarrod and Jim came running up. Both of them were thinking the worst
possible things the minute they heard the gunshot.
Heath ran up to Jarrod, who knelt down and
engulfed the little boy in his arms.
“Are you both ok? What
happened?” Jarrod saw Nick walk up
behind Heath and let out a sigh of relief.
“Nick just saved my life. I think it means he knows were brothers,”
Heath said to Jarrod.
“Slow down, and tell me what happened,” Jarrod
said, reaching out and grabbing Nick by the arm in a moment of compassion. All three of them held together by brotherly
bonds.
Between the two younger boys, they told Jarrod
and Jim what had happened.
They walked back to the line shack together.
“Am I right Jarrod?” Heath asked.
“Right about what Heath?” Jarrod said.
“Nick knows we’re brothers now,” Heath said.
“Cuz brothers do that stuff, saving each others lives.”
Jarrod looked over to Nick, who shook his
head, still not wanting to admit it.
“Yeah, he knows it Heath.”
“He’s still a jinx, every time I’m around him,
something bad happens. Father’s gonna
kill me for shootin’ a gun,” Nick nearly whined.
“No, Nick, Father won’t be mad. The only thing that got killed today was
that snake and how you two feel about each other.”
“He’s still a jinx,” Nick said.
“And he’s still my hero,” added Heath.
THE END