Alone: Book 14: The Most Miserable Winter by Darrell Maloney

Author:Darrell Maloney [Maloney, Darrell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-01-15T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

Lilly gave Dave and Beth a grand tour of the town. They stopped by Joey’s Co-op Diner and were greeted by Joey, the owner and operator.

Dave expected an amateurish operation run on a hope and a prayer when Lilly told him Joey’s staff was made up totally of cowboys from nearby ranches, who donated their days off in exchange for free meals.

“Most of the ranches have bunkhouses where the cowboys live, and they eat there as part of their pay,” Lilly said. “Each ranch is different, but most have growing operations so they have a steady supply of produce. And of course, they raise whatever stock they eat, or trade with other ranchers who might raise something different.

“For example, the 3 Bar W Ranch is exclusively a swine operation. Before the blackout they had their own pork jerky processing plant. They distributed their jerky all over the country and it won awards every year.

“Now most of their employees have left for greener pastures and they only produce a small percentage of what they once did. But they still raise plenty of swine that they trade for beef or chickens. They sell stock to places like Joey’s for meal chits for their cowhands.

“And yes, the 3 Bar W still calls their men cowboys even though they wrangle pigs instead of cattle. They say that pigboys or pighands just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

“I tend to agree with them.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Dave said, “If the ranches have the livestock and the produce to feed their own men, why do they bother donating beef and swine for chits?

“I mean, why send their men into town to eat and have to compensate the eateries for their meals, when they could just keep them on the ranches and feed them themselves?”

“Well, some of them do. But most of them have found that their cowboys are a restless bunch. I mean, they ride range or ride the fence line for five straight days or nights.

“The last thing they want to do on their days off is stay on the ranch. They want to get away from the ranch and burn off some energy. So they ride several hours to Blanco or to one of the other small towns around here.

“They spend their two days off at the pool hall or at the bar getting drunk or stupid or courting some of the local girls. They’ll stay the night with Mrs. Montgomery or crash on somebody’s couch and then head back to their ranch late in the afternoon on the second day.

“You see, most of the ranches in the area are dry.”

Beth said, “Then what do the cows drink?”

“Not water, honey. They’re dry in that there’s no liquor around. Most of the ranchers don’t allow beer or liquor on their ranches because it’s caused so many problems in the past. So if a cowboy wants a drink or two on his day off he has to ride into a town that has a bar.

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