Roscoe (685 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 1.71 on 8 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Rob (View user info) at 2005-02-27 22:25:44 EST
"Wake up, Honey," she said, "Rufus is here."
Darrel rolled over on the bed. He raised his forearm in front of his eyes. A light was shining in from their bedroom doorway. "What?," he asked.
"Rufus is here," she said, "He says y'all are supposed to go huntin' this mornin'."
Darrel pulled a pillow into himself and inched down under the quilt. "Rufus says everybody is waitin' down at the diner," she said.
"What?" Darrel was not awake. "Rufus?" he asked as if hearing the name for the first time. Then his face changed from the distortion of incomprehension into clean realization. "Rufus? Aw, shit." Darrel rolled out of the bed onto his feet. He stumbled into the bathroom. "You seen my briar britches?," he asked, splashing water onto his face.
"I put all your stuff on the kitchen table," she said. She shrugged off her robe and slipped into the warm spot where he had been. "Don't wake the girls. I don't want them up 'til late."
Darrel looked at her. She lay on the bed, already drifting off to sleep with just her face showing above the quilt. She was smiling. He stepped over softly and moved to kiss her.
"Eww!," she said, turning over. "You didn't brush your teeth."
"Since when do we live in a toothpaste commercial?," Darrel thought, shuffling away and rubbing his nervous stomach.
But it was true. He hadn't. He didn't have time. He pulled on his clothes and moved from the kitchen into the hallway of their trailer. He looked into the doorway of a bedroom. His eldest daughter was asleep. He wanted to wake her and tell her to get dressed, that they were going hunting together. He remembered the time he had.
"No, Daddy, please. It's too cold," she'd said. He looked at her. She seemed warm and content in the nightlight's glow. He moved down the hall to Nikki's bedroom. He opened the door and looked in. She was asleep, too. "Maybe when you're older, Rabbit," he thought. He could hear Rufus out in the yard loading his dogs for him. He closed the door grabbed a shotgun on his way out.
Rufus was sitting in his truck when Darrel got outside. He flipped his headlights on and pulled out of the driveway.
Darrel checked to see that his dogs were secure in their box in the truck bed. Then he hopped into his truck and followed Rufus down the highway.
Darrel could see the lights of the diner long before he came to them. He noticed the only vehicles in the parking lot were pickups with dogboxes. "It takes a rabbit hunter to get up this early in January," he thought.
Darrel entered the diner to the calls and cheers of his hunting club.
"There he is," they said. "How's the boy doin'?"
"Fine."
Johnny said, "I hope you brought Sonny, cause we're sho' in bad shape if we got to run Bubber's dogs."
"You jus' hush up 'bout my meat-getters," Bubber said. "Rufus, you better tell your boy to leave me alone. I'd hate to whoop 'im over my dogs."
Rufus looked at Bubber. "Don't worry. I put Darrel's dogs on his truck myself."
Bubber took it in stride. "Put'em on the truck for 'im?," He motioned toward Darrel. "I swear. You got to watch over the boy like he was yore youngin'."
Darrel changed the subject. "Donnie," he said. "Don't look so happy." Donnie sat sullenly, toying with his menu. He said nothing. "Its been a while since I seen you."
"Mom says Dad an' me hafta spend more time together," Donnie said.
"That's good," Darrel said, wishing he had changed the subject to something else.
Bubber didn't notice. He finally had a grasp on the new direction of conversation and wouldn't let go. "Them ain't yore huntin' clothes, is they?," Bubber asked. He pointed at the Soundgarden T-shirt and ripped jeans Donnie wore. "Johnny, how you gonna let your brother go out huntin', wearin' that mess?"
"I got him some overalls out in the truck," Rufus said.
Johnny cleared his throat and looked at Donnie. "So anyway," he said, "Who's turnin' out first?"
Rufus answered. "I reckon it ought to be Darrel, seein' as how he's got the champ." He paused. "Its about time to start that new puppy, too. Ain't it Darrel?"
"You put Roscoe in the box?," Darrel asked. "I didn't plan on huntin' him yet."
"Yeah," Rufus nodded. " 'Sides they's a whole lotta deer on this tract. An' we don't wanna spend the whole mornin' chasin' dogs. Do we, Bubber?" Rufus put his hand on Bubber's shoulder and grinned at him.
"Nossir, I don't reckon we do. But you ain't got to worry about my dogs no-way," Bubber said. " I jus' got me a shock collar rig. They might run some trash a little ways but it won't last long."
"Give'em a little 'lectro-shock therapy, huh?," Darrel laughed. I know what you mean. I don't use mine much, but when I do...."
"That ol' remote control fixes 'em right up, don't it?," Johnny asked.
"Yessir," Darrel said.
The waitress stood at the counter, looking at them impatiently. She leaned over the countertop and cleared her throat. She looked at Darrel and pointed at Bubber. "Hon, you want somethin' or should I just make him another omelet an' give you the check?"
"Just a BLT to go, please," Darrel said. He turned to Rufus. "Speaking of goin'," Darrel said, "Where you taking us?"
"I got permission to hunt a tract up off No. 1 highway."
"W-where?," Bubber stuttered. He was still thinking about the possibility of another omelet.
"You'll see when we get there," Rufus said.
It was Alabama bottomland: cold, stark and damp. Hardwoods stood on wet ground surrounded by bean and cornfields. The clearings in the timber showed where trees had been. Once alive stumps lay hidden beneath briars and broomstraw. New pines were coming up, too. They would be harvested for their pulp or die out to let the hardwood come back.
The morning was quiet, except for the chatter of songbirds and the caw of crows in the winter wheat. There, too, was the low rumble of exhaust and the crunch of gravel as the men eased their trucks from a logging road to the edge of the clearcut.
The birds went quiet. Sound altogether ceased save the rustles of brush they hoped was a "big buck swamper," randy and ready to run. The men were nervous with anticipation of a day in the field.
Everyone readied their gear and congregated around Darrel's truck while he prepared the hounds he would hunt. He started to open the tailgate and almost immediately began pounding on the dog box.
He shouted. "Shut up, Roscoe!"
Bubber's dogs started up too. "Shut yer cockholsters! ," Bubber yelled.
Darrel turned apologetically to the others. "Puppy," he said. Darrel took his dogs seriously and mouthiness when off the track wasn't something he tolerated.
Roscoe was, for his ten months, an energetic amalgam of the finest genetic prospects in Patchewautuck County. He cowered in the dog box as if the world was at an end when the pounding and screaming stopped. Darrel wondered if he should have taken a puppy from the litter for Sonny's stud fee. He lifted the door latch and the dogs came out.
There was T-bone, a saddle-backed grade hound, who came out groggily with his eyes still crossed from straining to see in the dark. He eased his age-lightened and briar scarred body to the ground. He mostly trotted toward a border plot of lespedeza. The dog was taking care of business.
There was Jinny; a two year old tri-color fast on her way to rabbit champion. She jumped from the dog box straight to the ground. She began to hunt about unaware of anything but herself and the next rabbit.
There, too, was Taylor's Sundog, Sonny, who stopped for one quick glance at his master before trotting to a briarbed. Sonny was Darrel's first grand rabbit champion and, after his two daughters, pretty much his whole life.
And then there was Roscoe who came charging out of the box to lick Darrel's hand and fall off of the tailgate. Roscoe gave an exhibition of his version of hunting; outrunning running his nose and scentmarking everything.
The men chided Darrel about his puppy. "You sure he's ready? That dog don't look like he could find a rabbit in a trap."
Darrel looked at the other dogs. They ran with their noses to the ground, sniffing and occasionally bumping into each other in camaraderie and excitement. Occasionally, they turned to look back at the men as their hunting took them farther away. Darrel jerked when he remembered his leash. He laid his gun on the tailgate and moved toward the cab to retrieve the leash from his toolbox.
Donnie was looking at Darrel's shotgun. It was semi-automatic. Donnie stepped over and picked the gun up. He shouldered it, looked down the barrel. "Nice shotgun," he said. He held the gun at port of arms and nodded his head in sharp cadence. "I wield a ton of rage," he sang along, gruffly.
"Boy!," Rufus yelled. "You quit pointing that gun at me!"
Donnie stopped, startled, and looked at his father. He cringed at the sight of the gun barrel and its alignment with his father's head.
"Sorry," he said, "I wasn't paying attention."
"I know. That's why you're totin' a single barrel now," Rufus said. "Do that again and you'll be usin' a slingshot."
"Don't worry, Donnie," Darrel said. "All you got to know is stand where the dogs jump the rabbit, 'cause it's gonna be right back."
"And don't shoot me," Johnny said. He nudged Donnie in the side and laughed.
Bubber spoke. "We gonna stand around here all day or we gonna hunt?"
Darrel mocked him. "We gonna hunt," he said slipping the leash into his field coat. "Come on."
The men moved slowly. They thought about the warmth of their beds. They wished the sun would finally crest the tops of the trees to shine down on them. Donnie walked behind everyone and kept his eyes on the direction of his gun's muzzle.
The men spread out across the clearcut like Lee's infantry to kick brushpiles and call to the dogs.
"Find 'im!," they called.
"He's there, find 'im!"
"Hoo-wee, skit' em outta there!"
Darrel walked slowly, mentally trying to slow Roscoe's pace and push his nose to the ground. "Maybe he'll run up on one and jump it," Darrel thought. "Come on Sonny, show 'em how its done," he called.
"Yawp!"
"Sonny's got one!"
"Bowoor!"
"There's T-bone!"
"And here come the rabbit," yelled Bubber.
It was two rabbits, really. They were cottontails small enough to be the product of a late litter. The men could hear the dogs trail out and then come back in a wide oval. Everyone was ready and tense as the dogs pulled around to them.
"Boom!"
The pack came through and split on two tracks going back out. Jinny and T-bone went one way. Sonny led Roscoe to the other. The men called to each other.
"Who shot?"
"I think it was Bubber."
"Did he get'im?"
"He ain't said nothin', so I don't reckon he did."
"Bubber Kelly, you no-shootin' scoundrel!"
Bubber said, "This'n won't last long, them's little rabbits they's runnin'."
"Why'd you shoot then?"
"I sure wish they'd hurry up and lose that track." Bubber was trying to ignore them.
"You forget, boy, these ain't yore dogs," Rufus said.
Bubber was wrong about the dogs. They circled tight three more times before Darrel called them off the track.
Bubber said, "I'm glad I missed. My ol' lady won't skin nothin' that little."
"Yeah, she probly just eats 'em whole."
"You watch yo' mouth, Johnny Caldwell," Bubber chuckled. There were two things everyone knew about Bubber; he talked a lot of trash and most of it was about his wife.
"Come to think of it though, I ain't seen them layin' hens I bought her in a while. I reckon I might just better give her some mo' grocery money, huh?"
Donnie joined in the conversation. "Or a muzzle," he said.
"You watch your mouth, Donnie Brannigan," Bubber laughed.
They hunted on out across the cut and called to the dogs. Bubber told them about how his wife won an arm wrestling contest.
"We was down at Butch's, you know, drinkin' and talkin'. Well, anyway, they was havin' this arm wrastlin' contest and Butch says, 'Come on Bubber, show us what you got.' So I started to get up and the wife pushes me back down in my seat an' says, 'Jest you watch my wings.'"
"How many did you eat?," Johnny chuckled.
" 'Bout half," Bubber said. 'I didn't figure she'd notice 'em."
"Did she?," Darrel asked.
"Yeah." Bubber laughed to himself. "Anyway she went over to sign up for the contest. So I was eatin' an' watchin' an' 'fore long she's down to the last match. I didn't worry about it none, 'cause I have wrastled her a few times myself an' I knew she was gonna win. So anyway she's up against this Grizzly Adams lookin' fella an' he keeps sayin' how ain't no woman gonna whoop him." Bubber paused. He wanted to get the ending exactly right. "I'm tellin' you, buddy. You should have seen the look on that guy's face. She put him down real slow-like and kept yellin' at me the whole time 'bout how I better not touch her raw fries."
The dogs struck.
"Yawp!"
"There's Sonny!"
"Yip!"
"There's Jinny."
"Bowoor!" T-bone fell in, too.
"Yowellerr!" Roscoe's mouth stopped Darrel in his tracks. He looked around to see if anyone noticed that Roscoe was on the trail instead of just following. Rufus had. He nodded to Darrel and put his thumb in the air. Darrel bit his cheek so as not to smile. Roscoe came on the track late and well behind the pack.
The dogs trailed out until the hunters could barely hear them. The pack was across the clearcut and over a small ridge in the land. Bubber got nervous and automatically reached for his collar remote. He didn't realize he was shocking the wrong dogs until he heard squalls coming from his truck.
Everyone's head turned around in the direction of the trucks. They smiled and began to snicker.
Rufus said, "Boy, did I mention these ain't your dogs?" Everybody broke into fits.
Darrel had the impulse to correct his dogs as well. He resisted though, partly because he was busy razzing Bubber. "Man, I bet your dogs glow in the dark, don't they?," he laughed.
Bubber ignored them. "Ain't you gonna bust'em?," he yelled.
"No," Darrel said, "They're runnin' too slow to be on a deer."
"Must be a swamp rabbit," Rufus said.
"I hope so," Darrel said. The dogs were completely out of hearing then. He looked at the sky and rubbed the back of his neck.
"You don't reckon its a fox, do ya?," Johnny asked.
"No, a fox would be back by now," Darrel said, without thought. He looked at the ground and tugged the bill of his cap.
The men gradually grew quiet and began to listen for the dogs. They looked into space and tilted their heads. Johnny thought he heard them. Donnie thought so, too, but he wasn't sure.
Rufus said, "I bet they got one down in that canebrake off Bullhead Road. Me an' Larry had one go down in there last week."
"Kill 'im?," Darrel asked.
"Nope."
Darrel turned to walk back to the trucks. Everyone followed. They walked quickly; straight toward the trucks. Their direct path wavered only to circumvent a pile of brush or an especially nasty bed of briars. Donnie unloaded his gun and came along quickly, half-running at times, stumbling when the briars caught him up. They reached their trucks and drove around the edge of the clearcut to Bullhead Road.
Rufus was right. They could hear the beagles clearly when they pulled up and parked on the side of the dirt road overlooking the canebrake. The dogs were trailing in a close loop.
"Hoo-wee! They's packin' him good!," Bubber yelled, leaning out of his truck window.
The men got out of and formed a council around the bed of Rufus' truck.
"Anybody got a machete?" Darrel said.
"Hunh," Rufus said. "Looks like you're gonna need one. That cane is thick."
Johnny got out of his truck and looked around. "Man, that cane'll be hell to shoot through."
Darrel scratched his head and looked at Rufus.
"Glad its a rabbit, aren't you?," Rufus said.
"Yessir," Darrel said. "I'd hate to think about lettin' them dogs run trash like that."
"They better be glad it weren't me that had that remote," Bubber said.
"I know I am," Darrel said. He looked around at the group. "What y'all think?," he asked. "You want to let'em run or call'em off?"
Everyone knew that Darrel didn't want to give up on the dogs. He was proud of his pack, but he did not want to ruin the hunt.
"Well," Johnny said. "They're your dogs." He turned and shuffled away.
Rufus saw that Bubber was about to speak. He cut him off. "You do what you want. We'll wait a while," he said.
"I reckon I'll wait a while, then," Darrel said. "You never know. They might move that rabbit on out to where we can shoot it," he said. "I'd hate to have to call'em and them decide not to show up. We'd never get 'em outta there."
Thirty minutes later Johnny and Bubber were listening to a car race on Johnny's truck radio and Rufus was about to ask Darrel if he would like to borrow a whistle. Donnie chunked rocks down into the canebrake, trying to hit something.
"Whatcha throwin' rocks at, son?," Rufus asked.
"I don't know."
Darrel looked up from his thoughts. "You'd think that rabbit would be tired enough to go down a hole by now," he said.
Rufus seized the moment. "I can turn my Biscuit loose if you want. She can catch one when its tired like that."
"No, I'll just call 'em in," Darrel said.
"Here Sonny, here Jinny! T-bone! Here! Here! Here!"
That was it. Instant quiet. So quickly it seemed as if the dogs quit barking before Darrel began to yell. The only sounds now where the breaking of cane as the dogs rushed back to the truck and the varied buzz of Johnny's truck radio.
Darrel dropped his tailgate to load the dogs. Sonny showed first. "Hey, Sonny. Good boy," Darrel said, patting and rubbing Sonny on the side. "Jinny! T-bone! Y'all come on here."
Darrel questioned the dogs as he loaded them, "That was a tough one, huh? Where's Roscoe?"
"Yowellerr!"
"Dammit," Darrel said. "Roscoe's back on the track."
Bubber had turned Johnny's his radio off. He was ready for the ensuing discussion of who would turn out next and where. He turned the radio back on and reached for a drink.
"Sounds like he's running good," Donnie said. He tried to sound as if he knew what 'running good' sounds like. He looked at his boots when he noticed Darrel glaring at him.
"He shouldn't be running at all," Darrel said flatly.
Roscoe circled twice more and became quiet as suddenly as he had begun to trail. There then was a thrashing in the cane. The men heard fading puppy growls and high pitched screams.
"Wreet! Wreet! Wreet!" The sound of the thing made their skin crawl.
"What the ....?" escaped Darrel. He pulled a pistol from his truck seat and moved to go in after his puppy. He stopped short when he heard the cane begin to break again. Something was running towards them and they couldn't see it coming.
"Johnny! Donnie!," Rufus called. He reached for his twelve gauge. Johnny already had his at the ready. Bubber looked up from his sandwich and wondered just what was happening.
Roscoe seemed to wonder, too. He burst out of the canebrake and stopped. He looked around at the men and their guns. Roscoe trotted over to Darrel with the rabbit held high in his mouth. There was a plop as he dropped the rabbit at Darrel's feet and a click as Darrel let the hammer down on his revolver.
Roscoe jumped up on the tailgate. He laid down in front of the dogbox to let the other dogs sniff him. He turned and licked Sonny on the muzzle.
"Son-of-a-bitch," Johnny said, letting his breath out long and slow. The butt of his gun drifted to the ground and he sent a wayward glance to the clouds.
Darrel sat down on the tailgate. His shoulders slumped as he stared at the puppy in amazement.
Rufus laid his hand on Donnie's shoulder. "See that?," he said. He smiled at the boy.
Donnie stepped up to the back of the truck and looked intently at the dogs. "Yes, sir," he said.
Rufus looked at Darrel. "Nice rabbit dog you got, there," Rufus said. He nodded towards Roscoe.
"Thank you, sir," Darrel said. His voice was light and happy.
Darrel reached over to pat Roscoe on the side.
User Reviews
Submitted by strider (user info) at 2005-03-09 01:04:15 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by jumpinjellyfish (user info) at 2005-02-28 11:00:07 (#)
Ranking: 2
Good story...well written and easy to read. I like the style.
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NOT easy to read.
Submitted by Dead_0hi0_Sky (user info) at 2005-03-04 22:36:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
SET IT, AND FORGET IT!
wait, wrong roscoe. fuck.
Submitted by MandaPanda (user info) at 2005-03-04 22:22:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Good story.
Submitted by Spooner (user info) at 2005-02-28 11:05:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I still haven't read this, but the other reviews have confirmed my suspicion that this was probably awesome. Just next time, put spaces between paragraphs.
Submitted by jumpinjellyfish (user info) at 2005-02-28 11:00:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Good story...well written and easy to read. I like the style.
Submitted by garcon_fou (user info) at 2005-02-27 23:36:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yeah, I got into it.
Submitted by Thored (user info) at 2005-02-27 23:06:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Holy Fuck.
Submitted by Spooner (user info) at 2005-02-27 22:35:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This was probably good, but the hell if I'm gonna read all of it.
Have this +2 anyway. I see it's your first review ever. Congrats.