Chuck Wagon Cookie - Chapter 3

This short story ends today -
A new story begins soon - Y'all come back you hear?

 

Chapter 3

If they don't pay - We will burn it down!

Cookie asked Maria what she going to do now that the drive was over.

She said, “Get a job of some kind I guess.”

Then she asked what Cookie’s name was and he said, “Some call me Shorty.”

She said, “I know that much, but I want to know your real name.”

He said, “I think it was Leonard it’s been so long since I heard it I have forgotten what it is.”

She said, “From now on I will call you Lenny.”

He said, “The reason I was wondering what you would be doing was maybe we can get a job working together.”

She said, “Maybe we could.”

He said, “I know the guy who owns the stables let’s eat and go see him.”

She said, “Okay I’m hungry so let’s eat.”

After eating they went down to the stables and saw the owner Lester. The stables had some rooms out back where a person could live and several stables with a couple corrals also. When Lester saw Len he said, “Hello Shorty.”

Len said, “My name is Len now so call me that. He said we need a job for winter do you want some help?”

Lester said, “No I’m going to have to close down.”

Len said, “You have all the stables full and some more horses in the corrals.”

Lester said, “I have plenty of business it’s just that no one will pay me the money they owe me. He said I can’t collect it for I’m just too old to fight them and the sheriff won’t help me cause his horse is over there and he doesn’t pay me either.”

He went on and said, “The businesses on either side of me owe me a lot of rent money but they also won’t pay.”

Maria said, “If we collect the money owed you or most of it what will you give us?”

He said, “If you can get my money you can have a half interest in this place.”

She said, “I will be back shortly with a lot of your money.”

She explained to Len what to do and how to get the money from one of the guys next to Lester.

She went into the general store next to the stable and asked for a gallon of coal oil.  He asked her if she needed anything else and she said, “No, I think this is enough for once the fire is started it will do the rest.”

She said, “I’m part owner of the stable next door and we’re going broke because people like you won’t pay us.”

He said, “You can’t burn that place down for it will catch my place on fire.”

She said, “You might as well be out of business as we are. Oh yes, one more thing, please give me a box of matches.”

He said, “You can’t do that.”

She said, ‘You can watch it burn, or you could pay me and I wouldn’t need to burn it.”

A few minutes later she and Len walked in and handed Lester a good part of his money.

Maria said, “I think I will visit the sheriff next.” 

She smiled and I told the sheriff to get ready for his horse would be running down the street with his saddle on him unless he settled up.

This went on until they had almost all of the money owed to him.

Lester wanted to know how they did it and they said it don’t matter as long as we collected.

Lester said it looks like I have some new partners. Len and Maria took over the rooms in the back and settled in for the winter. Len went out and made some deals for enough hay and grain for the stock throughout the winter.

They also put a cover over one of the corrals to protect the horses who were housed there.

One evening someone tried to break in and steal one of the horses and Marie gave him a dose of large grain salt from her shotgun. It hurts like pellets but doesn’t usually kill.

Come spring new people were showing up and looking for a business to run. They had some offers for the stables, much more than it was worth. The three of them decided to sell to the highest bidder and now had a lot of money in their pockets. More than they ever hoped for.

A man from the East met Maria and asked her to marry him. She decided she had enough of the single life and he was well off so she wouldn’t have to worry about money any more.

Len and Lester saw her off as she headed East to her new home.

Len had an offer on a ranch to be the main cook and he decided to take it.

Lester built himself a small two room house and did odd jobs around town.

One of the town widows finally roped him and he is now a married man.

This is just one of the many chuck wagon stories some are true some are not, but all are interesting.

Finis