DELBERT BRIGGS 21

in thee corral stood 35 head of cattle. delbert stood at the fence looking at them most were unbranded. but there was three or four that held the ranch brand the rest had a assortment of brands that he didnt recognize. he was going to needa brand inspecter. he would get bob to come help brand the slicks. the most of them were big long eared mavericks that weighed from 500 to 800. up at the house norma banged on a dishpan and yelled lunch.as he walked back to the house he was working his fingers in his bandaged hand. like it or not he was going to have to get to work.later that day when norma unwrapped the bandage the hand looked much better. it still had some swelling and the scar was a angry red line along the back of the hand. the black stitches looked to be growen into the skin. norma looked up at delbert" when i pull these out its not going to be comfrtable. i dont have any thing to numb the hand." " do it " was all delbert said. norma took her sissors and slowly began working them under the stitches and snipping the thread on each stitch. delbert had a hold of the table edge with a hard look to his jaw. sweat was starting to pop out on his forhead. norma took a pair of forvrpts and took hold of the first stitch. the thread slid out effortsly. much easier than she thought it would. she looked at delbert and he nodded and smiled" peice of cake huh?" was all he said. a few moments later she had all the stitches pulled. delbert held the hand up and flexed his fingers." you dont know how good that feels." " well, i guess i can leave now." norma stated. " do you want to go?" delbert asked. " not really, i like it here with you. you treat me good. no sarcastic statements and you havent held what i did against me."norma laid it out . " then you aint going nowhere. lets clean up this cattle mess. we need to brand those cattle in the corral then go for more. so, lets get done what we got here to do then we go after the rest of remnent."delbert was rubbing the hand getting some feeling back into it. " we can get dad to come help some too. ime ready to roll!"delbert grinned at norma. she had a satisfied look on her face.