TO FIND PEACE 17

after supper that night ty threw his bed roll on the porch. katey watched him get situated for bed with a longing look. ty was doing his best to not get taken in. cleve bid them a good night . the long days were showing on him. he tired easily. when his bedroom door shut katey was watching ty through the screen door. the nights were warm and you didnt need a lot of soogans. ty slipped his shirt and boots off and pulled his belt off then exhaled a breath as he laid back. through all that katey had watched from her cot. when ty had laid back she stood and picked up a navajo rug she used on her cot it was tinted red and blue. she started shakeing it. with each shake it would pop. she would pop it louder and louder but ty paid it no attention. aggrivation crossed kateys face. she finaly laid the navajo on the foot of her bed and fell into the cot. she lay where she could see ty through the screen door. a look of desire was traced on her face. cleve was awake when she was popping the navajo , and he hoped ty had enough elf control to stay in hiss own bed, he didnt want his new partner traipsing off with a boy friend. but knew it would be inevitable. a young woman with her figgure and angelic face would have them lined up sooner than later. before ty came to work he had laid the law down and so far ty was keeping to it. but was he strong enough? cleve admitted i his younger years he wouldnt have been strong enough. tomorrow he would tell ty when the works were done the brakes were off. cleve chuckled" it wont be to soon for kateys wishes." the next day cleve had a fire going in a propane branding pot with the irons heating. ty and katey were in the back of the chute. katey would have to keep the cattle loaded while ty worked the chute. it ws a old mechanical chute that was never used much as cleve was a rope and drag man , but he never had this many big animals to brand he had oiled the old chute and greased the hinges. he knew it was going to be a long day he looked to the back and ty and katey were engrossed in conversations.. cleve stood up tall and yelled" loadem and lets roll!" that broke up the conversation ty helped katey load the first batch in the crowd ally then went to the front and started working the chute.he would open the tail gate and let a animal in then when the animal stuck its head in the front he would catch them around the neck and pull the squeeze to hold the animal still. the second he did that cleve had the animal branded .then ear marked. then ty would release the animal to the corral and the process started all over again it wasnt long that sweat was running from under cleves hat down into his eyes. he was constantly wiping them with his bandanna/. ty asked him a couple of times if he wanted to take a break but cleve only shook his head . they were almost half way through the cattle when cleve asked the to young people if they wanted lunch. both ty and katey shook their heads" lets finish this." katey stated. ty looked at her then at cleve with a strong feeling of concern. cleve stated it was fine with him to finish. but he had noticably slowed down. ty slowed things down as much as he could but they kept branding until they were done around four that afternoon. katey told them while they put the cattle away and all the tools she would go start a meal. ty looked at cleve, he was beat and maybe worse. " set down there a while cleve ill go turn these out and get a good count on them."ty pointed to a good place to set and rest. he walked across the corral and opened the gate to the trap. the cattle started trickling out the gate ty counted them as they went. he looked over toward cleve and saw him leaning back against the fence with his eyes closed. when he was done counting he wrote the number on the back of his hand and walked back to cleve. as he walked up cleve opened his eys and looked at ty. " help me up, and dont say a word to katey about this , you got it?" ty nodded and takeing cleves arm pulled him to his feet. slowley they started to the house.