"Did I do something wrong?" Neil asked.

"No, no. She's just moody sometimes," I said, still staring at where I had last seen Gina, wondering why she had bolted like that. I turned back to Neil. "So you're going to go to school here?"

"I want to, but my grandfather is against it. I guess he's afraid there might still be some of my dad around to rub off on me."

"How long are you staying?" I asked, motioning toward his group with my chin.

"The bus leaves at 4:30. We'll be back in Albuquerque around midnight."

I looked at my watch. It was only 11:15 a.m.

"Want to take a drive out to the ranch? We've made some great improvements since Tom leased it. When you get it back, you'll get a lot more than he started with."

Neil looked at me kind of funny. "What do you mean when I get it back? Tom bought it."

"Tom's only leased it until you turn eighteen. It's yours, dummy."

"I didn't know that. Grandfather told me that he had to sell the ranch to pay for my upbringing."

"You're kidding! Tom told me one time when he was sending off the monthly check that you were going to have quite a nest egg to start off with when you take over."

Neil thought for a few moments and then he asked if we could go talk to Tom.

He looked around for his group. They had disappeared.

"Fuck it, let's go," he said.

I led him across campus to the student parking lot. When he saw my pickup, he whistled.

"Wow, this is hot, Bill."

"Yeah, Tom gave it to me for graduation. So what are you getting when you graduate in two weeks?"

"Not a new pickup," he said glumly. "Granddad said he couldn't afford it."

"You're joking. Your granddad is a millionaire."

"Now you're joking." He looked at me like I was crazy or stupid.

"No, I'm not." He was still looking at me weirdly. We got into the pickup and I drove through town towards the ranch.

"Geez, Neil, look at where your grandparents live. It's the most expensive and most desirable area of the city."

"It's just an old adobe house on the banks of the Rio Grande."

"Yeah, and it's only about three hundred and fifty years old. Shit, Man, the original Spanish governor of New Mexico built it. It's pictured in my book on New Mexican history. It should be a museum, not a private residence. The only reason your granddaddy owns it is because he married the sole heir to it and a large parcel of what is now downtown. All of those buildings are on land leased from your grant. The country club and golf course, all of those big expensive homes are on land leased from your grant. How can you grow up being so dumb?"

Neil looked off, totally confused. He didn't respond as he sat there figuring the implications of what I had told him. He just stared out the window.

It's funny how life does little loops on us sometimes. I had really never expected to hear from Neil again when his grandparents had taken him after his dad was killed. And here he was sitting next to me as we flew low, out to the ranch.

I heard a quiet catch to his breath as we passed the road that led to his dad's old ranch house. I reached across and squeezed his shoulder. He turned and looked at me. He had tears in his eyes.

"I miss my dad," he said. He stared out the side window at the brown landscape as it flew past

"I know." I commiserated, even though I had little memory of my parents.

"We're just a couple of orphans, aren't we?" His voice was sad.

"Yeah, but we're both lucky I think."

"What d' you mean?"

"Well, we both have people that love us."

"You have some one who loves you. I don't. My grandfather has never shown any affection to me. I'm only there 'cause he feels it is his duty to take care of me."

"You have Tom and me, Neil. We love you."

"Yeah, that's true. I love you guys, too."

"I'm sorry about your granddad. You deserve better than that."

"He hated my dad. He's always telling me I'm too much like him, and he's going to change me if it kills him. I can't wait 'til I'm eighteen and can legally get away from him."

He was angry. I couldn't blame him. Hell, he'd been mistreated by his only living relative, who had also lied to him his whole life. What was not to be angry about?

"How come you never wrote to me after you left, Neil?"

"I wrote a letter to you as soon as I got to Albuquerque. When I asked for a stamp, Granddad took my letter and tore it up. He told me I was never to have any contact with you again. He said you and Tom were just common cowboy white trash and I shouldn't have anything to do with you."

I was astounded. He had been so polite and friendly to Tom when they made the deal on renting the ranch. I remembered thinking Neil was lucky to have him for his granddaddy.

"Why didn't you ever write to me?" he asked in return.

I looked at him wide eyed with disbelief. "I wrote you lots of letters. Tom gave me the stamps, and I put them in the mail box myself."

"I never got them," he said.

"I must have written you twenty letters before I decided you weren't going to write back."

"I never got one of them. I swear, Billy."

"I wonder why, I mailed them to the same address that Tom mailed the lease checks to, in care of your granddad."

Neil's face got real dark. "I know what happened to them. The ol' son of a bitch destroyed them."

I turned off the highway onto the graveled road to the house. Tom came out of the barn as I drove up.

"Look who I found wandering around on campus," I yelled, as we jumped out of the pickup. Tom stopped with his mouth opened as Neil ran to him. Tom spread his arms and wrapped them around Neil as he hugged him back.

"Gosh, I've missed you guys," he said.

"We've missed you, too. You've grown up since you left. Stand back and let me look at you. Damn, you look so much like your daddy," Tom said.

He hugged Neil back to his chest.

"Welcome back, Neil. How long are you staying?"

"I've got to be back to catch the bus at 4:30."

"Well, that about gives us time to say 'hi' and 'bye' doesn't it?"

Neil pulled away from Tom's hug. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and scuffed the toe of his shoe in the dirt. I wondered why he wasn't wearing boots. He later told me that his grandfather wouldn't let him; it was too much like his dad. He looked up at Tom. "You and my dad were pretty close, Tom." It wasn't a question, and Tom looked uncomfortable with where this might be going. He nodded at Neil. "So, did you know much about my dad's finances?"

"Yeah, some. Why do you ask?"

"I just learned some things on the way out here from Bill and it's got me wondering."

Tom looked over at me as if to ask what I had told him. Neil continued before I could say anything.

"Did my dad leave a will?"

"Of course he did."

"Do you know what it said?"

"Sure, everything was left to you, and your grandfather is to turn it all over to you when you turn eighteen. I have a copy in my safe. I'll get it out and let you read it. There's some other papers Joe gave me to keep with it. You can look over them, too."

Neil nodded. He studied the ground in front of him for a moment, then looked up at Tom.

"Did you know my mom?"

"Not well, Neil. I didn't see much of your dad while she was alive."

"And everything she owned in her own right went to my dad on her death?"

"No, Neil, it went into a trust for you. Joe wouldn't have touched it, even if he could have."

"I didn't know any of this. My grandfather has led me to believe that he sold the ranch to pay for my support. I'm nearly eighteen now and I've never been allowed to drive a car except in driver's ed at school. I had to lie about this trip to Silver City. Otherwise he wouldn't have allowed me to come." He tilted his head and looked up at Joe. "I think he hates me because I look like my dad. He was against my mother marrying him, you know."

"I know, Neil. Let's go inside and get a cold drink."

Tom took hold of his arm and led him toward the house.

"I have a couple of things that were your dad's. I took them before he was taken away."

Tom led us into his bedroom where he opened the top drawer of his bureau and took out a tin box. He pulled the lid off and handed the box to Neil. Neil took the box and sat down on the old wooden chair in the corner. He lifted out the leather belt that his dad had always worn. It had a big silver buckle with a large turquoise stone set in it. He'd won it for calf roping when he was in high school. It was all crusted with black dried blood. Next he took out his dad's wallet, and then his pocket knife we'd often seen him cleaning his finger nails with. In the bottom of the box were a bunch of coins.

Neil held the three items in his hands and looked up at Tom. Tears coursed down his cheeks. He didn't say anything. Tom walked across the room to him and pulled him up into a hug. Neil just lay against him holding the things that Tom had just given him. I stood in the doorway watching, wishing it was me comforting Neil. But what was happening was between the two people that had loved Joe the most. He finally pulled away and carefully placed all three items back into the tin and put the lid back on it. "Thank you, Tom." He held the box against his chest.

Tom stood with his hands shoved in his pockets. "I just wish it was more," he muttered.

"Would you keep this for me a little bit longer, Tom?" Neil thrust the box toward him.

"Of course, I will. Wouldn't want that ol' coot grandfather of yours to get his hands on it would we?"

Tom took the box. They both just stared at it like it held them in thrall. Like they didn't know what to do next.

"Would you two like a cold drink?" I asked seeing they didn't know how to end the moment. They both looked relieved.

We sat down at the kitchen table with cold sodas. When Neil saw the Longhorn bull's head on the wall his eyes got big.

"That's the bull that killed my dad?"

Tom nodded.

"Goddam, that's my dad's blood on the horns." His voice went up an octave. He turned and looked at Tom like he thought Tom had lost his mind. His chair fell over as he jerked to his feet. "You could've cleaned his blood off of it." he yelled.

Tom looked as sad as I've ever seen him look. He shook his head. "No I couldn't do that. That's Joe's blood. It would've been like trying to wash away my guilt."

Neil walked over to look up at the bull's head. He stood on his tiptoes and reached to stick his finger in the bullet hole in the middle of the forehead. He'd watched Tom put that hole there. He turned and studied Tom, who was looking like he wanted to just lie down and die. Neil walked over and laid his hand on Tom's shoulder. "Tom, Dad knew he was taking a chance. You didn't have anything to do with it."

"Yeah, I did. He wouldn't have bought the damned bull if I had told him not to."

"Are you saying you told him to buy it?"

"No, I didn't do that."

"So, how are you guilty?"

Tom shrugged. He glanced at Neil and then looked away. Neil hugged Tom around his neck. Neither one said another word about it.

I changed the subject to keep Tom from going into a slump. He was still kind of fragile when it came to dealing with memories of Joe. "Geez, Neil, it's ten minutes to five. It's too late to get you back to your bus."

Neil frowned at me. "I don't really care to go back there."

Tom scrubbed his face and stood up. "Neil, the school could be in a lot of trouble leaving you here.

You need to let your grandfather know where you are."

Neil shoved his hands into his pockets and scuffed at the floor with his toe. "Yeah, you're right. Those poor teachers are probably beside themselves." By this time Neil was so angry about the things that his grandfather had hidden from him or right out lied about, that he was ready to butt heads with the old man.

Neil called his grandfather at home knowing he wouldn't be there. After leaving a message telling him he'd purposefully missed the bus, not to worry, a friend would bring him home on Sunday. I figured that if his grandfather was a control freak like Neil said he was, he'd probably go ballistic when he found out that Neil wasn't even asking permission. He then called the school and told them more or less the same story so the teachers wouldn't be in hot water.

It was time to do the evening chores. Neil tagged along, leaning against the cow's rib cage while I milked her. He talked about his life in Albuquerque. It sounded very spartan, not being allowed to have friends over and not getting to go to their houses either. "It's a wonder you didn't go crazy." I commented.

"Well, I spent most of my time studying. I got really good grades because of it."

"Yeah, there's a bright side to everything," I said, grinning at him.

Tom and I fixed dinner, while Neil sat at the table studying his dad's will and the other papers. Then while we were eating an idea hit me. "Tom? Your law professor friend at the university, could he help Neil in dealing with his granddad?"

" Carl Freeman? I could call him and see what he thinks. You want me to do that, Neil?"

"I think that a lawyer is exactly what I need."

It turned out that Mr. Freeman was also a scholar of Colonial Spanish Law in New Mexico. And he was familiar with the particular land grant that was Neil's inheritance through his mother. He brought a large map with him showing the size of the grant. He explained that the Old Town area had been deeded to the people that lived there back in the 1800s, but that all the surrounding land was still part of the grant. Much of the land in the city limits had ninety-nine year leases renewable into perpetuity. And even though many of the leases were small monetarily, they were still a steady income that added up to a considerable annual amount.

Carl told us that about twenty years ago Ted Post, Neil's grandfather, had attempted to sell a large parcel of the land grant near downtown in Albuquerque. The sale required his daughter's signature, since she was the bloodline inheritor. The Grant could only be inherited down the blood line. No interloper could marry into the family and take it, which was a good thing for Neil, considering that his grandfather had attempted to do just that very thing. His mother had refused to sign saying that the land was for her children to inherit. Post had tried everything he could think of to persuade her, even threatening to disinherit her if she didn't. She had laughed in his face and then two months later married Joe.

I wondered aloud why Mr. Post hadn't gotten his wife to sign the papers. Neil informed me that the woman he called grandmother was really his step grandmother and that his real one had died when his mother was quite young.

Even though it was Friday evening, and not much could be done until Monday morning, Professor Freeman that evening got a crew of law students involved in investigating just what and how much Neil's inheritance consisted of from both his father and mother.

Sunday morning early, after just a cup of coffee and doing the chores, the three of us piled into my pickup and headed up to Albuquerque. When we got to Truth or Consequences* we stopped at the Hill Top Café for breakfast. We figured they must have good food being the place was popular with truck drivers.

The highway was mostly two lanes, but every once in a while there would be passing lanes for slower vehicles to move over to, so the faster ones could pass. We made good time and were in Albuquerque by one thirty. Neil wasn't eager to face his grandfather so we put it off by visiting his high school and the University of New Mexico campus. The buildings there were impressive. They were all built in the style of the Indian pueblos indigenous to the area.

Around three Tom insisted that we had to get back on the road, saying it was a long haul back to the ranch. We all knew that he had made arrangements for the cows to be milked and all the animals fed, so there was no real hurry. Uncle John said he would keep an eye on things for us. I felt kind of like Tom, who didn't right out say it, but the sooner the confrontation with Mr. Post was over, the sooner we'd all be a little more relaxed.

A livid old man met us at the door as we approached it. I guess he'd been watching at the window waiting for Neil's arrival. Ignoring Tom and me, he immediately attacked Neil. "You no good worthless whelp. You're turning out to be just like your no good father. Go to your room and stay there until I tell you that you can come out."

Neil stood up to him. "No, Sir, with all due respect, you will not be telling me what to do any more."

"Why, you little...." He raised a hand as though to strike him. Neil grasped it

"Ah ah, Grandfather. Before you do or say something you may later regret, remember that I'll be turning eighteen in a couple of months."

"And what does that mean, other than I can legally throw you out on your ass?"

"I think you have that backward, Grandfather." Neil stood there with his fists planted on his hips, his arms akimbo.

Mr. Post sputtered for a moment and then blanched. And then turned red again. He turned on Tom. "What the hell have you been telling this boy?"

Tom tried to look innocent as he shrugged, but then gave it up and grinned at the angry old man. "He asked about his father's will. I let him read my copy of it. He asked about his mother's inheritance. I showed him a history book of New Mexico with a photo of her standing in front of this very house with you and her mother. The book explained about Spanish land grants. He read it for himself, and then hired himself a lawyer."

Mr. Post turned and sneered at Neil. "You sneaking little turncoat. I want you out of my house within the hour. Pack you belongings and high tail it."

"Are you sure that's the way you want to handle things, Grandfather?" Neil asked.

"Get out. I've worked most of my life building a fortune here. No little.... Joe..... is going to take it from me," he sputtered. The way he said Joe made the name sound worse than shit.

"Grandfather, I am your only heir."

"No longer, I disown you. You've never been anything but a pain in my butt."

"I'm sorry you feel that way, Grandfather. I've always tried to do every thing I could to get you to love me. I guess it was impossible from the start." With shoulders drooping in defeat, Neil turned to the little room behind the kitchen that had been his home since his father had died. The old man turned his back to Tom and I.

"Go help him get his stuff out of here," he commanded as if we were his servants.

Tom glanced at me and raised an eyebrow and then winked. "Come on Bill, let's go help Neil."

As we entered Neil's little room, I was protesting to Tom. "I can't believe you let him talk to you that way."

"Let it be, Bill, he's an old man. Show him some respect. He'll be getting his comeuppance soon enough."

Neil turned from what he was packing. "He was ragging on you guys, too?"