A Cowboy in Tibet - Mike Burns (love novels in english .txt) š
- Author: Mike Burns
Book online Ā«A Cowboy in Tibet - Mike Burns (love novels in english .txt) šĀ». Author Mike Burns
In the little town of Colives, Oklahoma, in the fading light of a mid-summer day, the red ball of the sun slowly sunk behind the flat horizon, with the twelve-storied Colives Hotelās black rectangle standing beside it like a piece from a broken frame. The frameās gone, and the pictureās escaped, thought Chad Elphick. I heard of stranger things in my time, though!
The twin grandsons in his lap reclaimed his attention. Chad III had helped ease the boots off his feet, straddle-wise, while Grandpa Chad had helped him along by pushing his backside with the other foot. Grady Elphick, the other twin, had relieved Chad of his cowboy hat earlier, but now he plunked it back down on the old, bald head.
The old man sat on his wicker chair under the roof of the spherical gazebo, and stared out at the horizon. Aside from its fading sun and the abandoned motel, it was also marked by windmills and powerline towers jutting up like straw stubble against the darkening blue. He was gathering his wits. He knew what was coming when Grady put his hat back on him. That meant they were shifting gears into story-telling mode.
Thereās worse ways to spend retirement, the old farrier told himself.
āGrandpa, can you tell us an old cowboy story?ā Chad III had plucked up the gumption to ask the question tonight. Usually it was Grady that asked. Grady looked suitably miffed that Chad III had beat him to the punch this time.
āWell, Iāll tell you, son, I mean grandsonā¦of mine,ā the old man began at random. āMy grandpa had somethinā happen to him once. He was a farrier, too, like me and my pa, yā know.
āAnyways, he was in San Francisco, lookinā for work, ācause heād just lost his job at a ranch up north. Somethinā about the owner thought he was tryinā to be too friendly with the ownerās wife, or somethinā like that.
āSo, he runs into this fella in a Okie bar along the Barbary Coast part of Frisco, and this fella asks him what he does for a livinā. Grandpa, he tosses back a whiskey, like, anā he tells him āWell, I shoe horses and such-like. I got my rig close by.ā
āHe was careful not to say too much about his rig or where it was, as thereād be plenty of people that werenāt above stealinā a wagon loaded down with the tools of the farrierās trade in them days--the forge, the flue, the bellows, the tongs, anvil, spikes, nails, horseshoes, molds, dies, ingots of steelā¦ā
āThe fella looks all thunder-struck, and says, all excited-like, āWell, we been lookinā for a farrier. Howād you like a steady job for the next three, four, maybe five years, anā at twenty dollars week?!ā
āWell, grandpa thinks about it, and says, āSounds real interestinā. Whatās the job?ā
āThis guys says to him, āGot a offer from a Chinee fella, anā heās gotta lotta money, anā says he already bought him a shipment of other stuff, stuff heās keepinā secret, and gonna ship it to China, and from there up to his customer in Tibet.ā The Chinee fella was beinā middle-man for the fella in Tibet. ā
āOh yeah,ā said Chad III. āI heardāa Tibet. Itās the place in China that people wanna help get free. I seen it on bumper stickers on someāa them cars by the university.ā
āYeahā¦I guess.ā The old man paused, having momentarily lost the thread. āYou were sayinā the guy in the Okie bar offered him a job in Tibet, anā sayinā he had a shipmentāa stuff for Tibet.ā This was Grady prompting.
āRight,ā said Elphick. āSo, yeah, my great-great-grandpa takes him up on his offer.
āThey set sail from Frisco on a big clipper ship, and got to Hong Kong in China, right before the monsoon season. The weather beinā bad, they had to wait there three months. āCourse, there was lots to kill time with. Gamblin,ā the women of Hong Kongā¦ā
The boysā mother, sitting on a wicker chair of her own, intervened for the first time. āGrandpa, letās keep it G-rated. Little earsā¦ā He couldnāt see her in the dark circle under the gazebo, but he knew the expression sheād have on her face right now. āRight!ā he said quickly.
āAnyway, they killed time till the monsoon was over. Then they busted their humps gettingā across China and to the foothills of the Himalayas--you know, the tallest mountains on earth--before the next monsoon came, the followinā year. They went by horse, by camel, by carriage, by rickshaw, by palanquin, them and their whole baggage train of stuff they shipped across the ocean, ācludinā Grandpa Elphickās farrier rig--and they got to the foothills and settled in for another monsoon season.
āThis time, they were stuck in a little village, with nothinā to do but hang out with the locals--all ten of āem. All they did was gamble, drink butter tea, smoke opium--donāt ever do that, boys!--and try to cheat travelers outta their money--when they wasnāt robbinā em. They kinda stayed on good behavior with the large, well-group oā travelers in their midst, but they still bore watchinā.
āBut there was another traveler with āem, a Tibetan monk name āa Blessed Lightning. Come to find out, he was goinā to the same place they were goin,ā a place called Ganden. He thought they were goinā there for the same reason he was goinā there--to pay religious homage to a monk that was called the Ocean of Wisdom, and who was more or less the ruler of Tibet.
āFact was, they were goinā there to capture the Ocean of Wisdom, anā take him to India with āem, and hold him for a ransom in gold--the ransom to be paid to āem when they was in India, anā ready to take a ship out of there, and back to Hong Kong, and then another one back to Frisco. This was what great-great grandpa Elphick had found out from the Chinee middleman durinā the trip across China. The monk didnāt have no idea what they were up to.
āCome springtime, they were crossinā the Himalayas. Durinā a terrible snow-and-rain storm, a big bolt of lightning struck the spire of a temple way up on a hill as they were travelinā in the valley almost directly below. The statue on topāa that spire was sheared clean off the spire, and tumbled down to the valley floor below, landinā right in their path. Grandpa Elphick, the middleman, and Blessed Lightning the monk was all at the head of the column, and the narrow little trail was only about seven feet weed. The statue landed there and blocked their way. They took a good look at it--they didnāt have a choice!
āThe monk, Blessed Lightning, he turned all terrible-pale, and started tremblinā from head to felt-booted foot. They asked him what was wrong--had he been hit by fallinā debris that missed them?
ā āNo,ā he said. āYou men are in terrible danger. The statue--look at it! Her hand is stretched out--and pointing at you!ā I was true. The statue was of a woman, wearinā only swirlinā skirts and big golden chains around her neck with large, gold-sculpted pendants, and gold circlets on arms and wrists and ankles. A massive, tiered gold crown sat on her head, on top of streaming black REAL hair. Her body was in a position of dancinā wildly, poised on one foot with the other in the air, one arm pointed above her head--and the other pointed right at the Chinaman from where she lay on the ground now. Anā this is what had the Tibetan monk so scared and excited now.
āHe was looking from the Chinee middleman to the statue and back again. āThis statue wasnāt that way when it was on the spire of the temple. It changed as it fell. The lightning bolt was no accident. A goddess--Palden Lhamo--is warning you away. SHE caused the lightning. SHE changed her statueās shape. SHE caused it to point to you, because she knows you have evil aims in mind. SHE wants you to leave Tibet, and never return!ā ā
āThe Chinaman, who had acted friendly all durinā the trip, now suddenly acted all hateful anā haughty-like. He said āYou superstitious Tibetan simpletons are all alike! Donāt be ridiculous! It was a bolt of lightning, and nothing more. Letās push this thing out of the way, and be on our way.ā The monk looked horrified, then got all self-righteous and said, āI have passed by this temple dozens of times in my life. I KNOW what the statue looked like when it was on the spire. It was the goddess, but she was seated in the lotus position, not stretched out like a swimmer with a pointing hand outthrust! It changed shape, I tell you! It is an omen!ā
āNow Grandpa Elphick spoke up, and said, āHeās lyin.ā That couldnaā happened. Heās probably tryinā to slow us down for some kind of ambush. I had a Cree holy man try to pull the same stunt on me in Oklahoma once. Look around!ā Everābody in the column looked around. The Chinaman, he had one of the Chinee porters open up a parcel on a yakās back, and pulled out somethinā. What do yā think it was?ā Chad Elphick paused for the first time, and invited a little audience participation here.
Chad III paused, and mused aloud, āI dunno. Ropes, to help pull the statue out of the road, maybe?ā
āNot quite,ā Grandpa Elphick responded. āIt was a whole parcelāa Colt .45 six-shooters. Anā a boxāa ammo, enough bullets to fill all six chambers for each pistol! That took a few minutes, ācause none of these Chinamen had handled a six-shooter before. They coulda been ambushed while they were fumblinā around, droppinā bullets off the side and jumpinā everātime one went ābangā on the rocks below. But, finally, they had āem all loaded, and ready for the ambushers!
āThen the Chinee middle-man said, āWeāre safe for now. Letās throw this fool monk and this statue off the path and go on!ā
āHe started forward to do it, and several of the Chinee porters came forward to help. Grandpa Elphick held back for some reason, feelinā uneasy about the whole thing, somehow. I think he was still thinkinā about the Cree holy man, and the bad things that had happened to the people that killed HIM---but thatās a different story.
āAnyway, he hung back, anā the others, they done it, throwinā the statue and the monk off the narrow path, anā the man anā the statue bounced down the side of the mountain, end over end, the monkās cries ceasinā after the first collision with a boulder, the
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