Free Cherokee by Giles Tippette Page A

I used Ray for all sorts of errands. I said, “You still be here late Friday?”
    â€œIf you want me to.”
    â€œI’ll let you know.”
    I gave him a little salute, and then walked down the stairs, out of the bank, and over to the general mercantile store that was owned by Nora’s daddy, Lonnie Parker.
    It was cool and dim inside, just as it was always cool and dim inside every mercantile I’d ever been in in my life. Lonnie was standing by the front counter, by the cash register, where he could nearly always be found. I figured his motto was “Stay close to the money and then you’ll never have to wonder where it is.”
    He give me a big hello just like he always did. I wasn’t just his son-in-law; as the head of the Half-Moon I was his biggest customer. I didn’t know which cut more ice with Lonnie. Folks said that Lonnie had been known to close up before midnight and on days other than Christmas and Thanksgiving, but I couldn’t honestly say I’d ever seen it happen. No, that was a lie. He’d closed half a day when Nora and I had gotten married.
    He said, “Well, son, just in town for a bit?”
    â€œHad some banking business to do.”
    â€œJust stop by to visit or was there something you was needing?”
    â€œTwo kegs of nails.”
    He took out the little stub of pencil he had behind his ear and crouched over his order book. “What weight?”
    â€œTenpenny will be fine,” I said.
    I watched as he laboriously wrote out the order. When he was through he said, “What else?”
    â€œThat’s all. Except I want you to deliver those kegs over to Norris’s office. You know, on the second floor of the bank building. Just shove them over in a corner of his office.”
    He frowned. “Justa, if you need ’em before yore regular Friday delivery, why, I could send them out special. Wouldn’t be no extra charge.”
    I shook my head. “No, no, that’s not necessary. Just taking them over to Norris’s office before Friday will work fine.”
    The whole idea worried him. Lonnie was a tall, skinny drink of water who was fast losing all his top hair. For the life of me I never could figure how he stayed so skinny when his wife was the best cook in Matagorda County. Worked it off counting his money, I figured. But then, I didn’t want to be making fun of Lonnie’s ways. He was a merchant and that was the way merchants were. Besides, if it hadn’t of been for him I wouldn’t have Nora. He said, “Justa, them kegs are pretty heavy. Weigh close to fifty pound apiece.”
    Yes, I thought, and they were going to maybe weigh a good deal more than that when I got through with them. I said, “Don’t matter. But listen, Lonnie, make sure your delivery man takes his mallet and loosens the tops on both kegs. They are hell to get off if you ain’t got the right tool.”
    â€œOh, so you’re going to be doing some work right there in the bank?”
    I said, “I’ve got to get going, Lonnie.” I was trying to get away before he could think of anything else to ask me, like what were we going to do with two kegs of big nails inside a bank. It appeared that when a party set out to take $25,000 in gold to Oklahoma it called for questions from all sides. And I hadn’t even told Ray Hays yet about the trip. The way he was, with more curiosity than a pet raccoon, he’d likely nail me to the ground with questions. And of course, I wouldn’t be able to answer them, not and keep to Howard’s wishes. But it was going to seem damn strange, even to one of Hays’s turn of mind, that we were carrying two kegs of tenpenny nails to Oklahoma.
    Lonnie said, “Here! Don’t run off. It’s just now going on for ten o’clock. Couple more hours it’ll be lunchtime. Always room for another plate.”
    â€œThat’s tempting, Lonnie. But I got to