Halloween Surprise...

Segment one

Grady Hart, twenty-six, browned by the sun, wiry, and needing a haircut, pulled into the little north Texas rodeo arena late on Friday afternoon and backed his old Chevy and trailer in between two brand new rigs. Must be nice. Hell, I bet those are nicer than my damn house. He sniffed the air. Ah the aroma of the rodeo…

Ed Fuller ambled over. “Bout damn time you got here. I was wondering if you were going to make it,” he said with a grin.

Looking up at Ed’s six feet two, Grady sighed. “Got tied up trying to get a couple of damn cows back in. They pushed the fence down to get at the grass on the other side…again.” He walked to the back of the trailer and carefully opened it. “Better get out of the way. Rocky’s in one of his moods.”

Ed stepped quickly to the side of the trailer, holding one side of the butterfly gate open. “Oh hell. That’s all we need. If he’s…I hope he’ll be okay to work tonight.”

Grady untied Rocky and slowly coaxed him to back out of the trailer, whispering to him the whole time. Rocky humped his back, and Ed could have sworn the hair on the lineback dun’s spine stood up as Rocky made a try at Grady’s hat. “Lemme know when you’re ready to make a practice throw or two. They got us up early in the schedule tonight.”