Winter the white stuff falling from the sky like the other
stuff, thank God it is good for you though.
It was going to be my first winter without my parents since the fire at
the house at the end of October. My
world was still not the same and everyone noticed including my girlfriend and
partner, both told me to take some time off to get myself back to the way I
was. An old friend of mine from college
always sent me an invitation to his home every Christmas and I have always
turned him down. His name was Stuart and
he was a great roommate through college and yes he took me drinking all
thoughts times when I started school. Stuart
studied music at the college with a heavy concentration on business and his
wife Courtney which went to school with us and studied education. I was there at their wedding a couple of
years back just after we all graduated.
Then now live in Tennence and they loved it and Stuart’s career was
doing well with 3 band playing him over $20 every hour. So I flew down 2 days before Christmas
because Stuart wanted to go hunting with me and I wanted a day to relax. The plane ride was very smooth but mid I
realized that I did not have a gift for Stuart or his family and I looked
through the airway magazine for great ideas.
I saw a great watch that I knew Stuart would like and then I found a
lovely vase for flowers all in all it cost me $200 which will make it hard for
the rest of the month. I landed in
Tenence and lone and behold there is Stuart waiting for me at arrivals ready to
show me his happy life. The man wearied
glasses that fit a man of his stature and a gut that seems to never shrink even
he cut back on everything he ate.
“Joe you made it how was the trip was good?” said Stuart
waving to me.
“Hey Stuart how are you?
It was good and I bring gifts.” I
said heading to give Stuart a hand shake.
“Oh Joe you did not need to bring anything you just being
here is enough for me and Courtney. Come
on the Joe or Courtney will kick both our ass if we are late.” Stuart said
shaking my hand.
I do
wish he said something sooner about the gifts before I left New York and waste
$200 on things that they probably do not need.
We got into Stuart’s nice red covetable and drove to his little place in
the heart of Nashville. When we entered
the apartment there was Courtney setting up the table and there was four chairs
and shortly after I learned that Stuart and Courtney had a child name Jen. Jen was about 5 years old and she loved
horses. I slept on the couch that night
and it was nice to be away from work and I wanted to call my partner up to make
sure everything was okay. Well at 6am I
was up like when I was in New York and there was Stuart ready to go on our
hunting. Apernetly every year Stuart
goes out hunting for quail and brings back what he gets and they cook it for
Christmas dinner. We left to his
favorite hunting ground to get the food and he know that this year was going to
be great most likely because I was here but I did not ask. We got to the hunting grounds and started
looking for the quail that he wanted.
Stuart blew a strange looking whistle and their birds flew and we shot
and heard a loud thud like something bigger than a man feel to the muddy
ground. We both ran to where the sound
was and there it was a horse on the ground for no real reason.
“Oh…My…God why is my daughters gift here?” Stuart said as
his jaw dropped to the ground
“What do you mean its your daughters gift?” I said confused.
“I was going to give my daughter a horse for Christmas and
have her learn how to ride it.” Stuart said still shaking.
“Wow that must have cost a lot to get.” I said seeming still
unsirprised at the event.
“What am I going to do?
What am I going to say? What..”
Stuart said shaking worst than before.
“Relax man you will be find thing happen we can…” I began
saying.
“Dude we just killed a horse for my daughter how can you be
so calm?” Stuart said.
“Well I am a cop I do things like this on my bad days.” I
said.
“So what are we going to do!?” Stuart clamed
“We I have an idea and I need you to hear me out. Okay?” I asked
“What is your idea?” Stuart asked calming down.
“I have never had horse meat before and maybe we should give
it a try.” I said with a smile
“WHAT are you crazy?
NO I GET IT SINCE YOU SHOT IT YOU GET TO DECIDED WHAT WE GET TO DO WITH
IT.” Stuart proclaimed.
“Relax Stuart we can easily figure out which one of us kill
the horse let me look of it and see how many shots it took.” I said calmly
“Oh so can make sure that you did not kill it yourself! Ha I see through your trickery cop.” Stuart
said
“Alright I will not check the horse so how would you like to
take care of it?” I said getting mad.
“Ah I do not know can we just berry it and forget about it?”
Stuart said.
“Sadly my friend if we did that and someone comes across the
whole we make they will dig it up to find out what happened. With cooking it right now people will find a
camp fire and not think the wiser.” I said calming down
“Alright then we will eat it what do you need from me?”
Stuart said calming down
“Well we need a fire, salt, pepper and I do not know maybe
BBQ? That does sound really good now.” I
said getting a little bit hungry
“Well everything but the fire is at home so I can drive home
and get it I will think of something to Courtney why I am home so soon. I do have an ax in the car that can help cut
wood for the fire.” Stuart said back to the way he was when we were in college.
“Alright I will start getting the fire rolling and you go
home and take care of the other stuff.” I said with confidence.
So I
followed him to his car to get the ax and to start getting the fire wood all
together. After about hour of work I had
about waist high worth of wood and I started to figure out how we are going to
cook this large animal. Then it hit me
that I will cook it like Boston Market chicken which means I need to shave and
gut this horse quickly before Stuart got back with the other stuff. Slowly I cut the animals guts out and wow
that smelled really bad as bad as some of the corpse in the morgue. It was now about 12pm and Stuart shows back
up with everything else, but I was only about half done trying to get this
horse taken care of.
“So no trouble with the wife?” I said not trying to throw
up.
“Only a little bit but she did not think the wiser, but Jen
was surprised I was home so early though” Stuart said back to his normal self.
So we
started cooking the horse which took almost 6 hours to get done and that time
we tried to hunt more quail and chatted about life.
“How are you feeling though Joe? It must be hard to lose your parents like
that. I just want to help if I can if
you need it.” Stuart said sadly.
“Im okay it is getting in the way of work right now I think
its because I have not let go of them yet.
I still can not believe it has happened yet. “ I said getting uneasy.
“Its okay Joe maybe this will help you being with friend
that care. Sorry I am bad at this please
I know it will be hard since you are a cop and showing emotions is hard so people
do not get hurt.” Stuart said trying to make Joe feel better.
“Thank you Stuart how many more quail do we need for
dinner?” I said cheering up.
“Not to many more its getting late so need to wrap this up.”
Stuart said
