Outlaw Mountain

Butch set a bowl of soup in front of Junior. Je

“Careful,” Butch warned. “It’s hot.”

Nodding, Junior held the loaded spoon to his lips and blew on it noisily. Most of the soup slopped back into the bowl, but as soon as he put the remainder in his mouth, his face cracked into the same wide grin Joa

“Good!” he exclaimed happily. “Good, good, good.” Transfixed by all this activity, Joa

Joa

“Milk for me, too,” Joa

Je

Ladling his soup and blowing on each spoonful, Junior didn’t answer. Je

Junior paused and looked at her. “Far,” he said. A speech impediment made it difficult for him to pronounce the letter r, but Je

“How big is your family?” she asked.

Junior stopped eating. He put his spoon down and stared back at Je

Junior held up one finger. “Mama,” he said. Then he raised another finger. “Junior.”

“So it’s just the two of you,” Je

A short silence settled over the table. “Do you like to play video games?” Butch asked.

Junior brightened. He reached for what would have been his pockets, then the smile faded. He knew enough to realize that video games required money and he had none.

“Don’t worry,” Butch told him. “I have some video games in the other room that came from my restaurant when I sold it. I’ve fixed them so they don’t take quarters anymore. You can play them all you want, for free.”

Junior’s mouth dropped. “No quarters?” He started to push his chair away from the table.

“No,” Butch said. “Soup first, then video games.”

Without a murmur of objection, Junior settled back onto his chair and resumed eating. If Father Mulligan thought the badge trick was impressive, Joa

When the soup was gone, Je

“Better now,” she said. “Much better. How did you know how to handle him like that? You were great.”

“I used to coach Special Olympics,” Butch said. “The Roundhouse used to sponsor a team to the games over in Tempe every summer. I liked doing it, and I pride myself in thinking I was pretty good at it.”

“I’d say very good,” Joa

Butch stood up. “If you want to clear the table, I’ll go outside, gather up his clothes, and stick them in the washer.”

“Once we get him dressed again, though, what am I going to do with him?” Joa

‘‘Leave him here,” Butch replied. “I have an air mattress out in the shed. I’ll blow that up and have him sleep right there on the living room floor. He’ll be fine, and on the air mattress, if he has an accident overnight, it won’t hurt anything

“You don’t mind?”

“Of course I don’t mind. If I did, I wouldn’t have offered. What do you expect me to do, leave you to handle this whole mess by yourself? No way!”

While Butch went to look after the clothes, Joa

Joa

“I know. I have a rug shampooer out in the garage. I took a crack at the upholstery in your car. It helped some, but it’s not going to solve the whole problem. Unfortunately it had a chance to really soak in.”

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out Joa

Drying her hands, Joa

“What’s the matter?” Butch asked. “Are you hurt?”

“A little.”

She rolled up her sleeve and looked. Her elbow was punctured by more than a dozen tiny pinpricks, all of them red and sore. “What happened?” Butch asked

“I had a run-in with a batch of cholla,” she told him.

Shaking his head, Butch reached into a drawer and brought out a tube of Neosporin. “Maybe you’d better tell me the whole story,” he said.

For the next forty-five minutes, she told him everything, starting with finding Alice Rogers’ body and ending with Junior. When Joa

“I don’t know,” Joa

“I have,” Butch said grimly. “Two years ago the family of one of my athletes took off out of town while Brad was away at Special Olympics. When the games were over and we tried to take him home, no one was there. One of the neighbors told us they’d packed up and left on vacation. In a way, you can understand it. It’s got to be a terrible strain for the family members. For caregivers it’s a never-ending, lifetime’s worth of responsibility, with no hope and no respite. Still, abandoning ship like that is unforgivable. At least, that’s how it seemed to me then, and it still does.

“But I’ll bet the same thing that happened with Brad will happen with junior. Somebody is going to notice that Junior isn’t at home anymore, and they’ll start asking questions. In the meantime, we’re going to have to look after him, that’s all.”

“You mean that, don’t you,” Joa

“Yes,” Butch said. “If we don’t, who’s going to? And if you and Je