“Nah, I wish I was joking. I had five mamas and one pa.”
“Say what?”
“My pa had five wives.”
“Oh, I see. Mormons?”
“But not all Mormons are polygamists, I hear, but my kind sure were. Never knew which of his wives was my birth mother.”
“So, it’s like you didn’t have a mother?”
“No. They were all mothers to me. Wonderful mothers.”
“Were? What happened?”
“What always happens when men want more than one woman. There’s too many men. Even potential men.My Pa threw me and some of my brothers out as soon as I was eight years old.”
“Some of your brothers. How many did you have?”
“I was the fifth of ten boys, eleventh of twenty-five kids. All five of us older boys woke up one morning not knowing it’d be the last time we saw our family. The last time for a long time, we’d have a warm bed or a hot meal. We did what we were told, as always. We were good boys, happy, too. They loaded us on a bus with other boys from our community, telling us we were going to go work a job. Nothing unusual to ship us boys out to raise a barn or two. I’d have never dreamed… They dropped us off a state over like we were stray dogs. The worst part was, it was days until we realized what had happened. They’d told us to wait, and we waited. Just like dogs.”
“That’s plum awful.”
“Sounds pretty bad, but it was probably the best thing to have happened to me. See, I didn’t know back then what I know now. I didn’t know my family didn’t treat me good, what freedom was. Never would’ve known if I’d been allowed to stay. I’d have been just like my father.”
“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t like having a bunch of wives, all taking a turn.”
I laughed. “I’ve had trouble finding one woman I’d want to settle down with.”
“Where are your brothers now?”
“Who knows. Real quick they scattered, all but one. The oldest, see I was the youngest, so he took care of me. He was seventeen but looked as if he was way older, like a grown man from all the hard work we did. He hooked up with a woman one night and left me with her. Said he’d be back, but he never came back. She sort of claimed me after that. Told people I was her son. She was good to me. I had a couple of meals and a bed, so I didn’t deny her relation. Soon she hooked up with a man who rode with the Asphalt Gods’ MC, married him, and she never told him any different. Wasn’t long before she hit the road, leaving me at the club with Edgar the Noose, my Stepdad by all accounts. By that time, I was old enough to want to stay, to earn a patch someday. The club didn’t kick me to the wind like my own family had. Noose called me his boy, and I wouldn’t dare correct him and risk being thrown out.”
“We kind of have that in common. Not knowing our family. Except I wasn’t so lucky with the gang I ended up with.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You rescued me…”
Halley
There was silence for a bit.
“All those kids and mamas and only one father. Y’all must’ve had home births, right?”
“Yeah, that sure did come in handy.” He reached over and caressed the baby’s cheek, melting my heart.
Cowboy and I talked the whole ride to Arizona or we listened to the radio. I recognized most the songs. He told me hardly any stations played new music anymore, on account of people downloaded it onto their phones.
“I’m going to have to get me one.”
“Good luck. Your brother won’t use a smartphone and suggests we don’t, either. In other words, don’t mention mine to anyone. I’m supposed to stick to flipphones and burner phones. It’s a security risk, but most the time, normal times, I’m not getting my hands dirty. Well, not figuratively.”
“What do you do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like in the club?”
