Chapter 5
Once they were back at the house, Sam went inside and got the keys to the backhoe, and his wife followed him out. Rose walked to the truck, hugged Roy, and held her son tight. She knew how dangerous it was for them to hunt hogs and hated that they did it. But at the end of the day, it was part of their lives and helped them pay the bills.
As Rose hugged Roy, she leaned in and told him how great of a dog Bandit was and how Roy should be proud to have owned such a beautiful friend. Roy cried in her arms. He didn’t want to let go of her, just like he didn’t want to let go of Bandit. But after a few minutes, she told him they needed to ensure Bandit had a good burial. So, she walked him over to where his father was about to start digging a hole under the Live Oak tree where their family buried all their animals.
There were no crosses or tombstones under the tree, but Roy knew the names and locations of every dog buried under the tree. He had grown up with a few of them, and he heard the heroic stories of the others.
Sam picked out the perfect plot for Bandit to be buried. It was under the Live Oak tree but situated on a spot where he could see down the hill, and every day at sunset, the sun would shine on him.
As the men dug the hole and got it ready. Rose went inside and got an old blanket and some of Bandit’s toys to bury him with. Once the plot was ready, Sam took Bandit’s body and wrapped him in his blanket and the toys. He climbed into the hole, and Roy handed him Bandit’s body. Bandit was laid to rest, and once Sam climbed out of the grave, everyone took off their hats. Sam said a prayer for Bandit and thanked him for his years of friendship and faithfulness.
Roy stood beside his mother, and even though this was not the first time they had had to bury a dog, this was the hardest one. Bandit was Roy’s best friend and his companion. He was not only a hunting dog but a member of their family. Roy couldn’t hold back his tears or sobbing. He looked up at his dad and even saw him wiping tears from his face.
When the prayers for Bandit were finished, Sam returned to the backhoe to fill in the hole. Everyone stood around and helped until the job was done. Then Rose returned to the house to finish preparing lunch while the other guys tended to their dogs. Mr. Ferguson and Hank took their dogs back home while Sam and Roy took them back to the kennels to finish tending to their wounds and ensuring they all had fresh water and food. About an hour later, everyone returned to Sams’s house and had an excellent home-cooked meal. Rose cooked fried chicken with mashed potatoes and greens. Most of the food had come from their small farm. As they ate, everyone shared stories of Bandit, and they all reminisced about the good times they had together. They shared hunting stories and all the good times they shared with Bandit over the years.
Roy listened to the stories and even shared a few of his own. The time with the family and friends helped him cope with the loss of his brother and best friend. Once they finished lunch and cleaned up everything, everyone sat on the front porch, and they drank some whiskey that was made in the woods of one of their hunting friends about twenty miles away. Sam even let Roy touch his beak with it, and he quickly turned away from the one-hundred-plus-proof hooch.
The men sat outside for hours reminiscing about Bandit, and the talks started about going back out in the morning to look for the beast. Sam wanted that pig dead, and the more he drank, the more determined he was to kill that wild boar. He wanted that pig’s head to rest next to Bandit’s grave. Just so Bandit’s soul would know that they avenged his death. Roy sat there and listened to his dad talk about getting even for Bandit, and of course, Hank and Mr. Ferguson felt the same way. Anytime one of their pups was killed, they made sure to find the culprit and even the score for their dog.
When the sun had finally set, and the moonshine was gone, the men called it a night and headed home. Roy took a shower and cleaned up for bed while his dad passed out on the couch.
Before Roy fell asleep, his mom came into his room, “I’m sorry for your loss, son. I know how much Bandit meant to you.”
“Thanks, Mom. He was a good dog,” replied Roy.
“Yes, he was. He was the best dog I’ve ever seen, and I’m not a hunter, but I’ve been around your dad’s dogs for many years now, and I can tell you he was always my favorite one. I never had a worry at all when it was just me and him out here.”
“I know what you are saying, Mom. I want to kill that hog myself. I hope Dad’s not too drunk in the morning to go out.”
“Well, I can probably say he will be. They drank a lot of shine tonight. But let’s wait until the morning before we say it will not happen. I’ve seen your dad drink more than this and get up at three in the morning to find a hog or deer.”
“Sounds good,” replied Roy. The boy hugged his mom and kissed her on the cheek before he laid his head down and tried to get comfortable. Rose left the room and turned off all the lights in the house before she went to her room.
As Roy lay in his bed, he couldn’t get comfortable. Something was missing, and he knew what it was. Bandit always slept at the foot of his bed, but tonight, Bandit was not there. Roy tossed and turned for what seemed like hours, and he never got comfortable. After an hour or so, he knew that his dad wasn’t going to make the hunt in the morning, and Roy started to get mad that his dad drank so much that he wasn’t going to be able to wake up in time to avenge Bandit’s death. Bandit was a brother to Roy, and there was no way that he was not going to be up at the ass crack of dawn to hunt down the beast and put a bullet in his head. Roy’s mind started racing more and more, and he knew it was no use to try to sleep. If it had been Roy on the other end of that hog cutter, Bandit would have jumped on and not let go until either he or the beast was dead. And at that moment, Roy knew what he had to do. Dad or no dad. Roy was going to track down the beast and kill him.
He started to devise a plan to get back to where Bandit was killed. He would follow the tracks back across the river until he found the beast and killed him. There was no far-fetched plan. The plan was simple: return to where Bandit was killed, find the beast, and kill him.
Roy knew the roads and terrain there. It was only a few miles from his house, and he could make it there in an hour or so. It was less than two hours on foot. Then, when he crossed the river, that would be tricky. Roy had never been across the river but knew it was a low-crossing area. But he didn’t know how low the water really was. Was it just a foot or so deep, or was it ten or more feet deep? Roy knew that would be one of the hardest parts of his hunt other than facing off with the beast. But would he be able to swim across the river if it was deep, or would he be swept downriver and potentially drown? Roy thought about these things as he planned for the hunt.
He could not get up and start packing and making a lot of noise so he stayed in bed until it was time to leave. Roy knew he was not going to be able to take a lot of items with him. But he had a backpack he had always taken hunting, which held the essentials. It had a couple of water bottles, a change of clothes, a small bag of beef jerky, and some other energy and protein bars. He also had five-fifty cord and a compass in case he got lost. Roy also had a firestarter and a lighter that he found one evening after Mr. Ferguson and his dad stayed up drinking and smoking cigars after a hunt. He also carried a pocket knife and hog knife his dad gave him. He didn’t have a lot of stuff to carry.
The only item he wanted to carry was the 1911, which was locked up in the gun cabinet. Roy knew if he went into the gun cabinet without his dad’s permission, there would be hell to pay. Not only would he never be able to sit down again from the whipping he would receive, but he would lose the most critical factor in being a young man with his father, which was his father’s trust. More than once, Sam sat down and told Roy about the importance of trust, and he drilled in Roy that once trust is lost, it is nearly impossible to regain it.
He knew that losing the trust of his dad was a huge deal. Going out hunting without telling anyone was a bad enough offense, but losing the confidence of his father because he took a gun without his consent was the equivalent of the death penalty in his mind.
So, instead of taking a gun, Roy went into his closet and got his bow, which he had gotten as a Christmas present from his parents. Roy had killed a deer with it last winter and took a few hogs with it. No, it was not a 1911, but it would do the job if the arrow was placed in the correct spot. This wasn’t locked up like the guns, so it was fair game. Roy had some arrows with arrowheads that were razor sharp and could easily slice through the toughest hogs.