Jesse and the Magic Boots

By Janina Ward

Jesse finishes the school year and travels to his grandfathers ranch for what he thought was going to be his routine summer vacation. Jesse began to wonder what his grandfather meant when he said, If only you had been in my shoes passing through his grandpas bedroom he pauses to slip his feet into and old worn out pair of grandpas cowboy boots. Jesse becomes very dizzy and passes out on the bed only to awaken the following morning lying next to a juniper tree out on the range. The only thing he sees for miles is a horse, saddled and ready to be ridden. Jesses head still foggy, he mounts the horse and lets it lead the way. The countryside begins to look familiar and soon he finds himself at the old homesteadonly it had burned to the ground years before! Upon investigating Jesse finds his great-great grandmother and grandfather only they have also been dead for years. He soon realizes that he has gone back in time over seventy years and everyone thinks that he is his grandpa Fred. Jesse has no choice but to do his best to blend in until he can find a way back home. He learns many things including how to work and brand the cattle. Jesse goes along as the family takes a wagon trip to the town of Prescott. Jesse has many close encounters and interesting discoveries as the summer wears on, finally he sees visions in the night urging him to leave soon! Very adventurous reading for young adults as well as those young at heart. A stimulating trip into the old west complete with many historic photos to stimulate the imagination! A must read for anyone that has ever wondered what ranch life was like in our wonderful Arizona history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 29, 2003
• ISBN: 9781462823895

Janina Ward

Janina was raised on a central Arizona cattle ranch which sets the stage for this story. Her family’s history of ranching and her love of adventure and the mystique of other worlds inspired this book. Her family has been very influential in the development of Arizona history.

Book preview

Jesse

and the

Magic Boots

missing image file

JANINA WARD

Copyright © 2003 by Janina Ward.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

17656

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

The Awakening

Chapter 3

Close Call

Chapter 4

Town

Chapter 5

The Race

Chapter 6

Battleground

Chapter 7

Spirit of Chalk Rocks

Chapter 8

Busted

Chapter 9

Hunt or Be Hunted

Chapter 10

Crooked Mouth Charlie

Chapter 11

School Day

Chapter 12

Storm’s Coming

Chapter 13

Homecoming

Dedication

This story is dedicated to the men I love most, my father, my husband and my sons.

Chapter 1

As the line of kids closed in on the bus door, Jesse turned his head, peering out the window, his eyes focused on his grandpa’s old beat up blue Ford pick-up parked in the rutted parking lot. The truck looked the same as it did last summer, the dark blue paint faded from the hot Arizona sun, the dents covering the truck too numerous to count. Jesse’s heart pounded faster as he pushed the remaining kids in front of him as he made his way toward the door. The last nine months he had spent as a freshman were unbearable. He was not one to be cooped up in the city. Finally it was time for his long awaited summer on Grandpa Fred’s ranch. He may of considered staying in the city had he known what the next few days of his life were about to unfold.

All Jesse carried in his duffel bag were his riding clothes, these would be enough to suffice until his parents arrived the following Tuesday. Swinging down off the bus steps he heaved a sigh of relief, another year of school was over. Pausing for a moment he turned to waive goodbye to his friends still on the bus. He tossed his duffel bag in the bed of the old Ford. He swung the door open and leaped into the cab of the truck, dust puffed into the air from the old truck seat. Hi Grandpa! he blurted as he propped his boots up on the cracked dash board and nestled himself into the seat for the two-hour drive to the ranch.

The ride in the old truck was so noisy from the bumpy road, it made conversation difficult, so Jesse shut his eyes to relax.

Soon he’d have his own horse and he’d go riding every day. Jesse’s mind drifted as the constant humming and rattling numbed his ears. He’d always wanted to be a jockey, riding horses at top speed around the track, the wind ripping through his hair as the crowd cheered him on. I’m getting so tall now; I guess I won’t be able to be a jockey after all, Jesse thought to himself as a frown spread across his face. Now he had no idea what he was going to do when he got out of high school. He used to have the small wiry build demanded of jockeys but not now, he’d be better off playing basketball. At least the bullies at school no longer picked on him.

Jesse opened his eyes and gazed over at the speedometer, it read 55mph! He sat back and tightened his seatbelt, this was a 15mph road, and it was nothing more than a combination of washboards and ruts beat through the desert that someone chose to call a road. His grandpa maneuvered it quite well though. Jesse looked behind them only to see a trail of dust a mile long. Jesse relaxed a little and grumbled to his grandpa, I hate riding the school bus, I can’t wait till I can drive to school, the bus takes forever. His grandpa had never been much for conversation but after a long silence he raised his voice above the sound of the road, Well Jesse, you should’ve been in my shoes when I was your age. We didn’t have school buses, we walked an hour or better each way. Jesse listened as his grandpa reminisced although he could only hear every other word he had heard it all before, My sister and I used to get up at 4 a.m, do the chores and walk five miles to school. Jesse rolled his eyes around, he was sure it hadn’t been all that bad, it couldn’t be as bad as his hour long bus ride.

The truck finally pulled into the ranch and stopped. Jesse waited a minute for the dust to settle then jumped out, grabbed his bag out of the back and tossed it by the front door. The dust from the road puffed off the once green duffel bag. Jesse leaped off the porch and ran to help his grandpa feed the horses.

Standing in the corral with his ears pointed toward him was Scooter, Jesse’s favorite horse. Jesse liked the way the horse would pin his ears back and bite at anything or anybody that tried to pass them on the trail, be it dog, cow, horse or man.

Jess, tomorrow you can help me gather up the strays on Pine Mountain.

Alright Grandpa, can I ride Scooter? Jesse replied as he pat the brown horse. He missed the smell of the horses. Jesse was more than happy to help his grandpa gather the cattle that had evaded the cowboys during the roundup a few days earlier.

Jesse tossed the last of the hay to the horses and brushed the alfalfa leaves out of his hair and off his shoulders as he followed his grandpa to the house. Jesse sank his teeth into his ham and cheese sandwich and reached for his ice-cold root beer, as they strolled out to the back porch.

As they sat on the porch swing, Jesse leaned back and watched the sun set. It created a beautiful purple haze across the sky. They both sat quietly in awe, Jesse had been a ball of nerves but now school and the city life were far behind. The thought of this was what had eased his nerves as he sat in school drilling his brain over his term tests. Jesse sighed as he put his feet up on the porch railing. The chain suspending the swing creaked as they swayed back and forth. A bull frog sounded his mating call in the distance. Jesse told his grandpa about the school year, what he could remember anyway, he’d chose to forget most of it. His grandpa told him a few cowboy stories, about catching a wild maverick and about the dudes that had got bucked off during the spring roundup. It seemed like only minutes had gone by when Jesse noticed the full moon rising in the eastern sky. The moon had an entrancing orange glow; it looked twice as large as it did the night before when he’d watched it out his bedroom window in the city. As it peeked above the tops of the pine trees on the nearby mountain, it looked so close that he could reach out and touch it. Millions of stars shone through the darkening night. He gazed at the Big Dipper, I can’t see near this many stars in the city Grandpa.

Yep, it’s a lot different out here Jesse . . . always has been. I wish you could grow up the way I did, before things got so hectic. I’m glad you’ll be living here soon though. Jesse nodded his head and smiled as he covered his mouth to disguise a burp.

A coyote howled in the distance as a cool breeze graced their faces; the gentle gurgling of the creek soothed their ears. Jesse gazed at his grandpa; his grandpa’s skin was like leather from years of exposure to the sun. His hands were rough and scarred from years of hard work; on his left hand he was missing a thumb. He’d lost it in a roping accident just like his own father Dillon had done years before.

Grandpa, when are you going to teach me how to rope? Jesse asked as he picked up his grandpa’s lariat and gave it a twirl.

"Well Jesse maybe we’ll start tomorrow if we find the cattle soon enough and we get back before dusk. Why don’t you head on to bed now though, you’ve got a full day ahead of you