Sally Runs for Mayor

By Pat Bryan

The book is a wonderful story about a regular young lady (which could have been anyone of us) who started out with almost nothing and ended up being one of the richest people in the state of New Mexico. The deeper meaning, however, is that I try to bring out the fact that she discovered the gifts that she was born with, developed, and used them to be the best she could be. Its the hidden message for us all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524528256

Pat Bryan

Pat is enjoying her retirement, living in rural Wisconsin. Even though Pat is a member of In Print, a professional writers group, she admits to being a more avid reader than writer. The idea for Shoes For Horses? stems from being the daughter of a horseshoer, and after thinking about the story for many years she finally put the it on paper. One of Pat’s greatest joys has been reading to her granddaughter Dani. Pat hopes the pleasure of sharing a story extends to others who read Shoes For Horses? Pat is enjoying visiting schools and reading her book to kindergarten thru third grade classes. Her book talks about children giggling and she loves hearing kids giggle as she reads to them. Pat's dad was a horseshoer, so when she visits school classes she takes some of his tools with her. The kids love getting their hands on them, especially his leather apron, horseshoes, and horseshoe nail rings.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

The town of Wyneto, New Mexico, was like any other town in the west, lots of land and not enough water, a varied mixture of people: Hispanics, white, blacks, and a few Asians, with the indigenous Indians in reservations.

The political landscape was also the same; the well-to-do whites own the large cattle ranches with the finer houses and the best grazing lands. Employment was by the graciousness of the owners, and everyone was made to understand this by the daily occurrences.

The Wild Wild West was not just about cowboys, Indians, the US Calvary, hard life, freedom, and opportunities. It was also about domination; ranchers dominating the farmers and the irrigation system. The haves dominating the have-nots and of course men dominating women.

This structure existed for many generations, from the opening of the west until present day, and everyone accepted it as such; except for a beautiful, tall, hard-nose white woman named Sally Burton. She lived with her father, Daniel Burton, who inherited the blacksmith shop in the town, and Linda, her mother, who Daniel fell in love with and married in Wyneto.

She had been like any other kid in town; got her schooling at the church school and attended the same church on Sundays with her parents, taking part in church activities and programs.

Sally was now forty-five years old and contemplating on her next move. She had been married to Brent for twenty years with two grown kids, David and Marianne, who were away in Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico. The Big City as the local folks called it, living their own lives with their grandaunt Jean—Sally’s mother’s much younger sister.

A teacher by profession whose life was centered on teaching only, she was glad to be there for her niece and nephew.

Sally and Brent were now the only ones living in the large house, with Ms. Blake, the helper who took care of the house that Sally’s grandfather, John Burton, had built on Main Street in town seventy-eight years ago.

Should she take the advice of her friends and run for mayor of Wyneto? She knew that she would be the first woman in this region to do so, which would make it very difficult to achieve as there were many prejudice to overcome in the region.

Sally had seen and heard a lot; the land grab, the fights over water, the mobs, the lynching, the tavern fights, the beatings, the shootings, the hangings, and the whisperings of the rapes that goes on in the town.

She herself was nearly raped by two men; grabbed and dragged into an alley near the tavern during a night of drunkenness, while she was returning from a girlfriend’s house late one evening, at the age of fifteen.

They covered her face, preventing her from identifying them while they tried to wrestle her to the ground to do their dirty act, and was only prevented from doing her harm by one of the patron who had ventured into the alley to relieve himself. He shouted at them and drew his gun, scaring them off.

Sally had suddenly become an adult. The reality of the town had hit her in the face, and she realized that she had to take care of herself. She did not tell her parents as they would be devastated, and her old sick father would be going crazy trying to find her attackers.

She had felt so degraded, like a piece of meat, and was so glad that her rescuer had come along at that particular moment. She went home, took a long hot bath, and spent the whole night on her bed in deep thoughts on the things she needed to do to protect herself.

She knew a little about bookkeeping and would ask her father to allow her to do the shop’s books for a small fee. By early dawn, Sally was still thinking and had not slept a wink; after coming up with what seems to be hundreds of ideas in her mind.

She was very surprised at herself; she had no idea that her little head could hold so many thoughts. She had discovered that she was a deep thinker, now quite aware of her surroundings and was growing up pretty fast in the ways of life.

Her first plan was to acquire a gun. She saved all her money from doing the shop’s books and, after two years, convinced Jeb, her friend, the barn hand to take her savings and buy her a pistol and two boxes of bullets from the haberdashery store.

At first Jeb was reluctant to do it, but she told him that it was just for her protection; that she would keep it hidden and that it would remain a secret between them. It also helped that she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

That was the closer; he went hopping and skipping to do her bidding. So that’s how the game was played, she thought, you have to know how to manipulate the situation to get what you want, yep, she was learning fast.

The next step in her plans was to learn how to shoot. She again convinced Jeb to show her and rode off with him to the valley three miles away on their side of town. She knew he would want favors from her there, and she also knew she was ready to give in to him.

After the first shooting practice and lovemaking, she knew she had him hooked. She did not mind giving in to Jeb; he was a nice quiet boy, and they had known each other since childhood. She was not sure if he was the right man for her, but she knew he was a safe bet in these hard parts of the world and would never hurt her.

After a few more shooting practices and a few more rumps, she knew Jeb was in love with her and that she felt something for him, but her heart was as hard as stone. Her only intention in all of this was to find the two men who tried to rape her and kill them one by one, and no love was going to get in the way.

The town of Wyneto was divided into two sections by the rail tracks. One section had the spring brook; the only water source in the area was on the land of the two Willberg brothers, owners of the largest cattle ranch in the area. While the shops, offices, tavern, and houses on Main Street was the other section, where the lesser half lived.

CHAPTER 2

In this area of eastern New Mexico, water holds as much power as gold and silver, as the region is very arid. The Willbergs had fought many battles with the town folks to control the water supply, settling on some sort of water tax to keep the township under their control.

Commerce in the township was compelled to pay this water tax into the bank’s account every month at the only bank in town owned by Mr. John Willberg, Big John as folks called him.

Big John would make his cowboys police the spring, ensure that the manual pumps were working, that it was kept clean and cleared of overgrown bushes, and that all the surrounding ranchers kept their cattle away from the spring and the irrigation systems that extended from it.

He was a hard man and had killed many times to keep his laws in place. His great-grandfather had driven the peaceful Navajo Indians tribe from settling around it many years ago.

His grandfather and father had kept control and passed it on to him and his younger brother, and he was not going to let anyone destroy it nor take it away from them without a fight.

Sally was now twenty-five years of age, and her father was very sickly; she knew he would not be around forever and while she was sad, she knew that she had to get his business turned over to her and her mother’s name, before these ruthless men moved in on their blacksmith shop.

The shop contains not only the blacksmith tools and furnace but also a barn with haystacks and five reliable horses. How do I proceed? She wondered and again that night, she lay on her bed and thought long and hard about the situation.

The next day, she went to her father’s bedroom and sat on the bed beside him, Morning, Daddy, how you doing?

The pain is getting worse my daughter, he replied. "I can’t even lift a hammer anymore, and have to depend on Jeb to do most of the skill works