Gunfight at Indian Creek

[bugscufle]

Noticed that Kuykendall's big water tank finally dried up when I drove over to Valley Spring today to get the mail. The Indian Creek low water crossing just below the tank was always covered with water throughout '04, as well as the last part of '03 and the first part of '05. All the sunflowers along that stretch seem to like the drier weather. Every time I drive by there, I always remember Bobbie Gail Wight. Sometimes she'd be getting her brood lickety split to the other side. Other times she would just be out along the road with a few friends enjoying crushed post oak acorns and sunflowerseeds. Bobbie Gail was quite the lady.and talking about how fast the new people in the valley drove and how rude they were.

Lot of deer hunters and young people just whizz by today. Those that have been here a while all slow down, and more than a few of the older men tip their hats to their memories of her and her families. Even dogs stop barking and watch in respectful silence.

"Who was Bobbie Gail Wight?" My, my, my, what on earth do families hereabouts talk about at the dinner table these days? Oh, I keep forgetting, they don't gather at the dinner table any more, do they? Well, you all just pour yourselves some kool-aid and sit down on the porch and I tell as much as I directly know.

Bobbie Gail's ancestors were part of the Colinus virginiana (bobwhite quail) settlers that emmigrated to this area about the time Grand pa Phillips started the first ranch over at Prairie Lid. Bobbie was born, along with her ten brothers and sisters, in a clump of winter killed grass, just east of the big bluebonnet patch, a hundred yards or so east of Indian Creek on the Old Jenschke place. Bobbie and her siblings were so small, they were more like fast moving bugs than quail. Being fast, along with being still was the key to survial for young chicks who have so many enemies, Even so, Bobbie's siblings began to disappear. Bobbie loved hiding in the thick bluebonnets. She loved the velvet leaves and the rich fragrance. Bobbie was very attentive and noticed everything. The world was full of movement. She quickly learned that some movement was safe, other movement was dangerous. The world was also full of shapes. Some shapes were appropriate and safe, some shapes were inappropriate and dangerous.

Everybody called the land where Bobbie lived the Jenschke place, even though Herman and Hilda Jenschke had sold the place to Wharton Powers a few years earlier. Wharton Powers was involved in just about everything. He started off selling used cars in Killeen. Then he got a new car dealership. He sold sporty models to young soldiers, really not more than kids, stationed at Fort Hood, who were buying their first vehicle. When the dealers and the insurance agents got through with the young men, any bonus or savings was gone.

Wharton had bought old man Harold Harriss's ranch next to the Jenschke place several years earlier. People say he started trying to talk the Jenschke's out of their place right from the beginning. Wharton ran for county commissioner a couple years after he arrived. He was agin more things than his opponent, said the Pledge of Allegiance louder than anyone, and had the biggest American flag in the county so naturally he got elected. Not long afterwards, the Jenschke's taxes started going up while the price of cattle started going down. Then there was a drought and the Jenschke's who never had much to begin with had to borrow money to feed and keep the place going. The Jenschke's had to put up their cattle as collateral. Their luck got worse, as it will, when some of their cattle died. Wharton by this time had gotten himself on the board of directors of the bank. When the Jenschke's tried to renew the loan, the bank refused. They say Wharton got their place for next to nothing.

Wharton always was cooking up deals. He always had investors and politicians up for hunts. Pretty much whatever a fella wanted to kill, Wharton would accomodate them. He enjoyed shooting himself, almost as much as the eating, drinking and deal making that followed. By the end of Bobbie's first winter, her mom and all her siblings were gone, except for one sister, Vanna.

[bugscufle]

Vanna was defintely an attractive female bobwhite. Female colinus virginiana have dark mascara area around their eyes higlighted above and below by a yellow or dun stripe running back to their neck. Bobbie herself would acknowledge that she was a drygrass dun. Vanna, on the other hand, had glamorous looking blond stripes.

Vanna quickly caught the eye of the biggest male in the Blanco covey. His name was Tom, and Tom had a call which matched his size, and got even louder when Vanna was around. Vanna wasn't near as shy as Bobbie and it didn't take long for her and Tom to become a pair. Vanna introduced Bobbie, to Tom's brother, Washington. Washington, who everybody just called "Warsh", was as tall as Tom, but without his bulk. And even his mother acknowledged that his neck was a little longer and a little thinner than others. Warsh learned to cope with his appearance by exaggerating the jerky quail head movement which made everyone laugh.

Bobbie had had a lot of tragedy in her life and found she very much enjoyed laughing. She also found that she enjoyed having Warsh around. Warsh realized that Bobbie liked him even when he wasn't trying to get Bobbie to like him. Warsh liked that. By April, Bobbie and Warsh were a pair.

The Blanco covey lived on the edge of a large pasture of bromus japonicus (Japanese bromegrass), bluestem and common bermuda grass, surrounded primarily by post oak trees on the Jenschke place.

It wasn't long before Bobbie starting nesting in tufts of dry bouteloua curtipendula (side-oats grama grass), close to a clump of wild persimmons. By May. Bobbie and Warsh were both incubating eight small eggs. Less than four weeks later, there were eight small chicks. When you are a bobwhite quail, life just seems to come at you fast. Sometimes Bobbie and Warsh would just stare at each other in wonderment, trying to comprehend all the movement about them.

Almost from day one, Bobbie was taking the chicks on field trips, showing them something they would need to know to survive in a difficult and dangerous world. Needless to say it wasn't easy to get all eight to pay attention or follow the field trip rules. Bobbie and Warsh were quite certain that their own chickhood had been more responsible and respectable.

When the chicks were just nine days old, there had been a close call that would have profound future consequences. A coyote looking for a meal along the edge of the pasture was very near them and getting closer. When the coyote was just yards away, Warsh took off with a cripple wing flight. Now this coyote was no youngster and, as they say, "had been around the pasture once or twice before." This was not the first time he had seen a quail do the old cripple wing routine, and might have well proceeded upon Bobbie and the chicks. But this was Warsh doing the cripple wing routine, which meant it was anything but routine. He flew right side up, then upside down in exaggerated rolls. Then he spiraled up back towards the coyote, hung motionless for a moment, then started tumbling end over end, away from the coyote. A yard from the ground, he had a flutter fit, and then plopped to the ground. The coyote stared for a bit and decided the show was over and started to leave.

Warsh had another flutter fit, ran in circles dragging his wing, did a one wing stand, and plopped motionless on his back. The coyote just had too check out this quail. When the coyote got to the danger point. Warsh took off again with his cripple wing. The coyote gave brief chase, then realized he was being made a foll of, and trotted off pretending to not notice Warsh's nearby commotion.

The coyote's curiosity and Warsh's theatrical skills had given Bobbie time to get the chicks away, but Bobbie instinctively knew that eventually the coyote would follow. Many quails might have had this instinct, but Bobbie also realized that she must get something between her chicks and the coyote. Cattle are not mindful of quail chicks. Calfs can be curiously dangerous and playfully deadly. Bobbie led the chicks straight into a small herd of grazing cows with resting or playing calfs.

The coyote had picked up their trail by this time and was also coming up upon the herd. The coyote carefully followed the scent just ten yards or so from the herd. Now while the cows might be indifferent to quail, a coyote, along any carnivore, was a most univited guest. One cow charged the coyote. The coyote ran away for a few yards, and then went to his left and tried to close in on the quail dinner, but another cow charged him and he again ran away a few yards and stopped. Shortly, he went to the right but was charged by a third cow. By now, the coyote decided that this quarry wasn't worth the trouble and he would go find a meal that wasn't so complicated.

When Bobbie and Warsh got together later that afternoon, they were emotionally exhausted. The chicks all thought it had been great fun and were asking when they could do it again.

[bugscufle]

A couple of months later, Bobbie's watching and wit, along with Warsh's complete devotion had accomplished something that was unheard of, every one of the youngsters had gotten through chickhood safely. They could run and they could fly. And any predator they came around got outsmarted even if he didn't know it.

Wharton continued to change the land and continued to accumulate wealth. If he didn't have the machine he needed, he used the county's machine. Warsh believed that the things of this world belonged to those who dared to take them. He was always making deals to change the land somewhere. Deals that moved critters out and people in. He used the county machines to change his own place. He liked using other peoples equipment or money to make himself rich. He also liked using loopholes to keep from paying people what he owed them, or paying a fair share of taxes.

Bobbie was a watcher. Not only for danger or her chicks, but all creatures, even the human ones, at a safe distance of course. She noticed that each creature did things somewhat differently, and wondered why. She wondered why some creatures flew so high while other creatures didn't fly at all. She wondered why some creatures were fast and some creatures slow. She wondered why some creatures were noisy and some creatures quiet. She wondered why humans made roads, and then made machines they could drive up down always killing and leaving the deceased creature with no purpose, be it a butterfly or a deer.

She wondered why humans always made so many piles. Where they lived had a variety of piles. What they grew was put into piles. What was left was put into piles. They ate little piles of food. What was left went into a pile. What they didn't want but didn't want to throw away went into another pile. And want they didn't want to keep went into piles that they burned, sometimes with great harm to many. Even the funny feathers they called clothes went into piles when they got tired of them. Bobbie had seen them without the funny feathers, and agreed that if she looked like that she would cover herself with anything rather than have every creature both astonished and amused at such an unsensible shape.

Bobbie got a late start on her second klutch of that year. October had already started before she and Warsh began incubating ten small eggs in a dense patch of bothriochloa laguroides (silver bluestem grass) among a stand a sunflowers. It is never long before trouble starts looking for the vulnerable, and that is certainly true for quail and their unborn.

Bobbie had just returned from eating some prickly pear cactus tunas that had fallen to the ground, when she noticed the slightest movement in the grass. The movement got nearer and nearer. Bobbie knew the way creatures moved through grass and growth, each one a little different, and from this movement, even without seeing it, Bobbie knew it was a rattlesnake.

A rattlesnake would enjoy two grown quail, but would have little chance of striking one. On the other hand, quail eggs were an easy and nutritious meal. If the rattlesnake hadn't been coming straight at them, Bobbie and Warsh would have been still and quiet, content to let danger pass. But it was clear that the rattlesnake was going to come upon the nest.

If Bobbie had been like other quails, she would have stayed as long as she could and then abandon the eggs to this legless predator But Bobbie was not like other quails. Something told her that danger has a weakness, it can be confused. And something also told her that danger is best confused with the unexpected.

To Warsh's astonishment, Bobbie moved quickly towards the rattlesnake. The rattlesnake was surprised and when Bobbie got within a couple of feet he started to coil. That's when Bobbie did an almost vertical takeoff. The loud, penetrating sound of Bobbie's wings where most unpleasant to a creature who seeks stillness and quiet. Bobbie circled and glided in behind the snake's ready-to-strike head. Just before she was upon the snake, she beat her wings for upward acceleration. The snake moved around trying to find his noisy attacker. Bobbie dove in time after time, as she had watched the mockingbirds attack. The vibration of the air and the constant appearance and disappearance of the attacker, both irritated and confused the rattlesnake. When the snake started backing away in the direction he came, Bobbie ended the harrassment. The rattlesnake, encouraged by the cease-fire, continued in the accomodating direction.

Warsh told the covey about Bobbie's feat and everyone was in awe. Bobbie was uncomfortable with the attention, and was quite sure the episode was much less significant than everyone made it out to be.

[bugscufle]

Cold, rainy northers started coming in, but Bobbie and Warsh kept the eggs dry, warm and safe. Down at Wharton Power's there was almost frantic action to remodel, paint, or add-on to the house, guest house, barn and garage. Wharton brought in piles of vile materials that their machines pressed on the ground to make it so hard that nothing could live on it but other machines. Bobbie had heard that these materials, which people called asphalt, were the poop of even bigger machines. Bobbie could believe it.

Wharton's right hand man Elmer O'Reilly, who was also precinct foreman, constructed a new road almost to the big pasture Bobbie and Warsh lived in and then paved a rectangular area about the size of the Dairy Queen.

Three weeks to the day after the rattlesnake incident, Bobbie and Warsh had another visitor, a tortoise. While this visitor was certainly not as deadly as the rattlesnake, the news he brought was even more frightening. The tortoise reported that the Texas Lieutenant Governor, whatever that was, The Texas Speaker of the House, whatever that was, and the chief executive officer of a European company that constructed and maintained major tollways were coming for a quail hunt. For a moment, Bobbie and Warsh said nothing. They just tried to control the fear that they felt. Then Warsh, wanting to believe that maybe there was some mistake, asked the tortoise how he knew. The tortoise said that the house cat had told the horses when they were in the barn and that he had got the news straight from the horses mouth when they went out to pasture.

Word went out and quickly the covey gathered around Bobbie's nest. The younger ones born in this year's klucthes did not know what a "hunt" was and their elder's explanations made no sense to them. They could understand the violence of survival, but not the violence of entertainment. The consensus promptly became that they needed to flee. Bobbie told everyone that fleeing was the most prudent action, but that her eggs would start hatching tomorrow and that she would remain with them.
Bobbie told Warsh that she could sit the eggs by herself, and that he should go too. Everyone looked down except Warsh, who looked at Bobbie, and after a considerable pause, remarked that whatever they did, they would do together. They covey continued to look down.

At that moment, three vehicles drove to the asphalt pad area below the big field and parked. It was quiet for a moment and then the covey starting feeling the staccato pounding of a helicopter and shortly started hearing it. It got louder and louder and larger and larger, like a big, ugly, noisy bird. It sat down on the pad. Men got out of the vehicles and then out of the helicopter. Everyone got back in the vehicles and helicopter flew away.

The covey continued to watch even after the vehicles were gone. Bobbie told Vanna that she needed to go while they still had time to find a safe place to spend the night. TJ commented that it wasn't right to leave Warsh and Bobbie. Warsh told TJ more would be accomplished by getting the covey and it's young to safety. Sadly, the covey departed.

Warsh sat on the eggs and Bobbie was standing next to him. They tried not to think about what they were thinking about. All that did was keep them silent. Bobbie kept focusing on the men at Wharton's elaborate ranch house. She turned to Warsh and told him she needed to go to Wharton's house. He started to say that was too dangerous when he realized doing something was hardly any more dangerous than not doing anything. Warsh just nodded.

Bobbie flew around the house. There was a secret service man out front and one on the back patio. Smoke from the patio indicated that men would be eating there. Bobbie glided to the base of a clump of crepe myrtle trees. The agent noticed her motion but quickly ignored her shape as being non-threatening.

There was about an hour of sunlight left. Bobbie just watched. She felt a little bit silly and a good bit scared. She wasn't sure why she was there. It just seemed that something inside said that it was better to go to your enemy before your enemy came to you. She smiled at herself, one quail against men, machines and guns. Maybe that was why she and Warsh got along so well, they were both crazy.

A brisk north wind was pulling and tugging at the crepe myrtle leaves. Some leaves were letting go and landing all over the large patio. Bobbie kept asking herself, what could just one quail do to such power and invulnerability. She noticed a pecan tree leaf glide through the air and land on the seat of one of the chairs. She noticed that most of the chairs had leaves. Leaves were everywhere. For some reason, she thought of the leaves of a toxicodendron radicans along indian Creek. She had been dining on them earlier in the week. Bobbie smiled again, and again asked herself what could one quail do, only this time with determination instead of desperation.

[bugscufle]

A half an hour later, there were t. radicans leaves in every chair, rocker and swing on the patio. From beneath a lantana bush she watched Carmen Mendez bring out a big bowl of salad. That was more like something to eat she thought. And she thought some more about the men eating it. Suddenly she smiled really big.

Not that anyone noticed between the beer, cocktails and salad dressing, but the salad that evening had a sufficient portion of calystegia (bindweed). The sun was setting when Bobbie arrived back at the nest. She traded with Warsh and spent the night on the eggs. She could tell the eggs would hatch tomorrow. She tried not to think about tomorrow.

Bobbie was still on the eggs when the men with their guns and their dogs drove up to the edge of the big field. Each of the men were experiencing some form of physical discomfort which they all attributed to drinking too much the night before. They would not allow themselves to be the butt of any jokes. They each felt that fresh air, an easy walk, and a kill to brag about would resolve their temporary physical discomfort. To show weakness was not only to be left behind, but to be left out. And the deal struck last evening was as big as they come. The Europeans would buy and develop the toll roads, Wharton powers would buy part of Big Bend State Park and develop it as a gambling resort. Donations, as well as contracts and interests would go to family and friends of the Speaker and the Lieutenant Governor.

The men followed the dogs racing back and forth looking for fresh quail scent, and finding none. The men started good-natured grumbling about whether it was a quail hunt or a wild goose chase. Later the grumbling started loosing the good-naturedness. Wharton was bewildered why there were no quail, he had been watching them for weeks. Wharton also felt a very strong need to scratch his butt. As did Lieutenant Governor Hattrick and Speaker Rambaugh. Lieutenant Governor Hattrick also wanted to stop hunting and find a pot to sit on. Senior Maldonado, the Spanish executive would have appreciated some pot time himself. I don't believe when I was telling the story earlier I mentioned that t. radicans is also called poison ivy and that bindweed is a major class laxative did I?

Well anyway, the men and the dogs kept coming closer and closer towards Bobbie, Warsh and the nest. All the commotion had upset the rattlesnake and they watched him crawling just a few yards away. Bobbie suddenly said "Rattlesnake." Warsh looked at her quixically and then nodded his head. It was their last chance to save the nest. Both birds headed through the grass towards the men and the dogs. They would lead the men and dogs away from the nest or die trying. It wasn't long before the dogs found them. But these were really well-trained dogs and they were trained to flush a live bird, not to capture it. Problem was these birds kept moving through the grass without flushing.

Speaker Rambaugh and Lieutenant Governor Hattrick, who were in front, could not understand why the dogs were coming towards them. When Bobbie was just six feet from speaker Rambaugh, she blew up and aimed right towards his face. Less than a second later, Warsh blew up aiming towards Lieutenant Governor Hattrick. Speaker Rambaugh was full of irritation and all that irritation got directed to Bobbie Gail. Rambaugh swing around and pulled his bead on Bobbie. His finger was slowly pulling the trigger as he quickly started leading Bobbie. It was just a split second from great sadness and tragedy when something seemed to whiz by so close to Rambaugh that it scratched his eye lid. Rambaugh's gun went off, there was a crying out and a falling to the ground. Thanks to Thomas Jefferson Blanco, it wasn't Bobbie Gail, but Wharton Powers. TJ's surprise attack cause Rambaugh to swing his gun too far and Wharton was full of No. 7 1/2 shot.

Now somewhere between Warsh's sudden explosion, Rambaugh's firing, and Wharton's cry of pain, Lieutenant Governor Hattrick pooped in his pants. The Rambaugh and Elmer O'Reilly who was managing the dogs ran to help Wharton, who had serious, but not life-threatening injuries. Senior Maldonado and the Lieutenant Governor were squatting in agony as the dogs ran up, sniffed, and barked. Speaker Rambaugh, fearing the end of his career, called the life flight helicopter to pick up Wharton. Rambaugh stayed with Wharton until Wharton's wife Bambi showed up. The Lieutenant Governor and Senior Maldonado had already gone back to the house to clean up .

When the Life Flight helicopter lifted off with Wharton and Bambi, Rambaugh pulled out a whiskey flask. He had just lit a cigarette when he heard the loud bumps of his own helicopter. All the men were anxious to get home and get in touch with their lawyers and consultants. Rambaugh threw the cigarette down and squished it with his shoe and ran with the other men to get into the helicopter. None of them could leave this place fast enough.

[bugscufle]

Earlier, Bobbie Gail, Warsh and TJ had instinctively known this hunt was over. And hurriedly returned to the nest. When they arrived, ten little chicks were peeping and bumping into one and another. The chicks ran happily around their parents. The three adult quails just watched in silent gratitude and joy. Inexplicably, not long afterwards, Bobbi Gail got a feeling that she needed to get the family over to Indian Creek. She led the way and Warsh brought up the rear. TJ took off to reconnoitor the intended path. Less than two minutes later he arrived back and exclaimed, "Fire!"

"Where," asked Warsh. TJ replied that it was in the area where the hunters and their great birds had been. Bobbie Gail said they needed to get to the wide, sandy bed of Indian Creek. The wind was stout that day and the fire was soon upon them. Bobbi Gail was running as fast as the chicks could possibly go. Warsh was encouraging the rear stragglers. Sparks were falling among them and Warsh heard to roar and felt the heat behind him as the family arrived among the verdant life along the creek. Bobbie got the family next to the water. The fire made a boastful threat and then began to quickly expire for lack of fuel. For awhile, the parents were busy keeping the chicks away from the water. Finally, they herded the chicks into a clump of young willows. The chicks began to nod off. The last one to sleep was a boy named Verde. Verde exclaimed that it had been a grand adventure and queried if it moght be possible to do it again tomorrow. Bobbie Gail and Warsh had feelings of being very old.

Nobody ever new what started that grass fire, maybe a cigarette, maybe a catalytic converter, maybe something else. All anyone knew is that it happened near Wharton's helicopter pad. Burned over six hundred acres that day before they got it under control. The fire destroyed Wharton's barn and home. A building full of collector car models was seriously damaged. Additionally, three pieces of heavy county equipment were also destroyed.

Unfortunately for Wharton, one of the volunteer fire fighters was Harvey Garcia, another county commissioner who did not always see things eye to eye with Wharton.
When he saw the three destroyed pieces of county road building equipment he started quizzing Elmer O'Reilly pretty aggressively as to why the equipment was there. This made Elmer uncomfortable. He was used to Wharton doing the talking. And he was more uncomfortable because there was a man from the Texas Department of Public Safety standing there as well. When Commissioner Garcia asked if there was anymore county property there, Elmer allowed that he thought that the computer in an office with the collector cars might belong to the county. The man from DPS asked Elmer to show them the computer. Elmer took the men there and opened the building because he had a key. Commissioner Garcia identified that that was a county computer. The DPS man asked the Commissioner if he could take it and got permission.

The media tried to get involved with the story, but those involved didn't want to talk. It just happened that Allyson McCreight, corporate counsel for Miledale Computers read a story about the event on her laptop during a flight to Minneapolis. She vaguely remembered that Wharton Powers had bought his place from her grandparents, Herman and Hilda Jenschke. She called her grandparents who were living in their small house in Llano and started asking questions. Allyson started getting involved as only Allyson could get involved. She was a little mad a her grandparents for not making her more aware of their past situation. She was more mad at herself for not being more involved in her grandparent's lives. And Allyson was livid at Wharton Powers.

It seems that Wharton had kept information of gifts he had received from certain individuals and corporations as well as gifts he had given to certain elected individuals or family members. Unfortunately for Wharton, these gifts were not legal. The Travis County District Attorney indicted Wharton on several counts of bribery. The Llano County DA indicted Wharton on four counts of misappropriation of public property. Allyson McCreight filed civil suits against Wharton in behalf of her grandparents and several other people Wharton had defrauded.

In the end, Wharton was sentenced to 12 years in prison and served four. He pretty much lost all of his ill gotten gains. Allyison McCreight bought back her grandparent's place and retired from Miledale Computers. She built a nice place for her and her grandparents and made sure their final years were special. Allyson didn't allow any hunting on the place. She said gun shots scared her Lab and Great Pyrennes dogs. Bobbie Gail Wight, Warsh, and all the other quail led somewhat calmer and longer lives. And perhaps, because of Bobbie Gail's and Warsh's courage, more empowered lives.