LEGENDARYtales

With Game Warden James Cummings

It’s time to write another story. I could write a book about everything I have seen in 20 years, but I have very strong feelings the editors would frown harshly on trying to shoehorn all of them into these pages.

We find ourselves back in rural Texas. Game Warden Cody Wesley is working fall pronghorn antelope hunters. He has worked this season several years, but this time was given a rookie to work with and train. He is less than thrilled about the week with endless questions and “teachable moments”. We will name this rookie Game Warden, “Shawn”.

Pronghorns are native to Texas and the fastest land animal in America. They are abundant pockets where they are found and because of this, they are hunted by permit only. The permits are issued to the landowners that have pronghorns that range over their land. Knowing who has the permits, makes tracking down the hunters a bit(small bit) easier.

Wardens Cody and Shawn are out in the far western Texas Panhandle roaming around the various fields that are known to have permits. They come across a truck parked in the road and a man sitting in the driver’s seat, scanning with binoculars. Cody stops and contacts the man. The man is Randy, a known local, and he says he has two sons out in a maize field. Cody asks to see the permit for pronghorns and Randy says his sons have it. Randy calls his sons, both in their mid-twenties, on the phone and they stood up about a quarter-mile inside the maize field. They start walking out and Cody notices that only one of them has a rifle.

The sons, Shannon and Marshall, make it to the edge of the field. Shannon walks up to Cody and presents the pronghorn permit, his hunting license and his hunter’s education card. Marshall walks up to Game Warden Rookie Shawn and says he isn’t hunting because he doesn’t have hunter’s education. Cody notices that Marshall is a bit more nervous that he should be and says, “If I walk out to where you were, am I going to find a gun?” Marshall takes a long breath and says the strangest thing, “I hope not.” Cody smiled his wry smile. Shawn the Rookie (I like saying it better this way) was ready to go to the next group and said, “Are we ready?” Cody takes a calming breath and says to Shawn the Rookie, “Stay here with them.” Cody follows the trail through the maize the boys cut. (Later, Shawn the Rookie thought it was magic until Cody explained how he did it.) Cody got to a spot where it looked like two young men had laid down, knocked down a bunch of maize and made themselves comfortable. He stood there scanning and caught a slight metallic shape at the corner of his vision. He turned to look at it. Cody saw that it was about a two inch by two inch metal object, exposed above the ground with the rest of the item buried in the soft dirt. Cody smirked and grabbed the item. He pulled up a 7mm Remington Magnum with a Swarovski scope on top. Cody kicked the dirt around the area a bit more to make sure nothing else was buried and once satisfied, headed back to his truck.

As Cody walks back to his truck, he can think of two ways to deal with this and decides to take the more fun option. As he nears his truck, the father of the boys looks embarrassed and the boys have their heads down, staring at their toes. Shawn the Rookie, well……..he had his jaw sitting on his chest. Cody, having decided to conduct this contact in a way that would give him much more enjoyment, tossed the gun and scope, not too gently, over the side into the bed of his truck. Marshall gasps and tries three times to say something and finally just groans. Shannon says, “What are you going to do now?” Cody (again with the wry smile he is known for) says “I guess we will go to the next field. Y’all have a good day.” Cody motions for the still stunned Shawn the Rookie to get into the patrol truck so they can leave. Marshall finally finds his words and says, “What are you going to do with my gun?” Cody, turns slowly to him and says, “Your gun? It’s not your gun. You’re not hunting, remember? I found it.” Cody steps into the truck and gives Shawn the Rookie a look to keep his mouth shut. As he slowly pulls away, Marshall finds his courage and begins to shuffle after the truck and begging Cody to stop.

Cody stops the truck and steps out and waits to hear what Marshall has to say. “Sir, uh… well. It’s my gun” Marshall finally says. Cody, wanting to enjoy the ride a bit longer, says “Can’t be. You’re not hunting. I found it.” Marshall takes the longest breath of his life and eventually says, “I was hunting. It’s my gun.” Cody, feigning the biggest surprise of his life, says “OH, wow. I guess I better get that back to you.” Marshall visibly relaxes, thinking he was about to be handed his gun back, as Cody reaches into his truck and grabs an evidence tag. Cody takes Marshall’s drivers license and hands it to Shawn the Rookie and says, “Write him up for No Hunter’s Ed and Failure to Allow Inspection”. Shawn the Rookie has to be told twice because he is still in mild state of shock.

Cody takes the evidence tag and retrieves the rifle from the bed of his truck. He places the evidence tag on the rifle and puts it in his truck behind the driver’s seat. Marshall immediately asked why he couldn’t get his rifle back “Now”. Cody looks at him hard and says, “It’s obvious you have a problem with the truth, so I’ll be holding onto this rifle as evidence until the judge decides what to do about this case.”

Cody and Shawn the Rookie finish the contact and drive away. Shawn the Rookie, can’t stand it anymore and almost yells, “I can’t believe he lied to us!!??!” Cody gives him a knowing look and says, “Son, even good people will lie to you when they are about to get caught. Only the best people will tell the truth in that situation.”

Shawn the Rookie did much more listening and far less talking the rest of the time in Cody’s truck.

Whether you are searching for hunting, recreational land, ranch land, your future retirement place, or the perfect home in town, our goal is to find the place you are looking for! Or you may be desiring to sell your property. We pride ourselves on marketing your property to the most buyers who are qualified and getting your property sold for the best price possible in a reasonable time. Even in very volatile economic conditions, real estate continues to be a sound investment. Give us a call or browse this website. We love our job and we’d enjoy helping you find your dream property!