by Diane Munier
“Damn you, Tom,” Jimmy said, feeling his busted nose. “I’m gonna look like hell for my wedding.”
I pulled against that cuff growling like a beast. “I’ll kill you Leidner. William you and me are done! We’re done!” I didn’t waste words on Michael. He looked scared though. And well he should.
“I had to do it!” Jimmy yelled. “A man can’t reason with you!”
“You lying, sneaking, s.o.b., I’ll die before I see my sister married to the likes of you!”
Folks were at the door, crammed against the window. Jimmy hurried to pull the shade and bar the door. “Quiet down,” he said. “This is the only way I could think to get you here. I need you, Tom. You need to hear me out. I want to marry Allie. We are in deep and truelove.”
“I’ll kill you.”
“You ain’t gonna kill nobody. And you ain’t going to stop us. But we want your blessing. We tried to talk to you, but of course, that proved futile. Did you have to bust my nose? Damn.” He was tearing his handkerchief in strips so he could roll them careful and plug his nostrils to catch the blood.
The red haze was pulling back some. I couldn’t accomplish a thing by yelling and thrashing, other than hurting my wrist. And I’d need it to kill them later, so I started to calm a bit. My own sister planning against me, too. Addie. Allie. Jimmy. William. Even Michael. I had nothing.
But oddly enough, I felt kind of still inside. Going crazy was its own kind of medicine for a man like me. I’d been restraining myself all-day, ever since my dispute with Addie in the wee hours. I hadn’t slept much, had walked miles, harvested corn, ridden hard to get here, then gone plumb loco. I was feeling ready for a good nap. But first I had me a laugh, a good crazy man’s laugh, and this scared them more than the fighting had. And when I was done, I hunkered down best I could with my hand in such a fix, and I settled to sleep. I was known for it in the war, and still had the talent. I could sleep in a hurricane. And now, I was smiling.
“Tom,” Jimmy called, my need to sleep somehow alarming to him. “I ain’t told you the plan yet, the one where we send these sodbusters on a cold trail and you, me and the boys go after the prize. A man could marry with money like that. A man could get a start.”
I ignored him, I ignored them all as I let sleep claim me.
What prize?
Tom Tanner
Chapter Twenty
When I asked what prize I could feel their hope. They all perked up, even William. Jimmy was tripping over himself trying to talk fast with his nose swollen and those rolls in his nostrils looking like bloody tusks. Boyle Monroe would laugh in his beer if he saw them now, the great menacing lawmen about to take him down.
“Here’s the thing,” Jimmy was saying, all clogged in the voice, “that reward is a goodly piece among four men know what they’re doing minus fifty or so.”
“Ain’t I said so from the first,” I remind.
“We will put these ones wanting a taste of the trail toward Springfield. Bimes is fixing to lead them as he was over supplies in Hoopdale and ain’t ever got over it. I have made him my right hand and he has worked like a train of mules. Off they go with Bimes leading. And we head straight for Monroe’s camp.”
“His camp?”
“William and me been trailing him for months. He’s set up in the south of our fine state and the governor blesses any lawman can apprehend him, and we will be given five thousand dollars to bring him in and another two if we can get him here alive so they can have their display in court.”
It was then I realized my lips, barely out of distress, save for their foray over Addie’s beautiful skin, were so swollen once again I could not whistle like I wanted to when I heard such an amount.
“And the minus fifty, what’s that?” I said getting greedy, for I had already forged ahead in my mind, seeing Addie’s farm made new. That would give me the funds to get enough machinery for joining the farms and making her a house that she and the children could flourish in. That’s if she’d have me, which she would not, and if she could try…try mind you…not to marry Cousin. She was the most exasperating…I needed to give her up. I didn’t say I would, even though I’d said that in times of trouble, but I surely needed to.
They were having a confab among themselves, but Jimmy prevailed. “That fifty dollars be for Gaylin. I said he could ride along. He ain’t never seen so much.”
I pulled at the cuffs again. Then I remembered I was done with that futile display. “Why?”
“He…I…..”
“If you say you will keep him safe I will chew off my hand to get to you.”
He took a big breath in…through his mouth, “Some point he can stay with the horses. But he wants to come…and frankly, this may keep him from worse. He’s fixed on running away.”
“Then let him run.”
“He can’t run when you’re running. Are you still running? Anyway, your pa needs hands.”
“You let him run, I’ll bring him home. But not in a box. Not nearly.”
“You always try to lead through me! You ain’t got a submissive bone in your ass-hole riddled body! I’m sick of it…sick of you!” He winced and held his nose again. “I’m sheriff,” he said more controlled. “And I say he goes, and you need to get out of your bad mood cause I’m fixing to let my gun accidently fire one of these times.”
“You talk big when a man is handcuffed and caged and you got your lackeys round you. You fire at me, best make sure your aim is smart.”
He got het up then, grabbing the keys off the hook by the door, rattling around opening the cell, stepping in. He stopped then and drew his gun. “You think I couldn’t do it? Wasn’t for Allie I might have done it already.”
“Oooheee!” I yelled, loving when he got like this. “That’s it. That’s our good sheriff.”
He pulled the hammer. “Shut your yapper you pigsticker. I done put up with all of your shit….”
“My shit?”
“…through the war, and after. I’ve had more from you than a man should ever allow another.”
“Cap,” William said coming close.
“You want to blame me for Garrett, go on. But come down to it you weren’t man enough to do it. Weren’t for me you’d of let him in that fix for hours more. I said enough. And I say enough now,” Jimmy said.
I pulled hard against the cuff. I wanted him to fire so I could grab that gun when he dropped down and begged my forgiveness, and I could kill him before I died.
“I’m giving you a chance to make something. You want to go west, go to hell and lick on the devil, I say go and good riddance. You told me we were through and I was dead to you, well before you go burying folks maybe you ought to know it feels like shit to be anywhere near you. You pulled that trigger on Garrett cause you wanted to. You had promised and you didn’t have the grit to do it so you used me threatening you into it and now I got to pay for it. You’re a punisher, that’s what, and Garrett was here he’d slap the shit out of you himself. You got your whole family on the run.”
“Cap,” William said again cause there was a goodly amount of hate in this.
“Even that woman. She’s leaving with that fella, ain’t she? Gaylin, Allie. The shame ain’t in losing Garrett, but that’s where you like to put it. The shame is in everyone else you’re running off. It’s gonna be you, Pa and Ma. That’s it. That’s what you’ll have. That’s all you’ll have cause they’re getting too old to fight you.”
“Thanks for helping me see the light, Sheriff,” I said.
William snickered, and turned away. Michael was carrying on about his new shirt being ruined.
Jimmy waved his gun at me and walked out, but they did not lock the door this time.
And finally I could get me some shut eye.
But it wasn’t long before I was rousted from sleep by the carrying on in the streets. I was the only one in here and Lord I had to take me a piss something fierce. I was hungry too. And mad they would pull me from a dream about Addie. Even if it wa
s a study in patheticness, me begging and her rejecting me.
Where was she right now? With him. I couldn’t think about it. I had to believe that somewhere in there she couldn’t get shod of me no more than I could her. I knew she needed me to back off and simmer down. But I left her with nothing solid to go on.
Michael burst in. He saw me still cuffed there. He had on another shirt, and looked like he’d just got woken up himself. He looked around for the keys, I reckon, said, “He’s got ‘em. I’ll be right back.”
“What’s all the fuss?” I asked, meaning on the streets.
“Ah…train to Springfield got robbed. But…just thievin’. The womenfolk should be fine.”
“Should be fine?” I roared. “Get me outta these things!”
He ran out then.
I didn’t want to start the day like this. I could feel the red rush, and I didn’t want it now. I had to piss. “I have to piss,” I shouted. A boy stuck his head in then, and his eyes grew wide. “Get!” I said, and he did.
If one hair on Allie’s head was out of place, one hair….
Here he came then looking like almighty hell with that broken nose and his heavy eyes. “She’s fine. The boys is back, and looks like it was Monroe robbing trains up and down the line now. He don’t take hostages at least. Got my goldurn wedding ring though. She had it on her finger for safekeeping and he made her hand it over. There goes five dollars down the shit-hole.”
“He got that close!” I was seeing red again.
“I said she’s fine! She sent me her love an all!”
“Send Gaylin to find her and stay by her side,” I ordered.
He nodded. “I done sent Lem. Allie is staying with my aunt, her and Lenora. They should be there by now, all safe.”
He was unlocking those cuffs, and I had to rub my wrist it was so sore. My hand had no blood and if it did I might of wrung his neck.
“Fool plan….” I said. “All of it, these busters…Allie…fool plan.”
“There’s a bright side. Bimer led the posse out at dawn to follow that fresh trail from where they overtook the train. Couldn’t have planned it better myself. They’ll have that trail so churned up, should keep them busy for a few days. Should of seen them riding to glory like a herd of buffalo.” He laughed.
I stood then and pushed him aside. It was bright outside, and already hot. It was some quiet with the posse gone. I went round back of the jail and pissed, took a sniff of myself while I did, and it was none too good. Had some dried blood on my chin, and one hand holding my willy the other working that blood from my whiskers. I buttoned and tucked a few things, dug grit from my eyes and scratched on my teeth. I needed my knapsack and my kit. But first I needed to find Gaylin and send him home.
I checked my pocket and pulled out that bandana. I held it tight in my hand, and just felt that girl in my mind. Lord God…did she not know she was mine? Did she not know?
I couldn’t get soft, I couldn’t stay crazy. I had to think now. I would go for this Monroe. Coming round Allie made it personal. Too many of these outlaws were springing up. I might have gone that way myself if I were William or Jimmy or like the others with no one to care. But now I’d stand in the rushing water, like she said, I’d be the boulder, the good and the bad of it, I’d be the one taking a stand, and I’d turn that meanness where it belonged, onto Monroe and his band. I’d go up against their dark sides and maybe, somehow, rid myself of my own.
Gaylin was not to be found. I knew his pards and a couple of them were stuffing their mouths in the diner. Reckon they didn’t feel the call same as Gaylin and they’d stayed behind. “Where Gaylin be?” I said standing by their table.
One, Cooter they called him, looked at me and ate faster. The other had his mouth open and I saw the nearly chewed food in there.
“Speak!” said I, and folks looked.
The serving girl went by, then, holding a tray full of beef seemed like. “You’re Tom Tanner,” she said.
“Yes Ma’am,” I removed my hat.
“Been through hard times,” she said, walking past, taking food to folks.
I ran my hand through my hair and looked away from her. I had cleaned up some. “You boys best tell me where he be. I know he don’t want found by me, but his ma and pa need to speak with him. So tell me now and I won’t shove this table over and pound your livers into jelly.” I said this civil.
“Reckon you need to sit and I’ll bring you coffee,” serving girl said, going past with the big tray empty now.
“Hear me boys?” I said, but they were stuck, not wanting to be the first to break. “I’ll be at this table right here. I’m gonna drink a cup of coffee, and after that, you don’t come spill to me I’ll be flipping that table like Jesus did with the money changers.”
I moved to the next table and sat. Serving girl brought the coffee pot, turned the tin cup that sat on the table over and filled it with dark strong brew. “Thanks Miss,” said I.
“You don’t remember me, do you?” she said, me keeping my eyes nailed on those boys and not the two ample breasts she had very near. I didn’t want them, but I wasn’t dead, as I must keep explaining to folks, or I had told Seth at least and myself more than a few times.
“My name is Purdy. I went through school with you and the boys.”
“Reckon I should apologize, just in case.”
“You should,” she said, not unfriendly, but not friendly either. “You were the meanest. Reckon you called me fat so many times. And when you threw a snowball, might as well been a rock. Don’t start no trouble in here with those boys. Not in here.”
I was in a fix, sorry to her, but more mad than anything that she accosted me like this.
I looked at those boys, still eating quick, wanting to get it all down before I beat them. “Reckon that’s their call,” I said.
“Haven’t changed. Heard you came through the war. Always thought you were the handsomest, maybe Garrett was more, but you always had the looks, so full of yourself.”
Her hand was on her hip, and those breasts were getting bigger or closer, I couldn’t tell. I kept my eyes on those boys.
“He was the good one, that Garrett. Always tried to keep you in line, all of you’ins. I wondered how you would do without him. Jimmy stepped in, and William, you never really know what he’s thinking, but you…they say you keep to yourself. Folks say you came back broken.”
I looked at her now. “Is that right?”
The minute I took my eyes off them, those two got on their feet and scurried out. I was quick too. I maneuvered around those breasts, dug in my pocket for coin and slapped it against the table. Then I hurried after those two. I caught one in the gangway and smashed the side of his face against the wall. “Where’s he at?”
“I don’t know, I swear, they told us not to tell.”
“Who told you that?” I flipped him around. He was huffing, and I had to leap back when he lost his breakfast all over the front of him, and damn if he didn’t hit my boots and I could smell the whiskey in it.
“Don’t rightly remember it all. We was passing the jar…going to ride out this morning…and Gaylin was there, these two fella’s, older and fearsome looking, and Gaylin had him that star Jimmy made pinned there on his shirt cause he was officially deputized, and they took him.”
“Who in the hell took him?” I yelled.
“They said…we got us a lawman. They was looking for Jimmy, and the one said, ‘let’s take this one.’”
“You didn’t see him again?”
“No. He was so drunk…we all were. He just went along.”
“What time?”
“Sometime this morning. Rooster crowed shortly after seemed like. Nearly sun-up?”
He was lucky to be covered in puke. I could never abide it. But I could not think of it now. I went to Jimmy. “We go now.”
They were already preparing to ride out. We were waiting on the paperwork Jimmy insisted on the judge signing. I told him to hell with it. We coul
dn’t think of the reward money now.
“They took Gaylin. I don’t know who else would.” I repeated.
I told him the how of it, and we got to it then, preparing to ride.
William, Michael and I rode our saddle horses. Jimmy had his black. William led, walking his mount until he picked up the trail a mile out of town, headed south. Then it would be this way, he’d set the pace, walking, riding, walking, and we’d try to stay out of his way.
I tried to ready myself for coming on Gaylin, dead, and I had to let the thinking get stronger than the dread. Way I feared it was, they took him as an answer to Jimmy’s posse. Jimmy had thrown the gauntlet down and they had answered, first with the train, then with taking his deputy from under his nose. Stands to reason they would kill Gaylin and leave him where we could see.
“They won’t kill him,” Jimmy insisted, though we would not talk much now. “This is a come and get me. That’s what it is. They ain’t killed but down Mexico way. They know if they kill a lawman ever agent within five hundred miles will come for them.”
“Soon’s hang for one thing than another,” I said.
“I’m telling you they won’t kill him. Folks won’t cover for Monroe if’n he kills.”
“If they share in the money, they’ll hide him from Jesus,” I said.
“He’d have to run too hard. Me an William watched them too long. You’ll see. He stays put most the time and sends the others out to steal. I suspect he’s poorly.”
Most time Jimmy was right, but like Addie said, only God had it figured out. But the more we rode and didn’t come upon Gaylin dead, the more the red filthy rage hardened into patience, and that took over.
I hoped Gaylin didn’t fight. I hoped he had some submission in him, but Jimmy said I didn’t have any, and I’d been fighting most my life. And he was like me. He was just like me. And they’d want to hurt him. That they would do.
