Two ladies, wearing ample hoop skirts and billowing blouses, stood at the front of a square white building, waving and greeting passersby. When they saw us, the smiles disappeared, and they dared to approach us.
"Oh, Sheriff Coldwell!" said the lady on the right. "How are you feeling today?"
"Oh, not too bad, Prudence," Jerry responded jovially. "And yourself?"
The women gave me pointed looks.
"Trudy," Prudence leaned over and gave a loud whisper. "I do believe the Sheriff is under some kind of terrible threat of duress. I greatly fear for his safety and his sanity."
"Aye, sister," Trudy murmured back. "Either that or the poor man must be going blind, for surely no one with his authority and stature would dare to--"
Jerry whirled around so fast that I nearly collided with him. "All right!" he barked at the nosy ladies. "Let's have it out, ladies. What seems to be the problem?"
Trudy and Prudence stared at him with wide, owlish eyes--which they subtly shifted in my direction.
Jerry snorted. "Her? This is your problem?" He placed a hand on my shoulder. I noticed his grip wasn't rough or heavy. "This is why you question my competence? Because of a girl?"
The owl eyes blinked.
"Oh!"said Prudence.
"It's a girl, is it?" said Trudy.
Jerry wagged his head. "Of course she is! What else could she be?"
He meant it as a rhetorical question, but from the deep pink flush on both faces in front of me, I guessed that I probably wouldn't like the answer they had to that question.
I was right.
"Well, to be sure," Prudence stammered, "if I would have seen this... girl... walking down the street, I might have mistaken her for a rather unkempt man, with the strange trousers she wears."
"Or an escaped convict," Trudy added quickly.
Jerry threw back his head and roared with laughter. "You worried that I'd somehow gotten friendly with a convict?"
They returned to blinking owl eyes.
Jerry finished laughing and mopped his face with the bandana. "Oh, that is wonderful," he sighed. "Tell me, ladies--if this girl is an escaped convict... How far away is the nearest prison?"
"There's the State Penitentiary just outside of Junction," Trudy volunteered.
I had a sneaking suspicion that these would be exactly the type of ladies to keep themselves and others appraised of such matters.
"Junction is well-nigh fifty miles away," Jerry stated, "and there are other towns much closer to it, in pretty much any other direction except toward Phantom Gulch--so why, if she escaped the prison at Junction, would she bother walking fifty miles into the middle of nowhere, just to be here in Phantom Gulch?"
In perfect unison, the sisters' mouths dropped open. They gaped like fish for several silent moments, then turned about-face and flounced back into town to harry some other unsuspecting individual.
Jerry nodded to me and pointed to the road. "Best keep moving, Laura."
I grinned as we walked. "Wow," I said. "I'm impressed at the way you handled those two fussbudgets."
Jerry chuckled. "That's just Tru and Pru, our resident spinsters who make it their business to air their approval and disapproval of everyone else's business. If you ever wanted a source that knew everything about everybody, that would be Tru and Pru." He glanced over and gave me a wink. "Which is why I'm glad you're here."
Glad? "Why are you glad, exactly?"
"We don't get a lot of newcomers around here. The community in Phantom Gulch is pretty tight. News travels fast, and my wife and I have spent the last couple years learning the ins and outs of everybody who lives here. You? You're something no one has seen before, one those two nosy biddies can't figure out--and I got to you first, so I'll know more about you than they ever hope to!" He kept walking in long, easy strides, even whistling a little as he went, but I felt my stomach knotting up inside me.
You won't be finding out too much about me, I hope! I thought to myself.
[...]
Silence descended between us, almost as thick as the two-inch ruff on my skirt. Jerry didn't once take his eyes off me, but it was a calculating, keen stare.
"Speaking of where you come from," Jerry broke the silence with the words that made my skin go all cold and clammy. "I don't believe you ever explained to me where precisely that is. I know it's not the State Penitentiary--so where are you really from, Laura?" He rested his elbows on the arm rests and leaned his fingertips against one another, like a long, peaked roof.
I could feel the color mounting in my cheeks. This was just like having to explain my arrival to Commander Gerald--except I happened to be slightly more familiar with the cultural and social expectations of a Wild West town, as opposed to a foreign space cruiser. I just hoped I could make it convincing enough to remember it when necessary, without tripping myself up. Probably the fact that Jerry wasn't as suspicious of me as Commander Gerald was helped my case greatly!
"As you say, I haven't come from a very long ways away," I said. "I only started walking this morning, from my family's home in the bluffs," I jerked my thumb in the correct direction. "We've lived there pretty much on our own for a few years, until..." I let my voice fade off as if tortured by the memory of something traumatic--but what was really torturing me in that moment was trying to come up with a suitable scenario that made sense for a girl like me, dressed like I was, to be walking all by herself in the cliffs!
"Until what?" Jerry challenged. He wasn't going to let me off easy. "Did Big Tom and his bandits raid your homestead in the mountains?"
I nodded, still keeping the pitiful expression on my face. The manufactured tale came tumbling out of my mouth. "They attacked just the other night, just as we were sitting down to dinner. Father heard shouting, and went to see what was the matter, and when he opened the door, there was our modest vegetable garden, in flames. He grabbed the gun and went out to defend himself, while Mother and I hid in a room at the back of the house. We heard gunshots, and the next thing we know, the bandits are swarming the house, looting and looking for us." I forced myself to picture this fictional scene, playing up the drama to produce the expected emotional response. I kept my eyes wide, testifying to the horror of it all.
"Of course they came into the room and knew we were there right away, but Mother stood up to them. She burst out of our hiding place, yelled at me to run, and grabbed the kerosene lantern by the bed, smashing it on the floor." I could feel a lump forming in my throat, and I just kept thinking about how I would feel if I witnessed my own parents, dying at the hands of a bunch of heartless thugs. "Everything else that happened that night was a blur. I got out of the house while the bandits were all shouting at the fire that was spreading all over the place. I remember seeing the horses waiting for the riders, and although I hadn't really ever ridden a horse before, I know I did try." I took a deep, calming breath, and continued. "It's a lot harder than it looks in the movies, to just get up and ride a horse, let me tell you! It wasn't a few yards before the horse bucked me off, and I had to run the rest of the way, to get away from those bandits and the burning house and my dead parents..." I blinked and returned to the present scenario, which honestly didn't seem anymore real than the story I'd just made up in my head. "And at last I found my way to Phantom Gulch, where you saved my life from a runaway wagon."
"Oh!" cried a voice just behind me, and I turned to see Shirley standing in the doorway, the apron hanging over her clothes lightly dusted in flour, and her face a little smudged. She stared at me, her wide eyes brimming with tears. "You poor dear!" She murmured. "I had no idea! Losing your parents and your home in one night... No wonder you weren't paying attention to your surroundings in this unfamiliar place!" She rushed forward and grabbed my hands, pulling me to my feet and throwing her arms around me, floured apron and all. "I want you to know that from now on, you'll always have a home in Phantom Gulch, as long as Jerry and I are here!"
I didn't feel any awkwardness about hugging her back. "Thank you," I said.
"Speaking of where you come from," Jerry broke the silence with the words that made my skin go all cold and clammy. "I don't believe you ever explained to me where precisely that is. I know it's not the State Penitentiary--so where are you really from, Laura?" He rested his elbows on the arm rests and leaned his fingertips against one another, like a long, peaked roof.
I could feel the color mounting in my cheeks. This was just like having to explain my arrival to Commander Gerald--except I happened to be slightly more familiar with the cultural and social expectations of a Wild West town, as opposed to a foreign space cruiser. I just hoped I could make it convincing enough to remember it when necessary, without tripping myself up. Probably the fact that Jerry wasn't as suspicious of me as Commander Gerald was helped my case greatly!
"As you say, I haven't come from a very long ways away," I said. "I only started walking this morning, from my family's home in the bluffs," I jerked my thumb in the correct direction. "We've lived there pretty much on our own for a few years, until..." I let my voice fade off as if tortured by the memory of something traumatic--but what was really torturing me in that moment was trying to come up with a suitable scenario that made sense for a girl like me, dressed like I was, to be walking all by herself in the cliffs!
"Until what?" Jerry challenged. He wasn't going to let me off easy. "Did Big Tom and his bandits raid your homestead in the mountains?"
I nodded, still keeping the pitiful expression on my face. The manufactured tale came tumbling out of my mouth. "They attacked just the other night, just as we were sitting down to dinner. Father heard shouting, and went to see what was the matter, and when he opened the door, there was our modest vegetable garden, in flames. He grabbed the gun and went out to defend himself, while Mother and I hid in a room at the back of the house. We heard gunshots, and the next thing we know, the bandits are swarming the house, looting and looking for us." I forced myself to picture this fictional scene, playing up the drama to produce the expected emotional response. I kept my eyes wide, testifying to the horror of it all.
"Of course they came into the room and knew we were there right away, but Mother stood up to them. She burst out of our hiding place, yelled at me to run, and grabbed the kerosene lantern by the bed, smashing it on the floor." I could feel a lump forming in my throat, and I just kept thinking about how I would feel if I witnessed my own parents, dying at the hands of a bunch of heartless thugs. "Everything else that happened that night was a blur. I got out of the house while the bandits were all shouting at the fire that was spreading all over the place. I remember seeing the horses waiting for the riders, and although I hadn't really ever ridden a horse before, I know I did try." I took a deep, calming breath, and continued. "It's a lot harder than it looks in the movies, to just get up and ride a horse, let me tell you! It wasn't a few yards before the horse bucked me off, and I had to run the rest of the way, to get away from those bandits and the burning house and my dead parents..." I blinked and returned to the present scenario, which honestly didn't seem anymore real than the story I'd just made up in my head. "And at last I found my way to Phantom Gulch, where you saved my life from a runaway wagon."
"Oh!" cried a voice just behind me, and I turned to see Shirley standing in the doorway, the apron hanging over her clothes lightly dusted in flour, and her face a little smudged. She stared at me, her wide eyes brimming with tears. "You poor dear!" She murmured. "I had no idea! Losing your parents and your home in one night... No wonder you weren't paying attention to your surroundings in this unfamiliar place!" She rushed forward and grabbed my hands, pulling me to my feet and throwing her arms around me, floured apron and all. "I want you to know that from now on, you'll always have a home in Phantom Gulch, as long as Jerry and I are here!"
I didn't feel any awkwardness about hugging her back. "Thank you," I said.
>>>>>>>>>
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