The Gallows Pole

by M. Shaunessy

  He then turned and exited the saloon.

  It was a good thing, well sort of. Jacob wanted the judge to spend his time in jail for the crime he committed, but in his current state, he would guess being committed in an insane asylum was the next best thing.

  Mr. Hull turned too, until Jacob had a better way to use the money, “Excuse me, Mr. Hull?”

  Mr. Hull turned to Jacob, “Yes Mr. Jones?”

  He handed the bag back to him. Mr. Hull was confused, “Don’t you want the money?”

  “I think this town needs more than we do.” He said as Jane and Gabe could not believe what Jacob was doing. “You can put it towards the repairs on the court house.”

  “Why-Why thank you! Thank you very much sir,” Mr. Hull said smiling. He turned and left the room.

  Jane looked to him, smiled warmly and kissed him so lovingly. Gabe was still confused on what has happened. Jacob gave away five hundred dollars in a matter of minutes.

  When they broke their kiss Jacob asked, “What was that for?”

  “For being the sweetest, kindest, most lovable future husband in the whole world!” She said.

  Gabe then smiled at them.

  “Well, we still have one problem,” Jacob said to them, “Where to go? When I heard the bad news I immediately telegraphed mother and father back home about it and I think we ought to go to Fresno to see what we can do to help Aunt Linda.”

  They nodded silently in agreement.

  “That would be the best Jake,” Jane told him.

  “Yeah,” Gabe agreed.

  Carl wandered over to retrieve their plates and said, “I couldn’t help over hearin’ what ya said. I am sorry about your late uncle. You know, the judge never had any fancy with city slickers like your-selves. He said you all were alike, sneaky cons artists, trying to weasel out money from this town, I guess he was wrong.”

  The blazing sun fell slowly over the western horizon as the purple sky awed Jane as she sat alone on a wooden bench at the station. It was so beautiful here she thought, and wondered if they would ever return. She saw Gabe and Jacob coming out from the station building and stood to join them.

  She also saw Carl and Sara step on to the platform as they walked over. That is when they heard a train whistle down the tracks as they turned their head towards it. The Santa Fe chugged to-wards them, pulling the three minimum cars behind it plus a yellow caboose.

  Carl smiled to the trio held out his hand as Jacob shook it, “Well I hope you enjoyed your stay here in Clayton, aside from all the terrible things that happened to ya. I hope ya’ll return soon.”

  Jacob smiled friendly and replied, “I think that can be arranged. Maybe next year?”

  The train whistle blew once more as the black locomotive slowed down to a crawl, and then stopped. Its hissing sound from its steam poured out beneath the wooden platform. The conductor opened the door and stepped out.

  “Clayton! Clayton station!” he bellowed. “Next stop Albuquerque, Flagstaff and Williams!”

  “Well this is it,” Jacob said, “Thanks for your hospitality.”

  “It was pleasure,” said Sara shaking their hands.

  The trio grabbed their bags waved their free hands goodbye and boarded the train. The conductor looked about to see if there were more passengers, he then checked his pocket watch smiled as he knew the train was ahead of schedule.

  “All aboard!” he cried as he stepped back on the train.

  The whistle blew once more as the train started to move. It chugged down the tracks as Carl and Sara looked on. They stayed until the train disappeared over the horizon. They smiled to each other and started to walk back to their hotel.

  A half an hour into the trip, after finding a seat, Gabe dreamily looked out the window. The sky grew dim and he thought he saw a figure on top of a ridge not more than quarter mile away. Jacob and Jane followed his gaze as they looked out too. It was then, to their realization that, this was same spot they gotten stranded. It was getting too dark to see, but Jacob had good eyes and saw the figure was a man, sitting on a horse. He wondered; could that be Bowing Eagle?

  The man on horseback observed the yellow train. The feathers in his head moved with the wind, as did his long black hair. Then somebody called his name in Navajo and then he disappeared from sight.

  The train continued down the track as the trio wondered what new adventure life would throw at them.

  “Hey bro?” Gabe said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Thanks for the taking me on this trip.”

  “Any time little brother, anytime.”

  Epilogue

  A few years later, Clayton suffered a major disaster when a rouge tornado destroyed half the town, including the newly repair courthouse. The twister did not leave much behind. As a matter fact, when the newly elected mayor, Carl, surveyed the scene after the destruction the tornado left behind. He smiled seeing that the gallows pole was no longer. He figured it was a sign from god. From at day forward, the town’s people voted and banned the hangings from the town.

  Take a sneak peek of the next exciting book from M.Shaunessy

  EDN World

  By M. Shaunessy

  Chapter 1

  Journal Entry #1

  Star Date: 221.2501

  Entry by Dr. Stephen Loyal

  I finally got the grant for an expedition to a habitable planet on the far side of the galaxy aptly named EDN-62. The reason for this expedition was a new colonization for human kind. In the last few hundred years, Earth’s natural resources has diminished and its pollution has overwhelmed the oxygen. My and I collogues had told the leaders of Earth that this would happen, especially when the robot servants created most of the pollution.

  I have sent probes years earlier to EDN-62. They have gathered good supplement information to further my research. The planet itself is roughly the same size as Earth’s, give or take a hundred miles. Two small moons orbited the planet as the sun’s star gave warmth and light to it. The atmosphere is rich with pure oxygen. The average temperature the probe took on its sensors was seventy degrees Fahrenheit. The surface EDN-62 is made up with plant life like I never seen before. The planet also held a good supplemental amount of water. Fifty percent of it covered the planet, surprisingly evenly. The satellite pictures I saw from first days of discovery, show EDN-62 had three large continents surrounded by blue oceans. My conclusions state that the planet must have a good amount of rainfall for the vegetation to grow.

  One of the probes sent back pictures of colorful trees; and I mean it. One section of a forest the probe entered captured a tree that was fourteen hundred meters high. At first, I thought the trees were covered in colorful moss, but it wasn’t. The bark itself had a colorful blue texture as so was its leaves. Some other plant life the probe picked up was a flowery pink bush. The leaves on it were in shape of crescent moon. Another example of strange alien plant was what I think it looked like a very small purple tree, only two meters high, growing within the blue forest. Fascinating. Even though the probe only sent back video files, they haven’t found any intelligent life yet. Once we reach the planet and gather more data, I will attempt a landing on its surface.

  It is week five, day three, since we left star base BushCom in the JRY-80 system. I am really excited as I am cooped up on the starship Armstrong. Even though it is a huge ship, and there are many activities to do, I long for the alien planet. Captain Digman informed me this morning in the cafeteria that we are three days away from reaching the planet.

  Star Date: 222.2501

  The probe has sent an astonishing discovery this morning. I think it was animal life. It flew over it up in the blue sky. The large bird, according to the data, was twenty meters in length with a wingspan often meters wide. The body of the bird was skinny, vine like in texture. The wings however looked like giant leaves from a Thrinax palm tree. From the distance the video showed, I could not clearly make it out, whether it was organic, or plant-like creature.

  A
fter lunch, Probe 02-D, sent another amazing discovery. It was a pig like creature, but its skin was made out of soft brown tree bark. It was wandering through the pink forest, which was forty miles east of the blue forest. It measured about two meters wide. It snout was shape of a tree branch. It then climbed on the side of the pink tree bark; clinging there like it was an insect. Now I cannot wait to arrive.

  Star Date 223.2501

  When I woke up this morning and checked my computer’s incoming files from one of the probes, I was in shocked. The video it showed was the discovery of the century; Pulitzer Prize material. The probe was examining a close up at one of the purple trees as it had an interesting red insect on one of its branch. It jumped down to a lower branch and there it was. On the ground was a human biped. The video was too out of focus to get a good look at it. It then ran out of the frame. A Biped creature! I had to watch the video a few more times in slow motion. I then froze a frame, which had the best image of it. Perhaps there is intelligent life on the planet after all. I entered a few commands in to Probe 03-D, which capture the humanoid, and programmed it to find and follow it.

  01200 hours. The captain informed me that we reached the system EDN-62 was in. He said it would take approximately five hours to reach the planet itself.

  When I returned to my quarters after lunch, another video file popped up on my computer labeled ‘43987.flv’. I opened it and my mouth grinned widely. It was the biped humanoid. The probe found it. It was walking around the blue forest. As the probe’s camera zoomed in to the alien, I saw it had green fuzzy skin texture. To the new exploration law, if intelligent life existed on any planet, any probe sent there must not be seen by the alien until a full evaluation by the Universal Science and Exploration Administration. I must agree, it could disrupt their culture.

  I continue to study the alien. It had two eyes. Both white with a black pupil. Its hands had no fingers, just two thumbs. It looked like it wearing fuzzy green mittens. Its head had no nose or a mouth as far as I can tell. It even had no ears. The video was still not high def, as I wanted to be. (Note to Administration: We need to invest into high definition cameras in Probes) As the probe followed it from a high distance, I wondered where it was going. Perhaps it was going home. I need to study this creature further. That would mean a delay of landing on the planet. That could be bad, I wanted to step on the extra-terrestrial planet and breathe its rich air, but I guess for the environmental safety concerns, I must stay on the ship and view the alien on my screen, until the USEA approves it.

  It took the probe to a large meadow as the green alien crossed it. The probe flew high, about twelve hundred feet and continued the pursuit. At one time, it stop in its trek and looked at the probe. My heart leapt as I wondered if it saw it, but that would be impossible. The probe was small about the size of a baseball. At that height, it would disappear from sight. It stared at the probe for a half a minute then look away; it was still looking at the sky of course. It just stood there admiring the blue sky and the puffy clouds. It then looked westward as if it heard something, then it jogged in to that direction. The probe’s auditory system did not pick up any sound; I then wondered what it saw. The video ended.

  01700 hours. Captain Digman informed me that we have arrived to the planet and was put in an orbital stationary course. I had told him that the probes had picked up a life form that might have intelligence and we may have to orbit the planet until I was made for sure. The captain agreed then suggested that I take a closer look at the planet. I smiled and accompanied Captain Digman to the bridge.

  When I looked out the through the protective plexi-glass, I saw EDN-62. I was more beautiful in person than still images or videos. The planet had a colorful texture from the trees the probe brought back. I was almost temped to rename it Planet Rainbow. I saw a storm forming on the South Pole, as the North Pole was still covered in white snow and ice, just like Earth’s. It was amazing. Too bad, I must stay on board until the USEA authorizes us to land.