A Season in Hell

by Easy Jackson

  The only person who gave trouble was Gid. Sweat poured off him, and he fidgeted constantly.

  Badger ran back and forth to report to Tennie. “Mr. Gid can’t stand riding on the train. He says he feels boxed in.”

  And later, “Mr. Gid says he’s about to go crazy. He’s ready to jump out the window.”

  To Tennie’s surprise, it was Hawkshaw who made the boys fill the canteens at every stop. It was Hawkshaw who stood on the steps making sure they were back on the train. Gid shot out at every stop, resting one hand against the boxcar while he bent over gulping large amounts of air. Instead of watching over the boys and helping them, they had to take Gid by the hand and lead him back onto the train. He was in shambles.

  It was dark when they pulled into Hempstead, the last major stop before Houston. The train took a long time before starting up again. Hawkshaw disappeared.

  When he came back, he held a brown bottle, halting by Gid and pressing it into his hand. “Drink it all and pass out. Maybe you won’t wake up until we get to New Orleans.”

  Tennie fell asleep listening to the click-clack of the train wheels and the snoring of the other passengers.

  When they stopped in Houston, the cowboys exited, and the railroad workers took off the livestock cars and added others. Almost everyone woke up during the loud clanks and short tugs of the locomotive, except Gid, who continued to snore loudly in the corner with his mouth open. Badger lay against Tennie, while Rusty and Lucas sat up sleepily to see what was happening.

  After a long interval, they were back on their way to Louisiana, and Tennie fell asleep again. When she woke up, it was dawn, and they were in New Orleans. As the train screeched and jerked to a slow halt, she rose and gathered with the rest of her companions around Hawkshaw, crowding as close as he would let them.

  “We’re changing cars here,” he said. “Get out and we’ll fill these food baskets. But be careful. There are a lot of pickpockets in this town. If someone bumps into you, it’s almost a sure thing they are trying to pick your pocket.”

  They exited the train, and Tennie gawked at the ornate streets, so different from anything she had ever seen before. Women with chocolate-colored skin walked with baskets balanced on their heads, chanting “Belle Calas! Tout chauds! Beautiful calas! Very hot!”

  “What is that?” Tennie asked.

  “Fried rice cakes,” Hawkshaw said, stopping to buy some.

  Hawkshaw and Gid filled their baskets with sausages, bananas, and sandwiches stuffed with fried shrimp and oysters.

  “There might or might not be a dining car on this train,” Hawkshaw said. He told Tennie there was no need for the men and boys to ride first class, but it might be more comfortable for her if she did.

  “They’re hooking up a Pullman car. You can sleep a lot better.”

  But Tennie shook her head. She wanted to stay with them.

  Hawkshaw bought a copy of the Picayune, and they climbed aboard. When he finished the newspaper, he handed it to Tennie, and she and the boys took turns reading it out loud above the roar of the train.

  “Listen to this, Miss Tennie,” Rusty said. “‘Daring Dandies strike again.’”

  Tennie and Lucas crowded closer to Rusty, looking over his shoulder as he read the story to them. A group of train robbers known for their flashy attire had held up three trains in the last six months.

  “It says they always use a different modus operandi, Miss Tennie. What does that mean?” Rusty asked.

  “I think it means method of operation,” Tennie said. “They’ve blown up tracks, held up stationmasters at out-of-the-way stations, and also gone on board ahead of time and pulled out guns when their cohorts forced to the train to stop.”

  “Maybe it’s a different gang each time,” Lucas said.

  “No, they are always dressed in expensive, eye-catching clothes,” Rusty said. “It says so right here.”

  “Do you think they’ll rob our train?” Lucas asked, his face avid.

  “I don’t want to be in a train robbery,” Badger cried.

  “Don’t worry,” Tennie said. “I doubt if they rob us.” But she looked at Hawkshaw and Gid.

  Nevertheless, the thought of being robbed scared them. Tennie kept very little money on her; most of hers was sewn up in the pockets of Badger’s overalls. Rusty decided to hide his in his hat band, while Lucas tucked his money inside his shoe as Gid had done.

  When they left the last station on the coastline, entering deeper into Mississippi, the boys returned to the train with glum faces.

  “What’s wrong with them?” Hawkshaw asked.

  Tennie glanced at the three boys. “I think they’re disappointed the Daring Dandies didn’t strike.”

  Hawkshaw gave a snort and shook his head. “They’ll get to see plenty of bullets flying where we are going, no doubt, and they won’t be shot by dandies, I can guarantee you that.”

  * * *

  The next day, they rolled into Alabama, stopping in Tennie’s hometown. The station was impressive, built on a high bluff overlooking the river.

  Gid leaned over her to look out the window as she stared at the bustle of people. “This here is your old stomping grounds, ain’t it?” he asked, swallowing hard and trying to appear normal.

  Hawkshaw joined them as Tennie nodded. “Yes, this is where I’m from.”

  “Do you miss it, Miss Tennie?” Gid asked. “Are you sorry you left?”

  “No. If I could be with my parents again, it would be different. But they’re gone.” She was reluctant to leave the train. “Just before I left, a man pretending to be my uncle kidnapped me and dragged me into a saloon to work. I jumped out a window and ran away.” It had been more than a saloon, but Gid and Hawkshaw understood what she meant.

  “Ain’t nothing going to happen to you now,” Gid said, holding out a clammy hand to help her up.

  “If you say so,” Tennie said.

  They had only a short time to buy more food. Gid was being especially careful, since despite Hawkshaw’s warning, his pocket had been picked in New Orleans. Since he carried most of his money in his boots, it hadn’t been a great loss, but he didn’t want it repeated. After purchasing food, they went inside the station to wait for the all-aboard call.

  As Tennie looked out the front windows, a wave of homesickness overcame her in spite of what she had said to the others. She had no family, no real friends there, but it had been the home of her parents. Maybe she had been unwise to run away to Texas.

  The conductor called for them to board, and she turned to join the others.

  As they left the inside of the station and walked back to the tracks, she caught a glimpse of a familiar face. She stopped abruptly, hardly believing her eyes. The man who had abducted her was about to get on the train.

  “What is it?” Hawkshaw said.

  “It’s that man, the one in the black derby,” she said. “That’s the man who kidnapped me! And he’s getting on our train!”

  “Are you certain, Miss Tennie?” Gid asked.

  “Yes. It’s him,” Tennie cried. “Oh, no.” She didn’t want to ride on the train with him. She turned to ask Hawkshaw if they could take another one.

  He was staring at the man, and before she could ask, he spoke. “He’s not getting on with us.” He walked up behind the man, pulling his gun out of his holster and pointing it in his back. “You’re not taking this train, mister,” he said softly.

  The man turned, opening his mouth to speak. He looked at Tennie and recognition spread over his face. “I think you are mistaking me for someone else, sir,” he said, twisting to see the gun in his back.

  “I don’t think so,” Hawkshaw said.

  Gid moved slowly, putting himself between the man and the train, staring at him as if he wouldn’t mind at all if the stranger tried something.

  He gave up. “Another train will do me just as well. If it means so much to you.”

  Gid left him and returned to Tennie, escorting her onto the train as the man ba
cked away.

  When she had reached the top step, he called her name.

  “Tennessee, wasn’t it? Tennessee Smith. The job is still there if you are ever without your goons.”

  Tennie looked at him but didn’t answer. She turned and stepped into the railway car.

  It wasn’t until she sat down that she began to tremble over his covert threat, thinking God had a funny way of telling her she hadn’t made a mistake. An image of Wash Jones came to mind, as if a gentle reminder that going to Texas had been exactly the right thing to do. She said her prayers for Wash and tried not to let her thoughts be consumed with worry over him.

  Gid stayed green and had to sit by the window or he went to pieces, but he managed to sleep the rest of the way without old man barleycorn. The cowboys who had gotten on at Waco, although talkative among themselves, had been shy around Tennie and had not approached her. She figured they had heard gossip in Waco and knew who she was traveling with. But other men didn’t know that. Some of the saucier ones grew bold, ignoring the glares of Rusty and Lucas as they attempted to draw her into unwanted conversation.

  Gid, though ill, was still capable of leaning over in his seat and yelling down the aisle of the train car, “Miss Tennie! Y’all need any help down yonder?”

  Between the three of them, nobody bothered Tennie.

  Hawkshaw sat in a far corner by himself, and as far as Tennie knew, spoke to no one. Only when the train ran absolutely full did anyone have the courage to sit by him after receiving one of his icy stares.

  When they finally reached their destination, Tennie was so tired of sitting on the train, if it had looked like Death Valley, she wouldn’t have complained. But the morning sun glistened on verdant hills and valleys covered with trees that made the ones in Texas look like stunted bushes. Rolling fields of lush emerald grass contained nary a cactus or a bull nettle. The station platform they alighted on was in a big town, but not so large as to be frightening, with sedate and settled buildings full of quiet charm on clean streets.

  Tennie wanted to find out from the sheriff what was happening on the Coltrane Farm, but Gid was in a panic to rent horses and ride immediately to Nab’s rescue. She expected Hawkshaw to find a hotel or tavern and stay put until they finished Gid’s business, but to her surprise, he went along willingly with Gid’s straightforward plan.

  The men at the livery knew Gid well, but if they were aware of what was happening at his farm, they kept it to themselves. Once off the train, Gid had become so voluble, it would have been hard for them to get a word in edgewise in any case. They outfitted them silently with good horses, looking at Tennie and the boys with furtive curiosity and with outright suspicion at Hawkshaw, but they did not question Gid. He was too distraught over Nab to give coherent introductions or explanations anyway.

  Instead of riding down closer to the river, they began ascending into the hills. There were small, pretty farms close to town. As they went higher and higher, it began to be cabins placed farther and farther apart. Nothing changed the breathtaking view, and Tennie wondered how Gid could bear to leave such a beautiful home to come to Ring Bit, Texas, where the most interesting thing in the landscape was a dried cow skull bleaching in the sun.

  Neighbors came out on porches to watch them ride by. Gid would nod to some; others, he ignored.

  One old man in clothes full of rips and wearing a hat with large holes in it called out to them, every word accentuated in a slow drawl. “Giddings Coltrane, you best keep them young’uns down yonder by the gate.”

  “Much obliged,” Gid called back while the Granger boys exchanged glances with one another.

  The man’s warning scared them, as did the obsessive compulsion propelling Gid to ride on without stopping to gossip with his neighbors.

  Tennie looked at Hawkshaw, but if he had any concerns, they didn’t show on his face.

  It took them almost three hours to reach the end of the road and the old, but professionally painted, sign at the gate that read COLTRANE FARMS. The wooden fences were in perfect condition. Horses dotted the rolling hills carpeted with rich grass. The barns and paddocks on the hill were unpainted, but otherwise strong and well built. The house, however, was another matter. The roof sagged, the structure leaned, and shingles were missing from the roof. Not to mention a collection of broken chairs, old washtubs, and a hodgepodge of miscellany cluttered the porch. As Tennie took it all in, she realized she had been under a mistaken impression—the farm Gid co-owned did not deal in vegetables, tobacco, or cotton, but horseflesh.

  A man came out of the house onto the porch and fired a shot in their direction. The horse Tennie was on skittered and neighed.

  “You cut that out!” Gid hollered. “I got women and children down here.”

  She was the only woman, but Gid was so upset, he couldn’t be blamed for getting mixed up.

  In answer, the man on the porch fired again.

  Tennie looked at Hawkshaw. “Shouldn’t we move back?”

  “He’s firing above our heads,” Hawkshaw said in unconcern. “He can’t hit us at this range anyway.”

  Meanwhile, Gid was hollering that he wanted to see Nab.

  “Nab’s in the house, Gid,” the man said. “The boys are locked up in the barn. They’s going to stay thar until Nab signs this here paper we done had the lawyer draw up.”

  “Is Brother in there with you?” Gid hollered. “Is Brother in on this?”

  “Yep, he is’m, and me and Brother is going to get our fair share of this here farm and sell it and go to Californy, and you and Nab ain’t stopping us.”

  “I ain’t signing no paper and neither is Nab,” Gid hollered.

  “The lawyer said you ain’t got to sign cause you done give Nab the power of the attorney.”

  Gid and the man on the porch, who Gid cursed and called a “no-account brother,” continued to spar with one another. Tennie’s attention was drawn to Hawkshaw, who had dismounted and wandered to the fence. He stood leaning with one boot on the lower fence rail, looking at the horses with interest.

  Tennie alighted, and leading her horse, walked to Hawkshaw. His eyes remained on the horses, and Tennie followed his gaze. At first, she couldn’t understand his interest. They were just horses to her. But as she stared at them longer, she realized what huge, wide jaws they had, along with perky small ears. They were layered in heavy muscles, especially in the hindquarters, like the horse Gid rode in Texas.

  She turned to Hawkshaw. “This is why you didn’t faunch about coming here, isn’t it? You wanted to see these horses.”

  He gave her one of his mocking stares. “I know you were listening to those cowboys behind you on the train. They were talking about going to South Texas to see if they could buy some Billy horses. Sometimes they are called Steel Dust or Bull Dog horses,” he said, returning his gaze to the animals. “That’s what these are.”

  “What is so special about them?” Tennie asked.

  “They are good racers on short tracks, and evidently they make good cattle horses,” Hawkshaw said. “Almost every man in Ring Bit has tried to buy Gid’s gelding from him.”

  Gid was still exchanging yells with his brother. “I’m going for the law,” he hollered.

  “Law ain’t going to help no Coltrane,” his brother hollered back.

  “I got me a friend what got a letter of introduction to the judge,” Gid said. “We’ll get this straightened out.”

  In answer to that, his brother fired another shot.

  “I want to see Nab before’un I leave here,” Gid shouted. “You bring Nab out on that there porch, or I’m coming in there shooting.”

  After hassling over this for a while, the brother went back into the house. When he came out, Tennie realized she had been under another mistaken impression. Nab wasn’t a man, but a woman almost as tall and big as Gid. The faded dark skirt that flowed from her large waist was huge, as was the man’s shirt she wore. On top of her head was a black hat with a floppy brim, and Tennie was willing
to bet it had holes in it, too.

  “Nab, you all right?” Gid hollered.

  “Yep,” she shouted in a deep voice. “I ain’t signing nothing.”

  “Don’t you worry none, Nab. We be leaving, but we’ll be back. I got the law with me from Texas, and we’ll straighten this out with the sheriff and the judge.”

  Tennie looked at Hawkshaw and rolled her eyes. Poor Gid! She could only hope her letter of introduction to the judge might help. Being the town marshal of Ring Bit wasn’t going to do a bit of good.

  When they headed down the hills, Gid hollered at his neighbor that he’d be back. He was going for the law.

  The old man laughed. “I reckon your dogs will be barking up a coonless tree, Gid. Law ain’t gonna get involved in no Coltrane feud.”

  “I reckon they will,” Gid said, his jaws shaking in belligerence as he slowed his horse but kept him moving. “I done got the law from Texas with me, and we done got a letter to the judge.”

  The old neighbor looked Hawkshaw over. “Maybe so, Gid. Maybe so.”

  With a start, Tennie realized the old man thought Hawkshaw was the law from Texas. And that Gid knew he thought so and did not disabuse him of that notion.

  Hawkshaw’s face, as usual, remained a cool slate.

  Nevertheless, Tennie knew he was up to something. She just didn’t know what.

  CHAPTER 15

  When the horses carried them into the town, Tennie and her stepsons were exhausted and starving. Still, Gid insisted on pressing on to the sheriff’s office. Unlike Ring Bit, which kept its jail at the edge of town, the sheriff’s office was in a courthouse dominating the town square. As they tied their horses to a hitching post out front, Tennie stood and gazed upward. It looked like some kind of Greek temple with huge pillars in front rising to three stories if one counted the basement. Gid led the way, and since neither he nor Hawkshaw told the boys to stay outside, Tennie didn’t either.

  They walked single file into the imposing edifice with cool marble floors beneath their feet. Walls still dark from the soot of smoke contained blank spots where paintings of Confederate generals once hung. They trailed Gid to the back of the building. A door to the left stood open, and he charged in with the rest of them following. As a volley of convoluted sentences flowed through his excited mouth, Tennie stared at an older man behind a desk in front of an opened window.