by Darrel Bird
Sondra looked at him, but said nothing else. She curled up on the cot. Jade came over to him and whispered, “You could be a little kinder.”
“Well, being in a two bit dictator’s jail makes me a little bit surly.”
He walked over, and lay down on the floor. They spent another miserable night in the cold stinking cell before the morning came mercifully, and the July heat began to take shape in the building. When it got hot in the cell, it would again become unbearable.
About nine, a man came and unlocked the cell doors, and announced, “You’re packs are in the office…you’re free to go.”
He led them into the outer office where their packs lay in the floor, including their guns, and ammunition, “Did he say why he is letting us go?”
“He didn’t say, but mister, I wouldn’t take too long to get out of town. He might change his mind; you’re the first people he has let go free.”
“Why do you stay?” Jasper asked the man.
“We get food, and whores.”
“Unhuh.”
They walked up the street in the early morning sun, and were soon in the tree dotted plains of the southern tip of Colorado.
Jade walked up beside him, “Do you think he will change his mind, and come after us Jasper?”
“I don’t think so; we are an experiment for him.”
They camped that night, and ate a rabbit that Jasper had shot with the 22. They walked all the next day, and the terrain began to rise toward the Rocky Mountains. Along toward evening they came upon a small valley that had an old farmhouse with over grown fields and a small barn that was caving in from the roof down. A small creek ran by the barn, and disappeared again in a gully across the valley.
Jasper stopped and looked all around at the terrain, “If nobodies here, we’ll take it.” He announced. Sondra walked off into the trees to take care of business.
“Why here?” Jade asked.
“From the looks of the terrain, it will be as easy as any to defend. A sniper could make it awfully unpleasant for anyone who wanted to take it.”
“And you’re that sniper.”
“I’m that sniper.”
“You may be good at sniping, but you’re no good with women, are you funny money or something?”
Jasper turned sharply, “No! I’m not funny money. What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about us you dolt. You have two women in love with you.”
“I can’t deal with stuff like that now Jade; I can’t even keep us out of jail. I ain’t Mormon anyhow. What do I need with two women?”
“Its us that need you Jasper.”
“A threesome?”
“No, you idiot, one at a time will do.”
“Jade, that’s not my reason for living.”
“Its life… here she comes, let’s get on over there, and see if we have a farm.”
“Now you are leading?”
“If I have too.”
“You’re a tough woman Jade.”
“It’s a tough world.”
“Whats a tough world?” Sondra asked as she walked up to them.
“Never mind sister, follow Jade to that farm house.” Jasper grinned as he said it.
“You two are keeping secrets.” Sondra returned.
As they walked up to the old house they could see that it hadn’t been used in at least five years. They were careful not to step on rotten boards as they walked across the porch. The white paint was peeling away along the door jam, and touching the door. Jasper shoved on the door, and the paint fell away to the floor. The door had jammed a bit, but opened as he pushed harder. There were cobwebs across the windows, and in the corners of the front room. It had a wood stove, and there was a stack of dry wood along the wall behind it. The rusting stove pipe ran through the ceiling and out the top of the house.
“When we start a fire I’ll have to climb into the attic to make sure the stove pipe is tight, or we might end up burning the place down around our ears.”
They looked into the two small bedrooms, and in one of them there were old blood spatters on the sheets, on the walls, and a drag mark of blood on the floor. Someone had been killed in that room. The other was fairly clean with no blood.
“I wonder who was killed here?” Sondra voiced all their thoughts.
“Best not dwell on it, if you girls can begin to clean the place up, I need to scout the land out, and maybe get us something to eat.”
“The great hunter must leave the work and hunt.”
“You think you can do any better?” He scowled at them.
“No, I was just kidding, lighten up Jasper or you won’t get any of my Dandelion soup.”
“I hate…”
“Yeah, you hate Dandelion soup. You told us, but you’ll eat it, now go…hunt.”
Jasper walked away exasperated with the women, “Lord, I’m drowning in a sea of estrogen here.”
He needed to scout out the terrain for fighting places, but he needed to clear his head more than anything else. The scouting could have waited for a day, but he needed desperately to be by himself, alone with the God of his understanding. He carefully walked the slopes around the farm house, stopping every now and then to train the sniper scope on and around the farm house. He had found the scope where it had fallen behind a display cabinet in a looted sporting goods store, and he had modified the Ruger .22 automatic rifle with a military style stock, and a bull barrel.
It made the gun heavy to carry, but he was deadly with it at up to four hundred and fifty yards. He had a silencer to screw on the end of the barrel, and at two hundred yards a person would only hear a puff when he shot. At four hundred yards a person would never hear what killed them. He wondered why Perkins hadn’t taken at least the rifle. Why let such a prize get away? He knew Perkins had to threaten the outlaws that ran with him if they took anything of theirs, and the whole thing took on the looks of a total mystery to Jasper.
He was walking along slow when he spotted what he thought was an animal about three hundred yards away. The animal, or what he thought was an animal, was standing under a tree. He raised his binoculars to have a closer look. It was an antelope, the white striped marking under the neck showed clearly. Then he spotted another nearby that one. He screwed the silencer on the rifle barrel, and then took careful aim, hoping he wouldn’t startle the herd with the first shot. He squeezed the trigger, and the first Antelope went down, he quickly brought the barrel up a bit and squeezed again. The second Antelope was down. He shifted the scope around, but saw no others. We’re going to have meat tonight girls, by cracky.
As he walked toward the two small Antelope on the ground the thought of the girls brought his mind around to what Jade had said, and with that, a vision of a real shitstorm approaching at the speed of estrogen. No matter what a woman agreed to at the time, the mind change would come just as sure as he had two dead Antelope to skin before dark.
The wrinkle arrived on his forehead about the time he sliced the throats of the two Antelope with a quick swipe of the knife. By the time he had the first one skinned out, he had worried himself into a slump about his future with these two women.
It would have been safer to leave those men have them. Thoughts buzzed around in his brain like flies on stink. He finished gutting, and skinning the animals, and then pulled the one he couldn’t carry up on a convenient limb with a strong cord he always carried. He hoped the crows and buzzards would stay away until he got back with help to get it. They were in desperate need of the meat.
Man cannot live on Dandelion alone; fact is I gotta have over cooked meat to even stomach the stuff.
He was wet with sweat by the time he got back to the farm house, “We were worried about you.” Jade said as she met him at the door.
“Had a bit of luck, shot two Antelope and one of you need to go with me to get the other one. I think I'm getting weaker by the day...too many days with not enough to eat is taking it's toll on all of us.”
“I’ll go, Sondra has been
feeling under the weather.”
“Whats wrong with her?”
“I don’t know, she has a little fever, and the heat makes it worse for her.”
“Maybe you better stay with her, and I go and get the other one.”
“No, I can’t have you both down, I’ll go help carry, lets go Jasper.”
“You’re getting awfully bossy lately.”
“Let’s just go Jasper.” And she began walking to ward the slopes.
“Maybe you better let me lead, you don’t know where the kill is.”
She turned and frowned at him. He didn’t know what her trouble was, and he didn’t want to know either. He figured women didn’t need a reason to get surly. When they reached the tree where the Antelope was, all of a sudden she reached up, and kissed him on the mouth.
“What got a burr under your saddle Jade, first you look as if you want to kill me, and the next thing I know you want to kiss me?”
She hung her head, “I know that Sondra needs you, but I hate the thought of you ever going in too her.”
“I ain’t ever touched either one of you.”
“I know, but it has too happen.”
“That’s what I was afraid of. Jade, I like both of you, but I don’t love either one