francisphose

[badgerpride96]

A Wild West Experience Part 8

Part 8 is here! If any of you watched The Long Night (one of the last episodes of Game of Thrones), first, congrats on getting through it, and second, I really like the idea of a whole part dedicated to the night before idea, so here, have my take on it. Hopefully I can do slightly better than the GoT writers XD 

Kelly ended up getting to the bar well after 2:00. Still wearing her nice dress, she tied the full kitchen apron around her waist and hurried behind the bar. 

“How’d it go?” Sass whispered to her as she poured Owen a beer.

“He’s coming, no more than two days. Probably less,” she muttered back. Sass swore under his breath.

“Now, have you grown to like me that much, Mr. Sasway?” She said quietly, sliding the pint down the bar to Owen. 

Elek huffed. “Don’t call me Mr. Sasway, reminds me of the schoolroom. How did it go with the Admiral?” 

“As well as can be expected, I suppose. He’s very efficient.”

“That’s him,” Elek said, heading off with a sausage platter for a table outside. Kelly smiled to herself and began taking inventory.

All day, patrons would ask her strange questions. How was she holdin up? How was the case lookin? Did she need anythin? Kelly wanted to tell them, “How do you think I’m doin? My husband was murdered, I’m accused, I standin trial for a sheriff’s crime. I need to win an impossible case; I need to find somewhere I feel safe.” But she assured everyone that she was just peachy. Word had spread remarkably fast in the small town of the Admiral’s involvement, and the impending arrival of the opposing sheriff. Even the bar girls had run out of any gossip but her. One of them even told her of a rumor that Sheriff Gio was helping with more than just her case. “What?! Who says that?” She demanded. The bar girl quickly assured her that no one of any merit believed it, and she would correct any who did, as it was unequivocally false.

The day seemed to drag. Sass mostly left Kelly behind the bar, while he did most of the cooking. There was little conversation to be had; even her regulars seemed to get quiet when she approached. She assumed that by now everyone knew that the opposing sheriff was on his way, and the trial imminent. Now that there was no mystery about the event happening, people were less inclined to be seen with her, lest the verdict be guilty. They all supported her, but were hedging their bets (in some cases, literally). It was a very lonely way to be supported, Kelly thought.

By closing, she was relieved to see the back of Owen, though he had been the only one to act as though nothing had happened. He tipped his hat to her, and disappeared into the night. She was wiping tables down with a rag, taking as long as was reasonably possible, when she noticed Sass leaning on the doorway to the kitchen.

“Are you trying to tell me to get on?” Kelly joked, still wiping. It didn’t come out as light-hearted as she had hoped.

Sass smiled. “No, I’m not. Come on, leave it. I’ll do it tomorrow.”

Kelly straightened up. Elek never ‘did it tomorrow.’ Not with the Goose. “Leave it?”

“Yeah. Come on to the bar. If you’re going to try and stay here, you might as well have a drink.” He saw her hesitate. “Oh, now, it’s just a drink. Are you really thinkin I’d do somethin unsavory?”

Kelly laughed. “I can’t imagine you bein unsavory, Sass. I just don’t wish to keep you here if you’d rather head on home.”

“Actually, I find there’s no place I’m wantin to be more.”

Kelly didn’t quite know what to say to that, so she didn’t say anything except, “Oh, alright.” Sass disappeared into the dry room for a moment, and reappeared holding a dark, rectangular bottle. Kelly settled on a stool, eyeing the bottle warily. “What’s that?”

“A while back, one of the guys Gio caught on bounty was transportin stolen bootleg whiskey. Rumor was, he’d pulled off a heist on the mob in Chicago to get it, and was hightailin it to San Francisco. This is the best stuff you can’t buy. We confiscated his cases and I took ‘em for special occasions.”

“You kept his illegal whiskey?”

“Kelly,” Elek said, pouring some sugar, syrup, and whiskey into two short glasses, “Haven is full of criminals. Of course I took the whiskey.”

“Does Gio know?”

“He’s never asked. Where’d you put the muddler?”

“On the third shelf next to the Rye. So he doesn’t know?”

Elek gently muddled some orange peel into the whiskey mix. “He know the crates never made it back to Chicago. The authorities comin to take the guy back never thought to ask for it. Not the cleverest boys. Now here,” he said, pushing her a glass, “try this.”

She took a sip. “Lord Above, but that’s delicious!”

“Oh good, then I’ll have one too.” Sass dropped more orange peel and simple syrup into a glass as Kelly laughed. “Cheers.” They clinked.

“So,” Sass said, leaning forward across the bartop from her. “Tell me about yourself.”

Kelly sighed. “Sass, I really don’t want-”

“No, not about the case. I heard nothin about your case all day.”

“Not about the case?”

“No, you. Who’s the girl workin behind my bar?” Sass watched her over the rim of his glass.

“Well that’s an awfully big question.” Kelly thought for a moment. “I’m an only child. My parents are back in Sheriff Jacob’s town. I miss them, we’re very close.”

“Did you go to school?”

“Yes, I adored it. I was too sassy though. I daresay my teacher was right happy when I got engaged.” She took a drink. “I especially liked grammar and composition. My teacher wanted me to be a writer, but of course, married girls don’t write. Or go to school.”

“Do you still want to write?” Sass swirled his glass.

“I don’t know. I’ve always wanted to be good at somethin, I guess. Writing seems like a good place to start.” She drained her drink and looked at him. “What about you? Who’re you, Elek Sasway?”

“Me? Oh, I’m borin. Born and raised in Haven. Parents got here on the same train as Gio’s, so we grew up together. Mine came from Lithuania, by way of New York. Gio’s maybe four months older than I and mostly what’s happened to him, happened to me. Except Mary, of course. Still not sure how he managed to marry the prettiest girl in Haven.”

“Are we a tad jealous?” Kelly teased, pushing her glass across to him. 

“Oh Lord no. He has his hands full.”

“Oh?”

“Well,” Elek said, muddling her another drink, “she certainly knows what she wants and when she wants it. She’s remarkably focused and bright, and none of this is to blemish her character. Mary is a wonderful woman. Gio loves her more than life itself, and I couldn’t be more thrilled for them. I was Best Man at his weddin, he cried through his vows.”

“And I assume you differ here in that you aren’t hitched?”

“Nope,” Elek said cheerfully, shaking his head. “Never really wanted to be.”

“Why?” Kelly genuinely seemed to want to know his answer, and not to be reprimanding.

Elek slid her newly refilled glass back. “I want to fall in love, get married, have a family, all that posh. But I need to be sure, y’know. I want to marry someone whom I trust; who can love the Goose and Pip like I do myself.”

He saw her smiling behind her glass. “Don’t say ‘that’s just like a man,’ please, I hear it enough.”

Her eyes widened. “Why would I think that? No, your reasonin is excellent. You know what you need, you’re not willin to jeopardize that.”

“Thank you.” Elek clinked his glass against hers.

They found themselves covering every topic people talk about late at night: a mix of hopes, fears, opinions and stories. It was the sort of conversation that was both extremely serious and utterly trivial, deeply meaningful to both of them and yet carelessly held. As the second drink came to a close, Kelly gazed down at her glass and asked, “Hey Sass? What happened to the guy transportin this whiskey?”

Elek was quiet, spinning his empty glass. Finally he said, “We gave him a trial. He lost, so Gio turned him over to the authorities from Chicago.”

“And then?”

He sighed. “And then he was shot. Probably by the mob he cheated.”

“Hmm.” Kelly stared at his spinning glass. Her cheeks had a touch of flush, though now she looked decidedly sober. She looked down at her drink and suddenly threw back the dregs, holding it out again. “Then I suppose I’d better have another. For luck.”

Elek laughed, and grabbed the muddler.

Around 4:00 in the morning, one of the bar girls had to use the restroom. She quietly slipped away from the snoring form next to her, and eased open the door to her room. Instead of hurrying out, however, she froze with the door open just a hair. She took in the shadowy scene before her. Sass was coming up the stairs from the bar, wobbling slightly but securely carrying Miss Rose. The lady was already asleep, and the content smile on her face was reflected in Sass’s eyes. Her white dress bunched in Sass’s arms, falling haphazardly below her. 

The bar girl drew back as they passed, then saw Sass gently open the door to a vacant room. The washroom was next to it at the end of the hall. The bar girl slipped out her door, picked up the hem of her nightgown, and silently ran down the hall. As she dashed by, she glimpsed Sass lying his charge on the bed and tucking her hair back.

The bar girl, experienced in gathering such snatched information, avoided the creaky floorboards and managed to close the washroom door without any discernible noise. She completed her business, then waited until she heard Sass’s footsteps on the stairs. She slowly walked back to her bed, turning this scene over in her mind. For now, she would say nothing until something was confirmed, and now she knew what to look for. What would be a new bit of interest for anyone else would be proof of her new discovery. As every bar girl knew, a secret is the most expensive commodity, and Sass’s secrets were worth their weight in gold.

–

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[badgerpride96]

Yes, a short story, she said. It’ll be quick, she said. It may take a while but a new long scribble will be up soon

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For more Content, check out @contentcreatorshaven or www.contentcreatorshaven.com! We are a creator collective dedicated to helping each other make it in this very crazy world.

[badgerpride96]

Scribble #1

I was driving home tonight. It was a normal thing, only 30 minutes or so. But that night I felt different. It was foggy and I was singing with the music turned way up, and I had just come from dinner with friends and goddamn I was happy. I was so full. I was full up with happy and not calm. Not wild but not calm. I drove through your city and I felt like I could scream out the windows, “I’m finally fucking free!” because I have nothing to tie me to you anymore. And you would hear my yell and know it was no longer a battle cry but a victory scream, a winners yell, a conqueror’s declaration, and you have been lost to me, driven out of my soul and my body. My music is loud, and I am loudly happy, and I am home. I am finally home, and my mind and my body welcomed me back with cheers and cries, where have you been. I realized just how much I missed me, when I left her for you, and I cannot wait to catch up, as the last time we talked I was too young to know we could lose touch. And the first thing I said to myself, on that foggy drive of half an hour with my loud music and my soul of happy;

“I love you, and I am home.”

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For more Content, check out @contentcreatorshaven or www.contentcreatorshaven.com! We are a creator collective dedicated to helping each other make it in this very crazy world.

[badgerpride96]

A Wild West Experience Part 4

Hey! Look! More writing! I am alive. It’s been a long and yet extremely quick two weeks so i apologize for how long this took. But here. Have a short heartwarming installment.

“I’m home, my love!” Gio called as he shut his front door. Their house was one of the oldest in Haven, and thanks to Mary, the most elegant. It was their own personal style, more made for comfort than entertaining. They had lots of space, with a large two stories for just the two of them.

“Ah, finally!” Mary came out to give him a kiss. Her black hair shone against her light blue house dress, made with the lightest linen for summer. “You certainly took your time.”

“I’m dreadfully sorry. You won’t believe the day I’ve had, though. He followed her into the sitting room. Her camera was set up. “Did you have a Bride come for portraits?”

“No it’s for a new portrait. So,” she said, fiddling with the shutter button and delicately looking into the viewfinder, “did you get my message?”

Gio’s stomach suddenly knotted up on itself.

“Yes, is everythin alright, my love? If I did somethin to make you angry, just tell me what it was and I will do my damndest -”

Mary laughed. “No you ridiculous man, I’m not angry.”

“Oh. Is it your health then? I asked Walt today, but he said you hadn’t been to see-”

“No no, if it were serious you would know, honey.” Mary sat on the arm of the chair across from him. “But yes it has to do with my health.” She went quiet for a moment, studying his face. “I know you love this town, and being the sheriff. And you love me and Elek and Gigi and Walt. You give your whole heart to all of us.”

Oh God Above, Gio thought in panic, She wants to leave Haven. He opened his mouth, but Mary held up a hand to stop him.

“There is so much that you love here, honey. But I have encountered a great change, and I have something to ask you.”

Her face lit up in that angelic smile Gio did indeed love so much. “What I need to ask is; do you think you have love enough for one more?”

Gio stared at her for a moment. His brain was still processing this change from his hasty conclusion.

“One more?” He croaked. “I don’t-”

Then he saw Mary put a hand to her stomach, still smiling. And in that moment, the sheriff’s whole world shifted.

“Mary, my love.” He whispered. He hardly noticed as his hat dropped from his hands. He brought one hand to his mouth, his eyes filling with tears. He reach the other hand out to her. He barely registered the clicking of the shutter. All that mattered was Mary, dropping the shutter button as he swept her up into his arms and kissed her. She kissed him heartily back.

“You are the most wonderful creature in the whole world,” he whispered to her several minutes later. He sat them bth back down on the armchair. “And I love you more than anything, but will certainly find room to love a child of ours.”

Mary laughed and leaned her forehead on his. “I love you too, you ridiculous man.”

“...in any case, I’m bringing her to the Goose as soon as Elek opens.” Gio wiped his mouth. “I certainly have work for her in the office. Jones is retiring, and until I find a new deputy I’ll need some help. At least with letters and petitions and all that.”

“Jones is finally retiring. I never thought he would.” Mary drained her water glass. “I can’t wait to meet this woman.”

“I think I made the right call. Not jailin her, I mean. What do ye reckon?”

“Dearest, I would’ve been angry if you had jailed her.” Mary reached across the table and patted his hand, and helped herself to more bread pudding. Trenton, Haven’s baker, had made fresh loaves that morning, ust as Mary was walking by the storefront. She told her husband she simply had to buy one loaf for bread pudding. She and their cook worked out a recipe and baked it ahead of the hottest part of the day, to keep the house cooler. Mary and Gio didn’t have many servants, though some of the wealthier townspeople did. They had a cook, who often helped Mary, in an odd reversal of roles, and a girl who came a few days a week to help clean. Otherwise, they did everything themselves, including the washing.

“I’m glad you agree,” Gio said sincerely. “I have an oddly trustful feeling about the lass. Hard to explain. She’s pretty though, I hope Sass takes a shine to her.”

Mary made a dismissive pff noise. “Sass hasn’t had a fancy in all the time I’ve known you two, and that’s since we were all younguns.”

“Yeah but when we were 13 maybe, you didn’t go to school with us, that was the year your father took you out teach you himself. Sass was mad as hops about this girl.”

“What happened?”

“Well, nothing. She turned him down when he asked to take her to the races, and then her father inherited and move the family back east.”

“Poor Sass.”

“Ah, he moved on. He really got the morbs for a while, but in the end his true love became the bar. I hope he likes Kelly though.”

“A regular matchmaker, you are.”

“Well I certainly made the perfect match for myself.” Gio raised his glass to his wife.

“Indeed,” she laughed. “So, tell me, what is she like, this outlaw woman?”

“I just did?”

“No you told me what happened, but barely even described what she looks like.”

“Oh,” Gio said. “Well, I suppose she was pretty. She has blonde curly hair. I didn’t do much noticin of the lady, I was more concerned about the bullet in her side. She’s right stubborn, but very intelligent. She liked the horse screen particularly.”

“You’ll have to invite her to dinner, then, so I will get more than curly blonde hair.”

“Mary, my love,” the sheriff said nervously, “I can’t invite an outlaw on trial to have dinner. She may have murdered her husband, for god’s sake!”

“And you just said yourself that you hope your best friend falls in love with her! Now unless you and ass have had a fallin out that I was not made aware of, that suggests to me that you believe her to be innocent. You also said you found her to be trustworthy enough to not be placed in jail, but rather given a room of her own. In any other man I’d say you were thinkin with your peashooter and not your brain, but I know you. If you say you trust her, then I trust you. If the trial ends against her, then we will simply have been wrong.”

Gio smiled and shook his head. His wife never ceased to surprise him with her logic. “Alright, my love, if you say it is so.”

They passed a very pleasant evening, ending in Mary reading a novel by Jane Austen. New editions had just come from England, and she was finally reading them aloud to Gio as they laid in bed that night. Just as they finished the part where Mr. Bingley raced off to London and left poor Jane Bennet in his dust, Gio fell asleep in the arms of his wife.

And when he awoke, and remembered her news, he thought that Bingley was the biggest fool of whom he’d ever heard in his life.

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For more Content, check out @contentcreatorshaven or www.contentcreatorshaven.com! We are a creator collective dedicated to helping each other make it in this very crazy world.

[badgerpride96]

A Wild West Experience Part 7

Part 7! Finally, some rising action coming up. Hope this one makes people think a little!

And so the town of Haven began to watch the newcomer. Of course speculation ran rampant. Sean the butcher discussed her merits over the counter, wiping his bloody hands on yet another rag. Riders debated her horse with Owen while he re-shod their own mounts. Gio wrote an article for the Haven paper, outlining the legal situation to come. He wrote to Sheriff Jacob, summoning him and council to Haven’s court. He would not be surrendering the outlaw.

Women were almost unanimous in their support of her. One lady, as Mary was taking her measurements, said to her companion, “Ye know, even if she did shoot her husband, I reckon she’s no guiltier than any wife alive!”

“Except,” her friend rejoined, “She’s the heroine for actually doin it!” Both ladies laughed. When Mary told her husband that, she perhaps reassured she’d never shoot him. He laughed, but, she thought, with just a touch of fear.

The most curious, and curiously quiet, were the bar girls. As a few days passed, and Kelly grew more confident behind the bar, they talked to her rather than about her. They liked the new bartender with the dungarees and the smart mouth. She liked them, with their open honesty and unhurried curiosity. She knew they wanted to find out something: everyone wanted to find out something, and no one was sure what that something was. But the bar girls knew better than anyone how to keep bedroom doors closed. 

They would sit on her stools and fill her in on the Haven gossip. “You might as well know, since every good bartender knows everything in town,” One said. “And if ye lose your trial, you’ll be dead and it won’t matter!”

Kelly had to laugh at that. Though, she did lay awake every night, listening to Jones softly snoring in the office below, wondering if Jacob would even let a trial happen. He might come to take her back regardless. Maybe he’d just kill her. He really wasn’t bright enough, or perhaps he was simply too desperate, to realize he would be the obvious suspect. She would lie there, rolling her wedding ring around her fingers, cursing herself for being 16 and thinking her husband and married life would save her. 

Jones, if he listened above Gilbert’s snoring, could hear her pacing in the small hours of the morning. Gio would hear her restlessly rifling through her belongings when he came in. Morning after morning, she would find one or two things she did not need, and the rejection pile grew.

One morning, Gio came up to knock on Kelly’s door. “Kelly? You awake?” 

There was a rustling, and the door opened. Kelly was still in her nightgown and morning robe she’d borrowed from one of the bar girls. “Yes, sorry, for runnin late.”

“S’alright, I have a solicitor here, best in Haven, wants to take your case.”

Kelly leaned on the door, knitting her eyebrows together. “How’s that? I haven’t written to any lawyers.”

“No,” Gio said, “I did.”

Kelly was quiet for a moment. “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing.” He did not say that he knew she wasn’t sleeping, that the circles under her eyes were growing with each sunrise, that he knew Sass had to force her to go home every night. She didn’t say she hadn’t contacted lawyers because she felt her case already lost, that she just managed not to skip town every night, that the only thing keeping her in bed were the faces of people she would betray in Haven. She didn’t say she had nowhere to go, that Haven was as good a place to die as any. 

What she said was,” Right, tell him I’ll be right down.”

Gio nodded and went to offer the lawyer some coffee.

Presently, Kelly had changed and joined them. Gio noted that unlike her usual outfits, she had opted for a dress today. He assumed this was to humor the “wronged gentlelady” angle. She looked oddly different.

Kelly took in the strange scene before her. The sheriff was handing a cup of coffee to a tall, older man with the most magnificent mustaches, and shining military uniform. He was well built, and very animated of personality. Upon noticing her entrance, he bounded to his feet and gave her a bow.

“My dear lady, it is a pleasure to meet you, though grave given the circumstances. Admiral Aiden, at your service.”

Kelly glanced at Gio, smiled graciously, and said, “Wonderful to meet you, Admiral. Thank you for coming to see me.”

“Oh, no trouble, no trouble at all!” The three of them sat. “Your husband was a military man and a fellow defender of the law. Also, your case is intriguing; I greatly enjoy a challenge.”

“Well Admiral, that is exactly what I pose.” Kelly told him, accepting the mug of coffee from Gio. “I’m afraid my case is somewhat fatal.”

“Nonsense, no, I never think a case is over until the verdict comes down. Come now, it’s quite common to think you’re lost before you’re started. You are a sharp woman, and I,” the Admiral said, straightening his mustaches, “am an excellent lawyer.”

Kelly managed not to laugh. “There is also the issue of money. I have no money of my own, and I doubt my husband’s estate went to me, as I am his accused murderer.”

“Pish-posh, we’ll discuss my fee after the trial, my dear.”

Gio leaned towards her. “Why are you resistin this? If you lose, they’ll kill you.”

Kelly’s smile faded and she put a hand to her brow. She didn’t speak for several minutes, and when she did, it was in a brittle voice that startled both men. “Because I am going to a trial against a sheriff, a man with considerable power, and there is hardly any evidence at all. I do not know if it is worth puttin myself and Haven though that.”

Gio reached out and patted her hand still on the table. “You’re not puttin Haven through anythin it hasn’t seen before. And as for you, you have the best lawyer you could find, and I know for a fact that nearly all of Haven would rise to your defense if they could. So whatever you’re fearin the outcome to be, at least let us help your chances.”

Kelly seemed not to hear him. She was very still, almost not breathing. Finally, in the same brittle voice; “Alright.”

The sheriff breathed and leaned back in his chair.

“Brilliant!” The Admiral reached down next to his chair and brought up a briefcase, out of which he pulled a small writing pad. “Now then,” he said, putting pen to paper. Kelly inhaled deeply and lifted her head. “Who, what, when, and where?”

After several hours of exhaustive questions, Sam interrupted with the mail and a message from Sass asking if Kelly was to be expected. Gio sent him back an explanation and an apology. He tipped back in his chair, rifling through the mail as the others finished a discussion on the shot that actually killed Kelly’s husband. 

“I shall subpoena the crime scene photographs, assuming they do those here,” the Admiral declared. “And if there are none, find the mortician.”

“The mortician?”

“Yes, he would have examined the body for burial. He could tell us the size and shape of the bullet wound.”

“Could he really?” Kelly asked, intrigued. “How would that help us?”

“Well my dear, you carry a shotgun and a small caliber pistol, am I correct?” 

“Yes, as well as a knife.”

“My word, you do like to be prepared. As both of those guns have distinctive bullet patterns and sizes, we can be fairly certain whether they did or did not shoot the man. I could also write off to my friend, lovely man, detective at Scotland Yard. It would take some time, but those fellows are on the cutting edge of-”

“All out of time, Admiral,” Gio broke in.

“Pardon?”

“I mean, there is no time for a letter to England. This is from the Sheriff Jacob.” Gio held up a letter. “He’s comin to Haven.”

“What?” Kelly cried. “When?”

“It was sent a few days ago. He’ll not be two days.”

Kelly’s hands knotted together. “God above, that isn’t enough time. Admiral, how could we prepare an argument in less than two days’ time?”

The Admiral closed his briefcase, and strode around the table to clasp his client’s hands. “My dear,” he said with a smile, “we simply will.”

–

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For more Content, check out @contentcreatorshaven or www.contentcreatorshaven.com! We are a creator collective dedicated to helping each other make it in this very crazy world.

[badgerpride96]

A Wild West Experience Part 6

Finally Part 6! And Finally Kelly gets to meet Sass and start at the Bar! I really liked this chapter. The Goose was designed with several different places in mind, and Sass obviously loves the bar more than anything, so I hope that comes through. Part 7 to come soon!

“Hey Sass!” Owen called out. “An outlaw and a sheriff walk into a bar!”

“And?” Elek’s voice yelled from the kitchen.

“And they waited for the beautiful bartender to show his face!” Gio called back. Pippin came running from around the bar at Gio’s voice.

“Oh a dog!” Kelly cried, dropping to kneel to Pippin’s height and holding out her hand. Pippin froze, eyeing the unfamiliar hand. His nose did quick work, twitching furiously. After a moment, the verdict was handed down. The dog trotted forward to grant Kelly several licks to the face. She tilted her head back, laughing and fluffing the scruff of Pippin’s neck.

Gio smiled, glancing up to look around the bar. It was still fairly empty: a few passing ranchers and cowboys, some travellers, old regulars. No one seemed to be paying the scene much attention, except for the man standing in the doorway behind the bar, wiping his hands on a rag. He stared quite intently as his dog wiggled in the outlaw’s arms. He caught Gio’s eye, nodded slightly, and maneuvered his way around the bar.

“Pippin,” Sass called as he reached them. “Easy, boy. Sit.”” The dog sat, but didn’t leave Kelly’s grasp. Elek noted this with a twitch of his eyebrows and the beginning of a smile. “Mornin, Gio, ma’am.”

“Mornin, Sass,” Gio said, patting Elek on the back. Kelly gave Pippin a final pat and gracefully rose. She brushed off her bluejeans and new grey linen shirt and put out her hand. “Kelly Rose, pleased to meet you.” Elek’s eyebrows raised, but he smiled and shook her hand. “Elek Sasway, pleasure is mine. Have you seen the bar before?”

“Never, but I look forward to seeing it every day,” she said, obviously trying to get on the reserved bartender’s good graces. He offered his arm, which she took, and they set off on the grand tour of the bar. Gio, quite forgotten, sat down next to Owen.

The doors of the Goose were the traditional double swing doors. They led inside from a small porch, mostly used for Pippin’s naps. Past the doors, the bar opened up into a large space, with 15 tables, organized in the middle of the floor. The space was rectangular, all the tables occupying the middle square, flanked by pool tables and card tables. Then, there was the bar.

The back wall of the bar was a mirrored glass plate. All the shelves had been carefully bored into this. Sass had put in glass windows along the side walls, and the light coming through these was reflected off the glass and into the bar space. Rows of bottles glinted along the mirrored wall, as if to say, “Come now, stay, sip a while. You have nowhere better to be.” But even more eye-catching than this was the bar-top itself.

No one knew where the original owner had gotten the bar-top, but everyone agreed it was a work of beauty. Made of stained glass set in amber, the mosaic depicted rolling hills leading to the ocean. The sheer number of glass shards used created a sense of the grass actually rolling in the wind. The waves seemed just about to crash and toss spray into your drink. The light scattered itself across the tinted glass, eddying in the amber, so that the ocean’s sun-pennies came to life. There were those who had never seen the true ocean, but having had a drink at the Galloping Goose, could imagine it perfectly.

Elek led his new barhand out the door to the right of the bar. Outside, enormous tables and benches lined the patio Elek and Gio had built. Canvas stretched overhead, casting shade over the beer garden. It was getting hot again, however, so the two of them didn’t linger.

They took a poke around the kitchen, then went out the back to the smoke house. Elek had a sausage special every week, always served with a Bavarian style pretzel from Trenton’s bakery. He gestured to the smokehouse.

“Ye probably won’t be usin this this much, but for getting cheese and -”

CRACK

A gunshot echoed off the walls, causing them both to jump in surprise. Kelly flashed a hand to her hip, only to remember her weapons were in lock up. Her first thought was that they’d caught up with her, they were taking potshots, or else she’d been set up and Haven was collecting her bounty. Her vision began to close in, her breathing shortened-

“It’s alright,” Elek’s steady voice came from the dark. “It’s only Ronin.”

“I...what?” Kelly coughed and blinked several times. She sincerely hoped the bartender hadn’t noticed her fright. They rounded the corner of the smoke house and saw a young man holding a rifle, aiming at a row of sausages hanging from a frame. He took aim again, and after a moment of calibration, took another shot. A middle sausage dropped into the bucket below, its string severed neatly in half. Elek swept out his arm in a grand gesture. “Ronin.”

The young man, hearing his name, turned and tipped his hat. “Hullo Sass, ma’am.”

Kelly smiled, but couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Why are you shooting at sausages?”

“They’re the bits leftover from the last week, ma’am. I’m practicin hitting the moving strings, I’m hopin to win the shootin prize ‘round here so as I might go to university, y’see. Boy from Haven won a few years back, went to school and he said it was eye-openin.”

“I see.” Kelly said, extending her hand for Ronin to shake. “And what you hopin to find when your eyes are opened?”

Ronin laughed. “I’m hopin to study history, ma’am. It’s said that T Roosevelt is writin a history of the war of 1812. I think that would be right fascinatin, don’t you?”

“Well I would, perhaps you might tell me of your studies, I feel sure you’ll win. How old are you?”

“Seventeen, ma’am.”

“Children, studying their elders.” Kelly mused. “How poetic.”

“Ronin is the most skilled apprentice of gunsmithin we have,” Elek put in. “He’s testin the action on my rifle there, at my request.”

“Sass is bein right generous. I’m very thorough, that’s all.”

“Nonsense,” Elek waved the humility away. “He’s the best.” Ronin inclined his head in thanks.

“I look forward to seeing you around the bar, Ronin,” Kelly told him warmly. Elek tipped his hat to the other man and began to steer Kelly back to the bar.

“Are you helpin in the Goose now, ma’am?”

“Yes, I will be,” Kelly said, half turning back. Ronin cracked a grin.

“Well then Haven is certainly a lucky place!”

Kelly laughed and waved with her free hand. She and Elek arrived back in the bar, where she acquired her half-apron, and he began to teach her how to make simple drinks. He even told her he had one or two bottles of vodka, from a Russian man who’d been touring America.

“I almost never have a cause to pour it,” Elek told her. “Gin is far superior.”

“Oh! But haven’t you had it?”

“What, vodka?”

“Yes! My husband brought back several bottles from his travels. It’s marvellous.”

“If you say so, Miss Kelly,” he said with a smile.

“You don’t believe me now, but mark my words, one day America will come to love vodka,” Kelly insisted, shaking a muddler at him.

He put his hands up and just barely stopped himself from joking “Don’t shoot!” She saw it, saw him realize his mistake. Her face turned red and she set the muddler down. Past her head, Elek noticed Gio and Owen watching them. Seeing that he saw, they quickly went back to loud conversation.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-” Elek stuttered to a stop.

“Mr...ah, Elek,” Kelly said quietly. “Would you mind if we discussed something in an area more private?”

“Yes, of course.” He led the way back to the kitchen, where they were alone. He pulled two stools from a cupboard and dusted them with his rag. She sat on one, her hands nervously fiddling with her sleeve buttons.

“I did not kill him,” she blurted out. Elek was so caught off guard he nearly missed his stool. “Elek, I hope I may call you that, I know you have reservations about me workin in your establishment. But all I can do is ask you to give me the benefit of regardin me as innocent till proven guilty.”

Elek looked down at his hands. “Miss Kelly, I must tell you that I do not yet fully trust you. The sheriff is an old friend of mine, almost my brother. If he trusts you, I will give you that benefit, but I cannot be fully at ease.”

She nodded, the corner of her mouth twitching almost imperceptibly. “That is all I can expect, I suppose. I had imagined Haven as somewhere I wouldn’t want to ever be. Your reputation is somewhat poor in my town. You take in all kinds, and people think that means there is no law at all in Haven. But in my town there is too much law and no order. So right now, Haven seems like the place to be.”

Elek gave a half-chuckle. “Haven isn’t a place anyone wants to go. We do take in all kinds, and then we treat them with respect. Anywhere else, criminals, outcasts, and undesirables would be jailed or worse with no second thought. But we give trials for the criminals with a jury of their peers, and take in and care for those who come here out of need. Gio’s an excellent sheriff, and it’s always as fair as possible. But you end up in Haven. It takes you in when you need it, and eventually you don’t know how you���d ever leave.”

Kelly was looking at him with an almost heartbreaking hope in her eyes. He was trying; he simply was afraid to trust this woman. She seemed too sincere to be real. Gio trusted her, he didn’t discount that. But he looked at her, and resisted the urge to wince at her hope. “Miss Kelly, I would like to trust you. Give me a better reason than your word, and you’ll have the Gallopin Goose at your back.”

“Is the might of a goose a fearful force?” She joked.

“You’d be surprised.”

–

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[badgerpride96]

“And I, with my garden shears, showed them what I thought of men who would be kings.” - Poison Ivy, DC Bombshells #1

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I had so much fun with this. I loved Wonder Woman growing up, I thought Harley Quinn was terrifying and also insanely cool when the joker wasn’t around, and then I saw Poison Ivy, and holy crap she’s cool. I couldn’t afford much cosplay but I had wonderful lighting and a very patient boyfriend on my side.

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“There’s the silver lining I’ve been looking for” - Ginny Weasley, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

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Ginny Weasley, who has been one of my favorite female characters (or characters in general, lets be honest), hopefully going off to cause some major trouble.

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A Wild West Experience: Part 1

Basically, this began as a joke. Really. But in the Haven Discord server there was a point where I came up with a short story idea of the server as a town in the Wild West. Thus, I present, two full Google Doc pages and 29 very small notebook pages of writing. My usual tags are after the cut as well, I do have a new KoFi button on my page :)

Okay so I don’t really know where else to put this, other than my Kofi and my website. AO3 is mostly for Fanfiction, which this isn’t, so until I have a good space, this is it.

The sheriff was annoyed. It had not been a good day, from start to the moment he sat back down in his chair in the office. His deputy had announced his retirement, first thing. Jones had been an excellent deputy, but, the sheriff grumpily reasoned, he was old and damned broken by now. Then around noontide the local page boy had delivered a message from the sheriff’s wife Mary, telling him she had something to discuss with him.

This worried the young sheriff. The two had been married for almost three years, but Mary had never ceased to make him feel as nervous as the damned blushing page boy. She was easily the most beautiful woman in their town of Haven; the sheriff still hadn’t quite worked out how he had managed to marry her. Dumb luck, he assumed. Mary was usually so direct, it wasn’t like her to be so cryptic or secretive. Then again, the last few days she’d been ill, so perhaps that was the reason. In any case, he would have to put it under his hat until Jones relieved him at sundown.

The sheriff lifted up his hat and wiped his brow with his kerchief. He always had the same style, deep royal blue with silver stitching. Mary was an exemplary seamstress (as well as accomplished at organizing a household, decorating, managing her own dressmaking shop and balancing their household checkbook). Haven was unusually hot for March, and even with both doors of the sheriff’s office wide open it was hot as blazes. He rocked back in his chair, rolling up his sleeves. He gazed around, fighting how sleepy the heat made him.

The office was a small, two story building with two rooms on each floor, located in the center of Haven. As with nearly every other building, a porch lazily wrapped around the front, where horse posts were sheltered under a pulley screen Mary had designed and the sheriff had built himself. His own horse, Gigi, noisily snorted. She was a bit old to be a working horse, it was true; but she refused to be rusticated and went so far as to follow the sheriff to work if he used another horse. Through the mosquito netting on the doorframe, the sheriff saw her shake out her black (and slightly grey) mane. He smiled, glancing at the photograph on his desk of he and Gigi standing out the back of he and Mary’s homestead. Mary bought and learned to use a camera as soon as they were settled, and used him an Gigi as her first models. The sheriff had dug her a basement darkened room for her plates. Mary had taken this particular picture as well, writing underneath it;

Gigi and Gio, Jul. 1876

The sheriff’s mother had been Italian, and thus his name was his grandfather’s legacy, Giovanni. He just said Gio, or Sheriff, almost all the time. He knew if he were any other town he would have grown up another foreign street urchin. But he was Haven’s sheriff. They had taken the family in when his father had passed and his mother had no means of survival on the plains. The town had adored her and her boy, and he had risen as high as they all knew he could. He would always work hard for them.

Sheriff flipped open his pocket watch. Quarter after three. Nothing had happened today, except the heat. Surely, he thought as the hat slipped down his forehead, just a small nap...only ten minutes…

BANG

The sheriff launched his chair over backwards as the page boy came bashing through the door.

“Lord Almighty, Sam!” Sheriff yelped, getting to his feet an snatching up his hat. “What’s got you so worked up now?”

The boy was practically vibrating. “Sh-sh-sheriff, I was just running out to the Jacobson’s with a message, when all of a sudden this lady - though I’m a bit afeared of callin her that - races up on a horse and falls in the road.”

The sheriff jammed his hat back on. “What happened, Sam?”

“SHe begged me to hide her in the cornfield and take her horse. She said she don’t trust nobody but you, sheriff.”

“And did ye?”

“Yessir, but sheriff, she was dressed like a cowboy, with dungarees and boots and a big linen shirt. She has yellow hair, and the prettiest eyes I ever did see, and -” here the boy stuttered to a stop.

“And what, Sam?”

“Guns,” the boy whispered. “A big pistol on her hip and a shotgun strapped to her back. She gave me a whole dollar, sheriff - no one but you.”

Sheriff yanked the cord that raised the horse screen. Gigi tossed her head as he and Sam hurried back out the door and he shot the deadbolt into place. A fine appaloosa had joined her.

“Alright Sam, I’ll take Gigi and follow you on her horse. Then you run on to the Jacobson’s. Not a word about this to anyone, Sam, alright?” Sam nodded vigorously. They mounted and galloped out of Haven, towards the corn fields to the west. Due to the heat, no one was out in the streets so they didn’t encounter the usual “Where’s about you headin, sheriff?” He lead the sheriff out abuot half a mile from the main town, where they dwarfed by the corn stalks.

Sam finally pulled off to one side, where a smear of blood was dried in dirt. “Right here, Sheriff. Want me to get her?”

“Please Sam, if you would.” The boy disappeared into the corn, almost without a sound. Sheriff waited, Gigi and the woman’s horse stomping the dirt. The strange horse whimpered, pricking its ears toward the corn.

Sam reappeared, supporting the woman with her arm around his neck. She lifted her head, and the sheriff’s eyebrows shot into his hat. She was quite fetching, blonde ringlets to her hips and green eyes. She was wearing exactly what Sam had described, which surprisingly suited her very well.  Sam had also been right about the weapons; a Colt revolver hung from her waist and the shotgun dangled off one shoulder. She herself was bleeding from her waist, her shirt stained red and brown with blood and dirt.

“Sheriff,” She rasped in a deeper voice than he’d anticipated. “I am an outlaw but I beg you to give me sanctuary. I have heard of Haven and of you, and I know a fair trial and hearing is your policy. I am unfairly persecuted and have been riding hard for months. I have been shot a day now and unless you help me I will surely perish.” She slumped against Sam, who’d gone white as a sheet.

Sheriff took a deep breath. “Well ma’am,” he said. “Welcome to Haven.”

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A Wild West Experience, Part 2!

Part 2 is live! I’m very excited about this chapter, there’s some back story, character development, new people, yadda yadda...

Sheriff managed to get the woman back to Haven proper without a fuss. Walter Beats, the town physician, lived on the edge of town. Sheriff pulled Gigi around the back of the building slid off and hitched her to the post. He turned back around see the woman trying to dismount herself. He caught her just in time.

She cracked one eye open and hissed through gritted teeth, “You try to carry me, sheriff, and I will shoot you.”

Sheriff chuckled. “Yes ma’am, I believe you would. Would a friendly arm be sufficient?”

She nodded, and leaned heavily on his arm as they shuffled up to the door.

“Walt!” Sheriff yelled, banging on the door. “Open up doc, I got an injury out here!”

The door flew open to reveal a grinning man pulling on a shirt and yawning. “Jiminy Cricket, Gio, any louder and you’ll wake the doc in the next town yonder!” He blinked a few times, blearily taking in the visitors. “Ma’am, I hate to alarm you, but you appear to have been shot.”

“Yes, Dr. Beats,” she cooly remarked. “Though I appreciate a second opinion.”

“Oh please,” Walter said, ushering them into the office and helping the woman onto an operating table. “Call me Walter. Dr. Beats was my father.”

The sheriff leaned on the doorframe, arms crossed. “Ma’am, we will need to know your name, at the least.”

She grimaced.”You might as well know. Kelly Rose, at your service. Outlaw wife of a murder victim.”

Sheriff froze. “I heard of you. You’re wanted for murder and evadin the sheriff, and for injuring his men. Been 6 months now, ain’t it?”

“Bout there, yes.” Miss Rose looked him in the eyes. “Sheriff, it wasn’t me that shot my husband, though god knows sometimes I wanted to, what with the whores and the drinkin...but I did not, Sheriff. I loved him. He was not a perfect man, but he was my husband and I loved him. It was his brother, the damned sheriff in our town.”

“Hold it!” Sheriff exclaimed. He pushed off the door frame and strode to the table, leaning on his hands in her face. “Let’s be absolutely clear. You, an outlaw, are accusing a sheriff of murdering his own brother. You are on some thin ice, Miss. You better have an excellent reason, is all I’m sayin’.”

She tilted her head back and kept her eyes locked. Walter put a hand on Sheriff’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t believe my own words, sir, but for knowing something no one else knows. He, the other Sheriff that is, was runnin out of money. He had a nasty opium habit, a pregnant mistress, and has been usin the money for the town for his own debts. Thing is, he’s extremely good at hidin it and all his men are loyal til the day they die, literally. He’s damned charmin, butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

“Now, bout seven months ago, their father realizes he’s dyin and decides to split the fortune down the middle. He starts lastin longer than he expected, so the sheriff, Jacob, he goes about to John, my husband, to ask for a loan til the old man passes. John refused, as he should’ve; he may have been a whoring cad but he was smart. So the sheriff broke into our home, snatched our husband out of bed, and held his gun to his head and demanded the money. My husband refused again and the sheriff shot him. Then he threatened me, because I stood to inherit if John died.”

“How’d you get away?” Sheriff asked, pacing the room now.

“I bit him,” She said, shrugging. “He hand his arm around me and I bit down on his trigger hand. He shrieked like a little boy and dropped his pistol, and I whipped him round the head with it. I grabbed my own, the shotgun, and a pack of John’s for an emergency with some clothes and money. I managed to get to Persephone and get nearly out of town before he raised the alarm. He ruled me an outlaw, while they worked out which direction I was headin in. That way I could be arrested, but I can’t run back home.”

Miss Rose dropped her head back, closing her eyes. “I tried to find a new place, but no town would simply accept a woman wearin men’s clothes with no explanation and a warrant out for her. No one ever gave me the benefit of the doubt. Persephone is more used to dashin away in the night than any horse alive. In the last place, they caught me by surprise. I had to put a few of them out cold, or shot in the leg. The sheriff’s men had caught up to me and he followed them. As I was racin off, he got a shot off on me. And thus, here I am.” She opened her eyes and looked at the two men. “I can’t run anymore, Sheriff. I will die, or lose my horse, which makes me as good as dead. . I’ve heard of Haven, I know y’all will give me a fair trial and that if I’m found innocent, I could make a life for myself here. You have reputation for mercy and justice, Sheriff. It is usually only justice. So if ye intend to arrest me, tell me now so I can prepare myself.”

Sheriff thought for a moment. This woman didn’t seem like a cold hearted killer. She claimed to have never even killed the men hunting her, and surely they would’ve heard by now if there were several men dead in a nearby town. He couldn’t deny how guilty she looked, at least according to the other sheriff; and he was loath to blame murder on a fellow. For all he knew, Kelly Rose had killed her husband and would kill him and his people too.

But something in her face, as Walt offered her some brandy and told her he’d be as respectful of her privacy as he could, but he apologized in advance any discomfort, that convinced the sheriff to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“No ma’am,” he said, as Walt prepared his tools. “I am not going to arrest you. However, you are confined to the perimeters of Haven proper. You will not ride out without me or Jones, my deputy. You are permitted to keep a knife but I will take your guns. You may stay in the rooms above the sheriff’s office, and as I assume you have little money left, you may help Sass in the bar and me in the sheriff’s office. No one will give you trouble, but due to the small size of Haven, people will be watching. Show them who you are, would be my recommendation. Can we strike a bargain on that, Miss Rose?

“Kelly,” she croaked. “Thank you, sheriff. Truly.”

“Gio, you’re gonna want to be leavin now,” Walter said, gesturing with his tweezers to the door. Gio gulped and nodded; for a man who carried a gun, a medical scene made his stomach lurch. He tipped his hat to Kelly and quietly shut the door. “Alright, Miss Rose,” he heard Walter say, “I ask that if you’re gonna scream, to give me some warnin, so as I don’t further stab you.” Kelly laughed, and then the sheriff sat on the porch to wait for Sam to come back.

While he waited, settled into one of the many rocking chairs on the porch, he considered what this woman might mean for Haven. These people, his people, wouldn’t exclude her or ostracise her; god knows they all had lives that had led them to Haven in the first place. The town was a place where you ended up when you need the most help, where you went when the world had thrown what it could at you and you had come crawling out the other side. He would have to make his case on this, but they were a close knit town; they supported and looked after their own, no matter how recently they had joined their ranks. He would not need to explain why he trusted her to the average joe. He wasn’t quite sure he could have.

He supposed it was similar to his inability to explain why he had fallen so hard for Mary, though markedly different. With Kelly, it was that he simply trusted her. She seemed open, genuine in desperation. Mary was a feeling of quiet wonder, reverence, a calming sense that the world was worth protecting.

He would have Sam get the room ready. I’ll see about getting him a horse of his own, the Sheriff considered. Sam’s mother was a seamstress in Mary’s shop, but Sam worked as Haven’s courier and page boy, delivering messages for a fair fee. He was 13 now, a good age to care for a horse. He could raise his rates for speed. His birthday was approaching - perhaps a fundraiser could be organized.

Just as he’d begun to formulate this plan, Sam himself rode up on Persephone. Gigi whinnied as though greeting an old friend.

“Howdy, Sheriff,” He called out.

“Don’t dismount, if you would Sam. I’ll pay ye double for the next one. Ride quicklike over to my office and ready the rooms above. You can leave Persephone there-” he nodded to the horse- “and run to Mary to ask for the castoffs this week to stock them rooms.”

“Dresses, sheriff?”

He considered. “Dresses, but some dungarees and shirts as well.”

Sam dashed off. Mary would pay him probably more than double, she loved to spoil Sam. The castoffs came from the whole town. Mary had begun a program where anyone with clothes that needed simple repair but where no longer needed could be donated, and she and her girls would ride to the nearest towns and cities and sell them to the poor houses and brothels to keep their tenants clothed. It was enormously popular. Sheriff had originally had doubts about his wife visiting such places, but he wasn’t about to argue with the determined glint in her eyes. The next delivery would go out next week, but she would have some in storage till then.

Having done that task, the sheriff slumped back into the rocking chair, the heat closing in around him, and finally had his nap.

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[badgerpride96]

“I only pretend to know everything” -Natasha Romanoff, Captain America: Winter Soldier 

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Black Widow (I do not own, nor do I plan on owning a leather catsuit, and thus I am Natasha in civilian clothing from CATWS).

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[badgerpride96]

“We have to give everything, even if it means our lives. We will stop at nothing. We will fight for the lost.” -Commander Shepard, ME2

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First attempt at Cosplay, Commander Shepard of Mass Effect. Ft. my best friend’s super cool jacket!

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For more Content, check out @contentcreatorshaven or www.contentcreatorshaven.com! We are a creator collective dedicated to helping each other make it in this very crazy world.

[badgerpride96]

A Wild West Experience Part 5

Another installment! I was afraid I was burning out on this, but Parts 5 and 6 really brought me back into it, and I’m hoping to cap it at 10 parts. Otherwise it will never end...

Gio arrived back at the sheriff’s office just after dawn. Jones was dozing at the desk, his dog Gilbert curled up at his feet. Both hound and master started awake as Gio entered.

“Mornin’,” Jones said gruffly, clearing his throat and checking his pocket watch. “Must’ve dozed. Only thirty minutes, not bad.”

“Mornin, Elijah,” Gio replied, shrugging off his jacket. “All quiet, I assume then?”

“You mean the town or the girl?” Jones stood up and stretched. Gilbert raised his head and yawned. Jones fiddled with the coffee pot and started the kettle.

“Both.”

“Then both were quiet.”

“Then why’d you ask the difference?”

“Well they’re different worries, aren't’ they?”

“Well...yes.” Gio sat in the chair opposite the one Jones had just vacated across the desk. Gilbert stiffly rose, and dropped his head in the sheriff’s lap with a boof. Gio scratched him on the head. “I picked up some bread and clotted cream from Trenton on my way, it’s in the knapsack.”

Jones undid the string and pulled out a warm loaf with the tin of cream. “Bless you, sheriff, a good man.”

“A hungry man.” Gio pulled out his knife and began slicing off bread. Slathering the piece in clotted cream, he made a mental note to invite Trenton for dinner. Only if Mary was up for the task, of course. That reminded him, and he smiled.

“Awfully sunny this morning, sheriff.” Jones nodded at him, cutting his own bread.

Gio hesitated. He had never asked Mary if they should announce the news. But perhaps until Walt gave an official confirmation, he should swear Jones and Elek to secrecy.

“You haven’t the faintest, Elijah,” Gio leaned toward his friend. “It’s Mary. She’s...in a delicate way.” Jones laughed aloud. “Gio, you can say pregnant. It’s not a crime. Congratulations! A father!”

“I know. I can’t believe it. I do believe I’m the happiest man alive, Jones. I wanted to tell you, and Elek, but until Mary sees Walter and we announce, keep it hush?”

“My lips are sealed. But between you and me, then, that child will have wonderful parents, I’m happy for you both.”

“Thank you.” Gio raised his bread in the air, as a stand in for a more traditional grain product. Jones bumped his own piece against it, and they happily chewed in silence.

The sun rose over Haven, and though it was early yet, the relatively cool air hinted at another sweltering day. Jones had kept the doors and windows wide open during the night, so as that the office entered daylight they might seal it up for a while to stay cool. They went about closing everything up. They discussed several petitions; townspeople cordially settling disputes in paperwork. These were some property boundary disputes, business applications, financial complaints.

At about 7:00, Jones stood and put on his hat. “Right, time to head off.”

“Tell Alejandra I said hello, as always.” Elijah tipped his hat, promised to tell his wife, and closed the door tightly behind himself and Gilbert.

The sheriff sat there in the morning light, sipping his coffee, smiling to himself. Presently, there was a rustling, and Kelly quietly came down the stairs.

“Mornin’, Miss Kelly,” Gio said. He gestured to the portion of bread and cream left.

“Good Mornin, Sheriff,” she said, her voice still scratching with the last vestiges of sleep. “Thanks much.” She clutched her side, wincing as she sad down. “Wound is right sore.” “I expect it will be for a while yet.” Gio poured another cup of coffee and pushed it across to her.

“Yes I remember when my husband was shot in the war. It took weeks for him to even walk again. But then, I’ve heard the battlefield nurses were quite...persuasive.” Kelly grimaced.

“Your husband fought in the war?” Gio asked.

“Oh yes, had to prove himself. Loved to play the hero, he did. We were only engaged then, I was 16 and he was 21. It was the last months of the war. He had to be over 21, of course, and his birthday was in October. I think he never forgave the Union for winnin’ surrender that April.” She smiled at Gio’s raised eyebrows. “It was young, I know. But we were at war, and that made people desperate. And I loved him. He managed to receive officer status because he’d been to university, but only as Captain. John did his best, but 30 of his men died from disease. Officially his was the 209th company, but since the colonel called him Johnny Boy, they were known as Johnny Boys. They were surprisin’ly successful. One of the finest companies in the union, the colonel said.”

“Why was that surprisin?”

Kelly smirked as she spread cream on her bread. “My husband’s men followed him well enough, but liked to tease him. He was...well at 16 I was slightly taller than he.”

“Ah,” said the 6’3” sheriff.

“Indeed. In any case, he was shot just after Lee’s surrender, but before Sherman’s. Only in the leg, and thankfully the doctor was decent and he kept it.”

“He is lucky. Many boys in town came home with wooden legs or empty shirtsleeves, or not at all.”

It had only 10 years since the rebels surrendered, but the people of Haven still felt the scars. Many of Gio and Elek’s friends had been too young to fight, but older brothers, fathers, and uncles had gone to fight for the Union. And now, even a decade later, there were still a greater number of young widows and grieving mothers than any men in Haven. Gio officiated few weddings or attended few christenings in the first years of his office. Walter’s first patients were returning soldiers. Haven had taken in passing regiments on their way home from battles with Sherman’s fleeing army. As one such regiment passed, the leader came to the Goose and informed the then owner that her son had been killed only a week previous. The news devastated the mother, and she left the running of her bar to her faithful bartender, Sass. Eentually she sold it to him outright and went to live with her family in Washington DC. Sass renovated and reopened after she left, and the rest, as they say, is history.

The sheriff told all of this to Kelly, as a devoted student of his town’s history and progression. “But before you can see the bar for yourself, and meet Sass, I have some paperwork and filin’s to sort through and categorize. If there’s two of us, it’ll be considerably more efficient.” He extracted a huge folder of paper. “Essentially I need you to sort them by type of complaint, and then we’ll label them.”

“Excellent,” Kelly said, pulling half the stack towards her.

“Don’t you want to know the categories?” Gio grinned.

“Well, considering my late husband was an attorney, I know the terms, and also this top line here says ‘field of complaint.’” She said with a laugh.

Gio raised his hands to the sky. “Praise the lord, another woman more intelligent and clever than I, the trend continues!” Kelly burst out laughing, and began to shuffle through the forms.

The sun crept on, and when their watches read about 11:15, the sheriff and the outlaw walked into the bar.

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Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/badgerpride

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For more Content, check out @contentcreatorshaven or www.contentcreatorshaven.com! We are a creator collective dedicated to helping each other make it in this very crazy world.

[badgerpride96]

“We have to give everything, even if that means our lives. We will stop at nothing. We will fight for the lost.” - Commander Shepard, Mass Effect 2 Trailer

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I loved the ME games so much that I did another Shepard. This time I tried for a younger Shepard, still in training. I was really proud of the bloody knuckles as I’ve never done anything like it.

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Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/badgerpride

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For more Content, check out @contentcreatorshaven or www.contentcreatorshaven.com! We are a creator collective dedicated to helping each other make it in this very crazy world.