Fight for Glory (My Wounded Soldier #1) (20 page)

He eased that gun
down and whined like a baby. “Why I got to do it for? I ain’t slept in five
days.”

I slapped him
hard on the shoulder. “Trust me on this. Someone’s gotta do it, and…it can’t be
me. Now get in there, and stand tall, stand hard and that’s an order.”

I took over in
his roll then, and it was warm as a cow’s belly. I rolled a little to get it to
fit me, and then I took to laughing for my life was surely a dime novel. I was
quick amassing the kinds of stories that old men told, and no one believed when
they looked at those lips like paper and bristle, those teeth gone missing and
the muscle melted into loose skin. But these were the glory tales and if I kept
living, I’d have my share all right. And Michael…he’d have his.

Tom
Tanner

Chapter
Twenty-Four

In the morning,
long before we ever heard that whistle from the approaching train that would
ride us into the light, word came from Springfield
through an express rider who had waited in a nearby town for the
telegram, that Sonny, Sonny Stone turns out,
and his
affiliations were wanted for nefarious acts on several charges. We were advised
to bring them in.

“Well hell,” said
I. Gaylin was nearby and I saw his eyes grow round. Seems we were not yet
released from the hill called Golgotha.

I looked at
William, who had just made a show as he’d slept in the livery and doted on the
horses. He stared back at me, his usual revelation of feelings on his poker
face.

“You just don’t
expect nothin’ good, do you?” said I, in the mood to fight with somebody, and I
knew it wouldn’t be Michael for he was so agreeable a reconstitution of the war
would make him smile.

William never
felt it was his job to take anybody’s bait. It was infuriating.

I slammed my hat
against my leg a couple of times. Gaylin was watching me. “Stop looking at me,”
I said, so he did, and I didn’t like it, the way he did every little thing I
said. I didn’t like it at all.

The sheriff stood
there with the rider, his hands hanging.

“If we’re to
bring these in on the train,” I said, “you need to take the risk same as me if
I’m gonna split the kitty.”

He chewed his
moustache. “What kind of trouble you reckon on?”

“The kind gets
you bushwhacked and killed,” I said.

William said, “We
were followed here.
A dozen or more.”

“They got kin and
they’re an ugly bunch,” Sheriff said.

“Do tell,” I said
like I hadn’t noticed. “This is your neck of the woods,” I said.

“And I am glad
you cleaned some of them out. But I’m not leaving my neck of the woods
unprotected. My people are here,” he said.

“Guess now that
you have to work for that reward money you
are
having
regrets,” I said.

“Let the railroad
handle it. You poke a hornet’s nest, they’ll come for you.”

“Who says I’m
poking? We left a line of bodies yonder. It wasn’t no poke, it was a full on
ramrod stuffed right up the quim.”

“Listen,” he
said, “I just got home from war and my wife and
me
got
two babies and a farm to run. She done told me when I took this job if I got
myself killed she’d dig me up and kill me again. Plus, I ain’t allowed to leave
home. That’s why I didn’t marshal. I admit I get tired of whipping thieves and
settling disputes over whose cow trampled the corn, and generally convincing
the boys the war is behind us. But I promised her I’d give up my wanderin’
ways, and I fear no outlaw more’n her.”

“That is sorry,”
I said, Addie heavy in my mind for some reason. That part about fearing the
woman, well I understood it, even as I didn’t respect it. “Didn’t notice that
badge pinned to your petticoat,” I said.

“You a married fellow?”

I didn’t want to
say. In my mind I felt married, but that was the lie I lived with. “Why? If I
was…married…I’d still have my willy.”

“And that’s all
you’d have. For a married man…it’s a lonely road. Anyway, won’t do you no good
when you’re in a box like Monroe,”
he said.

“Then let’s just
let these outlaws go,” I sneered all dramatically. “Let’s just whip them or
make them ride some cows into someone’s corn and see if the scarecrow will come
to life and chase ‘em down.” I was yelling, I admit, and waving my hands. I had
become Jimmy for sure.

Well, I was done
arguing. I wasn’t going to hire these local varmints either for I didn’t know
where their loyalty lay. Better take the ones I knew to be tested.

“C’mon boys, we
got a body needs boxed,” I said, cause it always came down to us.

The undertaker
was proud of his box. I didn’t wish for him to see the loot, so I asked him to
step in his backroom so I could discuss some pressing business. I divvied up on
our bill. He’d proved a friendly but conniving man so far, yet he was the only
one in these parts to see to our needs. So I told him I wanted him to see to it
that Iris the healer, fifty miles from these parts near the high road, did
receive a new roof, and a whole butchered hog smoked and packed in a barrel. I
gave him some of Monroe’s
money, for that is what we’d been living on. I said that I would be checking
with Iris once I got home, and if I found he had not delivered, I would come
back myself and tie him naked to a tree and beat the living shit from his body.
Then I’d make him take a bath with that lye soap he’d sold us, starting with
shoving some up his butt hole and making him dance to
Gay and Happy Still,
a real popular song from the war.

Well I had no
hard feelings and told him so. Then I put out my hand and he took it and we
shook, and I noticed a tremor in his fingers. “And thanks for your hospitality,
even though we paid for everything we got,” I said. I was full up of Rigsby.

By that time the
boys had the box packed, and Gaylin was off washing his hands, and William was
probably doing the same and cleansing himself with burning herbs, Michael was
sitting on top of that stinking box staring off while he cradled his rifle.

“If it can be
fired from gun or rifle, buy it,” I said, shoving money in his hands. He stood,
staring at the money. “Are you listening?” I yelled.

He nodded,
looking at me then. “I…I had me that woman last night,” he whispered.

“Lord, God,” I
muttered, “did I ever ask you who you’ve poked?”

He shook his
head, but I did want to ask, and that’s the black truth. I wanted to know. And
I wanted to ask if he’d ever heard of putting his mouth on a woman for I had
done that to Addie and I didn’t know if but that’s what scared her maybe, when
she thought about it, if that’s not one of the things, along with the other
things mayhap that just made it all too much, me too much. But here’s what I
did say, “Will you get yourself some discipline for once in your sorry excuse
of a life and do what you’re told so I don’t have to look at that puke inducing
mooning round as a pie mug you got stuck with?”

He stumbled off
and I yelled, “Didn’t have
no
trouble doing what you
were told last night now did you? Did you?”

Why did he get to
fornicate? What about me? Maybe I’d like to fornicate once in a while! Or maybe
I was fixing to get on a train and get my breads blown into the sky. Maybe it
would be but that one time with Addie, and I was supposed to say goodie garter
snakes I got to do it that one time! I will surely be happy now. Isn’t that the
crap pie she told me? ‘I’ll just remember it
forever,’
or some nonsense. So while Cousin was slipping her his
willy
she’d be thinking of me and really going to it? Was that supposed to make me
joyous? It did not! Hellfire it made me want to kill folks!

Doc had Jimmy
bandaged and dressed. He still lay on that table, but I knew soon as I went in
he was in his right mind. He was looking at me. “Welcome back,” I said.

“You are a cold
and uninspiring man,” he drawled.

I laughed. Lord,
I hated to say this, I did, but I had missed him.

Now the whistle
blew like reveille. We had our own village waiting to board. We had us minus
Michael, and I wasn’t gonna hold this train for him cause I’d bet he was having
another go.
The horses.
The stinking
coffin with the loot.
Four outlaws who I planned to have sit on that
coffin.
Our rifles.
The ammo.
Saddles and tack.
Jimmy on his new stretcher. A picnic
basket of vittles made by Rayetta for Michael which we all planned on eating as
the undertaker had not made us breakfast after my speech about the possible
beating and soap poking.

First off there
was only room for one horse. “My black,” said Jimmy. Well, he was conscious,
but that novelty was quickly losing its luster.
Where before
we’d had one Cap, me, now we had two, me and him.

So while he was
saying, “My black,” I was saying, “Tusaint’s gray.”

So I said, “Give
him his black then,” waved my hand like I was pitching a ball. We were all
spoiling him now for living, I guessed.

Here they came
then, Michael, the sheriff, and a couple of those he called deputies, wheeling
what looked like
a cannon
, but the barrel was covered
so I couldn’t see the make.

They took to
loading it in the car they’d cleaned out just for us as they didn’t want the
prisoners sitting with the paying folk, and then I had William’s refusal to be
regular and grab a seat, though I knew he’d ride up top and smell the trouble
before any of us could. Then I needed room for Jimmy’s resting position, and
though he was no bigger than me, he seemed to fill more space than a regular
man. Not to mention that boat of a casket I wanted to keep in my sites. God
never made it easy he just never did. Called his own son, “man of sorrow,” so
what chance were any of us gonna have, I ask you.

“What?” I said to
Michael who was grinning like something about this shivaree was amusing.

He whipped that
cover off
that
cannon.
“Got us a
Gatlin gun.”

Well, I went
through several levels of disagreement in my mind. I wanted to point it at him,
first off, and see how it worked, or at least at the town of Rigsby. But then I kept moving to the sense
of it,
cause
there’s no fence in me, just ask Iris. Apparently
without the womenfolk I can just keep on going. So I got to this idea right
quick.

“How many rounds?”
I said.

“Hundred per
minute,” he said proudly.

“No. How many
rounds we got to go with it? I can’t hardly pick it up and hit somebody with
it, now can I?”

Sheriff spoke
then. “You got least six hundred.”

“
This the
original or the improved?”

“It’s the
original. It’s got that bore problem now and then but you
won’t
hardly
notice. Just hope to God you don’t have to use it…for if you
do…you’re in so much trouble already this here gun will be the least of your
worries.”

“Thanks for the
rousing speech,” I said. “How did you come up with it?”

He kept nodding.

“That’s what I
thought,” I said. “Well let’s get it in there.”

And that’s what
we did, rolled it up the ramp and kept the doors wide open on both sides of the
car and filled the box with all of our traveling show. I put Michael and Gaylin
on the gun. He was explaining the loading process to my brother. It would keep
his mind occupied at least, for he had been too quiet. I had sincerely
considered sending him into Rayetta, but I had corrupted him enough, to the
point where he would never again be the boy Ma delighted in. And also a bit of
jealousy overtook me at the last, so I gave the call of duty to Michael.

Sheriff promised
to ship our animals as soon as space was at the ready. “Protect that willy,” he
said.

“Looks like we’ll
be takin’ yours with us,” I replied. But we parted with at least a teaspoon of
camaraderie for he had held the prisoners and allowed us one night’s sleep, and
this here gun…it had merit.

The train was
headed to Greenup and ultimately Springfield.

I walked down the
line, passengers peering at me here and there, like I was someone special or
something. Well, I could be the one brought them trouble. I could be Satan all
they knew, bringing the whole retribution of the south on us.

I stepped up to
that big engine and introduced myself to the engineer. He was tall and
whip
skinny. I said, “You boys stop for nothing?”

He looked me up
and down and said, “You mayhap
be
law,” which was
arguable not that I told him, “but no one tells me how to run this train.”

I stared at him. I
didn’t feel the back-up I wanted to, but these skinny guys could fool you
sometimes. “You ever run this over a man?”

He crossed his
arms.
“Why you asking?”

“Wonderin’ how
likely you are to let some dowager stop us.”

“Had I been on
the line those bandits would not have robbed this train,” he
said,
his weapon on display.

“Hear tell they
got on in one of these bergs. What do you say we run clear to Greenup and don’t
stop ‘til we get there?
”

He spat a wad out
the window. “I say I work for the railroad and not you.”

“Then make sure
you don’t stop somewhere you ain’t supposed to. You get some scalawag waving
you down, just take him to glory, understand?” I could feel the beast rising in
me.

I walked back
down the line, ignoring those faces in the windows this time. I made it to the
back. William looked at me from on top. I nodded to him.
“See
that cannon?”
I said, even though it wasn’t
no
cannon.

He nodded. Well,
it had been hard to miss.