The Last Ride of Cole Cody

Cole Cody had been on the rodeo circuit for nearly ten years with very little success. He was barely able to make enough prize money to cover his expenses. But he loved the challenge and being associated with other cowboys and the women who followed them around. Cole wasn’t famous enough to have his pick of women like some of the other more successful bull and bronco riders. Although it didn’t mean he had to sleep alone every night. 

   His body had taken a beating and he was considering retirement when he started winning some serious prize money and building a good enough reputation to have the media asking him for interviews. In fact, he was able to qualify for the National Bull Riding Championship Rodeo held in Las Vegas each year. Throughout the entire event Cole avoided being eliminated and won the Championship Title of “Worlds Best Bull Rider.” Along with the once in a lifetime prize money he also won a brand-new Cadillac Denali SUV with all the add premium options, including a trailer hitch for him to pull his combination camper and horse trailer. 

   Before heading back home to Wyoming, he decided to drive out on a dessert highway just to see how fast his new Caddy would go. And boy did it go! He was hitting 110 miles an hour when suddenly, out of nowhere, appeared a dust storm in front of him. 

   Between the storm coming at him at a high rate of speed and his own speeding Cadillac, Cole wasn’t able to close the rolled down windows fast enough. In a split second his new SUV was consumed with dust and sand burning his eyes, nose and throat. He blindly pulled off the road and stopped, but because his eyes were so full of dust and grit he couldn’t get them open. He reached for the bottle of water he wisely brought with him and doused the water over his brow letting the water wash down into his eyes to clear all the gunk which had collected under his eyelids. 

   When his vision began to return he found himself inside an 1870s stagecoach. Due to the storm raging around outside, it was not moving. Seated next to him was a woman in a red and white checkered dress that was tightly buttoned around her neck and covered her entire body from her head to her buttoned shoes. Her face was completely covered with a bandana and her head was covered with a bonnet made from the same material as her dress. She also wore white kidskin gloves. At least they were white in the past but had turned a brownish yellow over time. 

   On the other side of Cole was a skeleton dressed as an old west cowboy with a Stetson hat, vest and chaps. His boots were worn and dusty and adorned with rusty spurs. Three other skeletons were seated across from Cole. All were similarly attired and two of them had holstered pistols on their hips.

   “Where the hell am I?” Cole shouted. There was no response. Cole followed up with “How in Hell did I get here?” Still no response. He thought about jumping out but realized that he would surely suffocate in the storm. “What is this place?” he cried out. Still no response. 

   Suddenly the woman spoke in a feeble voice that was nearly inaudible. “You need to kiss me.”

   “What?” Cole couldn’t quite believe what he heard but was glad that the woman was not a skeleton like the other passengers in the stagecoach.

   The woman repeated, “You need to kiss me.” 

   Totally bewildered, Cole looked around at the other passengers. All of them appeared to be smiling. Then it struck him, all skeletons look like they are smiling. He screamed out again, “How do I get out of here?”

   “You need to kiss me.” The woman answered. 

   “This is too weird; I must be dreaming or already dead from the storm.” He thought. “And why is this woman saying that I need to kiss her?”

The woman’s voice became louder, “You need to kiss me.”

   Cole finally asked her, “Why the hell should I kiss you?”

   “It’s the only way out.” She replied. 

   Cole shot back. “What if I don’t kiss you?”

   There was a long silence before she spoke again. “The other passengers on this stagecoach refused to kiss me. You need to kiss me!”

   Beginning to understand that the only way out of this mess was to kiss the woman and instructed her to remove the bandana. 

   “You remove it.” She demanded. 

   Cole reached around and tugged on the bandana to pull it down, but it would not budge at first. It was as if it was glued to the woman’s face. When he yanked harder it slid down exposing the face of the ugliest beast he had ever seen. He wasn’t even sure it was a woman. Her skin was a charcoal grey. Her eyes were set deep into her skull and seemed to glow. A hooked nose with deep blood lines crisscrossing the entire surface, protruded from between the eyes. Her lips were blistered and cracked and what teeth she had left were broken and rotting. Cole could feel himself retching from the sight of the beast. He closed his eyes and back away.

   “You need to kiss me now.” The woman insisted. 

   “I must be dead and gone to hell.” Cole thought. Then he began to feel a chill. 

   “You need to kiss me before it’s too late!” she shouted. “Or you will end up like the others.”

   He began to remember some of the women he had slept with that were anything but pretty, but this beast is nothing he had ever seen. He began to feel colder, hinting that he didn’t have long to decide what to do. He leaned toward the woman, puckered up and opened his eyes. She reached around to the back of his head and pressed her swollen lips to his. They were hot, but they seem to be warming his whole body. She held his head so that he could not move away. His eyes still open the woman began to change. Her face color turned creamy; her eyes turned blue; her nose shrunk and cleared of blood lines and her lips began to soften and smooth. In fact, she began to remind him of his high school sweetheart. Cole could feel himself actually enjoying the moment. At that point he closed his eyes and embraced the woman and held her tight. When he opened them again, the storm had cleared and he was in his brand-new Cadillac with a beautiful woman in his arms. 

   The skeletons and clothing had all turned to dust and with the windows still open a slight breeze blew the dust out of the vehicle. The only things left were the two pistols and a set of rusted spurs which the beautiful woman collected and placed them into pockets in her dress.

   Cole was too stunned to speak. 

   The woman than smiled and looked at Cole lovingly and said, “I am your guardian angel, Cole. I have come to warn you about your life as a rodeo cowboy. You are riding high right now because you are the world champion bull rider, but I am here to tell you that the next bull you ride will kill you and I won’t be there for you to kiss your way back to life. The passenger door opened and she stepped out. As she walked away she seemed to fade into the bright sunlight. 

   Cole turned his Cadillac back toward Las Vegas, hitched his trailer to the SUV, loaded his horse, his saddle and other belonging into the trailer and left for Wyoming. With his winnings he bought a small ranch, hung his big, buckled trophy belt over the mantel and married his high school sweetheart, promising her to never ride another bull as long as he lived.