When East Met West

Molly

“Their behind us Molly!” Jamie yelled.

      I felt his cold cheek on my sternum and turned his head forward.

      “I know!” I said sternly, sounding like my mother.

      I flicked the reins one more time just to make sure the stallion was giving it everything he had. I had just glanced up at the north star when I risked a look back. Jamie was right, behind us was a gathering of six lanterns. Called them all did ya? I thought. Surprised I meant that much to ya Walton.  

      I began to see the ground in front of me when the first bit of light started to peak over the ridge beyond.

      I figured there was an ambush waiting. I just hoped Poland brought enough men that were better than Waltons. If there was one thing, I’d learned in my marriage to Walton it was that he knew two things, he knew how to pick his men and he knew how to teach’em to kill. I’d never seen them lose a fight even to my father and uncles when I’d first met them.

      Just as I thought that the first shot zipped by me, it must have hit the dirt close because I felt it brush my face. Jamie screamed and I whipped the reins harder.

      “Come on!”

Poland

I heard those shots, five of them. I’m not ashamed to admit it, but I was scared that day. When you live your whole life hoping to dispel evil when it rears its head and then meet it, and you’re shaking, you understand just why they call it that word. I’d been mid-drink of my canteen when the sixth shot echoed from the dark horizon. I heard a horse whiny and roar, it’d been shot or hurt, I knew that sound well.

      I started to wonder just then if this night would end with me screaming in agony. That’s not something a Marshal should be thinking about I know. But it seems to me that most people don’t quite understand what it’s like to be in danger. These Walton Boys were devious and certainly evil and had the capacity for cruelty that I’d never truly seen since the war.

      These boys inspire only fear and anger which they know how to take advantage of. They’ve been known to lure men into an ambush by creating some devilish art and getting them riled. Then gun them down when they come looking for the demons responsible.

      Laying that all out I suddenly felt stupid doing what I was doing. There were hoots and hollers now from the dark, I looked back at the sliver of orange starting to creep over the limestone ridge behind me. I’m gonna die out here, I thought. I just hoped maybe that German knew what he was doing.

      Molly

 The horse took a bullet right in the head. I’d grabbed Jaime’s collar a second after we’d hit the ground and yanked him along. I could see the meeting spot ahead and knew it couldn’t be more than a hundred yards. But I could hear Walton’s horses now, they were on us and close enough to hit us.

      “Molly! My book!” Jamie yelled reaching after the book that was stuck in the dirt like an arrow point.

      “I’ll buy you another! Now come on!” I yelled. God damnit if this boy wasn’t mine, I’d leave him here for-

      “Stop thinking like that,” I muttered shaking my head as we pushed ran through a bush.

      I should tell him I’m his mother before I die, I thought then. If the Marshal didn’t bring enough men to finish Walton and the boys off he should at the very least know that. 

      “You ain’t taking my boy whore!” Walton yelled, his voice echoing toward the rising sun. “I’ll find you where ever you go! You hear me, Molly Powers! You! Give! Me! My boy! Back!”

      Poland

 When I heard his voice, it sparked something. Suddenly that fear I felt was vanishing into an old flame I’d thought I’d lost.

      I ignored how the gun felt heavy now, how my knees stiffened as I stood up, or how I was tired from the hours I’d spent out here in the dark just waiting for Ms. Powers. God damnit I’m old. I was an old man about to face down a gang of seven and I didn’t stand a chance. Even if that German had a whole army with him, I wasn’t making it.

      Everything up until this point had felt like destiny at work if I’m being honest. It was just an ordinary day at the start, but then what happens? Molly Powers, the “devil’s siren” walks into my office and tells me a plan that I’m still not sure why I believed it.

      “You… want out?”

      “I do.”

      “Why?” I asked cautiously.

      “Because Marshal…I’m a mother now. I’ve been a mother for some time and I want to make sure my boy is raised right. Walton is an evil man and so are his men, they are raising my son to be like them and I won’t have it. So, I need them gone.”

      I laughed at her.

      “It’s adorable you think that’s how it all works. You lure men to be killed for five years and then you think because you finally pop out a kid of your own that entitles you to a life of safety and peace. What about all the ones you helped orphan? They get their parents back with this deal?”

      “I know I’ve done wrong Marshal, and that’s why I want to help you get them.”

      “Well excuse me for not trusting a woman who makes a living off of fooling men.”

      “I couldn’t fool you; I know that and you know that. Unless the stories I’ve heard about the Hawk from the North are just a bunch of bullshit.”

      I hated that name, down here it might be mysterious but to me, it was like hearing a bad violin player to my ears. Eventually, I’d come around, not because I trusted her but because I deducted a lot of inaccuracies in this plan if it was a plan. I didn’t see why they’d be so hell-bent on killing me or robbing me given the fact I had nothing and no one to pay a ransom.

But after Ms. Powers left, and said she was gonna try and run with or without me as part of it I decided it was worth it to see it through. But there was an issue, where the hell was I gonna get ten good shots to take on the Walton Gang? It was a daunting idea; I was too old and not the shot I used to be. But as I sat in the saloon in town pondering over a list of people to ask, I was suddenly surprised when the problem solved itself.

      Molly

      Poland was standing there all by himself. I remember my heart dropping and thinking, oh my god…I AM GONNA DIE. I’d been only playfully teasing my inner worries before but in that moment, I thought this man was stupid enough to come all by himself and try to take on the gang.

      “Are you kidding me!” I yelled at him. “You didn’t bring anyone!”

      I stumbled up to him, gasping for breath, my face all covered in dirt. Jamie was coughing like he had a cold and wiped his nose. The marshal just stood there looking at both of us with a relaxed rifle in his arms.

      “Well?! You goddamn fool! You know they ain’t just gonna kill you. They gonna string you up and have a horse pull your innards out of you!”

      He wasn’t listening, he looked nervous, but he wasn’t listening. He looked over my shoulder then, his back stiffened and he let out a slow breath.

      “Guess we’ll see.”

      I heard the horses behind me, and all my urge to run was suddenly drained like a cold rush down my body. Poland seemed content, which I interrupted as that confidence some men get when faced with death. I guess they think they can beat it, but I ain’t seen a single person beat the death called Walton Carver. I turned around and sure enough there he was, mounted with the dark backdrop of the west. His gang trotted up around him.

      “Told you I’d find you, Molly,” he said.

      He looked at the Marshal and tipped his hat.

      “Poland.”

      “Mr. Carver.”

      There was a short hiss that came out of Walton, he looked at the two of us like he almost pitied it.

      “Jamie, come over here now.”

      I put my hand on the boy’s- my sons’ chest.

      “He ain’t going anywhere with you.”

      “He can either walk past you or walk over your corpse Molly. Which is it gonna be?”

      “I’d prefer he’d walk past yours.”

      Poland

      Walton was closest, that worked best for me as I knew I’d get him if it came to it. I didn’t glance in any direction other than at them, whatever the German’s plan was I didn’t want them to have wind of it.

      “You have anything to do with this?” Walton asked me.

      I shook my head.

      “You’re a brave man, Molly has a way of persuading even them as I’ve come to find out, bet she gave you quite a performance.”

      “Gave you a better one,” Molly said, and his eyes looked back down at her. “Five years, I pretended to love you, Walton. Be only yours, and you fell for it.”

      “I knew you have been having other men dummy, I didn’t care.”

      “But you don’t know about them…”

      Ms. Powers opened her hands wide to the gang like a bible preacher.

      Slowly, Waltons smirk vanished to a dead stare.

      “All of them Walton…every one of them.”

      I had to admit I didn’t quite understand the tactic, perhaps Molly was just trying to get him all relied up, sew distrust in them, either way, I thought it’d get us to heaven faster.

      Walton looked uncomfortable, suddenly all his men looked like they’d fallen ill. That was worth coming out here at the very least.

      “What?” Molly teased. “You didn’t know?”

      “She’s lying boss!” one of them yelled.

      “Oh no, I ain’t. Zeke had me only last week so I could afford that horse he shot me off of. He’s such a sweet lover ya know,”-

      “-Shut your whore mouth.”

      “You know Jamie ain’t even your kid…I think he’s a banker's back west…but it could also be Everett’s. I had him just for fun after all you’d gone to sleep, snuck into his tent, and had him riled up before he was even awake-,”

      “-boss she ain’t telling the truth! I never touched her!”

      “But O’Neal, ohhh.”

      Frankly, Ms. Powers was making me uncomfortable now. But it occurred to me then that maybe this was her plan. And to her credit the sound of a woman in pleasure she made turned all the eyes on her.

      “Oh boy! Before the law caught him, he was my go-to ride! I had him more than any other man and my word! Walton, he made you look like a worm!”

      Suddenly, Walton pulled his iron from its holster. It was so fast I didn’t even see it and my heart sank as all her stalling suddenly boiled to nothing.

      “I’ll blow that tongue out your mouth, you cock sucking, freeloading cunt”-

      Walton fell forward on his horse like he’d suddenly decided to take a nap. Then a second later a shot rang out. All his men jumped and looked off into the desert.

      “What the”-

      “It’s a goddamn ambush!”-

      Zeke then fell back words on his horse, his brains scattered the dirt below in a fine pink mist, and then the shot rang out again. At that moment the horses started to scare, the men drew their weapons and I raised mine. I took one off his horse before I grabbed Ms. Powers and flung her down in the dirt next to the boy.

      “Stay down!” I yelled as shots started to ring out.

      I turned and started to work my lever action.

      The German 

The first man was easy. A big brute, with a pumpkin-sized head. Shooting him was like shooting the Holstiens back home. As soon as he fell, I switched to the next target, a skinny little man now. Ooh, a much harder target to hit! But then he pivoted and faced my direction. Grrr! Too easy! I got him in the head.

      I have to admit I was frustrated that there was almost no sport in this at all. None of them tried to get off their horses to seek cover, or even pinpoint my location. These are dangerous men?

      I cleaned two more off their horses as they tried to ride away. One more that was riding in my direction unknowingly. The last one had ridden far off nearly outside my scope's range. Finally, some type of difficulty. I breathed, went through my motions of calm, remembered to blink to stop the blurriness, and I put my crosshairs on the speck and… knallen! I waited, withheld breath, the ringing in my ears. I thought maybe I should take another shot. It took a moment given the distance between us, the degree of wind, my ability for impatience, and the grain of bullet…oop…I saw the speck fall to the dirt, more pink mist. 

      Then I sighted in on the woman. She’d risen and was looking at the wandering horses. The flyer in my pocket said she was a member of the gang yet the Marshal had said no to her. That all of this wouldn’t be possible without her. I’d asked him why as I said in that pub with him back in town. He’d explained that she’d lured the men out here. But hadn’t she lured other men as well? Something poked me. It was Pooches, he was purring and rubbing his head into my elbow. It was strange, it was as if he was trying to remind me of something.

      “What? We could go so far…think of all the tuna!”

      But I looked into his eyes, and I could hear my mother’s voice behind me. Promise me, you will never let your word mean nothing. I had given this Marshal my word the woman would not meet my bullets. It was a hard and bitter thing to fight back. Finally, I dropped my rifle and picked up Pooches.

      “I really hate you.”

      He purred.

      I smiled.

      “Ok maybe not that much.”

      Molly

When only one man came walking out of the desert, I remember feeling for the first-time genuine fear for a man who wasn’t Walton. He had a rifle with what looked like a tube on top of it slung over his shoulder and a satchel on his side. A cat’s head hung over its edge.

      “Are these all the members?” he asked in an accent I didn’t recognize.

      I looked at Poland, he was staring at the bodies lying around like he wasn’t sure what had just happened. Then up at the man.

      “Yea I reckon so,” he finally said cautiously.

      The man took off his flat cap and walked over to Waltons body. He was slumped over his horse. The man tilted his head at the scene, took a few steps back, and then sat in the dirt. He pulled out the cat which looked at me with these deadeyes. He pulled a journal out and flipped through it. I noticed he pasted portraits of dead people, men, women, even children. My legs suddenly locked up, my skin turned cold, and I was afraid to move too quick around him yet at the same time had an urge to run away. On a blank page, he started to sketch.

      “Jamie,” I said. “Come here please.”

      He came over and I pulled him tight to me, my eyes glued to the drawing he was making. Then slowly to the cat.

      “Ms. Powers?” Poland said.

      I looked over at him, but there was a tingle that grew on the back of my head.

      Poland was clutching his reins tighter than usual. And he looked far from a legendary lawman.

      “Come on Jamie,” I said and pushed him along.

      “Who is that man Marshal?” I whispered.

      He lifted Jamie and put him on the horse, and turned back to me with a nervous swallow.

      “Marshal!” the German called over before he answered.

      Both of us froze up before we turned. He faced us, his eyes dead on, but his hand still sketching Walton.

      “You will leave the money in my hotel room as discussed.”

      Poland nodded quickly, then brought around another horse and mounted.

I rode with Jaime.

      “Bye kitty,” Jamie yelled with a wave.

      “Hush now,” I hissed at him as we rode away.

      We didn’t talk for the longest time, not until the man was out of sight. And I felt like I could breathe again.

      “Marshal?”

      He didn’t answer me.

      “Poland?”

      “Hmm?” he said, I could see he was somewhere else.

      “Who was that man?”

      “I don’t know, Ms. Powers. But he did as he was asked, and made sure the lot of us got out of there. I don’t care to know more than that.”

      Seeing Poland scared wasn’t something that sat well with me. Poland was good at heart and I knew that. But that man back there, he wasn’t. I don’t know if he was bad either. But I knew I’d never met a man like that before. A man who could kill six without them ever seeing him. He’d turned Walton’s gang into a bunch of scared coyotes being hunted, and he’d done it all with a rotting cat in his satchel.