"Don't know," he said.
"You guys never know anything. You didn't even ask anyone," said Lily as she scuffed dirt in the ground. "How do you expect to get anything done? Where are you going Buddy?" Asked Lily as she continued her exploration of the dirt around her.
(((From this point forward Lily is just Lily No more special names.)))
Back in New Hope, Cavendish showed Luis and any others that had stayed in the coach into his office. "D'you know, I have offices in nearly every city in the midwest. Just about any small town that's been turned into an actual dot on the map was my doing, to some extent. This place is my next project. See these ranches here?", he asked, pointing to a map of the region on the wall. "Five of the biggest cattle producers this side of the border. Now, my idea is to turn New Hope into a sort of... How to put this... A place where the ranchers can send their herds to be weighed, counted, that kind of thing, in order to determine their selling value before they drive them on to the rail heads. As you probably know, everything in modern Texas revolves around one animal--the longhorn. It's a big business, Pasillas. And I'm inviting you to be in on the deal."
Lily didn't wait for a reply as she dashed away from him. Her Native American beliefs are going to be cast away from her in her journey to freedom. No more being a shadow and all that jazz she was going on her own. Saddling up she rode her hosre into the sunset to New Hope to see what would await her there as the ex-sheriff's girl she has now become.
Note: Ex-sheriff's girl is not a nick name!!!
Buddy nodded. "New Hope sounds like just the place to find a cure for this fever..." he noticed Lily, the lost shadow, mount up and ride out of the camp, and continued.
"And, besides all that, someone's going to have to look out for THAT little girl too... sheriff's daughter on a rebel streak, could be loads of fun.. and trouble!" he smiled, excited by the prospects and possibilities that now awaited, in New Hope and beyond.
"Let's ride..." he mounted up his trusty new horse, "Twenty-Two, nice to meet you... HE-YAW!!" then he was off, trailing Lily, in her shadow, in her dust, into the setting sun...
"Here comes the new Lily Sanders!" shrieked Lily in a voice not her own. She wanted to be more loud, more sure, more everything she once was as a girl. But being the sheriff's daughter limited her. "But first we gotta search that town out of even the garbage for a cure for Catori. Every garabge can mind. Not missing a single one."
Looking behind her she spied Buddy like she thought sge would and grinned wide. "My pa ain't controllin' my life no more. I'm going out!" With that she spurred her horse until they reached the out skirts of the overflowing New Hope. "Ain't it perty?" She asked before she dove into that town with Budyy behind her.
Buddy wondered if Lily had dipped into the Comanche firewater or something... it was good to see such fire in her, since the fire had drained out fo Catori, but it was dangerous, and Buddy knew the dangers.
"...created a monster..." he huffed, kicking his heels and clicking his tongue, spurring Twenty-Two after Lily, into the town.
"Huh?" asked Lily as she slided into town and stopped where Luis's horse was parked. She stopped her horse and tied it up next to Luis's. The crusty bright red buildings had boarded up windows and doors had vaious locks on them. Wanted posters were strewn everywhere of a man who looked like Luis. "What's going on?"
Buddy rode into town under a cloud of cautious suspicion. The sheriff may or may not have gotten wind of his son's death, but he no doubt still held some grudges against Reno's Renegades, for the jailbreak and the unsolved murders in town...
He wished Lily had been more discreet in her approach into town, and, upon seeing the welcome Luis was receiving, all the WANTED posters and all, Buddy's thoughts reverted immediately to 'RETREAT'...
...this would not go good, he decided. But, he had to get to the mercantile (there is no doctor established in town yet) to look for fever remedies. Catori's life meant more than his own freedom; he had to do something to help!
Determined, he rode to the mercantile shop, dismounted and tied off Twenty-Two out front, in plain sight of the whole population.
"Can I help you, Sir?" the red-headed, freckled faced boy greeted as the bell rung on the mercantile door when Buddy entered.
"Uhh... you work here, son?" Buddy asked, curious. "Where's the shopkeep--" he recalled the murder of the man in the alley too late, and stopped himself short.
"My Pa's dead..." the boy explained, "Ma's busted up over it, but I aim to git those sumbitches who done it... meantime, I gotta keep the store up for Ma, and keep to my studyin' and cypherin' so I can run my own store some day, like Pa!"
"Well, well..." Buddy smiled down on the lad. "You do keep a fine store, boy... and, I'm sorry about your father... damn shame what happened to him. No man should be murdered for penny candy profit..."
The boy shook off a tear, and looked at the floor. "Name's Bennett Sisco... folks call me Li'l Ben... call out if there's anything you need..." he shuffled to the counter and returned to his studies, while Buddy scanned the shelves for fever remedies.
Lily hurried into a clothes shop to get Catori bedclothes and washclothes to mop anything with the fever up. You should aways be prepared for anything. Getting 5 washclothes, 2 bedsheets, and a new night gown she got out of the shop. Looking over town she went to Buddy's horse and said, "Got the supplies. That's accomplished." She sighed as the sun started to beat down on her.
Buddy spent his last $3 on powders and liquids and pills all labelled some form of remedy for headache, fever, chill, or ache, and blankets.
Lastly, he saw a beautiful white glass rose, so delicate, so precious, so much like Catori.
"How much for the flower?" he asked.
"Uhhm, that's a special piece..." Ben tried to sound grown up, like he heard his Pa talk all the time. "Shipped all the way from across the ocean... from France or Inguland, or some place exotic like that..."
Buddy smiled at the child's attempt to tout the object's value.
"It's $4, not one penny less!" Ben demanded, though his expression was more curious question than determined salesmanship. "Uhh, would that be OK, Sir?"
"Ummm.. that sounds reasonable enough..." Buddy agreed, and the boy grinned from ear to ear. "Ma would be so proud..." Little Ben thought. "I don't have any more money, though, so.."
Buddy looked in his vest pockets and came up empty. Then, he was inspired, and slid his shiny gold-brown-barrelled pistol from its holster on his hip.
Ben gasped, his eyes big as saucers, and he ducked from his stool, behind the counter where there came a loud clatter and crash. Buddy peered over the counter, at Ben, who was struggling under the weight of a shotgun.
"Sumbitchen thief!" Ben bawled. "I'll show ya..."
Buddy shook his head at the boy, sliding the pistol across the counter.
"I want you to hold this, as collateral, against my purchase of the flower... you know what collateral is, boy?"
"It means if you don't come back to pay for the rose, I get to keep your gun, find you and shoot you with it..." Ben explained, from what little he understood about how finance, loans, credit and collateral worked.
"Close enough!" Buddy nodded. "Do we have a deal then, Sir?"
"Deal!" Ben nodded, sliding the pistol from the counter and looking at it in awe. "WOW! A real LeMat Percussion 9.. no, 10 shot Revolver... I only ever seen these in sales catalogs 'til now! These were in the Revolution! Were you there?! This is so neat!"
Buddy didn't look THAT old... did he? He collected the delicate glass flower and his other purchases, and the bullets from the revolver he left behind, and left the store.
Ben Sisco followed Buddy outside, talking about guns and war and all that neat stuff... then, he saw Lily Sanders, and stopped talking altogether!
o 😱 in_love
Greg, who had been at the door of the shop smiled at the boy. He would turn out ok. He was already more of a man then most teens. Greg stepped up to the counter and handed the boy money. "Here kid, I'll pay for the rose." Taking the gun, he handed it back to Buddy. "Something tells me you will need this eventually. And besides, I owe you. You have given me the time of my life so far." Greg knew Buddy didn't need charity, and wanted to buy the rose for Catori himself, but he would need the weapon. Before Buddy could speak, Greg spoke again. "If it makes you feel better, you can pay me back later."
((it works out...))
Buddy looked from Greg to the boy, and nodded and shrugged.
Little Ben was hardly in any position to argue, his mouth was dropped open, but no sound came out, his eyes glazed over and the little flush in his cheeks dripped away in the form of tiny little red hearts as he watched Lily tend to the supplies in her horse's saddlebags.
"Huh? Oh... mm--yes.. money will do fine, Sirs..." he babbled.
"Sorry sonny-boy." Buddy smiled, reloading his 10-shot revolver. "Maybe some day, if you're still around and your Mother approves, I'll show you how to shoot it... "
Little Ben Sisco blushed and looked at his feet.
"You look like a china doll..." he whispered quietly, kicking at the step to the mercantile. "Like my Pa keeps on the high shelf, so it don't get dirty or broke from mishandlin'... like Mr. Buddy's glass rose flower... only... more... real more purtyer than all that put together!"
OK OK.. he was babbling.
"Uhhh... Momma's callin' me.. I best get back to my cypherin' and runnin' the store..." he stomped up the steps in a mad dash, like a teen in trouble, then stopped on the top step, and turned around, like the young man his Pa would have wanted him to be.
"You have a nice day, ma'am... Sirs... come back and see us again..."
then he was gone, into the store once more.
*I know this is out of place, sorry*
Kio was glad the white men were gone. He walked into Catori's tent. He knelt beside her and gemtly brushed some stray strands of hair out of her face. He smiled. She was not as hot as she had been when he saved her from that horrid white man.
Catori felt a tender touch and slowlly opened her eyes. Seeing Miko she turned her head. "Where is Buddy?" she asked in comanche. Miko frowned. How could she be worried about HIM? He sighed. "New Hope, looking for a cure."
((It's not out of place... it's just what Catori is doing while everyone else is away... it's kinda fitting, we should know what's going on, even if we can't act on it, and as long as we DON'T act on it, since none of us are there... it still fits, very good 🙂 ))
(well, except for that mangy Comanche putting his hands on my woman!! 😠 fyouthumbdown 😱