I walked into the saloon around sundown, after an argument with my former boss Batokk, admittedly angry so I sat down and ordered a whiskey neat, the way I always enjoyed it. After a few rounds I saw Willy Barron walk in from the side door headed to the kitchen. I made my way behind the counter and into small kitchen in the back without the barkeep seeing me. “Willy, how’d you get out?”
“The Sheriff let me out, he told me to come get my stuff, and get out of town, before anything got to bad.” He replied grabbing for a brown leather bag that was sitting by the prep table. “He said hell's coming to Gods Valley, and he can’t stop it.”
“Hell’s coming?” I retorted with a small chuckle “Willy, Hell’s already here, do you want to help me get rid of it?”
“I don’t follow” He responded while shifting his head slightly to the side. “ What do you mean?”
“Callahan, they can’t be allowed to keep treating people like that, don’t you agree?”
“Maybe, but what am I gonna do about it?”
“How many people they got working there against their will?”
“A hundred or more”
“Then we got men, we can free them, and get your horse back”
“Murder?” he asked looking towards the ground, not sure if he wanted to join or not.
“Revenge, make them pay for treating men like animals.” I retorted extending my hand for a shake. Reluctantly he grabbed it, and we went back to my room atop the saloon to talk about the plan.
Through our conversation, I learned that they had a hand house on the back forty, that housed all of their “Hands” slept at. on the way back there though were watchmen near the fields, that where armed with rifles and near each post was a bell to let out a warning if there was any danger. In front of the hand house was a group of guards no less than ten men, who stayed between the separate hand houses. Basically unless you had someone stupid enough to distract the guards on the other side away from the houses, you wasn’t getting back there, not to mention we didn’t even know if anyone would be able to fight back, after all the Callahans had an army.
Luckily for me though, I know someone just dumb enough to do it. The next morning I waited outside the Jail for Ricky. Like clockwork he was there ready to go find some drunken asshole to bring back. “How’s it going bud?” I asked.
“You know word is your about to do something real dumb” He said looking at me with knowing eyes, probably the first time he ever really knew anything to tell the truth.
“You want to help?” I asked.
“Maybe, depends what I got to do.”
“Simple, you take your pistol, and some kerosene, and you torch the west field at the Callahan’s place. I’ll do the rest”
“What, I’m supposed to fight an army by myself?” He inquired raising his right eyebrow.
“No, hope is they won’t see you.” I explained. “Just set the fire and haul ass, but if the pistol is just to defend your self if you have no choice.”
“Usually, I wouldn’t ask, but why?”
“It’s not right what their doing to these people, we’re no better if we leave them be.” I responded looking him dead in the eyes as menacingly as I could.
“Fuck, I’m gonna be an outlaw, ain’t I?”
“Laws that befall man ain’t for us to live by”
“OK, I’m in, when do I do it”
“Tonight at sundown meet me and our other accomplice near the west gate, at the end of that road at least.”
For most of the day I went around gathering supplies like: bullets, kerosene, and matches.
While I had Willy patrol around the outer edge of the plantation to see if anyone showed up to warn, the Callahans of the attack. As night time came we met at the rally point near the western gate. Ricky showed up carrying a silver looking pistol on his side and Willy was sure no one had entered the plantation, at least from the west, aside from the typical wagons delivering and picking up supplies from the farm.
“So, Ricky, I need you to take this kerosene and douse the far end of the tobacco field with it then set it a blaze. After that haul ass and get out of there the guards will not think twice they’ll kill you.” I ordered.
“OK, sounds easy enough, what do I do if they catch up?”
“Kill em!” Willy interjected. “Make no mistake even if they don’t kill you there, they will make you regret being born.”
I nodded my head in agreement “ Willy and I, we’ll make our way to the hand houses. With you distraction, we should be able to get everyone out, once everyone’s out, we will come and get you, to bring you in with the rest of the party.”
“Well if were going to do it, lets go!” exclaimed Willy as he hoisted himself over the wooden fence.
I quickly followed suit and so did Ricky then Willy and I went our separate ways from our slightly touched ally disappearing into the thick field of corn. As we crept to the edge of the corn field we saw the smoke, and soon the blaze from the far side of the nearby tobacco field. We heard Ricky yelling “COME GET ME, YOU SLIMY BASTARDS!” Then we saw the guards begin running towards the inferno. This was our Que to move forward.
We soon got to the Hand houses unmolested, I leaned around seeing all ten of the guards standing on high alert, trying to defend their “workers”. I told willy to sneak behind the water tub, where the guards, would water their horses, while I made my way stealthily behind the far house. Once I was behind the house I heard the first shot ring out from Ricky’s position, then another at this point it was to late the battle had begun.
I leaned around the corner, and shot the first guard closest to me in the head, and grazing the one beside him in the right leg. Willy started firing at the same time instantly killing two of them, and wounding another send him falling into the campfire that rested between them. I saw one of the other guards shoot that one in the head to end his pain. I then resumed my cover, to reload. Then I heard a rustling at Willy’s location, I peaked around firing shots to distract, while killing one of the other guards, but I was now out of ammo. I could see Willy getting up after his hand to hand tussle with one of the men. I had no choice, with no ammunition left, I charged the four remaining guards. With my knife. They raised their rifles to attack and one fired, I felt the bullet pierce my right shoulder, but I had to keep running, Lunging myself into his chest throwing us both to the ground, and stabbing him in the heart, before rolling over into position to fight. While that was happening I saw Willy grab one of the others by the throat with his knife placed on his artery.
“Put down your guns or he dies!” He said with a hatred I had never seen in his eyes.
The men placed their weapons down, and I tied them to a hitching post near the cabin to our left. Willy and I then decided we would split up and gather the people from each house. I walked in and I saw people sleeping in bunk beds, with barely enough room to move around. I began to speak, but before I could a large dark skinned man with arms the size of cannons grabbed me by my collar “Who are you and what do you want?” He asked in an understandably aggressive tone.
I told him why I was there and my name, he looked at me very sternly, as if to get me to be intimidated, and change my reasoning.
“Why would you want to help us?” He asked, not buying my story.
“Well you see, my dad fought in the war to free people from these types of bonds, I feel like it;s my duty to make sure his and others sacrifices weren’t in vain.”
“I don’t trust you, but what ever you got planned, can’t be any worse than this right here.”
With that we headed outside; Big man behind me and everyone else behind him. We met in the area between the two Houses, and decided to make a run for it to the wood line across the stream behind the far house. Once we where in the woods the big man and I decided to go alone to try and rescue Ricky, but as we got closer the gun shots stopped, we could hear Ricky crying in pain. We crawled up in the tall grass seeing two men staying near our friend writhing in pain. We thought it would be best if I where to sneak up behind the man that was nearest to us while Henry, the big man, would move as close as he could without being heard and tackle the other.
Once they where dealt with we carried Ricky to a wheel barrow, and Henry noticed the wound on my shoulder, “Let me push him” he ordered.
“no arguments here” I retorted, as we started moving back to the woods to reconnect with the group.
When the group was all together we agreed that we couldn’t stay near by and began to press on through the wilderness. It would take until the sun came up the next day, before we saw the first road, but we decided given or circumstances we should continue through the woods now heading east. I wouldn’t see much of the rest of the trip, because I passed out from my wounds.
When I woke up I was alone in a hut made from sticks and straw, A rag was around my right shoulder, held on by a belt. The belt was worn leather with a B on the buckle that rested on top of my shoulder, obviously this was Willy’s. I climbed out of the hut feeling every movement the pain ripped through my shoulder. Outside the tent I saw several other huts, much like the one I climbed out of making a semicircle around a large campfire. There where people sitting around on logs, and things, and children singing. These where sounds I was happy to hear again.
I hobbled over to the fire, not sure how to walk again yet. Hanging over the fire was a cast iron pot filled with gumbo and beside it was a table with bowls. I grabbed a bowl, and sat down on a log that was near the blaze. Just then I felt hand on my back “How ya feeling?” said Willy as he stepped over the log and sat beside me.
“Like I just fought a war”
“Nah, just a battle, my friend” he said taking a sip of coffee out of a tin mug. “this is the war, trying to restart”
“What about the Callahan’s, won’t they find us?” I asked
“Maybe, but Junior and the boys will let us know if anyone shows up.” He responded taking another large gulp. “Not to mention were at the bottom of a large bluff with lots of tree coverage.”
“We can’t just stay here, what will we do in the winter?”
“We where waiting on you to wake up before we talked to much on that, but we have enough resources to stay here, we just got to put in work to do it, otherwise our only option is to turn ourselves in to the Callahans and by now they’re gonna hang us both.”
“True enough, what do we got, what do we need?”
“Lets take a walk.” he said moving his head to the side and placing his cup down.
We headed out through a gap in the tents, where we could barley see a river through the forest.
We turned and headed up a steep incline using trees to climb, the whole way loudly crashing through leaves once at the top Willy looked at me with a smile “It’s perfect isn’t it” he said. we couldn’t see the massive collection of huts down below, they where hidden by trees, and the ones that weren’t where hard to see because of the way the straw and stick blended in, the only real problem, was you could see straight to the fire in the middle.
“Yeah as perfect as we can get, but if we’re going to make a home here, we’ll need a plan, and some sort of rule of law.”
“Trust me that thought ain’t lost on any of us” he said looking at me with some hint of admiration that I really didn’t understand. “They don’t know you, but you and I both know this wouldn’t be possible without you.”
“Maybe, but you didn’t have any small part in that yourself, not to mention they do know you.” I responded shrugging off his suggestion “I would vote for you, and so would everyone of them.”
“Damn it, Vern, I couldn’t have planned that attack out the way you did we need your mind.”
“Then you’ll have it, but you can’t walk away from your responsibility to them, I know you brought us here, and you will lead us here. I’ll be your adviser, but first things first where’s Ricky.”
“Follow me” He said hanging his head low. As we walked closer to the river I began to fear the worst. We kept walking down the bank and off to the side in a small clearing I could see a cross it was then I knew he didn’t make it. My throat started to swell, and as we walked up to it my knees gave out. I could feel the tears streaming down my face as every thought that ran through my mind was how I made this young man give his life. I felt ashamed of what I had done.
I was kneeling at his grave for a few moments before I felt Willy put his hand on my shoulder.
“I know what your thinking” He said holding back tears of his own.
“What, How it’s my fault, I could have stopped it” I said feeling angry and hateful towards myself.
“How, Vern, how could you stop it, you did everything you could.” Willy said like he was angry with me for saying what I said.
“If I was better, I could have saved him” I said feeling more angry than ever, this anger wouldn’t leave and I know it. “These people deserve more than this, I’ll make sure that anyone who has to fight beside me will have every tool to survive.”
“How you gonna do that?”
“I’ll tell you get your people together, let’s have our meeting.”
We went back to the camp, and within an hour we had a group of people standing together in the center. Willy introduced each of us to each other. He started with a beautiful ebony woman, with long braided hair. “This is my gorgeous wife Kala Barron, she knows a good deal of medicine from working as the doctors assistant on the plantation.” He turned to a short lean man with a rifle on his back, and a knife on his side. “This man is Junior Hendrix, he’s been a hunter since he was a small boy, he’s more than equipped to gather food, and ensure no one who isn’t supposed to be here doesn’t get to far.” Then looking at a short and plump older woman, “This is Layla Mortine she’s the best damn cook you ever seen.” He then introduced a petite old woman, “ This is my aunt Audrey Stampley, what can I say she’s got the greenest thumb in the country, she can help by building and maintaining a farm. He then introduced Henry as the head logger, and me as a strategic advisor, and defense coordinator.
“What about carpentry, what do we do? We need people to build with the lumber we gather.” Henry asked after the introductions.
“I suppose you could head up the carpenters as well, you’ve always had an eye for that sort of thing.” responded Willy.
We decided that Miss. Kala would take four teenagers to teach medicine. Mr. Junior would take seven boy’s and men to help hunt, and patrol the perimeter. Miss. Layla would take seven boys and girls, and teach them to cook, and prepare food for the group and Miss. Audrey would take six people to learn to forage. Henry would take fifty three men to the log woods, and carpentry projects. Finally I would take twenty young men to teach tactical tricks, and combat, we would use these skills to procure goods and needed medicines in anyway we needed to. We placed Willy as our Chief Officer his job was mostly as a figure head, and to make sure that every action we made as a people was agreed upon, he was supposed to be a mediator in times of distress, and a person that could do more than most to calm the crowd when things got tense.
The next morning we called everyone to the campfire. Willy would give a speech that would set our course for the future of our small community.
“Hello everyone, my name as most of you know is William Barron, For years we toiled under the oppressive arm of the Callahan family, most of us have never known anything else. Today we stand together free from them”. The crowd cheered so loudly Willy had to wait for a moment to continue. “I know this seems hard and it is, but we’ve known harder, together we can make a strong community one based on love, and acceptance.” He gestured for us, the members of the counsel to step forward. He introduced us one by one, and explained that we would be leading each faction of workers. He explained that if we tried to overstep the bounds of humane behavior that our workers should let it be known to him, and the problem would be resolved, he told them each of our jobs, and to speak with which ones of us they wanted to work for, we knew how many we could take on, so we stuck to it. By the end of the night we were ready to turn our camp into a little town.
This is not a story for the faint of heart. This is a story of pain, betrayal and heart ache.
This is my story. The story of Vern Harris, The devil of Gods Valley.
It all started on a bright sunny day. Even on bright sunny days a man can still feel the hunger in his gut. My crops didn’t come in this year, or at least not enough to last through the winter. We had to ration to survive and that means that I would forgo all meals with the exception of supper, so my wife1 and my two year old son could eat. That’s not good enough, so I decided to go into town to try and find a job, just to cover cost for more food, so we could live a little more comfortably at home.
That morning I kissed my wife, Lucille and my son, Vern jr. goodbye and set out on my two day journey into town. The first night of the trip was uneventful, but the second not so much. About three hours from Gods Valley, I saw a wagon wreckage, I could hear a woman screaming in pain on the far side of the wagon. “HELP!!! I’M STUCK” she cried. I could only picture if this was my ole lady what I would do, so I pulled my horse, Strider over to the side and staked him to the ground, then ran over to see how I could help. When I got there I saw a young woman with her leg pinned under the drivers seat on the shotgun side of the wagon and a mans body laying on top of her, with an obvious bullet hole in his temple. I pulled the body off of her and proceeded to try and lift the heavy pine built wagon, but to no avail. That’s when I noticed a board that had fallen off the wagon laying near by. I grabbed the board and wedged it on a stone with a hard grown I lifted the wagon off the ladies leg, she moved swiftly out of the way and I let the buggy down with a loud crash.
“Ma’am are you OK?” I asked, realizing that I had asked a stupid question immediately. “Can you Ride”?
“Yes sir” she answered crying in agony, “but what about Henry, we just gonna leave him here?”
“Only for now” I replied. “when we get to town, I’ll send someone back for your husband”.
I helped her gently on Strider’s back, then removed the stake, then we set out. Along the way she didn’t speak, other than the occasional swearing for the pain, or the apologizing, that followed, even after I told her it wasn’t necessary, she only said “A lady does not curse, but fuck this hurts, sorry again”. Three hours later we made it into town and brought her straight to Doctor J.P. McDaniel. The doctor is a short stocky old man, who spent his formative years as soldier fighting Confederate soldiers, he was a medic in the war, but for any that didn’t know he was just a gruff angry old bastard.
“What the hell happened here?” asked the doc.
I told him what I had came upon, and that I needed to get her inside, then head to the Sheriff. We got her inside him on one side, me on the other, but before I could leave she asked me to come back tomorrow, she needed to talk to me about something.
I walked across the street to the Sheriffs office. A small building with one barred up window on the side facing the street. When I went inside there where two smalls cells at the far end, and a desk to my left, behind the desk was the Sheriff, Wilbur Batokk. Sheriff Wilbur is an older man with salt and pepper hair and mustache that screams lawman. He wears his pistol on a black leather belt held together with a golden buckle that has a ten pointed star right in the center smoking a cigar. “Can I help you?” He asked in his rough gravely voice. I proceeded to tell him about the wreck, and about the body laying on the ground, and the woman at the doctors office. He put his cigar out directly on the desk, “ Well, you want to ride out with me, be a lot better if there where two of us, just in case.”
“sure, I don’t mind” I said reluctantly, God knows I didn’t want to see that again, but he had a point.
Without anymore words he put on his hat and we headed out the door and mounted up. As we headed out of town he asked “What brings you into town anyway? I usually don’t see you around hear except for every three months or so.”
“To be honest Sheriff, I was looking for work, the crops hadn’t done to good this year and I need some extra money for supplies.
“Well it looks like I may need some help real soon, if were getting bandits around” He looked back at me “You still got your pistol don’t ya”?
“Yes sir, its in my bag, but I haven’t shot it in a while I may be a little rusty.”
“Rusty for you ain’t like rusty for everyone else though I could still use the help.”
“Well, I didn’t say no” I said smiling back at him.
“That’s what I like to hear” He said excitedly “LETS GO” He yelled to his horse as he cracked the rains and picked up speed I followed suit. We finally arrived at the scene, luckily it was undisturbed. Sheriff Batokk looked like he recognized the wagon. “Please, don’t be you” He hoped off his horse and walked around the wagon to see the body. “Damn it, Henry you dumb son of a bitch”
“You know him?” I asked “Who is it?”
“Of course I know him, he’s my damn brother” He said semi sarcastically.
“I, I’m sorry” I replied with a somber tone.
He laughed a little “don’t be, he had it coming, it was only a matter of time.” He said with a slight hint of resentment hoisting the body onto his shoulder and placing him on back of his horse. “Lets head back to Benny’s before this poor bastard starts smelling any worse.”
Back in town we dropped the body at the morticians and headed over to the saloon for some drinks, on Mr. Batokk’s dime. As we walked in you could smell the booze and tobacco smoke in the air.2 The bartender was a short fat man with mutton chops and cleanly shaven dome. “What can I get you Gentlemen?” he asked.
“Two whiskeys!” Mr. Batokk ordered slamming his fist on the table.
“Coming right up, sir” said the bar keep turning to grab two glasses.
“So about this job, is it still on the table?” I asked, not sure if we had already ruled out bandits.
“Well there aren’t any bandits, but you are John Harris's boy after all”
“Sir, with all do respect, I don't want to ride on my daddy’s name” I said grabbing my drink.
“Not like that, point is I know what you can do and there has been plenty of no good going on, I could use the help” He quickly explained.
“Then I’m in” I said happily as I chugged my first glass.
The night would fly by as we drank and joked around, even played a couple hands of cards. At some point though I decided to ask him about his brother, what he thought happened he told me that his brother was a gambler, a pretty good one, but in order to be good you got to start out shitty. “He shouldn’t have come back here. He knew that he had debts to dangerous people out here.” Then we went right back to drinking and carrying on until about twelve, then we decided to call it a night. I stayed the night in one of the cells.
The next morning I was woken up by a young skinny man with some peach fuzz around his upper lip. In a broken adolescent voice that ranged from low to high quicker than you could blink he said “Get up, I need that cell.”
“For what?” I asked not sure who would let a kid that young do lawman work.
“This fat fucker, right here”
I got out the bed and put my clothes on and walked out of the cell, as I was walking out he threw the heavyset ginger headed guy in and closed the door. “Whats your name?” I asked headed towards the kettle that I could smell boiling coffee.
“Ricky, I’m a sheriffs deputy, and what about you?” said looking at me like I had offended him.
“I didn’t mean any offense, but my names Vernon or Vern and I am also a deputy.” I replied groggily pouring my coffee. “How old are you?”
“I’m fifteen, but I can hold my own, don’t you worry about that” he replied placing his hand on his hip as if he had a gun, which he did not.
About that time the sheriff walked in looking right at Ricky “Boy, who the hell you got in my cell?”3
“Big Willy Barron, that’s right He was caught trying to steal a horse from the Callahan plantation.
Willy slammed at the bars angrily “I did no such thing!”
“CALM YOUR TITS” yelled Sheriff Batokk forcefully.
“Sorry sir, but I was getting my horse back from them no good lying stealing”…
“I saw you with my own two eyes” interjected Ricky.
“Let the man talk.” replied Mr. Batokk looking into Ricky’s soul.
“I was reclaiming my property from the Callahan’s because they stole my horse Millie to cover my brother Elroy’s debt.” He explained, letting go of the bars. “ That’s not my debt to pay, you can go look on right thigh that is my horse.”
“Vern you and the boy go check on that horse I’ll stay here with Willy.”
The Callahan plantation has a huge house in the middle of three fields of crops, a cow field and a pond. There’s four dirt roads connecting everything, all with two guards at each gate coming in towards the Manor, we where coming in from the east side between two tobacco fields. The guards stopped us at the gate. One was heavy set with a long beautiful beard and the other was kind of muscular with a clean shaven look. “What do you want?”asked the bearded one, lowering his rifle into his hand. Ricky looked terrified to say anything, grabbing his rains tighter, like he was ready to run.
“We wanted to look at that horse, the one from earlier today, the one that was being stolen.” I told him pulling my hat off my head to show respect.
“What for?” asked the other guy
“Well, the fat man said it was his horse, you wouldn’t know anything about that would you?”
Ricky looked even more frightened reaching towards his imaginary pistol. “We just want to check the brand” he stuttered.
“Well I guess there ain’t no harm in checking.” the smaller guy said as he gestured us in then gave us directions to the horse stables.
We approached the horse stables, they where white with red post going up each side with enough room to house eighteen horses comfortably. A wide hallway stretched out through the center of the evenly divided stables. I dismounted and walked towards the back of the stables where I heard yelling coming from the horse trainer in the back. Ricky decided to stay back, he apparently had some kind of history with the family, or something and was uneasy on the plantation. As I neared the opening of the back I saw an older man with a white wide brimmed hat running a beautiful black and white paint around the circular pen. It only took a moment for him to notice me standing there leaned up against the pristine white painted wall on the interior of the stables.
“Can I help you?” He yelled from the pen.
“I think you might.” I hollered back as I started walking towards him.
“My names Vern, and I work with the sheriff, I needed to ask you about a horse that was nearly stolen this morning.”
“Oh, that appaloosa she’s in the stall over there” He answered pointing towards the stalls on the left hand side. “What might I ask do you want to know?”
“Big Willy tells me that horse belongs to him rightfully.”
“Big Willy don’t have any rights to that horse I assure you.” He said being visibly angry at the suggestion.
“Can I see the horse?” I asked and The old man agreed. When we got into the stable I could clearly see a brand that didn’t belong to the Callahan family. “Isn’t that the Barron brand” I inquired.
“Look I don’t rightly know all the logistics and shit, but I do know that Madam Callahan ain’t no damn horse thief.” he said looking like he was ready to hit me.
“How about this I’ll go talk to the Lady of land and see whats really going on here?”
“I’d suggest you do” He said grabbing for his pistol on his right side. “Matter of fact, I’ll take you myself.”
Along we went headed back towards Callahan manor, the old man in front, and Ricky behind. We came to the front of the mansion, more beautiful than I had imagined. On either side of the wide white painted staircase where two large well trimmed hedge bushes. There where huge rounded pillars holding up a beautiful balcony and at the center of the stairs where two giant stain glass doors that meet at the middle almost seamlessly. The guard outside was wearing all black even his hat, and at his side was a big pistol with ebony handles. As we walked toward the stairs he stepped down and asked us to hand him our guns. We did then the old man walked up behind us to frisk us. After all that they led us into the house, where we saw a flawlessly finished grand stairway, with walnut hand rails that had golden end caps and a gorgeous marble floor. He gestured us to our left to talk to the mistress in the parlor. When we walked in she was staring out the window to the west.
“Ma’am, These folk are with the sheriff, they wanted to talk to you.” the guard said tilting his hat.
Without turning around she replied “Thank you hank.”
“Yes ma’am” He responded as he sat down on the brown leather sofa.
“Miss Callahan, I’m Vern Harris, and this is Ricky, I just wanted to ask about the horse thief from this morning.”
“I know Mr. Kirk, what is it that you would like to know Mr. Harris?”
“Well the thief said that the horse was his, and it does bear his brand.”
“Mr. Harris, this doesn't sound like an inquiry to me” She stated turning around seeming irritated with my accusation. “The horse belongs to me”
“I apologize Miss I was simply trying to figure out how you came to own the horse, and where the confusion started at.”
“Very well then, The horse was claimed as a small part of the debt was owed by the Barron family to mine.” She said before asking me to have a seat and getting the butler to grab us some lemonade.
“Ezekiel Barron, Williams father, he used to run a small ranch just on the other side of town. When they fell on hard times, he borrowed money from me to keep things afloat. Time came for him to pay his debt and he couldn’t, Me being the loving nurturing person I am, I gave him an option. Either he could pay with his land, or he and his family could work for us until the debt was paid.” She said before sipping her lemonade and getting up to walk back to the window.
“What, does that have to do with the horse?”
“OH, everything the horse is a small payment, she is worth around thirty dollars, Barron owes me two thousand more, or three more years of labor, he chooses not to work, I take his things until they add up to my two thousand.”
“That seems a little unreasonable, don’t you think?” I retorted before taking a swig of lemonade. “He said it was something to do with his brothers debt?” I questioned.
“Of course that’s how he sees it he’s not Ezekiel’s son, or so he claims, he looks almost exactly like him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Roomer is, his mother was sleeping around with the bar keep back in the day, but that doesn’t exclude him from any debt.”
“What about his brother?”
“Collin ran away a couple days ago, so the debt fell to William alone, he didn’t like that, but up until then he had no problem claiming the Barron name.”
“Ma’am I thank you for your hospitality, but we got to go now, I think we have everything that we need.”
“Alright gentlemen, please make sure Mr. Barron learns his place” She said as she tilted her head for us to leave.
After we cleared out of the gate I asked Ricky what he thought. “Honestly, I think the old bitch is crazy, still mad about her slaves, so she takes any opportunity she can to keep some around.”
“Yeah I was thinking the same thing.”
“Sad though the law says she’s in her rights.”
“Yeah, sad,” I replied thinking how can I fix this situation. “How’d you get into law enforcement at your age anyway”
“Mr. Harris I’m not a lawman I just help the Sheriff with light work, mostly just rounding up drunk people, and small stuff. I’m not much help anywhere else, but I would like to be like the sheriff one day.”
The kids a damn fool I thought to myself as we headed on into town. When we got back to the office the sheriff was sitting on a stool by the cell talking to Willy. “Welcome back, any news?” he asked looking like he already knew what we had found out.
“Yeah that bitch up there is mean as hell, and that horse was taken as some family debt.” I answered, then looked at Willy “How long you been working for her.”
“Its all I’ve ever known.” he responded.
“Sheriff, can we talk outside.” I said as I walked out the door.
“What you thinking” asked the Mr. Batokk as he closed the door behind him.
“It seems to me slavery is supposed to be over, am I right?”
“Yeah, but this is different, Vern, you know that.” He answered sternly.
“How I may have been a kid, but I remember what I saw and this ain’t no different, she’s keeping these people for generations, we can’t just let that slide.”
“That’s not our call, son, we uphold the law that’s it we don’t get to make em”
“Look I don’t know about law, but I do know right, and wrong, and this is wrong”
“What you gonna do about it, you gonna fight the Callahans, they got an army son you won’t survive.”
“Well then I’ll die for something worth fighting for, wont I”
“God damn it, boy your just like your old man.” he said before cracking a smile “If we do this, they’ll all hate us”
“Then let em hate” I replied as I reached my hand out for a hand shake.
He shook my hand and said, we'll need to pray on it before directing me towards the church house at the end of the straight road that ran through town.
I joined him, in this area it was tradition, if your going to do something dangerous let God know, at least that's how my pa always put it. The church was a little white building with a cemetery out back. Pretty much what you would picture when you think of a church. Once inside I notice a strange tapestry hanging behind the pulpit. The tapestry was of a white dragon breathing flames on a blue sphere. In front of the image keeled pastor Otis Crane; a slime white haired gentleman who always wore a black suit over a black shirt, with a golden pendant hanging from his neck, on the pendant was a five pointed star, that was encircled in red rubies.
He stood up and walked towards us “Sheriff, and is that Vern, Vern Harris?”
“How could you recognize me?” I asked. “after all you haven’t seen me since I was twelve and my pa died.”
“I know, but I can recognize a Harris boy anywhere.”
As soon as he got that out of his mouth I felt a gust of wind hit me, but I’m not sure where from. “Pastor we would like to pray over something, that needs to happen” Sheriff Batokk started telling the preacher.
“Of course, what are you intending to do?” asked Pastor Otis
“We intend on freeing the unwilling slaves from Callahan manor, we need men, and we were hoping for the blessing of the church.” I chimed in getting angry at the thought of what they were doing in those fields.
“Careful what you wish for, Vernon, the Callahans do a great service to the community.” He replied.
I saw the preacher slightly move his hand and all of the sudden My knees felt weak, my eyes started to get heavy, then I heard him say. “Lay down, boy” I heard it clear as day, but only a moment later I was fine standing in the same spot I was in the church house. It didn’t look like the sheriff saw anything.
I looked at the pastor “What was that?”
“Just a small reminder, the Callahans are our founding family, and they have helped us all out at some point or another.”
“I see so good deeds over turn bad ones?” I asked sarcastically.
“From time to time, depending on the deed.” He said staring into my soul. “The Callahans may do some things that aren’t within your worldly knowledge to be good, but I assure you that everything they do is for the betterment of the people.”
“Well I guess I’ll do it without your blessing.” I said in anger as I turned and left the sanctuary.
Not long after Mr. Batokk followed me and grabbed my arm. “What exactly do you plan on doing, son” He said pulling me back towards him “If you do this without the church’s blessing you will be hung.”
“Then so be it” I sighed jerking my arm away. “I guess I can’t count on you then?”
“I can’t ride without God’s blessing.”
“I don’t know what he is, but that is no man of God.” I replied turning and walking toward the saloon alone.
After the men had fallen asleep, I crept out from behind the mossy log and into the camp. There were three tents, my target was furthest from me in the line of tents. I quickly but quietly moved toward the tent. once In the tent it was just him and me. Honestly I had a couple questions, this bounty was wanted alive after all. I had to get a plan quick, unfortunately my next move was one I would soon regret.
Beside his head was a repeater rifle. I picked it up quickly, then stepped back. "Willy get up!" I said loud enough to wake only him up. He jumped up and started to yell, but one quick hit to the jaw shut him up quick. "Your coming with me." I said as threateningly as possible, jesturing towards the open flaps of the tent.
He walked out without question. Looking back that should have been a sign that something was up, but this was my first job. We walked toward the pond, we had about a 15 minute walk back to Strider. But about halfway I heard a rustling behind me, and then the next thing I remember I was waking up near the campfire that had been reignited.
In front of me sat a slender man with a scar across his left eye, sitting on an ammo can widdling a block of wood. I tried to move, but the ropes tightened around my wrist, then he looked up. "Ah your awake, do you know who I am?"
"Not really, why didn't you just kill me" I responded, still feeling a little foggy.
He smiled "I like to see you skwerm, where were you taking my boy?"
I sighed "I was hoping to take him back to town, he's wanted for horse thieving."
He reached behind him and pulled out the bounty letter. "Guess that explains this". He looked at me almost peering into my soul. "You want 50 dollars that damn bad?" He took a sip from a mug right near him " What if I told you that I can have you make 200 in less than a month".
"How do you mean?" I asked.
"We got a job a stage coach coming from the local bank" he explained.
Honestly It didn't take much convincing, that kind of money would have my family set for awhile.
After I agreed he cut me loose, and told me there was food in the pot hanging over the fire. I walked over and grabbed a cup full of stew. He explained he couldn't let me go away from here, because he didn't have any trust in me yet, understandably so.
"Who are you anyway?" I asked he told me his name was William Henry Barron Sr. or Billy.
From the distance I heard a man say " The lady's call em Billy Butterface"
His voice picked up so the other man could hear
"that's my lesser sperm, Collin."
Collin soon stepped out of the shadow a tall, yet well put together man, mid twenties maybe. He had a very chiseled and distinctive jaw. He grabbed a cup and filled it with some stew. "How can we trust him pop?" He asked his Ole man.
"Pretty simple" He responded " we can't, that's why he's sleeping on the spare cot in your tent, god knows your brothers can't catch him".
Collin looked more slightly irritated, "was this your first bounty?" He asked looking at me disappointingly.
"That easy to tell?"
He chuckled a little " You came alone, and didn't look for a look out. Hell, if Willy hollared you'd of been shot real quick, boy".
"Why you even want to bring this guy along?" He asked staring at Billy.
His dad smiled " He got in the camp without y'all hearing him, seems useful to me".
He nodded his head in agreement. "Well what you do before this".
I told him I was a farmer. He looked at me and smiled "So you wasn't any good at that either".
I couldn't help but laugh, then he suggested we go get my horse, so we headed that way, Bill decided to stay back by the camp. As we reached the pond he asked "your folk, are they ok with you disappearing for a while?"
"Honestly, I think my wife would prefer it, she's been on my back constantly since Ricky was born."
"Damn, that's why I don't really mess with ladies to much, aside from the odd night here and there."
We kept walking the rest of the way to my horse in silence. When we got there, he asked about my son if I thought he was gonna miss me.
"He might, but I doubt a month will mean much to a two year old."
"I guess your right." He said reaching for the lead rope. "We probably should have asked earlier, but what's your name?"
"Vernan Harris, or Vern to most people."
"Well, Vern I guess we better start heading back." He said while pulling the lead. As we came back into the camp everyone was sitting around the fire and the sun was starting to rise.
It seems like an eternity, looking back on how I got here, but if you really want to know, I guess I'll tell you. Don't be afraid this is a tail of hell fire and vengeance, of a man pushing far past the limits of any other, and giving his soul in exchange for what some may call justice.
I remember it was a cold wet day in the middle of winter, my family was struggling to get through since our crops didn't produce much last year. I was getting worried, so I did what any self respecting man would do in my situation. I went down to the sheriff's office and looked at the bounties. I looked through them all before seeing the perfect target.
Willy Barron.
Barron was described as a heavy set man with a lisp and a bad attitude. He was said to have a horse shoe burned into his right arm. What got me pulled in wasn't his appearance, but rather his last known location. Pikes pool. That was a relatively popular swim hole about 15 mins outside my property. It felt like it could be a quick grab and decent cash, considering it was a fifty dollar bounty: dead or alive. After all he was wanted for horse thieving and was to close to home anyway. Everything seemed in my favor so I snached the bounty before anyone else could lay eyes on it.
I hopped on my horse, Strider, and headed towards home. It took about 2 hours to reach the spot from town, the sun was just starting to go down. Luckily for me there aren't that many people camping out here in the winter so when I saw smoke blowing from the Forrest I was pretty damn sure it was Willy. When I got to the camp, the sun already fallen, I saw Willy with three men who were not mentioned on the bounty, so he must have met them sometime within the last couple days. I crept behind a log where I could see over into the camp, keep in mind all I had was a muzzle load pistol, a knife, and a rope. I was woefully unprepared, but I was hungry, so turning around wasn't a choice. I obviously couldn't take four armed men alone, so I decided to wait till they were asleep.
" I'm beginning to think that none of you are listening" said Mr. Hauton angrily slamming his hand onto his freshly polished desk. "MS. Riley do you have any idea what I was even talking about?" He asked, still annoyed. Understandably so, after all Alyssa and I had been talking about our plans to go see Jake Sylium in concert that weekend at the sports arena down town, but what he didn't know is that I am more than capable of listening to two people at once. I paraphrased his entire hour long speel about the Salem witch trials in about three minutes. This seemed to iritate him, which wasn't that hard, Mr. Hauton was very passionate about the witchcraft, but that passion could quickly turn to anger if he felt like he wasn't being heard, honestly I understand, but a lot has happened since then.
“I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone.”
That day after class Mr. Hauton asked me to stay for a moment to talk to him, which is a little odd, I honestly felt like he could have left things where they where, like why ask me to stay after you have already made your point, or attempted anyway. As soon as the last student left Mr. Hauton asked me to take a seat in one of the desk across from his. "Ms. Riley, I know that you have impeccable listening skills, and the grades to show it, but I must ask that you please hold your attention towards me, afterall you are the head of the class as far as grades go, so I feel like it would be best for the other students to see you working and clearly paying attention." He said calmly "I need you to set an example."
Honestly that kind of pissed me off, "how are you going to ask me to take a leadership role amongst my classmates" , I said to myself I didn't ask to be the smart one, and I damn sure didn't want to be the head of the class. I let out a deep breath, "okay, I can do that, I guess."
Mr. Hauton looked at the ground then up at me again " also I would like to ask for your help." He said reaching in his desk, can you read this to me? He asked while pulling out an old leather back book that had been tattered and torn, the pages where almost the color of heavily creamed coffee. He opened the book to a page in the middle and handed it to me holding it with both hands, as to not tear the book anymore than it already was.
Last chapter
I looked at the page and in the top right corner was a snake, and the bottom left was an oak tree, in the center was only one word Flazeda, I read it not sure if I was reading it properly,but Mr. Hauton assured me I was right with a bearly seeable smile on his face, to be fare more of a smile than I had ever seen him show. I asked why he had me read that, and he said in time I would see, then sent me on my way home, the whole walk, I asked why was he acting so strange, and what was that book.
" I'm beginning to think that none of you are listening" said Mr. Hauton angrily slamming his hand onto his freshly polished desk. "MS. Riley do you have any idea what I was even talking about?" He asked, still annoyed. Understandably so, after all Alyssa and I had been talking about our plans to go see Jake Sylium in concert that weekend at the sports arena down town, but what he didn't know is that I am more than capable of listening to two people at once. I paraphrased his entire hour long speel about the Salem witch trials in about three minutes. This seemed to iritate him, which wasn't that hard, Mr. Hauton was very passionate about the witchcraft, but that passion could quickly turn to anger if he felt like he wasn't being heard, honestly I understand, but a lot has happened since then.
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