There and Gone

It was starting to rain hard now. Calhoun and his men looked up at us from the dry wash where they sat their horses. Water dripped from the back of their hats. We stood on foot above them, our guns holstered. Calhoun stared for a few more moments, then leaned sideways and spat a long brown wad onto the creek stones beside his horse. He looked at us both again. Curious. “How ya’ doin’, Gussy?” Calhoun asked. His grin showed wide gaps of missing teeth. The few teeth he had were yellow. He removed his hat and wiped his face with a bright red bandana. His head was mostly bald with a few strands of thin gray hair slicked-back. His upper forehead showed a red line where his hat rubbed. Above the red line his skin was white, and below the line his face was dark from the wind and sun.

The smile he gave now was more tired than friendly. He put his hat back on and leaned forward, resting an elbow against the silver pummel of his Mexican saddle. His horse lowered its head and snorted into the dust that was becoming mud.

The whole group made me jumpy.

It was a bad feeling standing there in front of these men, but this was all part of Gus Morgan’s plan.

“Sorry about your pa,” Calhoun said.

“You hung an innocent man, Sheriff,” Gus said.

“Well, now we going to hang you two.”

“No trial, no nothing?”

“That’s right, son.”

“God will decide, huh?” Gus asked. And with that the river began to flow. The noise came like a rumbling sound, and then the water in one long rush. The men and their horses were there and then gone.

We never saw them again


--300 Words