Back To Work
1474 Words
Taking a deep breath I tried to focus on the chores.
Come on cody, just a few more.
“Yer gonna give yourself a heart attack working this hard,” my sister laughed playfully. Leaning against the fence I turned so that I could give her a glare, “what? You just got shot a few days ago and here you are trying to feed the damn chickens and pigs.”
“You ain’t gonna do it,” I scoffed, “someone’s gotta run the ranch, and I ain’t wastin’ none of the money on payin’ some kid to do the s**t I can.”
“Yeah,” she scoffed back, “it’ll only take you the whole day to do it.”
She sauntered over to me and lifted the pale, so that she could dump the composted food in for the pigs. I tried to push her away and do the same for the other pail, but hissed in pain at the pull in my gut.
“don’t give me that look, punk,” I growled. She smiled and took the pail from me, working her way between the gate to get the second pail poured into the food trough, “ain’t you got other stuff to do?”
“What?” she asked, “you mean aside from making sure my i***t sibling doesn’t get the green taking care of the ranch?”
“Exactly that.”
“Probably,” she shrugged, “but I guess I like knowing that I’m savin’ your butt again.”
“You wanna save my butt,” I laughed, “you get to shovel the horse s**t from the stalls.”
“Jokes on you,” she laughed, “I already paid the kid in town a whole dollar to do it for the rest of the month.”
“ANNIE!”
Her eyes widened and she immediately looked around.
“it’s Dakota, you jackass!”
“Not when you’re being irresponsible it’s not,” I hissed. She tried to put on a straight face as she held her head high, refusing to look at me, “what in sam’s hell do you think you’re doing walking into town and doing that? You’re gonna draw attention to us.”
“Well what do you suppose I should do?” she asked, “the whole town knows you were on the run and you got shot. If we get any more muffins from those lonely ranch wives I’m going to puke!”
“Thought you’d be happy you didn’t have to bake,” I chuckled. She glared at me through narrowed eyes, “what? Come on. It’s funny.”
“Not to me,” she said in annoyed tone, “I swear the past few days all it’s been is ‘oh that courageous young man,’ and ‘sweetheart how’s your brother? Do y’all need anything?’ do you know how many looks of pity I get when I go into town? They already are treating you like you are some poor kicked puppy. They treat me like I’m some dawdling girl because I’m not ‘tending to you properly.’ I actually heard some wretched old woman claim that as I was in the general store, buying us some flour. What does she expect me to do, huh? I’m your sister, not your wife.”
When I didn’t say anything she hit me right in the middle of my chest.
“WHAT THE hell was that for?”
“Say something dammit,” she growled, “I’m trying to talk to you cody.”
“What do you want me to say, Dakota?” I asked, “ignore em?”
“You’re useless.”
“I know that,” I laughed. She leaned on the gate of the pig pen and continued to glare at me, “want to try another insult?”
“I don’t know why you think this is funny!”
“it’s because you looked so cute, doll!”
Both of our attentions turned towards the voice.
“Billy!”
“Yeah, wanted to come and check up on ya, pal!” he smiled, walking over to us, “looks like you escaped the green.”
“Yes sir,” I smiled, “clean as the clear on my shelf.”
He laughed, clapping me on the back of the shoulder, “good. Good.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” my sister said nervously. Her eyes darted around for any sign that there would possibly be another human being near us, “you shouldn’-“
“Like I said,” he smiled tipping his hat to her, “I wanted to check up on my pal, here. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t also say hello to his beautiful sister as well.”
She looked to me, her lips pursed in dissatisfaction, “I’m going in.”
“Aren’t ya gonna say hi back, sweetheart?”
“No.” she growled, stomping off. He watched her walk away before turning to me.
“Tough crowd.”
“She’s always been stubborn. Don’t mind her,” I shrugged, grabbing the two empty pails and heading back to the barn so that I could get the pails to feed the chickens, “what is it that you need, billy?”
“What?” he asked tauntingly, “a man can’t ask about his friends nowadays?”
“Well I’m pretty useless to ya right now.”
“Nonsense kid,” he smirked, “You’ve got plenty use.”
“My sister will knock me on my ass if I let y’all stay with us again!”
“We don’t need lodging,” he laughed, “just wanted to thank you in person. You could have ratted us out after we shot you. After you started walking around when the sheriff came by an questioned you.”
“I know the code, billy.”
“And we appreciate that,” he smiled again, “it’s why I wanted to stop in. next month we are going to do another one. At the bank this time. Good ole in an’ out. You’d be with us instead of pretending to be on the other side. I wanna cut you in.”
I looked back to the house where my sister was angrily staring at me through the window. When she caught my gaze she walked away from it.
“don’t worry. Broads always come around.”
“She was worried,” I admitted, “we saw our pa get hung right in front of us when we were kids. Had a lot of family taken away.”
“Don’t you want a safe future for her though?” he asked, “you know the life of an outlaw ain’t safe…but our women are protected.”
“You got family of your own?”
“Not yet,” he said slowly. That’s when I noticed he was eyeing the door, “but maybe one day.”
“Listen here,” I said simply, forgetting about the chickens that needed to be fed, “if you think you’re doing me or yourself a favor by cutting me in because you want a shot at my sister, you’re dead wrong. If anything she’ll hate you more because you’re including me.”
“You got another sister…one your age…right?” he asked, “that one looks young. She can’t be more than thirteen.”
“Why?”
“The other day was gonna come around and ask,” he said quickly. He spat on the ground and continued to look there, “I uh might have seen a girl your age. Now I know you said you don’t got a wife bu-“
“What did you see?” I growled, feeling my nervousness rising.
“just saw in passing. Her back was facing the window,” he said, arms raised in defense, “she was naked as the day her momma birthed her. Golden hair that was wet and streaming down her back. Guessing she just bathed. And since most people don’t let random women bathe at their houses I had to ask.”
“She’s around,” I replied, “she doesn’t come out much though.”
“well I liked what I saw,” he smiled, “she should. Mind if I meet her?”
“I do mind,” I said with a sneer, “she’s not all here and I don’t want to put her in a facility. She doesn’t see anyone other than my sister most of the time.”
“You don’t talk to her?”
“she’s not all there,” I repeated, “not since our pa. she doesn’t trust men.”
“Shame,” he sighed, “damn shame.”
- Writer
