Sometimes It Goes the Other Way
There were no flies on Lureen Newsome, and she had never heard of the word no. Her daddy let it ride, sly cuss, figuring the new would wear off Jack Twist soon enough and his baby girl would pick out a stud with better breeding to sire his grandkids. Too canny to talk her cowboy down, L.D. played it broad, called Jack ‘Rodeo’ like naming a pet, from the end of the dinner table offered him a job out of the arena lights, a left-handed favor to put out Jack’s flash. Lureen barreled right over any cast doubts, but Jack saw how it would go, her always holding the purse strings and him under her thumb. Slicking down his hair and giving way to the old banty rooster would never get him promoted from second-class, and outside of a breath-stealing taste for riding Jack to a standstill, Lureen paid more attention to her Daddy’s business than she did to him. He was the belt buckle she’d won, but it appeared he needed a sight more polish. Like all his pipe dreams, this one would come to nothing but smoke.
Ennis saw it differently, saw Jack getting up and out of the risky life, having steady money, making a place for himself and lining it soft. He hated it like toothache, but didn’t hold it against Jack, knew he couldn’t stand in the way, couldn’t take away Jack’s chance at a sweet life for what? So Jack could get busted up some more? And then wouldn’t they be a pair? Broke on the outside, broke on the inside, broke any way you looked at it. Wasn’t no way to be. Jack could have better, should have better, and he wasn’t going to get it so long as Ennis del Mar was poking around with him. They kept up the way they were going and sure as shit somebody was going to notice because it was the God’s honest truth they couldn’t be decent ‘round one another and there were some folks figured they had an iron cure for that kind of monkey business. So, he waited until Jack went out, thought about a shower, but couldn’t make himself wash off the sweet stink of their recent hi-jinks, just stuffed a few items, small but valued, into a pillow case and caught a ride with some rounders headed north.
To be continued…
Ennis saw it differently, saw Jack getting up and out of the risky life, having steady money, making a place for himself and lining it soft. He hated it like toothache, but didn’t hold it against Jack, knew he couldn’t stand in the way, couldn’t take away Jack’s chance at a sweet life for what? So Jack could get busted up some more? And then wouldn’t they be a pair? Broke on the outside, broke on the inside, broke any way you looked at it. Wasn’t no way to be. Jack could have better, should have better, and he wasn’t going to get it so long as Ennis del Mar was poking around with him. They kept up the way they were going and sure as shit somebody was going to notice because it was the God’s honest truth they couldn’t be decent ‘round one another and there were some folks figured they had an iron cure for that kind of monkey business. So, he waited until Jack went out, thought about a shower, but couldn’t make himself wash off the sweet stink of their recent hi-jinks, just stuffed a few items, small but valued, into a pillow case and caught a ride with some rounders headed north.
To be continued…