thaiff carson ---frontier justice

"no kid! don't do it!" with one hand waving the air , the bartender tried to shout , but it all happened too quickly .

the watch chain jerked suddenly as a primal flash of realization coursed through the older man's veins . his jaw immediately slackened . without thinking , his mouth gasped opened as he sucked cooler air across his teeth .

in a fraction of an instance his heart seemed to grow and expand in his chest and swell until beyond bursting . perspiration across his forehead increased from the sudden flush of heat as a cold fear also shivered through him at the very same time .

bell's eyes grew wider and softened tenderly , as they instinctively grew moist . his vision , blurred with unashamed tears as he , with both hands suddenly drawn back onto the wooden chair's arm rests ,directly above the ivory handled colt --but not desiring to use it --in one great and rapid move-- a man long heartsick -- pushed himself up from the table and mouthed the word 'son' as the kid's "peacemaker" roared --the bullet hitting the boy's rising father dead-on in the middle.


" i shot thaddeus bell" , the boy was heard to almost blithely remark before the judge's heavy revolver barrel smashed across the kid's skull.

"i killed the man who killed you pa " , the boy uttered slowly to no one present ,whining from his dulled haze of confusion on the floor .

the judge's shoe made a heavy scraping sound of metal across wood as it forcefully pushed , the dazed boy's weapon across the wooden floorboards and safely away.

the gambler now standing over the older man looked down to survey his wounds and shook his head .

he dismissed the fallen man's odds of survival with the simple observation , " he's gutshot bad --real bad !--damn shame. you can git the doc , but 5 to 1 --a doc won't do him no good --he'll be gone before you'd get back."

rushing over with a towel to use as a bandage, hoping to help , the bartender was taken aback by the sudden dark lake that greeted him. he looked down at the fallen man's furiously spurting wound, bent to toss him the towel and sadly agreed .

"mister , i gotta be honest --i seen a lotta men cut and shot before --it don't look good at all .you best make your peace. but rest assured ,you'll get a decent burial --and we got laws in this town --this boy will face justice . he'll be tried and hanged for doin' this to you .we all saw it , i'll testify at his trial that you didn't want to fight this kid ."

"then why'd he jump up from his chair like he was gonna go after the boy? " asked the gambler, perhaps having taken personal offense from bell's remark about having shot a "tinhorn with too many aces up his sleeve".

"you're crazy" , spat the bartender , "the kid had no call to shoot him. you can't shoot a man for gettin up out of a chair --especially a man you was holding a gun on."

"the kid holstered his weapon before bell got up ", argued the gambler , "there's some might say it was pretty close to a fair fight."

"wasn't no 'fight' at all", countered the bartender , "kid shot him down like a rabid dog . bell never went for his pistol" .

"will you two ladies shut up and let me do my job", demanded judge foley.

when the only sound in the room was bell's labored breathing , foley continued . "mister , you care to make a last statement - a deposition?" asked the judge. "we don't know nothing about you. where you from ? any next of kin you want us to notify ? you ever been ta kansas before ?"

"the boy's my son--took away from me years ago " , the fallen man whispered back to the others, in his eyes, tears , but also a last bit of determination to announce the truth he now felt certain he knew.

"quite a family reunion..." the gambler couldn't refrain from facetiously quipping.

"i told you shut up" , threatened the judge , " this is official business of the court."

"thaddeus wilson bell-- from reliance, missouri . my sister katie's still there -- the boy was right" , the fallen man continued , "i shot a man and took this watch and chain from him. "

"so the boy wasn't lyin --you kilt his paw ," the gambler interjected , "so now you admitin it?"

"i admit to killin scum who raped and murdered . they violated my wife and daughter before killin em both. they burned our house ,robbed us --left me for dead and stole my little boy."

"lemme see if i got this right , mister you saying this kid that just shot you is your OWN son?" asked the judge, his mouth still hanging open .

"i'm sure he is ."

"i went after the men that killed my wife and little girl--they took my little boy. i trailed em all the way down to texas and into mexico. that's where they took my boy to sell him ."


looking momentarily at the judge , the bartender scratched his head ,and confirmed , "you know, you hear all the time , lots of young kids-- red ,brown ,black, white still get sold to some of them wealthy hacienda owners down there in old mexico--sometimes fetch 2 or 3 hundred in gold --sometimes maybe 5 hundred in gold for a white child --papers back east call it 'the disgrace of both nations' ".

"i searched south of the border , but couldn't find em --trail was cold" ,the wounded man continued, "just when i was about to give up , a priest told me he had seen em headin north , back towards texas...said the boy was real sick with fever --cholera he thought it probably was--said the boy had it real bad --said he thought the boy was dying. i picked up the trail back in texas but they had split up by then .

caught one of em outside of laredo . b'fore he died i beat it outta him --and burned him alive after he told me--all their names , descriptions , where they was from ,all the places they been and where they was most likely headed .

followed em through texas, indian territory in oklahoma,arkansas, missouri ,kansas --up and down the plains all these years. but one by one i found em .

that man in kansas the boy was talkin about , was the last one .caught him gettin ready to go into town to get a drink .he still had the watch and chain my wife had had especially made for me --more than 20 years ago-- her wedding present to me--he was wearin it."

'kansas' was the last one. he told me my son died from the cholera--i believed him ...but then this kid here, shows up ...lookin to kill me--of all people --ain't... that... a ... "

bell , having lost so much blood was now too weak to finish his sentence ... his head drifting slowly down towards the floor .

"can you MEN at least try an stop the bleedin while i go to fetch the doc--maybe it ain't too late " , pleaded the saloongirl .

"maybe the preacher--if there was time ", the saloonkeeper looked at her sadly , but there ain't " , he said firmly ,his eyes communicating to her the reality before them and she grew tearful and quiet .

"black blood-- looks like the bullet got his liver" ,the gambler tried to explain, "when the blood's that dark and coming out that fast...the doc can't get here in time...no doc can ...hell , even if he could--can't stop the bleeding --bullet got his liver..."

as the boy began to gradually come to his senses , the judge took a large basin of dirty water from the bar used for washing glasses and emptied it on the kid's swollen head.

the boy kicked and squirmed weakly at first as the shock of the dirty water brought him somewhat back to reality with a head-splitting pain from the swollen lump on his skull.

"boy, you had cholera as a young child ?" the judge asked.

"eat shit bastard"

the judge leaned down and loudly wacked the boy across the other side of his head with the empty basin.

the boy cried out , "awwww my head! old man, what the hell wrong with you? --you saw him go for his gun--why you hittin me ? --it was self defense."

"i'm gone ask your ignorant ass one more time and then i'm gonna take my pistol barrel to your thick skull some more."

"yeah ,paw said i had the cholera --i guess when i was around three or four" ,the boy sitting up now still half-dazed --cold and sweating at the same time . his head screaming ,legs wobbly as a newborn calf , his ears ringing , he continued . "my paw told me he took me to oklahoma territory and all the way to mexico for a cure --some indians give me the remedies-- some roots and poltices from a med'cine man worked. it fixed me up . saved me ."

"too bad couldn't fix your brain yah dullard , we got laws in this town against public dueling" ,the bartender added.

"my paw taught me one thing --if somebody wrongs you --you git em for it--any way you can . that man killed my paw . he got my paw's watch and chain in his shirt pocket .my paw told me that watch and chain was specially made . ain't no other like it . the number three on the watchface is engraved in gold . my paw kept a picture of my maw inside that watch. what more do i have to do to prove i'm tellin truth to you dumb shitheels ?"

the boy scrambled on hands and knees across the floor before the judge's dented metal basin could again respond and snatched the fallen man's shirt pocket open removing the chain and watch. the fallen man lay helpless clutching at his wound as both of his hands and the drenched towel could not prevent the dark life from steadily flowing outward .

when the boy opened the watch to show the judge and bartender the engraved number three and the picture of the woman that he had had to be told was his mother , the timepiece slipped from his still awkward fingers and rolled on the floor near the gambler's scuffed shoes.

when the gambler retrieved the watch , the picture fell from its enclosure . as the gambler picked up the round photograph of the well dressed, stocky , dark haired woman , his eyes noticed on the back , in time faded ink , scrawled clearly the words, " my beloved husband thaddeus , all my love , ellie ".

"this your maw , boy ?" he asked .

"who the hell you think would be in my paw's watch , yah idjeeit ?"

"according to the writin on this picture , somebody pledgin all her love to her husband named thaddeus" , the gambler retorted dryly.

"gimme that!" the kid lunged from the floor but still groggy , his legs would not support him .

the man closed the picture back in the watch casing and gently tossed it to the judge as the boy tried to stop the gambler by grabbing at his legs in an attempt to pull himself up.

using the palm of his hand in the kid's face , the man in the paisley vest easily pushed the kid away to the floor-- more like a drunken nuisance than a gunfighting killer.

with his spectacles , the judge examined the photograph and the watch itself , pursed his lips as he deliberated a moment and then announced his verdict.

"boy , your adoptive 'paw' musta never allow you to look too closely at 'his' watch eh?"

"i seen it from time to time" , defended the kid-- his head aching too much to fully understand what the judge was driving at.

"he must not have , because if he had , you mighta see'd the initials 't.w.b.' engraved inside the watch case underneath the picture of yer maw--looks like ole thaddeus here mighta been tellin the truth-- the man he killed in kansas raped and killed yer sister and yer maw and then kidnapped you as a little boy just outta diapers to sell to some rich family in mexico-- you may-uh just shot yer real paw."

the wounded man --the engraved colt in its holster --lay there in a widening puddle of what his life had become--staring up from the floor at what was now just an unfocussed haze --but seeing clearly his loving wife and daughter finally welcoming him home from the second and much longer "god-awful war" .

the judge tossed the watch back to the paisley vest who then handed it to the stunned , kid --now so confused he felt as if he were drowning .

the boy's jaw dropped slack as an even sharper pain than in his badly lumped skull made him moan outloud. his hands trembled uncontrollably and he looked as if he wished he could cry --yet tears seemed too shocked to escape.

"too bad boy --like the man said , these shitheels got laws in this town against public dueling--but i guarantee yah a fair trial when i return in a few weeks , after i make rounds on my circuit--i'll even buy yah a whiskey before your sentencin'."

late that night , sitting on the strange and uncomfortable bunk, locked in a hot , tiny jailcell , the boy sat with his head buried within his hands . even if his roaring headache would subside , he faced the first of very sleepless nights to come.