Old branch town

It took me quite a while to walk to the top of the slight elevation, from where I could finally take a look at the surroundings my feet had been carrying me to for basically the whole day.

There was nothing of great interest in the east or south, but north, faintly pushing itself against the horizon, I thought I could see something like a small town. Two or three carriages seemed to be approaching it, while the sun started to paint the red sand into an even more crimson looking color.

While it still would be a tough walk at the end of which it all could just turn out to be a mirage or something in this area of deceptions my own mind or somebody else could use to guide me to certain death, but again, it was kind of my best choice at the moment.

I marked the direction in my mind and started heading directly towards it. If I had a chance to survive this place, then it would be this town.

The way seemed to stretch endless, but by the time the lower outline of the sun started to kiss the horizon, I had finally made it.

A man in traditional japanese clothing, wearing an old hat and boots he had stolen from somebody who died out in the desert, walking into a town that looked like the setting of a cowboy movie, and fully covered in a tasteful layer of dust, that underlined the journey behind him.

I was sure to make an impression, so I might as well try to use this for my advantage. Most importantly I needed to think about an answer to where my horse was or why I crossed the desert without any transportation. Of course the robbery was still a legitimate story, but being robbed would not help me growing a reputation that would be of use in any case.

I held my hat with one hand as a slow wind steadily started to blow across the main road, carrying more sand and dust from the desert.

The first people started to carefully stare at me.

The houses were built as one might expect. They were made out of wooden planks, usually two stories high, and all had a small walkway in front of them that either connected two neighboring houses or ended with a small stair consisting of two more or less useless steps.

The houses themselves were quite standard as well. A church, the jail, a saloon, a small bank, an undertaker and a small shop that seemed to sell basically everything that was needed to survive in these types of places.

All in all the town made the impression of being nothing special. Not at all. But it might be my salvation at this moment.

I slowly walked on, trying to make the impression of feeling totally well and not feeling like I will faint from exhaustion every moment.

The few people sitting in front of their houses to enjoy the cooling air of the evening, eyed me with suspicion. I tipped at my hat with two of my fingers, the other people nodded or replied with the same gesture. They weren’t welcoming me but at least they seemed to accept my presence. For now.

My feet were carrying me to the saloon, which was well visited by yet again the usual people. Hardworking people enjoying some spirits to end the day, some people gambling, some maybe even as main source of income, one person playing some light music on a piano in the corner and upstairs there awaited some women, which, in terms of this setting, could be considered as only moderately clothed.

I walked towards the counter and leaned over it.

“What’ll it be, kid?”, asked a tall bearded guy behind the counter who had been busy wiping some stains off it with an already kind of dirty piece of cloth.

“Whatever you can give me in exchange for this.”, I said, pulling the set of cards out of my sleeve. My intonation made it clear that this set of cards was basically everything I had to pay with.

He looked at me, calmly took the cards and opened the package. The cards slid out of the package and he took a look at each one of them.

“These are some fine cards.”, he mumbled into his beard.

“I have been paid worse before. But that’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”, he finally added as he finished inspecting the cards.

My dusty and way too tired look likely did their part in his decision.

“You look thirsty.”, he acknowledged as he grabbed under the counter and pulled out a tankard which he then proceeded to fill at a medium sized barrel behind him.

Common sense would have told me to drink water back in my world, but here plain water would likely get me killed sooner than later.

“What brings you here?”, he asked as he placed the tankard on the counter in front of me, white foam slowly flowing down at one side of the glass.

“I was just following the road, and I can say I am really happy to have found some kind of civilization.”, I responded before carefully drinking from the drink he had given me. It tasted bitter and was definitely neither cooled nor fresh, but it helped restoring some of my forces. I sighed in relief.

“I needed that.”, I said.

“I sure do believe that!”, he laughed. “Where are you from? Oakley? Or one of those new towns out west?”

“I came from another place. Far away. Way too far, to be honest.”

“I see. Ashborn then?”, he replied, probably naming the one city he knew that was the farthest away from here.

I sighed.

“Yes. Let’s say Ashborn.”

“I know some people there. Good people.”, he said and nodded while deep in thoughts. Some bystanders who were listening to our conversation nodded as well as if it was common sense that people from Ashborn were automatically good people.

“Where is your horse? Only a madman would walk through the desert.”, shouted an elderly looking man, who spend the evening with some friends over a glass of whiskey.

The question which I had feared and expected. What now? Did there exist snakes here? I mean this was a desert and this was obviously the copy of the most generic old american landscape one could have found online so why shouldn’t there be snakes in this world?

I sighed theatrically, without overdoing it, and looked at the man.

“Oh, that damn thing. T’saw a snake, threw me off and made a run for it.”, I somewhat felt obliged to adapt to his was of speaking but felt that it was unnatural to me and wouldn’t help or hurt my reputation anyways.

“A snake? Didn’t train it well enough then.”, he responded, laughing at my apparent inexperience.

“I can’t deny this.”, I agreed and took another sip off my beer.

“So you don’t have any special business here?”, asked another man at the other end of the counter.

“None here and none anywhere else.”, I admitted.

“Since you already paid that beer with these playing cards, you seem to have spent your last penny some time ago.”, he concluded.

I nodded silently.

“Well then,…”, he started while taking a deep breath, “….I have an offer to make.”

Was this my chance of starting a new life? Actually I would have preferred a nicer place than this, but I shouldn’t complain, thinking about my current situation.

“I’m listening.”

“Y’know? I’m the sheriff of this town, but my deputy had an accident. So there is a job available.”

“What happened to him?”, I asked.

The people around lowered their gazes for a moment, trying not to make it too obvious, but the collective movement caught my attention. There was a short in not only the current conversation but also in most of the smaller conversations around us. Only the gamblers seemed too busy with their own businesses.

“A snake.”, he replied shortly.

“Sorry to hear that.”

“Can hit or miss everybody.”

There was another short moment of silence which I didn’t want to interrupt out of respect for the former deputy.

“So…. I got you right, if I understood you want me to be the next deputy in town? Isn’t there somebody you already know better who could be betrothed with this task?”

He looked around at all the people in the saloon and they started to sink in their seats like somebody had left the air out of them.

“These people are farmers, miners or even less. What I need is somebody who can shoot. Can you do it?”, he leaned onto the counter and looked at me with piercing blue eyes.

What now? I never held any type of weapon in my head, but declining this job offer would mean sleeping outside for at least one night. Thinking about my possibilities to survive in a location like this I would either stay homeless for even longer, or not even survive the first night due to an unfortunate encounter with coyotes or something similar unpleasant if hungry.

Did I even have another chance? Or even another choice?

I looked around for a short moment. The people looked at me with hope in their eyes, but there was something else which I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It looked like a tinge of sadness. But why should they be sad? So maybe pity? I didn’t know and I also didn’t care. There was the chance to pay for my own meals and lodging which was more than I had hoped for when I traded in the cards.

“Well…. I used to be quite good at shooting, but that was a rather long time ago. I’d need to train a little again.”, I said.

This technically wasn’t a lie. I myself had never held a gun or anything but I had played some ego-shooters back in my teenage years. It couldn’t be that much of a difference I thought.

The sheriff stood up from his stool and walked over to me. He smiled and took my hand to shake it.

“That’s the spirit!”, he exclamed. “We have a new deputy!”

Everybody who had paid attention to the conversation so far cheered at us.

He turned towards the crowd for a moment and then back to me.

“See me at my office tomorrow at dawn.”

His hand slid into the left pocket of his vest and seemed to hold something for a moment before he took it out again. There was something shining in his hand, which he pressed into my still open hand and then closed my fingers around it, before he turned to leave the saloon.

“This should be enough to get you through the night.”, he suggested and then left the saloon.

I took a look at the thing in my hand. He had given me a silver star that said ‘deputy’ and two coins.

I didn’t know how much they were worth but surely enough for a meal and a room.

“How much can I get for this?”, I asked the man behind the counter and placed the coins onto it.

“I don’t think he meant me.”, he said and nodded suggestively upstairs.