Published February, 2004
You ever have one of those day?
One of those kind of days which starts off just right, then seems to take a turn for the worse?
Seems as though there's usually some kind of heartbreak involved, be it over a horse or a girl, if not money, friends or just any other such thing in general.
Usually them kind of days end up on a bad note...if'n a body makes it through a'tall.
This was one of those days.
Me, I'm a long, tall country boy fresh out of the hills of Kentucky, by way of Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and New Mexico, not to mention a sight of other places I've been to. Mostly I'd rather forget them.
My name's Laney Benton, and I'm not yet twenty, but man-growed for my years, though I still got my boyish good looks...not so's they was any good to begin with. I'm three inches higher'n six feet and I got enough meat on my bones to get the job done, whatever that may be. When folks talk about a body havin' been up thte crick and over the mountain, I reckon I kin say I been there too.
The crick run out behind ma's house back home to Kentucky, and them mountains was called the
Appy-lashans, but up till a few years back I hadn't been off'n them slopes enough to mention.
That was when I joined up to fight in the war. I fit for the Union. Most of my boyhood friends went off an' joined up with the south, as it were a popular thing to do, but my pa, he was always proud of the Union an' I taken after his teachin' rather'n join my friends.
After the war I met up with an old friend and I taken a job to earn some money. Now, two hundred dollars was a lot in them days, but I'd come from a hillside where you left alone that which belonged to your neighbor, and likely I was a bit too trusting for my own good. I learned something of watching out for my own backside down Texas way, but it wasn't until I hit the streets of Oro City that I learned just how much trouble it could be to have nigh onto two hundred dollars on a body.
There was a sight of minin' goin' on, and the town had attracted all kinds of riff-raff, and that includin' both sexes. Seems some folks could sniff out money better'n others...