"Said I'm not allowed to go
anywhere near this sinkhole of iniquity. Tha's what she called it. A
'sinkhole of iniqu... iniquity." The little man beamed drunkenly at the gaudily
dressed girl on his lap, who giggled obediently and cuddled just a little
closer. "Show...Show her! A man's... man's got rights!"
"Absolutely." The woman kissed him
gently on the cheek, making him smile even wider. "And you're definitely a man,
Bobby!"
The peacekeepers watching from two
tables over exchanged amused glances. " 'A man's' gonna be in a lot of trouble
later on, too, when he doesn't turn up home and his wife comes looking for him!"
Nathan commented. Making the others chuckle.
"I'm just glad I've got patrol,"
Vin put in. "That woman's scary!"
"Scared of a lady, pard? Come on,
you just don't know how to talk to them!"
"Hey, she's bigger than me!" Vin
protested as Buck took a pull at his beer and they both watched the farmer try
and return his paramour's kisses, only to miss by a mile and almost land them
both on the floor.
"He's got a point there, Buck!" JD
put in, laughing. Mrs Weyland was known to the whole town as a big woman with a
big heart - who ruled over her much smaller husband with a rod of iron. "Hey,
maybe if we dragged him up to the clinic when he passes out, instead of putting
him in the cells like we did last time? Maybe if we tell her he's sick, she
won't be so hard on him."
The older men exchanged glances.
"You think she won't notice the smell of booze, JD?" Vin asked gently.
"Or Miss Kelly's lipstick?" Buck
added, noting more of the aforementioned cosmetic being applied to the drunken
man's cheek.
"Well..."
"I's my birthday!" The drunken man
was burbling, now. "Man's got a right to celly... cele-brate on his birthday!
Sophie let me come into town on my own cause of it. Said she was going to make
me a nice dinner for my birth.. bir... special day and she didn't want me
unnerfoot. Sent me into town for groceries instead. Decided to cellybrate. With
you!" The last proclamation was accompanied by another lurching attempt at a
kiss, which this time did land them both on the sawdust covered boards.
"Aw, hell!" Buck levered himself to
his feet, accompanied by the others and lumbered over to where the saloon girl
was trying to extricate herself from underneath her now motionless companion.
Hauling the man up with one hand and passing him off to Nathan, while offering
the other to the pretty redhead and helping her to her feet. "Are you ok,
darlin'?"
"Thank you, Buck. I'm fine." The
girl stood and shook out her skirts. "I can't say the same for Mr Weyland,
though." They all noticed the more formal speech and the lack of professional
giggles as she looked at the unconscious man in the healer's arms. "Are you
going to take him down to the jail? Poor man. He doesn't get out on his own very
often."
"No, Miss Kelly, we're not." Nathan
spoke up. Surprising the others. "We're going to take him up to the clinic and
see if we can air out his coat and if I can make him drink it, I've got
something that should cover up the alcohol on his breath, too. We'll tell Mrs
Weyland he fell ill, instead . . . What?" He looked at the wide-eyed stares from the
other men. "Man's got a right to celebrate on his birthday!"
He hefted the small, boneless - and
now starting to snore - form, over one shoulder and headed out the batwing
doors, deliberately ignoring the grins of the others behind him.
"Mr Jackson's a good man."
"Yep - and he's got a birthday of
his own coming up, next week, too!"
FINIS
