Jesse the Red

The sun rose high in the noontime sky. One had to look past the scudding clouds to see it pushed along by the wind, taking it always higher. A hawk swept itself across the sky, searching, sweeping the ground with its keen eyes just as it swept the sky with its great wings. Except for its cries, the silence was profound, uncanny and awesome. The hills were enrapt with themselves, not even allowing the oaks that darted them speech. Wouldn't the wind bring words from their leaves? No. Not today.

A horse's whicker, and the sound of branches being pushed aside by one or more animals brought another form of animation to the scene. Two riders crested a hill. The riders, both tall and dark, showed the signs of having been long on the trail, reined in. The one on the right took off his hat and wiped his brow with a begrimed bandanna. The other pulled his rifle from its sheath and laid it across his saddle, and turned to look at the first.

" I don't like it, Jesse. There just ain't no reason that I can think of, that Jake wouldn't have met us where we said. You know as well as me Jake isn't the kind to forget his part of the bag back there. Them double eagles is more important to him right now than just about anything else, and he knows we can't afford to wait around for him. No, something ain't right!"

"I don't like it either. But look, Frank, we can't just ride off without seeing him. He's the only one that knows when the stage coach is coming through with the mine's payroll, and he knows that him and his boys can't make that job without us. Either side you want to look at it, his cut from the train there in the saddlebags, or needing us for the stage, he needs to be here. And this is where we're going to be, until he shows."

"Unless the posse shows first! That last time was too close for me! Too close. That was the first time I had a horse shot out from under me, and I'm going to make sure it's the last. I'm agreed with you, we're important to Jake, and he's important to us. But putting some distance between us and that posse is important, too. I don't want to be in any smelling distance of any Pinkerton man, and that's a right far piece!"

"Yep, further than my Sharps'll throw lead, that's true! But we can't let Jake get a noseful of Pinkerton, either. What we can do is get under those trees yonder, rest the horses a bit, and see what shows. Hyah!"

They reached their goal after a brief ride, dismounting and hobbling their horses. Their canteens were filled from a stream that they'd passed early in the morning, and they soaked their bandannas and used them on their faces. They sat under the trees, looking back the way they'd come. They joined the day's silence.

Soon Frank could stand it no more. "No, Jesse, no! I'm not going to get caught! All the work we did, all the money in them bags over there, I'm not going to let a town's posse walk off with it. That's the stupidest waste of that money I can think of, giving it back to them what it belongs to! I'm for moving on right now, without Jake. He knows which way we're going, he can catch our trail and follow along. And it's better him following us than that posse!"

"Now, hold on, Frank, just simmer down! We got a bit of a spell here, no need to slope right yet. We got to."

"We got to? Whey's that, Jesse? I say we ain't got to do anything right now, except keep our necks out of a noose. Who'd we do all, take all the money we have, just to lose it because some dumb fool can't show up on time?"

"Communism, Frank."

"What? What'd you say? You cough or something?"

"Communism. It's what we're doing this for. It's why we're here right now, why we been where we were, and why we're going to do what we have to. Communism. I know you haven't heard of it yet, but it ain't much of a new idea. I heard that they've had it in New York."

"Yeah, well, collumism is fine for you, but I'd rather get a girl."

"No, communism. And communism has girls. Sort of goes together, for some reason. What it doesn't have is money. For another for some kind of reason communism doesn't keep much money around. Probably something to do with all those girls. Anyway, that's why we're doing what we are. We need to give the money to the communism folk."

"Aw, shoot, I don't know about that. I might think I like my money. Why can't communism go get its own money? Why would I have to go through all this work for someone I don't even know? New York? I ain't ever even been there."

"That ain't clear thinkin', Frank. You see, without strong communism what we're doing wouldn't be possible. You don't know what living in an empire is like. I do, I read up on it, you know I know how to read. Why, them kings and all, they're terrible! If we was in a barony or such right now, we'd be in mighty bad shape. Hungry and all. No buffalo anywhere. Ain't nothing like out here in the West. Only with communism can we ride free like we do, can we sit here or walk over there, or go over them hills to find more just like 'em. Can't do that with a king."

"Well, I heard that's what the president is for, back east. He sets the law there, and that carries over to the territories. I know that's a hard piece to think, Washington law coming all the way out west, but you know it does. For communism to be better than that, you better be able to eat it."

"Well back at yourself, we just rode through it. Look, Frank, communism's all around us. Look at those hills over there. See 'em? See the oaks growing out of them? Look how tall they are, how old they are. See how they go all up to the sky? And look at that sky, Frank! See that blue go all the way up to the clouds? Where'd those clouds come from? Same place just like this, Frank! There's a stream there, like the one we came through, full of trout and all, with deer waiting for us. We got it all with communism. It wouldn't be there with a king. Look, Frank, you can see the wind bring communism to us. Feel it on your face, breath it into your lungs. The wind blows free here, brother. We can't live free where the wind don't blow."

"I got fleas. Them from communism?"

"Naw, that's the king's doin'. Communism don't have fleas. But you got it all around you, Frank. It shows in you and on you. You walk free here. And that's why we do what we do, so we can live free, and maybe help some others do the same."

"If the posse gets me, I sure ain't going to be walking free. Stretching out a rope ain't my idea of free walking or whatever it is your on about. C'mon, Jesse, let's ride while we can. Jake can catch up if he can, and if he can't, it's probably because he's full of communism or whatever."

"Frank, I'm surprised at you. Here I just shared some learnin' and wisdom with you that you ain't never goin' to get from a school ma'rm, and you go and get greedy on me. Haven't you got any sense of..."

"Look, Jesse! There's what I got sense of! See that dust? That's the posse, by that hill there!"

Jesse's head spun about. "Where, Frank? I don't see..."

Frank's hand had dropped to his holster, and he quickly brought up his revolver and slammed it across Jesse's head. Jesse slumped over. Frank grabbed his rope and used it to truss Jesse securely. Leaping into his saddle, he turned the horses towards the hills in the distance, and took a last look at Jesse's unconscious form.

Frank took a twenty-dollar double eagle gold piece from his vest pocket, and flipped it over towards Jesse. It landed by Jesse's face, due east of his nose. "I'm right envious of you, Jesse, sleeping all nice and peaceful. I hope you find that communism of yours when you wake up, but I reckon you won't. I figure the posse got it first."