Ode to a Badman

As she stepped out to cross the street she was well aware of the stares she would draw. Since she turned fifteen, and filled out the way girls are supposed to fill out, she had drawn the attentions of men. As time advanced, so did her beauty until she would draw the attention of no longer just boys, but men, real men, even those a bit long in the tooth would watch her wishing they were young and handsome so’s they could toss a loop her direction. Without a doubt she was the finest looking filly within four hundred miles in any direction. Poets may have written sonnets about her in other times and places. Five foot ten inches with raven colored hair that almost reached her waist and stunning blue eyes that shone like a mountain lake. She had tempting full mouth and teeth like a string of pearls that adorned a slender face and one could envision Homer writing an epic tale with her name ascribed to it. Her figure was something once a man saw, could never forget. She filled out that dress like something out of a dream.
And her brother Blain had been well aware of the attention she’d often drawn, too often. He could hardly count the number of times he was led to defend his little sister from crude men. It wouldn’t take much. Some snide remark made to her within earshot of Blain and it was root hog or die. He was two years older than her soon to be nineteen years of age.
They had just reached town on their way out to stay with their uncle Jared after their parents had been killed during a bank robbery back in Oklahoma. Here in Arizona, things were different. Why a body couldn’t look more’n a few miles off without seein a mountain or hill or such. And it seemed everyone except the women folk wore side arms. Well Blain had been packin for years now and was actually very good at not only a lightning draw, but could shoot the buttons of a shirt at twenty yards. He had just turned to follow after Jenny when he heard once again, one of those crude comments.
A slim fellow with two guns tied down stepped out in front of Jenny and grabbed her by the arm and said, “Hey missy, how’s about me and you go have a little drink in the saloon and then get a room upstairs?” “Why you insulting, filthy man” she said and slapped him hard across the face. At that, the man slapped her so hard he knocked her into the dirt. As he reached for her he heard a shout. “You touch her again mister, and you’ll die where you stand,” Blain said.
Madden froze for a second and then slowly straightened.
“Don’t do it mister, that there is Jack Madden, he’s killed ten men!” someone shouted.
“I don’t care who he is, he’s gonna pay for what he just done to my sister,” he said. Madden just had a big smirk on his face and said, “Why don’t you just run along now sonny, and I’ll send someone for ya when I’m through with her?” “I guess you don’t know who you’re standin up to, but if you don’t run along, I’ll shoot you in the knee, and make you watch what I’m a gonna do to little sis.”
Blain had never stopped walking toward the pair and was just about to them when Madden’s gun hand streaked down for his gun and it seemed to appear in his hand as if by magic. But Blain had struck out and his fist landed square on the chin of Madden even as the report of the shot sounded. Something struck Blain in the side, but he hardly noticed and his full attention was bent on the destruction of man in front of him. As Madden realized what had happened and slightly cleared his head, blain chopped down on his wrist and he lost hold of the gun. Blain wasted no time and slugged Madden the gut, followed by an uppercut to the nose. Blood gushed all over the front of Madden as he heard the bones in his nose break. He swung wildly out at his assailant but met with nothing but air. And then Blain really went to work on him. He smashed him in the mouth and busted both lips and was sure he felt some teeth loosen in the blow, and followed that up with a crushing blow behind the ear that sent Madden crashing into the dirt of the street. He didn’t get up.
Blain was brushing himself off and then reached down to pick up his hat when someone jerked the pistol from its holster, and he felt something burn his ear and then heard the explosions. As he spun quickly around he stared in amazement as Madden, gun in hand was crashing into the dust with a dark round hole in the center of his forehead. As Blain looked over, his gun was trailing a thin line of smoke from the barrel. And it was clutched in his sister Jenny’s small hand.
“You’ve stuck up for me so many times, I guess it was time to pay you back,” said Jenny. “Besides, I figured all those days we practiced with these things just might come in handy some day.”
A voice from across the street called out, “You two better get out and do it quick, Madden has two brothers around here somewhere that are just as mean as he is.”
At that Blain pulled out a silver dollar out of his pocket and tossed it into the air. He drew his gun that Jenny had returned and shot the coin four times while in the air, and then tossed it to Jenny who fired and hit the coin again just before it reached the ground. “Better tell them their brother was a poor excuse for a bad man, and come on if they like,” Said Jenny.
“Come on sis, let’s go see Uncle Jared,” said Blain. And the two saddled their horses down at the livery and rode off to their uncle’s ranch, somewhere northwest of town.