Chris Larabee stood beside the livery's corral smoking a cheroot and
watching the sun begin to set. He felt more than heard someone approach. He
turned and stared in shock. "Buck?!"
"That's right, Pard." Wilmington came up beside him and leaned against a
post.
"But...you were laying shot up in the clinic, maybe dying." How could the
lanky ladies' man be here, now, in perfect health?
"Nah, kinda hard to be dying when you're already dead. Hell, we all are."
"What do you mean 'we all are'?"
"Just what I said, Stud. Everyone here is dead. This is a kind of Limbo for
people They can't decide belong in Heaven or Hell and for the ones who just
ain't ready to be dead yet." Buck's blue eyes twinkled with humor. "I
finally figured out what I needed to do to move on and I wanted to say good
bye before I left."
Chris' hazel eyes hardened. "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. I
ain't dead and neither are you."
Buck shook his head in exasperation. "Yes, we are."
"Well, if I'm dead, how and where did it happen?"
"Some pissant little border town. You were so drunk you could barely stand.
Some young hot head called you out and you accepted. You never cleared
leather. I'm surprised you could even find your holster. 'Course the kid
that done it only enjoyed his fame for about an hour before someone gunned
him down."
Chris swallowed, that was way too plausible for his liking and what he had
wanted for way too long. "What about Vin?"
"Tanner never made it out of Tascosa. He got hung."
Larabee shook his head in denial. Vin didn't deserve that. "What about
Nathan?" He and Vin had saved him, hadn't they?
"He's been here awhile. Managed to escape the plantation but didn't survive
long after getting caught."
No, Chris continued to shake his head, that was just plain wrong. If Nathan
had died, it should have been as a free man, not a slave. He couldn't ask
about the rest but he didn't need to as Buck went on.
"Now, JD, as young and na ve as he is and with that suit and dumb hat, was
lucky to make it to the Mississippi before he was murdered and robbed. And
old Ez, he done tried to con the wrong fella. It was downright ugly what
they did to him and I do hate ugly." Buck shook his head.
"Always figured maybe Josiah knows what's what since he's always going on
about doing his penance. Never would have imagined it was possible, but he
done found a bigger and meaner drunk than he was. That wasn't pretty,
either."
Chris couldn't believe it, didn't *want* to believe it, but he could just
see them all meeting their ends as described. Then he realized Buck had left
one death out. "Wait a minute, if we're all dead, how did *you* die?"
"Now, why ain't I surprised you don't remember?"
"What's *that* supposed to mean?"
"Hell, Chris, you're the one that killed me and left me lay for the
buzzards..."
Larabee woke with a jerk, barely stifling a scream and almost falling out of
the chair he was in. He looked around to see if he had disturbed anyone.
Buck was lying in the clinic's bed, unconscious but still breathing. JD was
in a chair beside the bed, asleep with his head beside Buck. And Nathan was
sleeping on a cot. Chris relaxed, everything was as it should be, it was
just a nightmare and he hadn't woken anybody with it.
He went to the window and was gazing down at the street when he felt eyes
upon him and turned back to the bed. Buck was watching him with a knowing
amused look then his eyes closed as unconsciousness or sleep retook him.
Chris felt a chill go down his spine. It was a dream. *Wasn't it*?
The End
