Home Fires

“Dead Man’s Hand, a pair of black Aces and a pair of black Eights,” Doc Harris said as he stared down at his whiskey, stirring it with his finger. “That’s what Wild Bill Hickock’s hand was before he was blown to kingdom come, bullet in the head courtesy of Jim McCall. Ole Jim got the short end of a long rope for it.”

How you win and lose at the same time

Doc Harris sat slumped in his chair looking grumpier than usual. We were sitting at our customary table at Jackie’s Cold Day Inn waiting for Sheriff Tom. He’d taken Judy Butler to the courthouse in Snyder where she faced charges for inciting a riot in Preacher Jason’s church. Tom figured he’d stick around for the hearing expecting Judge Edwards to dismiss the charges being that Jason was his brother-in-law and they hated each other's guts.

Jackie brought a tray of drinks and set it down. She looked out the window. “Hmmph, those two.”

Across the street in front of the Post Office Milo and Laurie, single adults, were acting like teenage kids who'd just discovered the opposite sex.

We could see them through the window but couldn’t hear what they were saying. He hopped on one foot then the other, pulled at his hat or shoved his hands into his pockets then out again, dancing the whole time as though Laurie was shooting the dust at his feet with a six-shooter. Laurie focused on his face, arranging loose strands of hair behind her ear, licking her lips, eyes wide open as though she were looking in a mirror to make sure she looked alright before going out the door. If I didn’t know they were adults I would guess their age at 14, maybe 16, tops.

Jackie pursed her lips and squinted. “It’s hard to tell with those two. I was pretty sure they'd be a couple by now. This takes much longer I know I’m losing my touch. I had me three husbands and can’t remember how many boyfriends so I know a thing or two about courtin’ and romance.

"I can’t read much into Milo, him being from California, but Laurie, I’ve known her and her family for years; never figured her to have so much patience. If it was me, I woulda grabbed him by the ears and planted a big ole kiss on ‘im months ago. Pretty clear she’s interested. See her hands? Keeps brushing her hair back or clenching ‘em together. And she looks ‘im straight on like, ‘Come on, Milo, I want it, too.’ Jackie sighed and went back to wiping down the bar."

Doc Harris grumped, "They'll get around to that soon enough, Jackie. Those two been alone too long. You hear people say love makes the world go round. No, that ain’t it. It’s just a polite way of sayin’ love makes the world go up and down." Jackie gave him a dirty look. Wendy giggled.

Sheriff Tom came in, did his customary look see around the bar and waited while I vacated his chair. He waved his index finger at Wendy who nodded and poured out a tumbler of his favorite whiskey. She fixed another for me and Doc.

Tom said, "Judy Butler's off the hook. The judge dismissed the case and told the preacher to pound sand."

Information Central

I could see Millie in the Post Office busy sorting mail, talking with her customers, glancing at Milo and Laurie through the screen doors every few seconds as though her mind was a time lapse camera snapping stills that she would later condense, summarize, then turn into gossip to share with the town. Millie knew everyone’s secrets. To her, gossip was just another day of news around town. To everyone else, she had better and far more interesting information than any newspaper or radio show.

At 5 o'clock Millie turned the "Open" sign to "Closed" and padlocked the doors but instead of heading south she stepped between Milo and Laurie and crossed the street to Jackie's place. Millie pops in once in a while to socialize with her best friend, Jackie. Poor Milo was so focused on Laurie he jumped back a foot when Millie said hello as she passed.

Wendy made her a bourbon over ice at the bar. Millie saw us sitting at the corner table. Jackie waved her over and we scooted our chairs to make room.

We watched Milo and Laurie stumble through the ritual of saying goodbye.

Millie bummed one of Tom's cigarillos and drained half her drink. She blinked hard and raised her eyes to the ceiling and blinked again. Wendy got busy pouring her another drink. She took a deep breath and said, “Don't need another one, Wendy. Give it to Tom or somebody.”

Vitamin Jack

She looked out the window. Pointing with her tumbler she said, “Those two, Milo, Laurie, are as borin’ as bible study. Not like Jim and Angel. Panhandle's never seen a pair like that before.”

Jackie saw the question on my face and said, “Jim and Angel met on Friday night, woke up together Saturday, got married on Sunday. Fought all day Monday and skipped work for a week."

Tom chuckled and said, “That's the short version. Millie knows the whole story. Mind telling it again?”

Millie is in her 80s but she looks and acts 20 years younger. When her husband died she succeeded him as Post Master though no one remembers when she was appointed.

Sheriff Tom once told me that given the right breaks Millie could've been a first rate detective in some big city police department the way she put bits of information together to solve a mystery. As Post Mistress she saw everybody's mail – bills from creditors, credit card offers, letters from faraway family members. 'Hmmm, Sue Ellen hasn't written to her sister in years. Probly somebody died. Letters from lawyers going back and forth? Maybe Dave and Kimmie are calling it quits.'

And, of course, when people went to pick up their mail they'd talk to Millie and to each other with every conversation recorded, sorted, and filed away in Millie's brain.

Millie took a deep drag on the cigarillo, a sip of her drink and said, “Nobody gave 'em a Chinaman's chance of stayin' married more'n a week but something happened. When they were single it was Angel goin' her own way, not carin' if anybody liked it. Same for Jim. It didn't matter which way everybody else was goin', Jim, Angel, go against the grain if it suited 'em. If they cared what anybody thought, it never showed.

"For days after, nobody talked about anything else 'cept how Jim and Angel got together that night. Some folks weren't even there but they spun out stories anyway. Took me two weeks to figure out which stories matched up and which didn't, what really happened.

"Now Angel’s the kind who’ll say hi or spit in your eye, dependin’, no matter if you’re a banker or cowpoke. At Billy’s she’ll dance with anybody who asks, ‘cept Harley, and you know why. He knows better than to ask anyway. But when it comes to dating she’s picky. Until Jim come along I never knew her to have a steady beau.

"I heard one time her and Rory were getting' real friendly in a booth at Billy's Last Stand. He's sayin' how bout we go to my place. Angel says no thanks. He keeps up and she pushes him away, gets up and says loud enough for everybody to hear, 'Tonight ain't your night, babe. Many are called but few are chosen.' Rory pulled his hat down, put money on the table and snuck out the back door.

King James didn't like Rory either.

"I don't know that she has any close friends but you ask anybody and they'll say, yeah, Angel she's a friend of mine, ornery, stubborn as a mule, but a friend.

"Then you got Milo and Laurie. Can't figure them out just yet. It's not like they're kids, you know. Both 'em seen enough of the world to be careful and it's not like they just met. Laurie was married once. She had her pick back in the day and picked the wrong one. Lucky she got outa that early, anybody with eyes could see Carter was no good.

"Milo? He's all pluses far as I can tell. Quiet as hell, and he won't say nothin' I can work with. He's been around the world, that boy. You'all know he's walked ground most men will never see. Seems like he come out of it ok. I know there's other women interested besides Laurie. Marie at the library, for one.

"Jim's all muscle and scars from his job on the oil rigs. One look and you know who he is. He mighta lost a fight or two in his time but nobody's ever come back for seconds. Tom's probly told you stories about Jim and Jim and Angel getting into scrapes on the regular. Magnets for trouble those two.

"Jim didn't have a steady girlfriend before Angel. He was playin' the field. Good lookin', single, spent his money without thinking about it much. He knew Angel but didn't make a play for her, too many other women around for him to notice. She never gave him a second look either. When they finally met up close it was like a grizzly meetin' a wildcat. Only one of 'em was gonna come out in one piece.

"It was at Billy's Last Stand on a Friday night, late, people havin' a good time, live music, fancy dancin', boys playin' pool in the back. Angel and Judy Butler were sittin' together eyeballin' the boys in the band. Jim walks up, asks Judy to dance. She says no, that cowboy with the blue hat stepped on my toes last dance. Ask Angel.


"Angel's a real good dancer and Jim’s average but he does ok. They did some line dancin' for a couple of songs before The Lonesome Foursome played a slow song. Jim and her got close but not too close, they just met you know. But right off, there was a problem.

"Jim is left handed. He's used to making right handed women follow his lead. No problem there. He's Jim, he leads.

"Angel is left handed, too. She makes her partners go her way, left right, left right. Most of 'em catch on and go along.

Making it through another night

"The Lonesome Foursome are just startin’ Help Me Make It Through The Night when people are whisperin' and pointin' at Jim and Angel. She's pushin' one way, he's pushin' another way like pro wrestlers tryin' to leverage each other. Jim goes about 190. If Angel's an ounce over 120 it's a lot. So even money says he's gonna win this round. But anybody ever tried to push Angel around knows there’s always a price to pay.

"She lets go of Jim, steps back and says, “Do you wanna dance or do I have to drag you around the floor?”

"Then Jim does the wrong thing. He pushes his hat back on his head, puts his hands out like what'm I gonna do 'bout the little lady? Lookin' around at his friends, smirkin' a little.

"Angel gets red in the face, rears back, kicks him in the shin and when he bends down she knocks his hat off and stomps on it.

"Everybody's starin', wonderin' what's gonna happen next. Jim and Angel standin' legs apart, lookin' each other in the eye like gunslingers waitin' for the other one to blink.

"I don't know what Jim's thinkin' but I know you don't win a fight by walkin' away. Men like him will fight you to the last dead dog a’fore they quit. It’s all in the book, 101 Things Real Men Never Do.

"Maybe Angel's thinkin' the same way but maybe, too, she's thinkin' steppin' on his hat was worse than his crime. She picks up his hat, brushes it off and tosses it to 'im.

"Jim's a roughneck like a hundred others ‘round here but he's got some smarts. He sees she wants a truce. The band starts playin'. Jim puts his hat on, holds his arms out like askin’ do you wanna dance. She does the same thing.

"Well, Lord knows what went on their heads but before long they were holdin' each other like they're hangin' on a life raft."

Tom spoke up. "I didn't have to add up any clues to know what happened next. Saturday morning I got a call from the Easy Days Motel at the edge of town. Ed told me they checked in late Friday night. Had to quiet 'em down after some guests complained. Couldn't tell if they were fightin' or havin' fun. Next morning he finds the bed's broke. He knows Jim's good for it but he's lettin' me know just in case. He says they headed north on the 60.

"Next I get a call from the bartender at Billy's. Tells me Angel's pickup is still on his lot. He's worried about Angel. I tell 'im she’s probly all right, she's with Jim. He says uh oh. I tell 'im leave the truck there unless you hear from me."

Tom stopped to take a sip. "Jim's a rough one but I know he's never laid a hand on a woman. So far's I'm concerned Angel's with him cause she wants to be. If anybody’s in trouble it’s gonna be Jim.

"I call the Borger Sheriff and tell him let me know if he sees Jim's pickup parked in any of the motels. He says ok. I do the same with the Sheriff Don in Pampa.

"Thursday I check in with the Sheriff in Borger. He ain’t seen Jim’s pickup anywhere. But Don over in Pampa says Jim and Angel are holed up at the Cactus Flower Motel on Main street. So happens that’s across the street from Big Daddy’s Diner where Don takes his coffee and doughnut breaks now and then.

"Says Angel’s lookin’ fine but Jim looks like hell, draggin’ his butt across the street to the diner like he’s been sleepin’ on the street for a month. I thank him and call Jim’s boss let ‘im know Jim’s ok but probly won’t be at work too soon. Mr. Davis is used to his men not showin’ up regular like but he’s glad Jim’s ok. Says if I see Jim tell ‘im his pay’s bein’ docked.

"Now this love story happened, oh, ten years ago. Jim and Angel, you can’t say one name without the other -- JimenAngel. They’re still married, still fightin’ over this and that with each other or with somebody else. Them against the world like always. I guess some home fires never go cold."

Wendy was standing behind the bar, elbows down, chin cupped on her hand. “Milo and Laurie are my friends. When they make up their minds I think they'll keep their fire goin'. Maybe not boilin' like Jim and Angel's but it'll always be simmerin'."