Fiction

Scaredy-Cat

Another normal day it is.  The sun is beaming down on us, radiating on the jungle trees.  These trees still help give us proper shade when we want to stay out of the heat.  I look and there’s a monkey hanging on a tree, all alone and with a facial expression of fear.  There are some other animals I will see on my daily journey that are all by themselves now.  It’s a sad sight quite frankly.  It’s perfect when it’s one of my prey and it becomes feasting time, but I feel bad for the other animals.  I can understand what they’re going through, though, as most of my family has been wiped out as well.  I don’t know why the human’s like our orange and black stripped fur so much, but now I’m always on the run.  I don’t want to be another victim for human medicine, and I don’t know the last time I’ve seen another one of my own in this forest.  My last home was destroyed, trees getting knocked down left and right, so I’m hoping I can settle down in this forest for a while before the humans come back.  I know I may appear as a dangerous cat, but I’m constantly living a life of fear because I know they will come back.  I’m scared for my life, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get help.

Riding Off in the Sunset

            It’s another typical hot, summer day.  The year is 1872, and no commotion is going on in the peaceful little town in Arizona known as Valentine.  These Western states live a simple lifestyle: small family businesses, local taverns for get-togethers, stables for the cowboys to keep their horses safe, and many farms throughout the country land.  This town in southern Arizona happened to be in prosperous times, and there wasn’t a care in the world.  Well, actually, there was something that they cared about.  It wasn’t just something either, it was someone.  His name: Lovin McGunnin.

            Lovin was a native of the town, lived there almost his whole life.  He’s a thirty-five-year-old male who is Caucasian, about five foot ten in height, one hundred and fifty pounds, brown eyes, and clean-cut brown hair.  Presentation was everything to Lovin, and he was known for having the most groomed hair in all of Arizona while also being the most fashionably dressed.  His clothes from the finest stores in all the Western United States, he never ceased to impress while striking fear in the hearts of men.  Nobody questioned how he could afford luxurious clothing, and nobody wanted to know.  Another detail that made Lovin so known: his glamorous horse.  Known as Dark Knight throughout the West, the black stallion was one of the biggest horses anybody had ever seen.  He was well groomed, well taken care of, and was also one of the fittest horses anybody in the land.  Nobody can ever catch up to Dark Knight and nobody can get away from him, it’s just a fact.  Why would people want to try and do this?

            You see, Lovin McGunnin is a Western outlaw.  He’s a rogue cowboy that loves to live on the edge, doing whatever he wants whenever he wants.  This includes terrorizing the little town of Valentine, whether that’s stealing from the stores, robbing from the bank, causing commotion in the taverns, and getting local cowboys involved in duels.  Even though he may be a notorious outlaw, he never travels alone.  His posse consists of five other outlaws: Dante Thomas, Billy Watson, Arthur Morgan, Jeremiah James, and Slingin’ Sammy.  This group went by a name simply known as “The Boys,” and the infamous group of gunslinging outlaws were known throughout the Wild West.

            Lovin McGunnin and The Boys made their presence known not just in Valentine, Arizona, but the whole West for a good ten-year period.  They were top dogs and on top of the world.  The problem now, though, is that they want their crime days to be over.  They had their glory and their fun, and now they want to settle down in a town and live out the rest of their lives among a community.  McGunnin, specifically, wanted to live off on a farm and peacefully own acres of land out in the country.  The problem with this is that he wanted to settle in his hometown of Valentine because that was where he was born and raised, but the people of the town don’t forget the things he has done.  He’s shamed there and he’d always have to be on alert for intruders because nobody trusts him.  He tried to gradually fit in with the townspeople, but it wasn’t easy.  Many of the times other people in the taverns would try to start fights with him, even if he was sitting at a table by himself minding his own business.  He’d also get frequently kicked out of stores and markets just because of his history, even though he might be there just to buy some new clothes he wanted to wear for working the farm or the food he needed to eat for the week.  This would go on for many months, as obviously it wouldn’t be an easy thing to get accepted right away.  As time went on, he continued to cause no commotion while dealing with the townspeople harassing him, and this resulted into some people within the town starting to trust him.  Less fights went on, he wasn’t kicked out of buildings as much, and he didn’t harm the peace in the town.  The townspeople realized he really wanted to change.

            Lovin McGunnin would live peacefully on that farm in the country acres of Valentine like he always wanted to, and he was even able to start up a family.  He married a pretty gal by the name of Belle Shoemaker, who worked as a bartender in one of the taverns known as the Salty Splatoon.  That was where he first met her, in fact.  They would also have three kids together, two girls and a boy.  The kids would help with the small chores around the barn, but mainly had the time of their lives running along their land.  McGunnin finally had all he wanted going for him and showed that change was possible.  The rest of the members in The Boys would go on to have their own taste of personal fulfillment as well.  Dante Thomas worked at the Salty Splatoon as well with Belle, Billy Watson owned his own shooting range and helped people how to properly and efficiently use guns, Arthur Morgan worked as a store clerk in one of the local markets, Jeremiah James became a part time owner of a bar called Brothers, and Slingin’ Sammy would become the founder and owner of a restaurant franchise named after him, called Slingin’ Sammy’s Pub.  They all resided in Valentine, Arizona as well, not causing a lick of trouble since they changed their lifestyles.  The Boys stuck together, and The Boys were there to stay.