This is a sequel to "Wounds."
April Fools
Kid came out of the bunkhouse and made a full turn to show off his new outfit to the other riders. "What do you think?" he asked.
"Ah like it, Kid," Lou said. "Makes ya look, ah dunno…taller."
Kid smiled at her. "Think so?"
Cody shook his head. "Seems to me a body don't need more than one shirt an' one pair o' pants."
Jimmy turned his bored gaze from Kid to Cody. "Look who's talkin', Mr. William F-for-Fashion Cody."
The argument that might have ensued was interrupted and stopped by Teaspoon, who approached the group and waved the letter he held in his hand to emphasize its importance. "Well, boys," the station master said, "ah need two volunteers."
"What for?" Cody asked.
"The Company needs someone to deliver a supply shipment from Fort Kearny to Fort Laramie."
"We didn't sign on to haul freight," Cody replied.
"Ya signed on to do wot ah tell ya to do. If this here letter from Russel, Majors, an Waddell says they want two o' you to pick up the shipment o' supplies, then that's wot you'll do."
"Can't the army do itself?"
Teaspoon shook his head. "Seems that this threat o' war is makin' the army short of men, an' they want the company to do it. So who wants to take it?"
The riders looked at each other, but none volunteered.
Teaspoon nodded. He'd expected nothing else. "Awl right, ah figgered it might come to this." He took off his hat, held it in the hand with the letter, then took out some folded pieces of paper from his shirt pocket. "Ah have here five pieces o' paper, an' two of 'em have marks on 'em. Whoever gits the marks goes."
"Lucky for Buck, he's on relay," Cody muttered.
"Kid?" Teaspoon said, holding out the hat to him. Kid drew a piece of paper and unfolded it, then showed it to the others. No 'X.'
"Lou?" Teaspoon said, holding the hat out to her. Lou drew her piece of paper and sighed as the 'X' revealed itself.
"That's one," Teaspoon declared. "Ike?"
Ike drew his paper, unfolded it, and showed it to the others. No 'X.'
"Yer turn, Jimmy," Teaspoon said, holding the hat out to Jimmy.
Jimmy drew a paper and peeked at it like he was hiding his hand in a card game. It was blank, but he gave a loud groan as if he'd drawn the other 'X.' "Never mind, Cody,"he said to the rider trying to look over his shoulder. He folded the paper back into its original position and tossed it back into the hat. "Looks like I got the other."
"That's two," Teaspoon said. "Ah forgot t' mention that there is extra pay to go along with this assignment."
"When do we leave?" Lou asked.
"Soon as you git yer stuff together. Shipment left St. Joe same time the letter did. It should reach Fort Kearny by the time you get there."
Lou glanced at Jimmy, who would have been her last choice for a partner, and headed off to the bunkhouse.
..
Kid wanted to speak to Jimmy alone, but he didn't really get a chance until Jimmy went to hitch the wagon.
"Jimmy, I been thinkin'," Kid said. "If you'd rather not go, I'll take the assignment."
Jimmy glanced at him and continued working. "You know, Kid, if you wanted to volunteer, you shoulda done it before Teaspoon mentioned extra pay. I could use a few extra dollars."
Lou approached with an sack full of supplies she'd gotten from Rachel. She looked at Kid briefly before addressing Jimmy. "We better stop at Tompkins on the way an' pick up some more canned goods."
"Lou—" Kid said.
She looked at him.
He was at a loss of what to say, and in the end settled for, "Be careful."
"Ah will," she assured him.
Not quite as an afterthought, he turned to Jimmy. "You, too, Jimmy."
Jimmy grinned. "I'm always careful."
Kid grunted and left. Jimmy watched him go and said, with mock sweetness, "Now wasn't that nice of him to see us off like 'at?"
Lou gave him look of annoyance as she tossed the sack onto the bed of the wagon.
..
It didn't take long for Jimmy to realize that Lou was in a foul mood. Even driving the wagon wasn't much of a distraction, as the ruts along the well-worn road pretty much kept the horses on course without use of the reins. He put up with Lou's sullenness for as long as he could, then couldn't stand it any longer.
"You're a damn fool," he told her.
Lou looked at him.
"Look, Lou, if you want 'im back, you should be…encouragin' him, not puttin' 'im off."
Lou knew Jimmy was talking about Kid. "It ain't your business," she told Jimmy.
"Bein' a man myself, I might be able to give you a few pointers," Jimmy offered.
"Ah said, it ain't your business." Lou repeated emphatically.
"You wanna talk about it?" Jimmy asked.
"No." Lou answered.
"You used to like talkin' with me," Jimmy pressed.
"That was before," Lou replied.
"Before the dance? How many times I gotta apologize, Lou? I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."
Lou looked at him, with eyebrows raised.
Jimmy sighed. "Well, maybe I did. But only 'cause I thought you were interested. So can we be friends again? We'll even talk about the Kid, if you like—an' that is a big sacrifice on my part."
Lou didn't want to talk about the Kid, or anybody, or anything, else, for that matter. "Jimmy…" she said, "shut up."
..
A couple hours later, Jimmy stopped the wagon and looked at Lou.
"You okay, Lou?" he asked. "Don't look like you're feelin' too well."
"Ah'm fine," Lou answered, annoyed.
"Stomach botherin' you?" Jimmy asked.
"If it is," Lou retorted, "it must be from lookin' at you all day. Why are we stoppin'?"
Jimmy jerked a thumb towards the brush, with a tilt of his head that indicated that nature was calling. "I gotta, uh, you know…"
"Ah might as well, too," Lou said. "Meet you back here in a few minutes."
Jimmy left to go into the bushes. Lou waited until he was well and truly gone, then reached for her things and pulled out what looked like a piece of old shirt.
..
Buck had just returned from his run and passed off to Cody. He went into the bunkhouse with the notion of doing nothing more than collapsing on his mattress. As he opened the door, Kid was buttoning a shirt.
"Another new shirt?" Buck asked.
"They were two for a dollar," Kid replied.
"What happened to the old ones?"
"Gave 'em to Lou. She said she could use some old rags."
"What would Lou want with old ra—" Buck started to ask, then realized exactly why Lou, a girl, would need a supply of rags. "Oh."
Kid grinned at Buck's seemingly embarrassed reaction, tucked his shirt into his pants, and strode out of the bunkhouse.
..
Jimmy waited for what he thought was a reasonable enough time, then went hunting for Lou. She was using her foot to bury something made of shirt-cloth in the ground near a tree. "What are you doin'?" Jimmy asked.
Lou whirled at the sound of his voice. "Do you mind?" she asked.
"What are you buryin'?"
"None o' yer business!"
"You did that this mornin', too."
Lou stared at him. "You were watchin'?"
"No, I wasn't watchin'. Just curious what was takin' you so long, that's all."
Lou brushed past him to go back to the wagon. "If ya really want to know," she said dryly, "why don't ya go dig it up?"
Jimmy watched her go in confusion. The confusion was cleared up a moment later when a raccoon scurried over to the site Lou had been doing her business, and sniffed at the cloth. Jimmy smacked himself on the forehead and shook his head at his own stupidity. The fact that Lou dressed as a boy didn't change the fact that she still had a girl's body, even though she kept all her girl-ish business to herself.
..
At the campfire, Jimmy and Lou finished their meal of trail rations and coffee, and Jimmy decided to try to make up for his earlier blunder. "Lou, why don't you get some sleep. I'll take the watch tonight."
Dryly, Lou replied, "We ain't got nothin' to watch yet."
Jimmy sighed. "Why do you always have to spoil my gentlemanly intentions with the facts?"
..
The next day, although content to let Jimmy do all of the driving, Lou was as sullen as ever. It was putting Jimmy on the edge of madness.
"Ain't your—over with?" he asked.
"What?" Lou asked, uncomprehendingly.
"Your…female condition," Jimmy tried to explain.
"Ah will always be a female," Lou informed him.
"I mean, your time."
"Are you tryin' to send me to an early grave?" Lou asked.
Exasperated, Jimmy said, "Your monthly time, Lou. Ain't it over with yet? This mood of yours is makin' me crazy."
Lou was incredulous that he would think her distaste for him had anything to do with her menstrual cycle. "If ah am in any kinda 'mood,' it's because ah'm stuck with a job ah really don't want, havin' to listen to some idiot blabbin' away about what kinda mood ah'm in."
Jimmy gave up. "Never mind," he said.
They were both silent for the rest of the day until they made their camp, and Jimmy decided to try one last time. "Nice evenin'," he said, conversationally.
Lou said nothing.
"We ought to be at Fort Kearny by tomorrow afternoon," Jimmy added.
Lou still said nothing.
"Feel like playin' cards?" Jimmy asked.
Finally, Lou responded. "No. Ah don't gamble."
Even though she had finally spoken to him, something inside Jimmy snapped, and he stood up suddenly, and threw his coffee cup to the ground angrily. "All right! That's it!"
Lou looked at him, utterly confused. "Huh?"
Jimmy gestured wildly. "I been as nice to you as I know how, the whole trip, an' you're still ignorin' me."
Lou shook her head. "Ah ain't ignorin' you. As hard as ah'm tryin', it's impossible."
"You still ain't forgive me yet for what happened at the dance."
"Hell, if that's all it takes to shut you up, ah forgive you, already."
Jimmy shook his head. "You ain't forgive me, neither. Otherwise, you'd be talkin' to me."
"You wanna talk?" Lou asked.
"Yeah!" Jimmy shouted.
"What do you wanna talk about?"
"I dunno. Ain't you got any problems you'd like to talk over?"
"No."
"Well, what about the Kid?"
"That's none o' your business."
"See what I mean?" Jimmy said. "You're doin' it again!"
..
A while later, Lou looked up from her hand to her companion, studying him. "What're you holdin', Hickok?"
Jimmy grinned. Lou looked back down at her cards, a full house with low cards. She surreptitiously craned her neck to sneak a peek at Jimmy's hand, but he pulled it back against his chest. "Sorry, Lou. You know the rules. You wanna see 'em, you gotta pay for the privilege."
"You're bluffin'," Lou guessed.
"Maybe I am, an' maybe I ain't. There's only one way to find out."
Lou hesitated, then tossed a coin into the small pot between them. All right, there's mah nickel."
"Oooh, a high-stakes game." Jimmy tossed one of his coins into the pot. "There's your nickel…" he took another coin from the pile next to him, to throw that into the center as well. "…an' here's mine."
Lou sighed. "Ah fold."
"Oh, come on, Lou, where's your sense of adventure?"
"Mah 'cents of adventure' is about fifty cents less than it was an hour ago."
"You sure you wanna fold?" Jimmy asked.
"Yeah, ah'm sure.
"Just for the sake of argument, what've you got?"
She showed him her hand.
He grinned. "You shoulda stuck it out, Lou."
"Wh'ys that?"
He turned over his hand. "All I got's aces an eights." He swept the small pot toward himself.
Lou sighed. "This is why ah don't gamble," she told him.
..
It was dawn when Teaspoon returned to the station. Cody was back, and Noah was gone, the east-bound pouch having arrived sometime during the night. The others were just rising from their bunks when Teaspoon threw his reins over the hitching post and went into the bunkhouse. "Boys, we got a problem," he said.
"What's that?" Cody asked sleepily, from his bunk.
"There's some soldiers at the saloon in town. An' there's talk that the shipment Fort Laramie's expectin', is rifles."
"What?" Kid exclaimed.
"The letter from the company didn't say anything about rifles," Cody said, wide awake now.
"Hell, every two-bit outlaw in the territory'll be doggin' their tails," Teaspoon told them. "Which is why ah'm askin' for two volunteers to go after Lou an' Jimmy."
Kid, Ike, Cody, and Buck all raised their hands.
Teaspoon made a quick decision. "Kid an' Buck," he said. "The rest of you will have to double up on the runs while they're gone."
Kid and Buck quickly pulled their clothes on over their long-johns and ran to the barn to tack their horses, while Teaspoon put together a meager supply of trail rations. They'd have to ride hard and with minimal added weight if they were to have any hope of catching up to Lou and Jimmy. Lord, Lou and Jimmy would be sitting ducks.
"You think two more guns'll be enough?" Cody asked Teaspoon.
"Ah dunno, Cody. Ah hope so."