Vocabulary Lesson
By Doc
Scott sneaked another look at him. Johnny felt it even though Scott didn't move an inch, just swiveled his eyeballs sideways. Johnny kept his own eyes focused on Barranca's ears, but he knew as well as he knew his lip was getting fat that his older brother was checking up on him.
It was irritating. Okay, maybe it was nice that someone cared, but mostly it was irritating.
What was worse was that Scott didn't have a mark on him. Oh, he jumped in as soon as he realized Johnny was outnumbered, but when the fight ended ol' Boston was still neat and tidy. Sheveled. Johnny shifted in his stirrups and chuckled to himself. They'd just had that conversation a day or two earlier, when Scott laughed at the dirt Johnny brought in after a day chasing cows to hell and back.
"Brother, I've never seen a man get so disheveled doing nothing but riding a horse all day."
"Disheveled, huh?" Johnny stalled, wracking his brain for a comeback. He remembered about prefixes, how 'dis' made whatever came after it opposite. Like embark and disembark or array and disarray. So even though he'd never heard the word, he said it with confidence. "Well, I've never see a man so sheveled…"
And Scott interrupted him with a snort that turned into a belly laugh for both of them, and they got a new word to add to their stash of words that didn't mean anything to anybody but them.
And now, after a brawl that left Johnny with a cut lip, Scott rode beside him just as sheveled as you please.
And Johnny'd tell him that, too, once he could laugh without hurting his ribs.
October 2017