The Lone Ranger
II
Scarlett Michealson
"Reid!" The Professor shouted before class began. I raised my hand. The first day was always boring. We always just read through the syllabus and got done fifteen minutes early. The good part was we never had homework for the first week.
When he had taken attendance, he paused, looking back through the names, as though he were looking for someone specific. The class sat, waiting.
"Reid!" He shouted again. I raised my hand again and smiled.
"Here." I said out loud. He looked up. Of course, it was my last name. My first name was Scarlet.
"Where'd you get a name like that?" He asked. I laughed as the class looked at me.
"My father...sir. Why?" I asked, confused. He chuckled.
"Your family been here a while?" He asked. I nodded.
"My father always says we've been here since before the railroad." I replied. I found it out that he was asking me these things.
And then it occurred to me. Father said there was a story behind our name. He just never told me what it was. This was a history class. Maybe the Professor knew something, I didn't.
"And what's his name?" He asked. I smiled.
"David. But all his friends call him Danny." I replied. A sparkle flickered in his eyes and he stepped back.
"And his father's name?" The Professor asked. I chuckled.
"Jonathan Reid." I replied. The Professor chuckled, as though he were in awe, and shook his head.
"Well, I'll be damned." He breathed. The whole class was puzzled, but I knew that he knew something.
"And what did they both do for a living?" He asked. I laughed.
"Funny you would ask like that. They were and are both Texas Rangers." I replied. He sat back, leaning against his desk.
"My first name Tonto. Tonto Savage Jr." He said to me. The class chuckled and he gave them an evil glare. I didn't react, because I didn't know the name. I didn't know the story.
"I'm an old friend of your father, and my father was an old friend of your grandfather." He explained. I nodded.
"You don't know your family's story, do you?" He asked. I shook my head.
"My father never told me. I know there is one, I just don't know it." I smiled. He sighed.
"Time you knew." He chuckled. And so the story began.
The Indian tribes in this region tell a story, a legend, of two outlaws. Known for their odd appearances, and for their incredible skills. Each tribe has a different story, but together, they form one, larger, story.
The first tribe tells a story that two men appeared in the dead of night to warm them of an attack. The tribe laughed them off, for one of the two men was a white man. But when morning came, the men were gone. In the distance smoke could be seen from a mountain top, and by that afternoon, the tribe was under attack.
Several years later, the two men returned again, and said they needed help. This time the tribe listened, and they want on to live in peace.
Another tribe says that two men came to them in late summer, when it was hot. One of them spoke of the other, announcing him as a spirit walker. This was a legend known to many tribes. A spirit walker was said to have come back from the dead, and could not be killed in battle.
The men said they were hunting another white man, known for killing people at random, and eating their hearts. The tribe helped them, restoring them to proper health. The next night the man they were hunting appeared, and when they dueled with their pistols, the spirit walker was shot in the heart, but he lived to kill the other.
And the third and final tribe spoke of two men who appeared also in the night. They came from the desert and it appeared they had been out for a long time. One of them, a white man, wore a black mask which he never removed. When the tribe took them to go hunting they discovered he was hunting a person.
The tribe described an encounter where they stumbled upon a camp of white men, and when they saw the man in the mask, who wore a ranger's badge, their faces turned white and they cried out, "We killed you, we killed you! You're dead!" And in reply the lone ranger responded, "I've come back for revenge." And as the men fled, he killed all three with a single bullet.
The tribes have all asked the man if he was a ghost. His only reply was that he was a Spirit Walker, prosecuting those men to the full extent of the law.
The professor smiled as the class gasped throughout the stories. At the end they all looked at me.
"So who are you?" Someone asked me. I smiled and looked back at the professor.
"I'm his Granddaughter." I smiled with a sparkle in my eye.
"It was rumored," Started the professor," that no one really knew who the long ranger was. His black mask hid his face, but his white hat and his ranger badge could always be seen. And every now and then, two men would ride into our little town: one white man and one Indian. The white man wore a white hat, and a ranger badge, but no mask, and they always seemed in ordinary health. The white man had a wife, and a son named Danny. He would take care of them and see to it that they had a good life, but when he disappeared no one ever saw him go. It was even said that the Lone Ranger, the masked man, visited his wife in the middle of the night. But she never spoke a word of it." He sighed. Someone raised their hand.
"Isn't it obvious then, that they were the same person?" He asked. The professor shook his head.
"You would think. But no one was ever sure. You see, the masked man, The Lone Ranger, killed the men he hunted. Most of them were evil and vile anyways. The unmasked man who rode into our town from time to time never even held a gun. He simply put his criminals in jail and rode off. They seemed different, and looked the same. This is why many thought that the Lone Ranger was the ghost of the other man, seeking revenge on those who could never get behind bars." The class was silent.
"Well that's one heck of a legend." Someone said and the whole class agreed. Suddenly the bell rang, and everyone jumped from their seats.
When I had gathered my things, I walked up to the professor, who did indeed, look very Indian. He looked at me and paused.
"But you know, it's all just legend. Nothing could ever be proved." He whispered. I laughed.
"But if you are who you say you are, then your father was the Indian who always rode with him, yes?" I asked. He nodded.
"So you would believe the stories?" I asked. He chuckled and took something from his pocket, and handed it to me.
"Give that to your Grandfather, will you." He smiled. I nodded and watched him disappear.
It was August and very hot in Texas. As I walked home, I could see desert all around my town. I frowned and wondered where father was just about now.
As I walked I failed to notice the man walking behind me until it was too late. Suddenly, I was being grabbed. His hand covering my mouth, the other wrapped around me as he started to pull me in the opposite direction. As he dragged me I grew insanely calm and out of nowhere, I felt an incredible strength. I put my feet flat on the ground and stopped him, before flipping the man over my head and laying him flat on the sidewalk.
Without waiting, I ran past him and all the way home. I didn't stop to look if he got up or where he went, I only knew that I had to be home.
When I reached the end of the road in our town, I started down my long driveway. I kicked up the dust behind me in case he was chasing me. I practically launched myself through the front door of my house, and locked it firmly behind me. Sighing a sigh of relief, I stood back and stared out the window. There was no one.
Looking around I realized they were probably out back. Smiling I walked through the house and opened the back door. My back porch was my favorite part of the house.
"What happened to you?" He asked. I looked over at the old man in his rocking chair. He seemed old and fragile but I suddenly had the sense that it was just an act.
"Nothing. Just decided to run home." I smiled. The old man gave me an odd look. His piercing blue eyes staring at me. I walked over and sat down.
"What kind of a look is that, Grandfather?" I asked, pulling my books out of my bag. He chuckled.
"A suspicious one." And we both laughed. I thought about my class and the story I had just been told. I frowned and opened my textbook, trying to forget it.
"You seem different today." Grandfather commented. I looked up from my textbook and when our eyes met he sat up and leaned in towards me. My eyes didn't leave his.
"What happened to you? Seriously?" He whispered. It was one of the only times I've ever seen him get serious. I sighed.
"A lot." I replied. He seemed very serious. It made me almost nervous.
In that moment a horse snorted and we both looked over to see my father riding up to the porch. It had been over a week since I had seen him.
"Hey guys." He smiled. Grandfather nodded.
"Hello Father!" I replied. I watched him get off his white horse and walk up onto the porch. Grandfather and father shook hands and I got a hug.
"You've changed." He suddenly said. I laughed and looked at the two of them.
"What is it with the both of you?" I asked. Father looked at Grandfather.
"I thought the same thing." He said, Texas twang and all.
"What'd you learn about in school today?" He asked. I frowned as I walked towards the doorway.
"Just an old legend." I replied. There was a pause.
"What old legend?" Father asked, stepping towards me. I stopped in the doorway and looked back at them.
"The Lone Ranger." I replied and my eyes looked at Grandfather who sat up straight in his chair. The two looked at each other and back at me. "The two of you look as though you've seen a ghost. You honestly thought I wouldn't find out?" I asked.
"Who told you?" Grandfather looked about as serious as they come. I smiled and pulled out of my pocket what the Professor had given me.
"A man who told me to give you this." I replied and tossed it to him. It was a black mask.
At the sight of what he held in his hands, Grandfather looked as though he would cry. Father and him seemed to stare at it forever.
"What could that mean?" Father asked him. Grandfather chuckled.
"Only one man would have this mask all these years: Tonto." He smiled, looking up again. Father looked at me.
"He's my History Professor. When he saw my name he knew me right away." I told them.
"So he told you our story then?" He asked. I nodded. Father nodded and looked at Grandfather.
"Then it's time." He sighed. Grandfather nodded.
"Time for what?" I asked. He looked at me.
"History to repeat itself." He smiled and from his pocket he pulled something out and tossed it to me. Looking at what I held I understood what he meant.
"Never take off the mask." Grandfather warned. I nodded. Then he tossed something at me too.
"You think I'll need it?" I asked. He nodded.
"The Lone Ranger always needs a gun." He replied, tossing something else to me. I clipped it on my jacket.
"I hear by deputize you as a Texas Ranger." Father declared. I smiled.
"But you aren't the Lone Ranger without this." I suddenly heard Mother's voice behind me. When I turned around, I saw her put a white hat on my head.
"Now, you're The Lone Ranger." She smiled at me. I nodded and I suddenly knew my place in the world.
5 years later
As I sat in my office, writing a new document, I suddenly saw people running past the door.
"Professor! Come quick! Look!" Someone shouted. I jumped from my chair and raced outside.
There, in the center of campus, sat a lone ranger on her horse, staring at a man hanging from his foot on a tree and yelling about how he wanted to kill us all. I chuckled, shaking my head.
"Who is that?" The students were whispering and pointing, but no one dared to get too close. I pushed my way through the crowd and walked up to her as she got down from her white stallion.
"I trust you know how to handle this situation, Professor." She called out as I walked up. I chuckled.
"Well, I'll be damned!" I exclaimed, shaking her hand. She smiled.
"Last time you said that I was just a school girl in your class." She replied. I couldn't believe it.
"When you didn't come back to school, we all thought you were dead." I replied. She chuckled and our eyes met.
"That's why I wear the mask." She replied. "But you already knew that, didn't you?" She whispered.
As she rode off on her horse, the students cut the man down and helped me handcuff him.
"Who was that?" They all kept asking. I smiled.
"You couldn't tell by the ranger badge, the white hat, or the black mask?" I asked them. Everyone shook their heads. I chuckled.
"That's the Lone Ranger."
The End